Attachmate Announces Agreement to Sell the Company to Investment Group.

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- Attachmate Corporation, 20-year veteran of connecting users with critical enterprise applications and data, announced today it has executed a definitive purchase agreement to sell the company to an investment group consisting of Francisco Partners, Golden Gate Capital, and Thoma Cressey Equity Partners. The sale is expected to be completed by late May. This same investment group purchased Attachmate's cross town competitor, WRQ Inc., at the end of 2004. The two companies are expected to merge upon the successful completion of the Attachmate transaction.

"This was a very strategic, but personally difficult, decision," said Frank Pritt, president and CEO of Attachmate. "This sale will provide Attachmate with the financial capital to ensure its future growth and continued market leadership. Attachmate will have the resources to continue to address the opportunities in its current markets as well as tap opportunities related to adjacent customer needs. I know the founder of WRQ and think the two companies will make a perfect combination. The markets, products, and company cultures are a perfect fit, both for customers and employees."

Upon the transaction closing, Frank Pritt will retire from the company he founded in 1982. Jeff Hawn, chairman of WRQ since January of this year, will become the new CEO of the combined company. His prior experience includes BMC Software, where he was senior vice president of operations, and McKinsey & Company, where he was a partner. Hawn indicated current Attachmate senior management will remain with the combined company. "I believe this is the right ownership and management team to create an exciting future for the combined company," said Pritt.

"With this," Pritt indicated, "the company is ready to close another successful chapter, and start a new one. Not only has the current staff contributed to Attachmate's success over the years but many of its former employees were very instrumental to that success as well. For that, I want to say, 'thanks to all'."

About Attachmate

Attachmate(R) was founded in 1982 by Frank Pritt and his former wife, Julia Pritt, in their living room. Frank went on to lead the company for the next 23 years. Julia started the non-profit organization "Washington Women in Need," dedicated to providing financial assistance for health care and educational needs to low-income women living in the state of Washington. Their goal is to improve the quality of life for low-income women.

Attachmate has been a major technology employer in the Seattle area, and its products, as well as the company itself, have won numerous awards and nominations over the past 20 years, including being named one of the "Best Companies to Work For" by Washington CEO magazine. The company and its management team have the distinction of never having an unprofitable year since the formation of the company.

One of the world's largest privately held software companies, Attachmate Corporation is helping companies take advantage of service-oriented architecture (SOA) as a platform for the user-organized enterprise -- delivering solutions that overcome infrastructure and standards barriers to meeting user demands. From composite applications to efficient user interfaces, Attachmate technology helps Fortune 500/Global 2000 companies service-enable disparate systems while safeguarding existing business logic. More than 20 million copies of their product EXTRA!(R) are on the desktops of the major companies and government agencies thought the world. News and information is available at http://www.attachmate.com or by calling Attachmate worldwide headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, at 425-644-4010.

About WRQ

WRQ(R) (www.wrq.com) builds software for accessing and integrating legacy applications. WRQ Reflection(R) software provides a broad range of terminal-emulation, PC X-server, and SSH security solutions. WRQ Verastream(R) integration server provides a single platform for reusing legacy logic and data in web applications, CRM applications, or portals. Established in 1981, WRQ has over six million users worldwide and the highest customer-support rating in the industry. Three out of four of Global 500 companies rely on WRQ daily. Access. Integrate. Transform.(R)

About Golden Gate Capital

Golden Gate Capital (www.goldengatecap.com) is a San Francisco-based private equity investment firm with approximately $2.5 billion of capital under management. Golden Gate is dedicated to partnering with world class management teams to invest in change-intensive, growth businesses. They target investments of up to $100 million in situations where there is a demonstrable opportunity to significantly enhance a company's value. The principals of Golden Gate have a long and successful history of investing with management partners across a wide rage of industries and transaction types, including leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, corporate divestitures and spin-offs, build-ups and venture stage investing.

About Francisco Partners

With $2.5 billion of committed capital, Francisco Partners is one of the world's largest technology-focused private equity funds. The firm was founded to pursue structured investments in technology companies undergoing strategic, technological, and operational inflection points. Francisco Partners targets majority and minority investments in private companies, public companies, and divisions of public companies, with transaction values ranging from $30 million to $2.0 billion. The principals of Francisco Partners have a proven track record, having invested in excess of $3.0 billion of equity capital in over 50 technology companies. For additional information, visit www.franciscopartners.com.

About Thoma Cressey Equity Partners

Thoma Cressey Equity Partners is a leading private equity investment firm that has been providing equity and strategic support to experienced management teams building growing companies for almost 25 years. The firm originated the concept of "industry consolidation" or "buy & build" investing, which seeks to create value through the strategic use of acquisitions to accelerate business growth. Thoma Cressey's investment focus is on profitable, middle-market companies in the software, healthcare, business services and consumer products and services industries. The firm provides equity capital for buyouts, MBOs, growth equity investments, and going private transactions. More information about TCEP can be found at www.thomacressey.com.

(C) 2005 Attachmate Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Attachmate and EXTRA! are registered trademarks of Attachmate Corporation. All other trademarks, trade names, or company names referenced herein are used for identification only and are the property of their respective owners.