Open Text Corporation announced its intent to make an all cash take-over bid for all of the common shares of PC DOCS Group International Inc. at a price of C$8.50 per share. This price represents a premium in excess of 20% over the recent trading levels of PC DOCS. Open Text believes that its all cash take-over bid of C$ 8.50 per share is financially superior to the share exchange offer which has been made by Hummingbird Communications Inc. Open Text has contacted PC DOCS regarding its take-over bid. Open Text has requested that PC DOCS provide it with access to all non-public information provided to Hummingbird by PC DOCS. It is Open Text’s view that its take-over bid constitutes a “PC DOCS Acquisition Proposal” as defined in the Notice of Special Meeting of Shareholders and Information Circular of PC DOCS dated April 13, 1999. As part of this definition, Open Text has advised PC DOCS that it is prepared to enter into an agreement for the purpose of keeping this information confidential. Open Text’s offer will be subject to shareholders of PC DOCS holding 66 2/3% of the shares of PC DOCS on a fully diluted basis depositing their shares to the take-over bid, to the receipt of customary regulatory approvals, to receipt of access to the non-public information of PC DOCS referred to above and other standard conditions. www.opentext.com
Month: April 1999 (Page 1 of 9)
IBM has released two XML development tools on its Alphaworks Web site and launched a search site for finding XML resources on the Web. IBM’s XML for C++ parser is a C++ version of its XML for Java parser. The C++ version lets developers give C and C++ applications the ability to read and write XML data without a lot of programming. It brings XML abilities to a large installed base of apps written before the release of Java. IBM’s XML Security Suite lets developers build applications that stamp XML documents with digital signatures, which assure a sender and receiver that a document wasn’t altered during transmission. The suite is based on an IBM-developed specification called DOM-Hash, which the company is circulating among users and standards bodies for feedback. IBM plans to extend its security suite to encrypt individual data elements in XML documents, letting developers provide access only to portions of documents. Commercial use licenses for XML for C++ parser are available through IBM’s Alphaworks Web site. The XML Security Suite is available for evaluation only. www.software.ibm.com/xml/
POET Software announced the introduction of Content Management Suite (CMS) 2.0, their second-generation XML content server. Building on POET’s heritage in object-enabled XML technology and the technical documentation market, CMS 2.0 simplifies XML publishing for e-business exchange. CMS 2.0 is powered by POET’s Object Server technology. CMS 2.0 stores XML as objects, adds component-level content management functionality, and takes advantage of the POET Object Server for high-performance, scalable XML storage, querying, and retrieval. New features in CMS 2.0 include: Component Sharing:
PeopleSoft announced its Open Integration Framework (OIF) initiative enabling flexible and cost effective integration of PeopleSoft applications with software, including e-business solutions and legacy systems. The Open Integration Framework will deliver Internet-enabled APIs fully embracing XML. The new integration technology will be available in controlled release in the fourth quarter of 1999, and will be generally available with PeopleSoft 8 in the first half of 2000. As part of the initiative, PeopleSoft is partnering with leading Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) vendors to deliver certified, packaged integrations to customers. Expanding on PeopleSoft’s robust set of existing integration tools and APIs, the company is introducing Internet-enabled APIs such as Application Messaging, Business Components, and Business Interlink. Application Messaging is an Internet-based messaging architecture allowing PeopleSoft applications and third party systems to publish data based on business events via XML and HTTP. Subscribing applications can receive transactions over the Internet, enabling distributed processing across private and public networks with maximum security. The Business Component and Business Interlink APIs will enable application developers to easily plug into PeopleSoft business processes without requiring detailed knowledge of the underlying data structures or embedded business logic. www.peoplesoft.com
Bluestone Software, Inc, began shipping Bluestone XML-Contact for the Palm Computing platform, an XML application for 3Com Corporation’s Palm Computing devices. Bluestone XML-Contact lets Palm Computing device users exchange contact information with any corporate database, turning personal productivity tools into corporate information resources. Available today, Bluestone XML-Contact for the Palm Computing platform is provided free-of-charge by Bluestone and can be downloaded at www.bluestone.com
Seagull announced that it is building tools to wrapper mainframe and AS/400 programs into reusable XML and Enterprise JavaBean components, and specialized server software to connect those components to host applications. Code-named “Williamsburg,” Seagull’s development project is the first to be announced as a result of the company’s recent acquisition of ObjectShare’s Java division. The Williamsburg project is underway in the company’s new Irvine, Calif., development lab. Through CORBA, IIOP, XML, and EJB support, Williamsburg provides component-based access to host applications. Williamsburg business components can be connected to other objects at the emerging middle-tier layer of Web- based business computing. The Williamsburg project will result in wizard-like tools for wrappering CICS, MQSeries, 3270 and 5250 programs, and extensions to Seagull’s current presentation server that will handle connections to host applications. www.seagullsw.com
SoftQuad Software Inc. announced that Pinetree Capital Corp., in conjunction with its merchant banking affiliate KBL Capital Partners and James Clark, has lead the funding of a first round of private equity for the company. It was also announced that Sheldon Inwentash, Chairman and CEO of Pinetree, has joined Clark and Roberto Drassinower on the SoftQuad Software Inc. board of directors. SoftQuad Software was incorporated in November 1998 through a management buyout of the assets of the Web publishing division of SoftQuad International with a mandate to create high-quality XML and HTML authoring tools. SoftQuad Software released the latest version of its award-winning HoTMetaL PRO 5.0 in September 1998 and then focused its efforts on the rapidly expanding XML marketplace with its newest product offering XMetaL, to be released in May. www.softquad.com
Xerox Corporation revealed a strategy to mobilize its global direct- sales force behind an initiative that, over a 10-year horizon, will grow to represent as much as 50 percent of Xerox’ business and act as a catalyst for the company’s sustained digital growth. Xerox unveiled the first 17 offerings in the Xerox “Global Industry Solutions Portfolio.” These solutions, many of which are Internet enabled, link people-based services, hardware, software, and network services in a package that solves a customer problem, improves a work process or creates a market or competitive advantage. They address industry-specific needs for Xerox customers in the document-dependent environments of financial services; manufacturing; graphic arts; and the public sector. The company also introduced a suite of tools for Knowledge-Sharing designed to help customers leverage their intellectual assets. The end-to-end solutions announced today bundle replicable packages of software, hardware and services — each custom-tailored by Xerox industry specialists to meet individual customer requirements. Many build on the advantages of the Internet. The company is initially concentrating on the graphic arts industry, where publications are the product, and on financial services, manufacturing and the public sector, where documents — either digital or hard copy — are critical to their business processes but are outside the organization’s core competency. Xerox also announced a suite of tools that will enable customers to share and leverage knowledge throughout an enterprise and realize a greater “Return on Knowledge.” The suite ranges from tools to improve individual productivity to solutions. Among the new introductions: AskOnce, an interface to web search engines, data information retrieval facilities and knowledge databases. It provides unified user access to external and internal knowledge sources to simplify search, retrieval and use of information; MobilDoc, a tool that combines software and services to provide mobile professionals with remote access to their documents from anywhere, at any time via thin clients such as smart phones, two-way pagers and personal digital assistants; EcoWorx, a solution that can cut the cost of compliance with environmental health and safety and ISO regulations, improving productivity by automating document workflow processes; and High Impact Custom Catalogs, a start-to-finish marketing solution developed in partnership with RTMS (Milwaukee, Wis.). It will enable customer-centric businesses – from department stores to telephone companies – to create and produce completely individualized marketing campaigns, even when communicating to millions of customers. www.xerox.com
