webMethods, Inc. announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Active Software, Inc. in an all-stock transaction. This acquisition brings together two vendors whose software solutions address the integration requirements of global companies and industry trading exchanges, both within the enterprise and across B2B trading networks. The companies expect that the transaction will close during the third quarter of 2000, pending completion of customary closing conditions and receipt of Active Software and webMethods stockholder and required government approvals. Under the terms of the agreement, Active Software’s stockholders will receive 0.527 of a share of webMethods common stock in exchange for each share of Active Software common stock. The transaction, valued at approximately $1.3 billion based upon the Friday, May 19, 2000 closing price of webMethods common stock, is expected to be accounted for as a pooling-of-interests. Approximately 13.6 million shares of webMethods stock will be exchanged for all outstanding shares of Active Software. webMethods was advised by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and Active Software was advised by Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Thomas Weisel Partners. Until now, companies have been forced to adopt separate solutions for uniting internal business processes, and then sharing and integrating these processes with external trading partners, either directly or via B2B marketplaces and trading exchanges. Upon completion of the acquisition, Active Software’s products and operations will be combined with webMethods. Phillip Merrick will continue in his role as president, CEO and chairman of webMethods, with Jim Green, Active Software’s CEO, joining the team in the role of CTO and executive vice president, product development. Green will also join the webMethods Board of Directors. Other members of the Active Software management team will join the webMethods management team. Active Software’s Santa Clara, Calif. offices will become the West Coast headquarters of webMethods. The combined companies will have nearly 600 employees worldwide. www.webmethods.com, www.activesw.com

webMethods, Inc. announced that i2 Technologies, Inc. has selected webMethods for integrating participating companies’ systems with i2 TradeMatrix marketplace solutions. In this arrangement, i2 will resell and market webMethods B2B as the B2Bi solution to companies interested in integrating with i2’s TradeMatrix. webMethods B2B will be embedded in TradeMatrix to provide TradeMatrix marketplaces with a comprehensive business solution that enables companies to deploy business-to-business portals. webMethods B2B will allow the secure integration of a company’s in-house planning and execution systems, across Internet firewalls, with TradeMatrix marketplace solutions. This automatic system-to-system integration will allow participating companies and their trading partners to achieve integrated business workflows. Through this partnership, TradeMatrix customers will benefit from webMethods’ rapid development and deployment capabilities. www.i2.com, www.webMethods.com

Interwoven, Inc. announced the availability of the latest version of TeamSite, which now serves the needs of content developers in Europe and Asia by allowing easy content entry for languages based on both single-byte and multi-byte characters such as French, German and Japanese. This means faster time-to-Web and reduced development costs for multi-lingual sites. With the latest version of Interwoven TeamSite software and XML-based TeamSite Templating, non-technical users can easily enter content and metadata on content for multiple languages. This makes it easier for organizations to extend the responsibility for content development and management throughout the global organization. Because metadata can also be in the local language, content can be more easily syndicated across multiple sites and can be easily searched and shared with other applications. Development costs associated with multi-lingual sites will also be reduced because local teams are now empowered to manage content in local languages. The entire task-based workflow process, from content development, to quality assurance, and approval through deployment can now be directed in local languages, which reduces the cost and decreases the time required to manage content. The latest version of TeamSite Templating now has improved database integration and content re-use functionality. TeamSite Templating enables content reuse by separating content from presentation, which allows content creators to more easily contribute without having to worry about the details of presentation. This release extends TeamSite Templating’s XML-based architecture by providing the ability to “nest” page components which extends content reuse capabilities. The TeamSite Templating page generation engine combines content elements and Interwoven OpenDeploy can then be used to automatically deploy these pages to the production environment including application servers for dynamic delivery. TeamSite 4.2.1 is available immediately. www.interwoven.com/products/teamsite

Microsoft Corp. announced the newest version of its MSXML parser with built-in support for version 2.0 of the Simple API for XML (SAX2). The decision to implement the SAX2 programming interface, rather than develop a new one, is a reflection of Microsoft’s commitment to deliver the features its customers demand. SAX2 is designed to enable faster and more efficient processing of XML by allowing programs to read, review and process XML files without having to load the entire document into memory. The latest version of the MSXML parser, the third in a series of XML parser technology previews Microsoft began releasing in January 2000, provides another programming interface for building Web-based distributed applications based on standard XML messages. These releases allow Microsoft to achieve its goal of providing new features and updated support for standards in “Web time.” In addition to the new SAX2 support, this release also adds more support for XSLT and Xpath. Development of SAX began in December 1997; its first release was in May 1998. SAX was a collaborative effort developed entirely by the members of the XML-DEV mailing list. The SAX interface is free for commercial and noncommercial use. Although the list of contributors credits over 80 people, including some of the original developers of XML, David Megginson of Megginson Technologies Ltd. (www.megginson.com/) is considered to be the primary developer and maintainer of SAX. SAX 2.0 was released on May 5, 2000. The new release is available for immediate download at http://msdn.microsoft.com/xml/

Artesia Technologies announced its plans to support Oracle Corporation’s Internet File System (iFS) within Artesia’s TEAMS software. Users of Artesia Technologies’ digital asset management solution will be able to utilize iFS to migrate streaming media into the Oracle 8i database, to gain added transactional control over heterogeneous rich media content, and to enact a single backup and recovery scheme for all content. Artesia Technologies’ customers will benefit from iFS and its automatic XML parsing, as it extends TEAMS’ support for the XML family of functions for extensible metadata handling, information exchange, and structured content management. Artesia Technologies’ customers using Oracle iFS will also continue to benefit from TEAMS support for both file system-based as well as in-line storage. www.artesiatech.com