Open Text Corporation and IXOS SOFTWARE AG announced that they have entered into a business combination agreement in which a wholly owned subsidiary of Open Text will acquire all of the issued and outstanding shares of IXOS. The transaction will proceed via a tender offer for cash consideration of either 9 Euro per share (approximately US$10.46) or 0.2610 of an Open Text share for each share of IXOS tendered. The Open Text share will include a warrant to purchase 0.0742 of an Open Text share for up to one year after closing the transaction, with a strike price of US $41.50 per share. The cash consideration represents a 34% premium based on the three months volume weighted average prior to the announcement. Open Text has approximately 1200 employees and had revenues of US$178 million in the last fiscal year. IXOS has approximately 900 employees and revenues of US$145 million in fiscal year 2002/2003. Open Text will be organized into two divisions. The North American-based division, with operational headquarters in Chicago, will have global responsibility for collaboration and knowledge management solutions as well as North American responsibility for operations. The European-based division, headquartered in Munich, will have global responsibility for content management and archiving as well as European responsibility for operations. Gauss Interprises AG, which was recently acquired by Open Text, will also be part of the European content management division. IXOS’ CEO Robert Hoog will become head of the European organization for Open Text. www.opentext.com, www.ixos.de
Month: October 2003 (Page 3 of 6)
Factiva announced that Factiva’s first solution for the Microsoft Office System, Factiva Search, is now commercially available. Factiva Search, integrated with the Microsoft Office 2003 Editions, provides information workers with quick and convenient ways to gain a comprehensive view of the external business environment from within their daily workflow. It allows information workers to conduct research on Factiva’s collection of thousands of sources directly from a report or presentation they’re creating. For example, while drafting a competitive brief in Microsoft Office Word 2003, competitive intelligence professionals can use Factiva Search to quickly look up important industry trends from newspapers, journals, and newswires from around the world and enhance the accuracy and timeliness of their research. Factiva’s platform is based on XML and Web services and is integrated into the Research Task Pane of all the Microsoft Office System programs, including Word 2003, Excel 2003, Access 2003, Outlook 2003, OneNote 2003 and PowerPoint 2003. www.factiva.com/factivasearch
Adobe Systems Incorporated and IBM announced that the two companies have signed an agreement to develop solutions to help customers improve data capture, document generation and delivery across the enterprise, by creating intelligent, digital document processes. As part of the expanded agreement, the two companies will further integrate technologies across IBM’s portfolio of software offerings, beginning with IBM’s DB2 Content Manager and DB2 CommonStore for SAP, and moving to integration with IBM’s WebSphere and Tivoli software brands. The first phase of IBM and Adobe’s software agreement has been the integration IBM DB2 Content Manager with Adobe Form Server, Form Designer and Reader, allowing forms to be created, managed and processed within DB2 Content Manager environments. The joint solution will integrate capabilities for intelligent Web-based forms giving organizations and governments the ability to automate their existing paper-based processes. www.ibm.com, www.adobe.com
FileNet Corporation and Microsoft Corp. announced plans to implement a series of new development, sales and global marketing initiatives to provide customers with optimized FileNet enterprise content management (ECM) solutions that are built on Microsoft .NET. As part of the alliance, FileNet will work closely with Microsoft to broaden FileNet’s support for .NET by extending its use of Visual Studio .NET and enhancing its product offerings to include the .NET Framework, the Microsoft Office System, smart client technology and XML Web services. In addition, Microsoft and FileNet will collaborate on a plan for FileNet to adopt new technologies including SharePoint Portal Server 2003 and the upcoming version of SQL Server, code-named “Yukon.” In addition, the two companies will collaborate to bring these offering to customers through a series of joint marketing and sales campaigns, aligned with Microsoft’s go-to-market programs and vertical industry initiatives.
www.filenet.com, www.microsoft.com
Interwoven, Inc. and SBI and Company (SBI) announced the availability of a Brand Portal Solution designed to help enterprises build, manage and steward their brands. Developed jointly, the Brand Portal Solution combines Interwoven MediaBin Asset Server software with SBI’s expertise in brand strategy and technology implementation consulting. The Brand Portal Solution is a single place for brand managers and their constituencies, such as marketing and advertising agencies, distributors and channel partners, to build, leverage and distribute brand assets. The solution provides marketing departments of all sizes the ability to control the marketing content development, management, and distribution process. The Interwoven Brand Portal Solution integrates with portal applications from BEA, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Plumtree and SAP via Interwoven’s service-oriented architecture, a Web service-enabled, next generation interface to all Interwoven services. Interwoven Brand Portal Solution can be purchased from Interwoven today. www.sbiandcompany.com, www.interwoven.com
Mobius Management Systems, Inc. announced that the Mobius ViewDirect Connectivity Business Package has received iView certification for SAP Enterprise Portal 5.0. The ViewDirect iView is a component of ViewDirect TCM, a software suite for content management. When integrated directly into an SAP user’s enterprise portal, the ViewDirect iView provides authorized users with easy access to enterprise content. The ViewDirect iView is integrated with the ViewDirect TCM repository and other business systems to enable enterprise employees, customers, and business partners to search, view, download, and print documents, reports, and images in any format without logging on to a separate application and without leaving the enterprise portal environment. ViewDirect TCM includes an SAP-certified interface to SAP R/3 ArchiveLink that supports all major SAP R/3 archiving scenarios. ViewDirect TCM provides archiving and output management services for the SAP R/3 environment, integrating SAP and non-SAP documents in a single repository and providing flexible viewing options both within SAP and with ViewDirect TCM viewing clients. www.mobius.com
Xythos Software announced the introduction of two new software products specifically designed to help organizations respond to federal and state regulations requiring improved information compliance capabilities. Both new products work with the company’s line of WebFile Server software. The new Xythos WebFile Records Manager (WRM) software has been specifically designed to ease the cost of compliance with regulations such as HIPAA, Sarbanes Oxley, FDA 21 CFR Part 11, and a variety of state level information access regulations. The WRM allows users to dynamically create and manage physical and electronic documents in the same system, develop uniform retention schedules and is 100% WebDAV compatible. The company’s new WebFile Scan Manager (WSM) software helps automate the process of adding physical documents and records into the WebFile Server simplifying the process of developing comprehensive multi media compliance solutions.
CambridgeDocs announced the xDoc Content Transformation Server (xCTS). CambridgeDocs’ xCTS combines the xDoc Conversion Server with the PDF-XML Publishing Server in an end-to-end solution for easy and automatic re-use of existing content. Inbound, the xDoc Conversion Server transforms documents from PDF, HTML, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, into meaningful and well-structured XML. The transformation retains the “look and feel” of the document including layout, graphics, and textual content. Outbound, the PDF-XML Publishing server, customizes the transformed content with new layouts, styles or dynamic content from existing data-sources, and generates print-ready PDFs, MS Word documents or HTMLfiles. The xCTS XSLT, and XSL:FO. It can also use any XML-schema or DTD as the target or source for transformation. The xCTS works with J2EE application servers, such as TomCat, EAServer, as well as with Microsoft IIS based applications. The xCTS is available immediately and pricing starts at $15,000 per server.
