Just as your pulse is checked during a routine physical, free cash flow is used as an indicator of a company's health. It equals the cash brought in from operations minus the money needed to pay the bills. Think about leftover money in your checking account after you pay this month's bills.

Investors and analysts see this leftover money as a gauge of a company's ability to perform. It is available for transactions such as handing out dividends and working on new products.

Some argue free cash flow is wrongly overshadowed by the emphasis often placed on earnings. Earnings numbers can be manipulated and don't always tell the whole story -- and earnings don't mean much if there's nothing left over after a company pays its expenses. Even if you bring in a six-figure salary, but no money left after paying the bills, are you in great financial shape?

You don't have to be Einstein to figure out free cash flow. To calculate the number, subtract the company's expenditures and dividends from its operating cash flow.

If the free cash flow is written in red ink, it doesn't necessarily signal curtains. This is common for young companies looking to grow. It also could be a result of heavy investments, which in the long run could be worth a standing ovation.

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Thursday, July 24, 2008

FalconStor Teams Up With HiNet to Offer SaaS-Based Storage Services in Taiwan

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Comtex

MELVILLE, N.Y., Jul 24, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) ----FalconStor Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: FALC), the provider of TOTALLY Open(TM) data protection solutions, today announced its expansion in the Software as a Service (SaaS) market, collaborating with HiNet - the Internet service provider (ISP) arm of Chunghwa Telecom (NYSE: CHT), Taiwan's largest information and telecom service provider - to make online backup services available to customers and small-and-medium-size businesses in Taiwan.

FalconStor develops open systems software for storage consolidation, virtualization, and data protection. Through its acquisition of Hong Kong-based World Venture, Ltd., a privately-held online backup and storage services developer for the Telco and enterprise markets, FalconStor enables end-to-end online backup services for ISPs. World Venture provides the front-end Web interface that allows customers to use FalconStor's data protection services via the Internet.

"Software as a Service is a proven model for businesses and consumers to subscribe to WAN-optimized storage services over the broadband network," said ReiJane Huai, chairman and CEO of FalconStor Software. "FalconStor Software's totally open data protection has been deployed by enterprise customers around the world to replicate critical data to and from remote offices, data centers and disaster recovery sites. Our partnership with HiNet will enable us to leverage each other's core competencies to launch cost-effective SaaS-based services."

FalconStor and HiNet are offering HiNet SafeBox services, an online backup and storage service available to HiNet subscribers. "The SafeBox service creates a new business for HiNet-IDC, the integration data center service of HiNet, by extending the market to individual users and the small-and-mid-size business market," said Shyang-Yih Chen, president of HiNet. HiNet has more than 4.3 million broadband users, and the HiNet SafeBox service has acquired over 10,000 end users since its initial launch in Q2 2008. A new release with even more service management features targeted for business customers is scheduled for Q4 2008.

For Storage as a Service, end users simply download a small application onto their computer to back up or archive their data into HiNet-IDC, powered by FalconStor Continuous Data Protector (CDP) and Network Storage Server (NSS). With a simple set-up, the user's data is encrypted and stored at a secure storage server on the Internet at pre-scheduled times. The end user can recover a single file or a complete folder from any computer through the web interface. Storage as a Service also includes features such as versioning, incremental backup and archiving.

About Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd. Data Communications Business Group (HiNet)

HiNet provides Internet data services, telecommunication value-added services, video-conferencing, multimedia services, information system services, electronic commerce, government and enterprise Internet total services.

HiNet-IDC not only has the advantage of ample bandwidth and stable facilities, it has also been certificated by ISO9001 and ISO27001/BS7799. Many large enterprises have placed their trust and mainframes in HiNet-IDC, and the outcome of this has accelerated the speed for data transformation between firms.

About FalconStor Software, Inc.

FalconStor Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: FALC), #5 in Forbes 2008 list of America's Fastest-Growing Technology Companies, is the market leader in disk-based data protection. We deliver proven, comprehensive data protection solutions that facilitate the continuous availability of business-critical data with speed, integrity, and simplicity. Our TOTALLY Open(TM) technology solutions, built upon the award-winning IPStor(R) platform, include the industry leading Virtual Tape Library (VTL) with deduplication, Continuous Data Protector(TM) (CDP), Network Storage Server (NSS), and Replication option for disaster recovery and remote office protection. Our products are available from major OEMs and solution providers including Acer, Brocade, EMC, COPAN Systems, H3C, IBM, MPC, Pillar Data Systems and Sun and are deployed by thousands of customers worldwide, from small businesses to Fortune 1000 enterprises.

FalconStor is headquartered in Melville, N.Y., with offices throughout Europe and the Asia Pacific regions including Paris, Tokyo and Taiwan. For more information, visit www.falconstor.com or call 1-866-NOW-FALC (866-669-3252).

FalconStor, FalconStor Software, and IPStor are registered trademarks, and Continuous Data Protector and TOTALLY Open are trademarks of FalconStor Software, Inc. All other company and product names contained herein may be trademarks of their respective holders.

SOURCE: FalconStor Software, Inc.

FalconStor Software, Inc. Herman Chin, 631-773-5863 herman.chin@falconstor.com

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