Commtouch Announces Gideon Mantel to Retire in 2011, Ido Hadari to Succeed as CEO

Commtouch® (Nasdaq:CTCH), a leading provider of Internet security solutions, today announced that Gideon Mantel, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Commtouch, will retire on January 1, 2011, and be succeeded as CEO by Ido Hadari, the company's chief operating officer. Mr. Mantel will be succeeded as chairman of the board by Lior Samuelson, a director of Commtouch.

Ido Hadari, Commtouch's COO, to succeed Gideon Mantel as CEO in January 2011. (Photo: Business Wire)

Mr. Mantel co-founded the company nearly twenty years ago. He served as CEO for the past 13 years and chairman for the past four years.

"After extensive planning together with the board, it is very exciting to bring our strategic succession plan to fruition and to transfer my responsibilities to these two extraordinary leaders,” said Mr. Mantel. "Having worked closely for the past three years with Ido Hadari, observing his capabilities as well as advising him, I am confident that Commtouch is in the right hands to take the company to the next level. I am equally certain that Lior Samuelson, the next chairman of the board, will be a superb asset to the company with his vast expertise in technology, finance, and strategy.”

Mr. Hadari joined Commtouch in 2008, serving as vice president of international sales and business development and since November 2009 as chief operating officer.

"It will be an honor to lead Commtouch, and to succeed Gideon as CEO,” Mr. Hadari said. "Under Gideon’s guidance, the company has enjoyed five uninterrupted years of profitability, expanded its product lines, grown its customer base, and ultimately become an industry leader in Internet security. The company took several bold steps over the past two years, and it is expected to continue along this same trajectory of enhancing our product offerings and expanding target markets, in order to increase shareholder value.”

Mr. Samuelson, will be appointed as the chairman of the board following his expected re-election as a director at the upcoming annual meeting of shareholders. During his extensive career, Mr. Samuelson served as chairman, CEO and board member of several companies in technology, telecom, financial services and management consulting. He is the co-founder of Mercator Capital and a partner at Analysis Research Planning Corporation.

"I am honored to be targeted to be the next Chairman of the Board at Commtouch,” said Mr. Samuelson. "Commtouch is an outstanding company with significant growth potential. I am looking forward to sharing my knowledge and experience to leverage the company’s valuable base of dedicated employees and world class technologies for the benefit of its customers and shareholders.”

Mr. Hadari added: "On behalf of the extended Commtouch family, I would like to thank Gideon for his two decades of leadership and inspiration that have brought the company to its current position of strength.”

About Commtouch

Commtouch^® (NASDAQ:CTCH) provides proven Internet security technology to more than 150 security companies and service providers for integration into their solutions. Commtouch’s GlobalView™ and patented Recurrent Pattern Detection™ (RPD™) technologies are founded on a unique cloud-based approach, and work together in a comprehensive feedback loop to protect effectively in all languages and formats. Commtouch’s Command Antivirus utilizes a multi-layered approach to provide award winning malware detection and industry-leading performance. Commtouch technology automatically analyzes billions of Internet transactions in real-time in its global data centers to identify new threats as they are initiated, enabling our partners and customers to protect end-users from spam and malware, and enabling safe, compliant browsing. The company’s expertise in building efficient, massive-scale security services has resulted in mitigating Internet threats for thousands of organizations and hundreds of millions of users in 190 countries. Commtouch was founded in 1991, is headquartered in Netanya, Israel, and has a subsidiary with offices in Sunnyvale, California and Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

Stay abreast of the latest news at the Commtouch Café: http://blog.commtouch.com. For more information about enhancing security offerings with Commtouch technology, see http://www.commtouch.com or write to info@commtouch.com.

Recurrent Pattern Detection, RPD, Zero-Hour and GlobalView are trademarks, and Commtouch, Authentium, Command Antivirus and Command Anti-malware are registered trademarks, of Commtouch. U.S. Patent No. 6,330,590 is owned by Commtouch.

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including projections about our business, within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. For example, statements in the future tense, and statements including words such as "expect," "plan," "estimate," "anticipate," or "believe" are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on information available to us at the time of the release; we assume no obligation to update any of them. The statements in this release, including the statement about the significant growth potential of the company, are not guarantees of future performance and actual results could differ materially from our current expectations as a result of numerous factors, including business conditions and growth or deterioration in the Internet market, commerce and the general economy, both domestic as well as international; fewer than expected new-partner relationships; competitive factors, including pricing pressures; technological developments, and products offered by competitors; the ability of our OEM partners to successfully penetrate markets with products integrated with Commtouch technology; a slower than expected acceptance rate for our newer product offerings; availability of qualified staff; and technological difficulties and resource constraints encountered in developing new products, as well as those risks described in the text of this press release and the company's Annual Reports on Form 20-F and reports on Form 6-K, which are available through www.sec.gov.

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