Open Market, Inc. announced that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire FutureTense, Inc. Under the terms of the agreement, Open Market expects to issue approximately 7,226,000 shares of its common stock to the holders of outstanding FutureTense stock. In addition, Open Market will assume options to acquire FutureTense stock, which will convert into options to acquire approximately 1,118,000 shares of Open Market common stock. A portion of these options will be exercisable immediately upon the closing of the transaction. As of the close of trading yesterday, these shares had an aggregate market value of approximately $125 million. The companies expect that the transaction will be accounted for as a pooling of interests. The transaction is subject to shareholder approval and is expected to close in Q4 1999. Open Market believes that the combination of its products and those from FutureTense will provide customers with the potential to: Deploy e-business solutions more quickly and reduce the cost of vendor selection, integration and ongoing support, Create e-business Web sites with increased revenue potential because integrating content and commerce management helps maximize the value of on-line customer relationships, Extend and expand systems more easily because of FutureTense’s open application server architecture. Upon closing the transaction, Gary Eichhorn will continue as CEO of Open Market. Ron Matros, president and CEO of FutureTense, will join Open Market as president and chief operating officer. BC Krishna, co-founder and chief technology officer of FutureTense, will join as Open Market’s chief technology officer. A demonstration showing what a dynamic, personalized web site created with the two integrated products looks like is available on the Web at www.openmarket.com/futuretense
Category: Content technology news (Page 599 of 640)
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Interwoven, Inc. and Lexington Software Associates (LSA) announced an agreement for Interwoven to acquire LSA. LSA was founded in 1997 to help companies create quality software and Web applications. Their consulting expertise is in configuration management, process management and implementation, and electronic asset management and troubleshooting. The Professional Services Organization (PSO) at Interwoven provides customized implementation of Interwoven software in order to leverage existing Web practices, tools and processes. PSO consists of three main practices: consulting, technical support and training. These represent a complete service offering as a complement to Interwoven
Bowstreet Software, Inc. announced that it will lead work to define an industry standard for describing directory service information in XML. The effort to develop a Directory Services Markup Language (DSML) builds upon work performed by Bowstreet while creating its Web Services Architecture. The DSML effort will be supported by industry leaders IBM, Microsoft, Novell, Oracle, and the Sun-Netscape Alliance to provide customers more flexibility in using and sharing directory information in XML-enabled applications. DSML provides a way to use directory information without knowing the specific data formats of each directory. End users will benefit because Web-based applications can be aware of their directory policy and profile information and adapt accordingly. Additionally, DSML enables “friction-free” eCommerce value chains to be integrated across corporate boundaries based on directory information. This capability provides an essential building block as directories play a more significant role on the Internet. Furthermore, DSML complements the goals of the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) and helps to extend the power of LDAP to web-based applications. Bowstreet and supporting companies plan to submit a proposal to appropriate standards bodies. There is an information Web site at www.dsml.org. Additional group members are expected to be added in the future. www.bowstreet.com
Information Architects Corporation has received a Notice of Allowance from the U.S. Patent Office covering its Web application server technologies. The patent allowance covers technologies at the core of Information Architects’ (iA) Metaphoria Virtual Web Server products. Metaphoria enables rapid development of Internet products and applications for business users that require efficient access to data from multiple sources. Metaphoria enables data residing in mainframes, client server systems, web servers, Internets and Extranets to be divorced, parsed, combined, personalized and viewed REAL-TIME from any Internet accessible device such as a PC, PDA, WebTV, Palm VII or WinCE device. Metaphoria can not only let the user view selected data but it can update the data across multiple systems in real time with the click of the mouse. www.ia.com
Novell, Inc. unveiled its solution for helping customers link business data for easy use in electronic business applications. Novell demonstrated a new software solution called DirXML. Extending the capabilities of Novell Directory Services (NDS) 8, this new solution links and manages all the places where business and network information is stored. This includes software applications, network operating systems, databases and network devices. This is the first solution based on a directory that not only brings all data together, but also keeps control of the information with the individual departments that own the data. DirXML will connect all data without the need to modify existing software, allowing companies to build on their existing technology investments. Novell has received support for DirXML from partner companies including Bowstreet, Bulletproof Corporation, Compaq Computer Corporation, enCommerce Inc., Entrust Technologies Inc., HAHT Software, Intracus, ISOCOR, Netegrity, NetPro, Oblix Inc., Unimax Systems Corporation. By utilizing XML, Novell’s DirXML will enable companies to connect multiple databases and applications without the need to modify their existing software — thereby getting the most out of their technology investments. A beta-testing version of DirXML will be available for customers to evaluate in Q4 1999. The final product is expected to ship in 2000 and pricing will be announced at that time. The first version of DirXML will support Novell’s NetWare and Microsoft NT operating system environments, with support for Sun Solaris and Linux platforms to follow soon after the initial release. www.novell.com
Prophet 21, Inc.announced its commitment to support the BizTalk Framework by developing industry-specific schemas that will enable the exchange of business information for the Prophet 21 customer base. In addition to committing to develop and use BizTalk XML schemas, Prophet 21 is participating in the alpha/beta program for Microsoft BizTalk Server and is working to ensure BizTalk Server and schemas will integrate with Prophet 21 products, including Prophet 21 Wholesale and Prophet 21 Acclaim. These BizTalk-enabled solutions will allow businesses to easily exchange documents with online trading partners regardless of the platform technology underlying each company’s systems. Prophet 21 Wholesale customers will enjoy support for BizTalk schemas later this year.www.p21.com
Managed Object Solutions, Inc. (MOS) today released Formula version 1.2. This new release integrates with Tivoli Systems TME/10 NetView, Tivoli Enterprise Console (TEC) and Hewlett-Packard OpenView Network Node Manager, and provides XML support, business-centric views, and centralized automation. Formula makes it easy for service providers and IT departments to manage complex, heterogeneous networks, while allowing them to keep their existing management applications in place. Developed entirely in 100 percent pure Java, Formula integrates data from multiple management applications, and then delivers a secure, customizable enterprise view through any standard Web browser. The new HP and Tivoli adapters add to the list of management systems supported by Formula. All Formula adapters are CORBA-based and bi-directional, providing a greater scope of visibility and tight integration with the underlying platforms. They dynamically learn what the management system knows and therefore require no configuration. Formula’s new XML support simplifies customization of business-centric views. Already capable of providing a universal management console for operations managers, Formula now can take disparate information and organize it on business-centric lines, supplying a specific, valuable view to businesspeople, line-of-business managers and service provider customers. www.mos.cc
Extensibility Inc. announced the first commercial product for BizTalk Framework schema validation. XML Authority 1.1 will provide import and output support for BizTalk Framework compatible schemas and for the XDR schema format and for the W3C schema specification when it becomes available. It will also provide advanced support for XML namespaces. The test version of XML Authority 1.1 will be made available free of charge to XML Authority 1.0 customers in late July. A special trial version of XML Authority 1.1 will be accessible for download from the BizTalk.org site at www.biztalk.org in August. Using XML Authority 1.1, developers can create and exchange schemas compliant with the BizTalk Framework specifications. XML Authority is $99.95, multiple user x-Packs are available: 5-user, $449.95; 10-user, $849.95; 50-user, $3,995.00. A 10-use trial version may also be downloaded from the Extensibility site. www.extensibility.com
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