Artesia Technologies Secures $26 Million Mezzanine Round Financing from Technology Industry Leaders.

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 25, 2000

Strategic Investments by BEA, Enron Broadband Services, Vignette,

Razorfish, Protege Virtual Management Solutions and Warburg Pincus 

Ventures Help Strengthen Company's Position as the Leader in Digital

Asset Management

Artesia Technologies, a leading provider of digital asset management solutions, today announced that it has secured $26 million in mezzanine round funding from a consortium of technology, industry and venture capital leaders.

New investors joining first round investor Warburg Pincus Ventures include BEA Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAS), Enron Broadband Services, a subsidiary of Enron Corp. (NYSE: ENE), Vignette (NASDAQ: VIGN), Razorfish (NASDAQ: RAZF) and Protege Virtual Management Solutions.

Artesia Technologies will use the financing to continue the global expansion of its product development, customer service, sales and marketing, and professional services operations supporting its award-winning and XML-based TEAMS(TM) digital asset management solution.

"The support of these industry leaders clearly demonstrates our leadership within the digital asset management marketplace," said Chris Veator, chairman and CEO of Artesia Technologies. "Enron, Vignette, and Razorfish are market leaders within the rich media value chain and their support provides strong evidence of the increasing emphasis on rich media content in the e-business strategies of both traditional media companies as well as the Global 2000. The support of BEA is validation of Artesia's value-add solutions for Internet infrastructure. Additionally, Protege's investment further emphasizes the long-term market potential for our TEAMS solution within the global marketplace."

Headquartered in Washington DC's technology corridor with operations throughout the U.S. and in Europe, Artesia Technologies is a leading provider of Internet infrastructure software for the management and deployment of rich media content.

The company's award-winning TEAMS digital asset management solution provides an enterprise-class framework for the acquisition, management and secure deployment of all types of digital assets, including audio, video and other streaming content as well as photos, graphics, and text.

Global 2000 organizations as well as media, entertainment and publishing companies rely on Artesia Technologies' solutions to facilitate the use of this content within a variety of streaming media applications as well as to enable its simultaneous use in print, broadcast and WAP-enabled applications.

"Rich media content is a vital ingredient of e-business. BEA and Artesia believe that the management and personalization of this content is critical for e-businesses to meet the needs of the e-generation," said Ivan Koon, president of BEA's E-Commerce Applications Division. "Digital assets have come out of the dark corners of business into the bright lights of the marketplace to represent the digital capital that allows e-businesses to differentiate themselves in the battle to win and retain customers."

"Artesia and Vignette share a common vision for the next generation of e-business - companies will interact with their customers through the delivery of dynamic, rich media experiences," said Bill Daniel, senior vice president of Products for Vignette Corporation. "With their leadership in digital asset management, Artesia's technology enables businesses to access rich media assets. Together, Vignette and Artesia will help businesses use those assets to drive online customer interactions. Artesia is a significant strategic partner, and we anticipate joint success in the marketplace."

"Digital asset management is increasingly becoming a core requirement in our client base, and will only become more so with the increasing availability of broadband and demand for rich media content distribution," said Jeff Dachis, chairman and CEO of Razorfish. "Artesia's TEAMS solution has emerged as a leading platform for organizations looking to maximize the value of this content across as many channels as possible. We look forward to partnering with Artesia in building the digital infrastructure for the new economy."

"Protege's success to date can be directly attributed to our practice of supporting emerging market leaders with all of our resources," said Larry Levy, chairman and CEO of Protege. "Through careful and thorough evaluation, we've determined that Artesia Technologies is the clear leader within the digital asset management market and we're extremely excited to be working exclusively with them in their expansion into Europe. While the market potential for broadband and wireless content delivery is significant, we believe that the opportunity at the crossroads of these two fields in which Artesia resides is unrivaled."

According to Frost & Sullivan, the digital asset management market is expected to experience rapid growth from 1998 spending of $86 million to an estimated $1.5 billion in 2002, while Gistics, Inc., another leading industry analyst, estimates a $3.2 billion marketplace by 2001.

Gartner Research further reports that by 2005, "...70 percent of new application investment and 50 percent of new IT infrastructure investment will focus on e-business transformation."

Since the company's formation in June 1999, Artesia Technologies has added nearly three dozen new customers and the company will use this latest round of funding to expand its market leadership with a number of new, global offices providing localized sales, marketing, professional services and customer support operations.

In addition to making investments in the company, Enron, Vignette, Razorfish and Protege have or plan to establish strategic alliances with the company focusing on such areas as product integration and joint sales and marketing programs.

In addition to Veator as chairman, board members include Scott Bowen, president and chief operating officer of Artesia Technologies, Greg Back, Stewart Gross and Nancy Martin of Warburg Pincus Ventures, and Michael Ainslie, currently a director with Lehman Brothers, the United States Tennis Association and the St. Joe Company, and formerly CEO of Sotheby's Holding.

Artesia's client base includes thought leaders as diverse as General Motors, Random House, The FeedRoom.com and the Washington Post. In addition, the company has established partnerships with a number of industry leaders including Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Vignette, Apple, and Virage as well as such leading integrators as Razorfish, PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG Consulting, and iXL.

Current corporate locations include Washington DC, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, with the new funding expected to support the development of additional offices across the U.S. and around the globe.

Recognition for the company includes selection as a "Hot Pick" by the editors of the Seybold Reports, the media industry's leading trade journal, for its recently released TEAMS 4.0 release.

In addition, the company was also honored in March of this year by Open Systems Advisors with a prestigious Crossroads 2000 A-List Award, and Artesia was also named by ComputerWorld magazine as one of its "Top 100 Emerging Companies to Watch in 2000."

About Artesia Technologies

Headquartered in Washington DC's technology corridor, Artesia Technologies(TM) is a leading provider of digital asset management solutions. Organizations seeking to best manage, leverage and distribute rich media select Artesia's TEAMS(TM) to drive their e-business and cross media applications.

TEAMS is an open and scalable solution that is uniquely positioned to connect creative minds with their markets, partners, and peers.

Our blue ribbon customers include thought leaders as impressive and diverse as Random House, The Washington Post, General Motors, FeedRoom.com and many more.

TEAMS, the company's flagship solution, was recently recognized by the editors of the Seybold Report on Internet Publishing as one of their "Hot Picks" and it was also a recipient of the prestigious Crossroads 2000 A-List Award within the Excellence in Execution category. In addition, Artesia Technologies was named by ComputerWorld magazine as one of its "Top 100 Emerging Companies to Watch in 2000."

For additional information on Artesia Technologies, please visit our website at www.artesiatech.com.

Artesia and TEAMS are trademarks of Artesia Technologies. All other names are the property of their respective trademark holders.