Versant Corporation announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to merge with Poet Holdings, Inc. Poet shareholders will receive 1.4 shares of Versant Common Stock in exchange for one Poet share. Based on Versant’s stock price as of close of market on September 26, 2003 the Versant stock to be issued to Poet shareholders would be worth approximately $26 million and represents approximately 45% of the pro forma combined company’s outstanding shares. Poet’s Fast Objects object database complements Versant’s VDS object database, which is used in high-performance large-scale real-time applications. The joint product line will offer customers the ability to manage XML and other types of hierarchical and navigational data. Versant also plans to target a broad range of applications that include data management, telecommunications, real-time integration, catalog information for supply-chain, and government and defense applications. www.versant.com, www.poet.com