SAN FRANCISCO, February 15, 2006 — Yipes Enterprise Services, Inc., today announced that it has been selected by Chicago-based optionsXpress (www.optionsxpress.com) to handle critical quotation data feeds from multiple financial exchanges.

 

OptionsXpress (NASDAQ: OXPS), the top-ranked online broker according to Barron's, has tapped Yipes to interconnect its headquarters and remote data centers across the country.

 

Yipes (www.yipes.com), the pioneer in globally managed, end-to-end Ethernet solutions, said optionsXpress utilizes Yipes NAN (National Area Network) to provide highly scalable, high-bandwidth price quotation data feeds from six separate options and equities exchanges. optionsXpress also uses Yipes for mission-critical, inter-data center connectivity in a "hub-and-spoke"configuration featuring straightforward Ethernet handoffs at all sites.

 

By selecting Yipes, optionsXpress becomes part of Yipes FinancialConnect!, a scalable network solution that provides banks, brokers, hedge funds, institutional investors and investment managers with simple, scalable and cost-effective access to the largest Exchanges, ECNs, liquidity pools and trading platforms.

 

Using its Gigabit Ethernet Network, Yipes provides FinancialConnect! members with fast and scalable access to critical market information and services from 1 Mbps to 1 Gbps in 1 meg increments. The Yipes FinancialConnect! community can access some of the largest providers of market data, trade handling, execution and post-trade services.

 

Named the top online broker by Barron's for the past three years and cited by Inc. Magazine as one of 2005's Top Ten Fastest Growing Firms, optionsXpress has experienced exceptional success in just five years of operation. A pioneer in online options trading, the company has seen its quotation data volume increase significantly, pushing bandwidth demand from T1 speeds in 2000 to 30 Mbps today. As a result, optionsXpress required a connectivity solution that provided rapidly scalable bandwidth for long-term support of its more than 160,000 customers, along with the flexibility to quickly and seamlessly connect with new exchange partners without the long delays of traditional provisioning.

 

"In our business, we need to be able to quickly and painlessly connect to a wide range of trading venues and other third-party data sources. Yipes has been an outstanding solution for us, eliminating the headaches of fractional T1's, the management of multiple circuits and routers and the long lead times of local telephone companies,"said Ben Stein, executive vice president of information technology for optionsXpress.

 

"Their ability to deliver a universal Ethernet handoff significantly lowers our total cost of ownership, while providing a highly reliable and straightforward connectivity standard across the enterprise. Yipes allows us to do business cost-effectively, secure in the knowledge that we can scale in granular increments as needed. Their solution is truly in the right place at the right time in the financial services industry."

 

"We are very pleased to be working with optionsXpress to more effectively manage their accelerating growth as an online brokerage of choice,"said Keao Caindec, Yipes vice president of marketing. "Scalable, on-demand bandwidth is crucial in handling the rapidly rising volume of quotation and other data associated with online trading. We are confident the unique capabilities of the Yipes' FinancialConnect! network will help optionsXpress extend its competitive advantage in the marketplace."

 

About Yipes Enterprise Services, Inc.
Winner of the Metro Ethernet Forum 2005 Service Provider of the Year Award for Outstanding Innovation, Yipes Enterprise Services, Inc., is the leading global provider of managed, end-to-end Ethernet solutions for enterprise customers. Yipes offers a uniquely scalable suite of networking services that combine the speed, simplicity and cost effectiveness of native Ethernet with Yipes proprietary bandwidth-on-demand functionality. Yipes provides services in and between major metropolitan markets including: Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Hong Kong, Houston, Los Angeles, London, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Tokyo and Washington DC. For more information, visit www.yipes.com.

 

About optionsXpress Holdings, Inc.
optionsXpress Holdings, Inc. provides innovative securities brokerage products and services for investor education, strategy evaluation and trade execution. Through its subsidiaries optionsXpress, an online brokerage, and brokersXpress, an online trading and reporting platform for independent investment professionals, the company offers a wide range of investor tools, superior customer service and competitive commissions. optionsXpress has been named the top online securities brokerage by Barron's in its last three annual surveys (2003, 2004 and 2005). More information can be found in the Investor Relations section of optionsXpress' website at www.optionsxpress.com.

 

Contact:
Don Hunt and Kelly Smallegan-Maas
Lambert, Edwards & Associates, Inc.
616-233-0500
mail@lambert-edwards.com