Goodyear's Lenders Extend 10-K Filing Requirement

AKRON, Ohio, April 19 -- The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company announced today that the lenders under its principal United States and European credit facilities have amended the terms of the facilities to extend until May 19, 2004 its deadline for filing its 2003 Annual Report on Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Accordingly, the delay in filing its financials will not prevent Goodyear from accessing the credit facilities or obtaining letters of credit. The company has said it does not expect to need to access the facilities before May 19.

Goodyear previously announced that it expects to file its 2003 Form 10-K and its amended 2002 10-K by mid-May.

Goodyear is the world's largest tire company. Headquartered in Akron, Ohio, the company manufactures tires, engineered rubber products and chemicals in more than 90 facilities in 28 countries. It has marketing operations in almost every country around the world. Goodyear employs about 88,000 people worldwide.

Certain information contained in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, without limitation, the ongoing investigation by the SEC regarding Goodyear's accounting restatement, the implementation of the company's plan to improve internal controls and the completion of the audit of the company's 2003 financial statements. Additional factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements are discussed in the company's Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2002, and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2003, and Form 8-K dated Feb. 11, 2004, which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, any forward-looking statements represent our estimates only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing our estimates as of any subsequent date. While we may elect to update forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we specifically disclaim any obligation to do so, even if our estimates change.