Microsoft Corp. today announced 12 top corporations as sponsors of Fusion 2002, Microsoft's annual worldwide premier partner event and business symposium. The sponsors include the following:

Fusion 2002 will take place July 12--15 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Intel is pleased to be a premier participant in Fusion, bringing Microsoft's top solutions partners into our alliance efforts. Intel and Microsoft formalized an e-Business alliance to win marquee end-user accounts and to promote the outstanding scalability, reliability and business value of the Intel- and Microsoft-based e-Business solutions. We've come a long way, and we look forward to accelerating that progress with Microsoft's help," said Mike Splinter, executive vice president and director of the Sales and Marketing group at Intel. Splinter will address attendees during a keynote presentation on Friday morning, July 12. In addition to the corporate sponsors, Microsoft� product groups participating in Fusion include Windows� XP and Office XP, Windows Media (TM) , Microsoft Project, Visio�, MapPoint�, Microsoft Great Plains�, Visual Studio� .NET, Microsoft Systems Architecture and Microsoft .NET Enterprise Servers. The involvement of these groups will give Fusion 2002 attendees a chance to meet Microsoft product teams, discuss upcoming releases and view the latest technologies.

Since its debut in 1996, Microsoft Fusion has become the largest and most anticipated worldwide partner event of the year, providing valuable information, networking opportunities and product exhibits for Microsoft partners. More information and event registration can be found at http://www.microsoftfusion.com/.