Open Text Corporation and Gauss Interprise announced that a wholly owned subsidiary of Open Text will acquire the common shares of Gauss for cash by way of agreement with certain of the shareholders, who will hold 73 percent of the shares at closing after conversion of indebtedness and a tender offer for the balance of the shares. Total cash consideration for the shares is expected to be approximately US $11 million. Open Text expects that the transaction will close, subject to certain conditions, in the second quarter of Fiscal Year 04 (the quarter ending December, 2003). Together, the companies will present a combination in the market for enterprise content management (ECM) software, with Gauss adding its Web content management, and business process management solutions to Open Text’s Livelink suite and its integrated collaboration and content management capabilities. Gauss’ IDOM product line extends Open Text’s IDOM offerings, which are designed to apply business processes to the unstructured content companies maintain in Livelink to improve collaboration. Gauss also extends Open Text’s ERP connectors by adding J.D. Edwards and a variety of ERP applications on IBM AS/400 systems to existing connectors for PeopleSoft. www.gaussvip.com, www.opentext.com