MERANT announced a definitive agreement to acquire the Enterprise Division of NetObjects for U.S. $18 million (approximately (pound)12 million pounds sterling) payable in cash on completion, which is anticipated to take place by March 2001. The value of the net assets, subject of the transaction, are $2.2 million U.S. dollars. In the year-ended September 2000, the Enterprise Division generated approximately $10 million U.S. dollars in revenue and the loss attributable to the net assets being acquired amounted to $7.6 million. The approximately 40 employees of the Enterprise Division will become MERANT employees. As part of this transaction IBM, a substantial owner of NetObjects, will be making a limited equity investment in MERANT on the open market after the transaction closes to demonstrate its commitment to MERANT. With this strategic acquisition, MERANT will offer a solution from a single provider to manage the entire e-business assets of the enterprise. The acquisition enhances MERANT’s Egility Enterprise Change Management solution by embracing the convergence of applications and web content. The combination expands MERANT’s offering of traditional software configuration management with web content management. www.merant.com