Essex Receives New Funding

COLUMBIA, Md., Dec. 18 -- Essex Corp. announced it has received additional funding of $500,000 from a member of its investor group, Hannon Family LLC. The funding was received in the form of a senior debt instrument, convertible to common equity shares through December 2004.

The additional funding is part of a near-term operations and funding strategy that emphasizes core business expansion and investment in new technology and products, Essex said.

"Today's financial markets are rewarding healthy companies with attractive choices of debt funding as an alternative to equity funding," said Caroline Pisano, Essex vice president of finance. As part of this near-term operations and funding strategy, Essex and the Global Environment Fund (GEF) have mutually agreed to defer the potential investment of an additional $2,000,000 by GEF, she said.

Essex also recenlty announced it has seen significant growth in revenues based on expansion in its government programs.

Essex is an optical and communications engineering company serving telecommunications and national defense organizations.

For more information, visit: www.essexcorp.com