Cognisoft Merges with Verity; Brings "Information Push" Applications to SEARCH'97 Platform and End-to-End Management Solution for Enterprise Customers and Information Providers.SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 13, 1997--Verity, Inc. (Nasdaq:VRTY), a leading provider of search and retrieval technology for the Internet/Intranet, announced today that it has agreed to merge with privately held Cognisoft Corporation. Cognisoft was founded in early 1996 by five former Microsoft managers, and since inception has focused on the development of IntelliServ, an Intranet application designed to allow corporations to "push" information to users from multiple data sources. Cognisoft's IntelliServ application and Verity's SEARCH'97 platform bring a powerful combination of technology to the marketplace, providing enterprises and information providers with an end-to-end solution (jargon) end-to-end solution - (E2ES) A term that suggests that the supplier of an application program or system will provide all the hardware and/or software components and resouces to meet the customer's requirement and no other supplier need be involved. Compare: turn-key solution. to information management and dissemination. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Verity will pay $10 million in cash in exchange for all of the outstanding securities of Cognisoft. The merger will be accounted for by the purchase method of accounting by Verity. Verity expects to charge approximately $10 million against earnings during its third fiscal quarter ending February 28, 1997, related to the write-off of research and development in-process at Cognisoft and other costs related to the transaction. Cognisoft will operate under the Verity, Inc. name as Verity's information applications business unit. The new business unit, currently comprised of 17 employees, will continue to be based at Cognisoft's current headquarters in Bellevue, Washington Bellevue is a rapidly growing city in King County, Washington, U.S., across Lake Washington from Seattle. Long known as a suburb or satellite city of Seattle,[1] it is now categorized as an edge city or a boomburb. . The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of this week, subject to customary closing conditions. David Weld and Ken Schneider, formerly CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. and President of Cognisoft, will be appointed President and Executive Vice President of the new applications business unit, respectively. David Weld will report directly to Philippe Courtot Philippe Courtot was born on August 26, 1944. He spent his early days in France. He holds a Master's Degree in Physics from the University of Paris. Philippe Courtot moved to the United States of America in 1981 and has been in the Silicon Valley since 1987. . Cognisoft's IntelliServ is designed as a powerful easy-to-use, easy-to-administer Windows NT (Windows New Technology) A 32-bit operating system from Microsoft for Intel x86 CPUs. NT is the core technology in Windows 2000 and Windows XP (see Windows). Available in separate client and server versions, it includes built-in networking and preemptive multitasking. Server application that monitors information on multiple data sources. It orchestrates delivery of this information to users based on their preferences through a customized page, email, or pager. IntelliServ is accessible via web browsers The following is a list of web browsers. Historical Historically important browsers In order of release:
Verity's and Cognisoft's technology will bring to market a powerful end-to-end solution to filter and categorize information, helping to manage information overload A symptom of the high-tech age, which is too much information for one human being to absorb in an expanding world of people and technology. It comes from all sources including TV, newspapers, magazines as well as wanted and unwanted regular mail, e-mail and faxes. through proactive notification. Verity's recent launch of SEARCH'97 products elevated the concept of search from a simple, rudimentary tool to a robust enterprise-wide platform. With SEARCH'97, a corporation can join disparate information from multiple sources into a single integrated information source, or "corporate memory." Today, the SEARCH'97 platform is used by hundreds of corporations, government agencies, online service providers, and Internet publishers and developers worldwide. "As Verity continues to build on the SEARCH'97 platform and evangelize e·van·gel·ize v. e·van·gel·ized, e·van·gel·iz·ing, e·van·gel·iz·es v.tr. 1. To preach the gospel to. 2. To convert to Christianity. v.intr. To preach the gospel. it to the development community, acquiring and developing advanced applications is the next logical step," said Philippe Courtot, chairman and CEO of Verity, Inc. "The Cognisoft acquisition brings a pool of Microsoft talent, whose product development and user interface skills, as an addition to Verity's talented staff of engineers and designers, makes for a world-class team to define and shape information applications." "We are pleased with the Cognisoft and Verity merger," said David Weld, CEO of Cognisoft. "The combination of the SEARCH'97 platform and IntelliServ application technologies will create a best-of-breed, multi-platform solution for indexing information assets, retrospective searching, and applications that filter, categorize and push information to users based on their profiles." "USWeb is evaluating IntelliServ because our customers want the capability to easily and automatically garner need-to-know information from their corporate Intranets, helping to prevent information overload," said Sheldon Laube, chief technology officer at USWeb Corporation. "USWeb customers also require an out-of-box application like IntelliServ that runs on Windows NT." In addition to enabling corporations to "push information" to their users, IntelliServ can also be used by leading internet information providers to deliver customized information to their subscribers. International Data Corporation (IDC), the world's leading provider of information technology research, is a participant in the IntelliServ Pilot Design Program. "We are interested in applications that would help us to deliver personalized versions of our research to our corporate customers," said Michael Olfe, director of Internet Products and Services of IDC. "We are currently evaluating IntelliServ as a means to that end." About Cognisoft Cognisoft Corporation, a privately held corporation Noun 1. privately held corporation - a corporation owned by a few people; shares have no public market close corporation, closed corporation, private corporation based in Redmond, Washington Redmond is a city in King County, Washington, USA. It is situated on the eastern edge of the Seattle urban area, in what is known as the Eastside. In 2003 the Census Bureau estimated the city population was 46,391. , was founded in April 1996 by five Microsoft senior managers with combined experience in shipping products such as Windows NT, Windows 95, and The Microsoft Network See MSN. Microsoft Network - The Microsoft Network (MSN (1) (MicroSoft Network) A family of Internet-based services from Microsoft, which includes a search engine, e-mail (Hotmail), instant messaging (Windows Live Messaging) and a general-purpose portal with news, information and shopping (MSN Directory). ). This experience at Microsoft, coupled with an in-depth understanding of the Internet marketplace See vertical portal and Web hub. and technologies, laid the foundation for a unified vision of how web technologies can revolutionize corporate computing. About Verity Verity, Inc. was founded in April 1988 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif. Verity develops and markets software tools and applications for searching, retrieving and filtering information across the Internet, enterprise and CD-ROMs. Verity's products have been licensed to corporations, government agencies, on-line service providers, Internet publishers and developers worldwide. Verity partners include: AT&T WorldNet, Dow Jones Dow Jones the best known of several U.S. indexes of movements in price on Wall Street. [Am. Hist.: Payton, 202] See : Finance , Hitachi, Individual Inc., Informix Software, Lotus Development Corp., Netscape Communications, PC DOCS, SAP, SCO (The SCO Group, Lindon, UT, www.sco.com) A leading vendor of Unix operating systems for the x86 platform. SCO had also offered Linux, but abandoned the line in the spring of 2003. The SCO Group is the combination of two companies: Utah-based Caldera, Inc. , Sybase Include, WavePhore and many others. For more information contact Verity at info@verity.com or at the World Wide Web site http://www.verity.com/ or by calling 408-541-1500. -0- Note to Editors: This document contains forward-looking statements relating to relating to relate prep → concernant relating to relate prep → bezüglich +gen, mit Bezug auf +acc the expected merger of Verity and Cognisoft and their SEARCH'97 and Intelliserv products under development, including the expected features and performance and estimated dates of commercial availability. Such statements are based on expectations and assumptions that involve a number of uncertainties and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. With respect to the expected merger, there are risks associated with the integration of the two companies' operations, technologies and products and the related diversion of management's attention from other business concerns; the rapidly evolving markets for the companies' products and uncertainties regarding the development of those markets; intensive competition in the markets in which the companies compete; and dependence on key personnel at both companies. The successful development and release dates for the SEARCH'97 and Intelliserv products are subject to potential delay and other risks inherent in software development, and there is no assurance that the products will achieve market acceptance. Other risks associated with Verity's business are as set forth in Verity's Form 10-K Form 10-K A report required by the SEC from exchange-listed companies that provides for annual disclosure of certain financial information. Form 10-K See 10-K. and Form 10-Qs as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Verity and SEARCH'97 are Trademarks of Verity Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders. CONTACT: Verity Inc. Marguerite Padovani, 408/542-2224 mpadovan@verity.com http://www.verity.com or Reed, Revel-Pechar Public Relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most Ann Revell-Pechar, 206/462-4777 annrp@rrp.com |
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