Belk and IBM Extend Successful Outsourcing Relationship Through 2014

Belk, Inc., the largest privately owned department store company in the United States, and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Belk has renewed its existing outsourcing contract as part of a seven-year, $98 million agreement. The extension strengthens a 60-year relationship between the two companies and will help enhance service delivery in support of Belk’s business growth model.

Infrastructure services provided by IBM will help Belk support future growth with on-going infrastructure stability, flexible and affordable capacity and a highly scaleable IT platform. IBM will leverage its global delivery capabilities and deep retail industry expertise to enable Belk to continue delivering superior service to its customers.

“Our objective is to continue to leverage IBM’s proven track record and abilities in service delivery while we focus our energy on our customers, stores and business growth model,” said Roddy Kerr, Belk executive vice president and chief information officer. “Extending our existing agreement simply made good sense given our business objectives and direction,” he added.

“IBM’s collaboration with Belk has spanned 60 years and our joint commitment to innovation throughout their business continues to pay off,” said Tony Martinez, IBM general manager, Distribution Sector. “Our goal is to ensure that Belk has the support it needs to be a customer-focused retail enterprise committed to delivering value to their customers.”

IBM will continue to implement a service management framework that includes: data center services, storage management, distributed server support, back-up and recovery, system software support, help desk services, end user services including email and desk-side support, security monitoring and cross-functional support.

The new agreement was signed in August 2007 and will go into effect on September 1, 2007. The previous seven-year contract with Belk commenced in October of 2001.