Washington, DC (September, 2005)--FOCUS Enterprises, Inc., a national middle market investment banking firm providing merger, acquisition, and corporate finance services today announced that Richard C. Cook has joined the firm as a Senior Advisor. Mr. Cook will be based in the Atlanta Southeastern Regional headquarters which is located in the Atlanta Financial Center.

“Our firm is extremely fortunate to have attracted Dick as a Senior Advisor. Dick brings a wealth of senior level operations business experience to FOCUS, especially in the enterprise and applications software sector. We know that he will make an extraordinary contribution to our southern region investment banking team and to the overall firm as well” says Marshall Graham, Chairman of FOCUS Enterprises.

Before joining FOCUS, Senior Advisor Mr. Cook retired from the position of Director, President and Chief Executive Officer of MAPICS, Inc. (NASDAQ/NM: MAPX). He managed the 1993 separation from IBM (NYSE: IBM) of the $60 million revenue MAPICS business and the integration into Marcam. He led the complex 1997 reverse spin-out from Marcam (NASDAQ/NM: MCAM), and conducted the public offering that created the $92 million revenue MAPICS, Inc. business. As CEO he was responsible for the development, marketing, sales and support of the MAPICS’ software and service offerings worldwide, and managed all shareholder and board relations, as well as actively participated in daily operations and employee, community and customer relations. In December of 1999, he negotiated the acquisition of a private firm, Pivotpoint, and in November of 2002, he led the acquisition of Frontstep (NASDAQ/NM: FSTP). MAPICS became a $173 million revenue business by year end 2004, with over 10,000 active customer sites using the applications in 19 languages in over 70 countries around the world. In December of 2004, Mr. Cook proposed a leveraged buy out by management that led to the eventual sale of the company, in an all cash transaction, to Infor Global Solutions. Due to MAPICS success in the marketplace there were a total of 5 bidders for the company, yielding an excellent selling price for the shareholders.

Prior to his tenure with MAPICS, Mr. Cook was an executive with the IBM Corporation. His IBM career spanned 25 years, beginning as an application programmer and retiring from the position of Laboratory Director of the Atlanta Software Development Laboratory. During his career at IBM, Mr. Cook held senior management positions in Information Technology, Production Control, Quality Assurance, Plant Engineering, Purchasing, and directed the Boca Raton site operations team during the introduction of the IBM Personal Computer.

Mr. Cook earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Florida Atlantic University. He is currently a member of the Goizueta Business School Advisory Board at Emory University. He is also a member of the board of directors of Qcept Technologies Inc. and a member of the board of directors of Indus International. He additionally serves on the board of directors of Edgenet.

About FOCUS Enterprises, Inc.

FOCUS Enterprises, Inc., founded in 1982 in Washington, DC, provides a range of middle market investment banking services to growth companies across the U.S. with an emphasis on mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and corporate finance. FOCUS is headquartered in Washington, DC, with regional office in Atlanta, Chicago and San Francisco. FOCUS specializes in transactions for entities with $5-100 million in revenues, serving entrepreneurs, corporate owners, and various types of investors. All 20-plus FOCUS partners are seasoned operating and financial executives with extensive transaction experience. FOCUS publishes a monthly complimentary email newsletter. Visit www.focusbankers.com to subscribe to the newsletter, scan our newsletter archive, read summaries of publicly announced transactions, and to see a list of currently active sectors.