SoftQuad Software, Ltd. announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Advanced Data Engineering, Inc. (ADEi) of Petaluma, California. ADEi is a provider of content transformation solutions that enable organizations to convert large volumes of existing data from multiple sources into XML. The ability to convert existing content directly into XML is a fundamental requirement for companies as they migrate their enterprise content infrastructures to XML. With the ability to transform large volumes of existing documents in formats such as Word, Quark, Pagemaker and PDF, ADEi’s systems solve the content transformation challenges that many organizations face. Additionally, ADEi’s XML-it Document Markup System, now part of the SoftQuad content services offering, provides an easy way to transition existing Word content into XML. This gives customers total control over their migration to an XML content infrastructure. ADEi’s management team and engineering staff are all expected to join SoftQuad. SoftQuad plans to maintain ADEi’s facilities in Petaluma as a strategic services, sales, and business development center in close proximity to Silicon Valley. Under the terms of the transaction, SoftQuad will acquire all of the outstanding shares of ADEi for approximately 750,000 shares in newly issued SoftQuad common stock, subject to minor post closing working capital adjustments. Further terms and conditions were not disclosed. The transaction, which is immediately accretive to SoftQuad earnings, has been approved by the Board of Directors of each company and is expected to close in November 2000. www.softquad.com, www.adei.com
Day: November 15, 2000
Interwoven and DataChannel announced an alliance to integrate DataChannel’s Enterprise Information Portal Server, DataChannel Server (DCS) 4.1 with TeamSite 4.5, Interwoven’s content management platform. The integration will bring together the critical functions of content management and content presentation and interaction. The companies have also agreed upon a jointly developed road map that tightly couples the unique functionality of their respective products. The combined offering will serve two classes of users, content contributors and the targeted users who access the final version of that content. First, TeamSite content authors and editors will now be able to access critical TeamSite software functionality, including TeamSite Templating and metadata tagging, through a consolidated and personalized application interface via DataChannel’s Enterprise Information Portal. Participants in the content management process will also be able to see their workflow action items and timelines in their own personalized “queue.” To enable this, all TeamSite users will be automatically logged-on to TeamSite through an intelligent DataChannel Xpertlinx when they authenticate through DCS. This single sign-on capability will provide direct authentication to personalized TeamSite workspaces. Secondly, the joint solution will impact the targeted users who access content in its final form. The DataChannel Enterprise Information Portal provides access to content that is targeted to specific user needs. It also optimizes a user’s interface to the numerous sources of information found throughout the enterprise and across the Internet. DCS creates the taxonomy, or organized layout, for content that is then appropriately tagged and published directly from TeamSite into the DCS portal. www.datachannel.com, www.interwoven.com
