Internet Executive Bernee Strom Elected To Hughes Electronics Board

1 February 2000
Internet Executive Bernee Strom Elected To Hughes Electronics Board
    EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Feb. 1 -- Bernee D.L. Strom, president of
InfoSpace.com Ventures, LLC and former chief executive officer of
Priceline.com, has been elected to the board of directors of Hughes
Electronics Corporation.  Strom's appointment is the continuation of Hughes'
strategy to broaden the expertise of its board by adding independent members
with knowledge and experience directly related to Hughes' future markets and
growth opportunities.
    "Bernee Strom brings a wealth of information on managing Internet content
and e-commerce to Hughes at a time when Hughes is focusing its resources on
the growth of its services businesses," said Michael T. Smith, chairman and
chief executive officer of Hughes.  "Hughes is the world's leading provider of
digital entertainment and information, and Bernee's insight into the rapidly
growing Internet market will be valued as Hughes rolls out the interactive
DIRECTV(R) and consumer DirecPC(R) products it is introducing with America
Online, and develops future broadband opportunities."
    Strom was elected to the board on Monday, bringing the membership to nine.
The board includes one member of Hughes management, three members of General
Motors management, three members who are also outside GM directors, and two
independent, non-affiliated members.
    Hughes in October elected Alfred C. Sikes, president of Hearst Interactive
Media and former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to
its board.
    Ms. Strom, 51, was named president of InfoSpace.com Ventures in January
after having served as president and chief operating officer of InfoSpace.com,
Inc. since November 1998.  She remains a member of the board of directors of
InfoSpace.com, a leading global provider of infrastructure services for Web
sites, merchants and wireless devices.
    Ms. Strom from July 1997 to December 1998 served on the board of directors
of Walker Digital, an intellectual property studio that invents, patents and
licenses processes, systems and technologies that leverage larger existing
marketing systems.  She served as the founding CEO of Walker Digital's first
spin-out Internet commerce company, Priceline.com.
    Prior to joining Walker, Ms. Strom was president and CEO of U.S.A. Digital
Radio, which is developing a technology to serve as a worldwide standard for
AM and FM digital radio broadcasting.  She also is a founder and shareholder,
and was a principal, of the Gemstar International Group Ltd., which invented
the VCR Plus+ Instant Programmer.  Ms. Strom was responsible for developing
and implementing the business strategy and marketing for the products
worldwide.
    Ms. Strom was founder, president and CEO of MBS Technologies, Inc., a
computer software company that published the FileRunner program, and served as
chairman of Quantum Development Corporation, a software company specializing
in business analysis and optimization applications.
    Since 1990, Ms. Strom has served as managing partner of the Strom Group,
an investment, management consulting and business advisory firm that
specializes in the startup of new firms, especially in high technology.
    A graduate of New York University with a bachelor's degree, summa cum
laude, in mathematics and history, Ms. Strom also earned a master's degree in
mathematics and mathematics education from New York University, and received
an MBA with highest honors in finance from the Anderson School at the
University of California, Los Angeles.
    Ms. Strom, who served as a former senior executive at the Los Angeles
Herald Examiner and a senior management consultant at Deloitte, Haskins &
Sells, is on the boards of directors of Polaroid Corporation, InfoSpace.com
and ImageX.com.
    She is on the board of advisors of the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of
Management of Northwestern University, and is a trustee of the National Public
Radio Foundation.
    Hughes Electronics is a unit of General Motors Corporation.  The earnings
of Hughes are used to calculate the earnings per share attributable to the
General Motors Class H common stock .