Cognizant Enterprises invests in Avesta Technologies, Inc. enterprise management solutions provider.

WESTPORT, CONN.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--January 23, 1997--Cognizant Enterprises, through Information Associates, its venture capital limited partnership with Trident Capital, has completed a venture capital investment in Avesta Technologies, Inc., a start-up company formed in 1996 to develop and deliver mission-critical enterprise management solutions to financial services companies, telecommunications providers, and large corporate IT organizations.

Avesta Technologies' strategic network solutions will enable organizations to manage information technology investments from a business perspective based on specific business objectives. Its solutions are capable of managing distributed applications across complex computing environments from multiple vendors, enabling their customers to deliver those applications to a global customer base.

"Avesta Technologies is poised to deliver a solution that responds to significant marketplace demand from the Fortune 500 for a comprehensive product suite to address their enterprise management requirements," said Venetia Kontogouris, senior vice president of Cognizant Enterprises.

Privately held Avesta Technologies, Inc., is headquartered in New York City. The founders, headed by president and chief executive officer Kam Saifi, formerly with Morgan Stanley & Co., possess a long, successful track record in the development and management of enterprise management systems and services.

"Time is today's most precious commodity," said Mr. Saifi. "Companies are competing fiercely to deliver their products to a marketplace that has no geographical, time zone and or jurisdictional boundaries. In this type of economy information technology plays a critical role. System failures can result in down time that can cripple a corporation's ability to conduct business. At the same time, delivering information via intuitive, reliable networks is the key to winning the time to market battle."

"Avesta Technologies' solutions," continued Saifi, "are aimed at cutting edge corporations with enterprise-wide networks that are evolving to far more than just boxes and wires interconnecting sites. The new network is a distributed application infrastructure that will facilitate the transformation of data into information through one unified front-end, the World Wide Web."

"Our investment in Avesta Technologies follows a formula that has made Cognizant Enterprises' strategy extraordinarily successful to date," said Kontogouris. "Enterprises' mission is to find and invest in high-growth companies in emerging information technology and services markets. Avesta Technologies' product strategy and its highly experienced management team make it a ready competitor in the enterprise management solutions provider market, which experts estimate will grow to $12 billion by the year 2000."

The $80 million Information Associates is a joint venture between Cognizant Enterprises and Trident Capital. It is Cognizant Enterprises second fund, following the highly successful $60 million Information Partners fund that is now fully invested.

Trident Capital is a private equity investment firm founded in 1993 to invest in information and business services companies. It has offices in Menlo Park and Los Angeles, Calif., Chicago, Ill, and Washington, D.C. Information Associates is Trident's second successful fund, following its now fully invested $44.3 million first fund.

Cognizant Enterprises is the investing arm of Cognizant Corporation, a $1.4 billion company that integrates information and technology to create business insight.

CONTACT: Cynthia Cronk Brockhoff

Cognizant Enterprises

[phone]

or

Kam Saifi

Avesta Technologies, Inc.

[phone]