Dantz Development to Acquire Viathan Corporation; Storage Virtualization Technology to Propel Dantz Expansion into Broader Storage Management Market.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

ORINDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 2, 2001

Dantz Development Corporation, a leader in progressive file backup technology and maker of the award-winning Retrospect(R) Backup software, has entered into an agreement to acquire Seattle-based Viathan Corporation, a software infrastructure company focused on storage virtualization. Larry Zulch will continue as Dantz CEO and president, and the Viathan Development Center will continue to operate in Seattle.

With the acquisition of Viathan, Dantz will focus on solving a broad range of storage management issues, expanding beyond the data backup, archival, and restore tasks for which Retrospect has received wide acclaim. "This acquisition makes good sense for our companies, our employees, and our customers," stated Larry Zulch, CEO of Dantz Development. "The combination of storage virtualization and data recovery will give us the unique ability to develop a new class of products and solutions that improve storage utilization and truly simplify information management."

"Teaming with Dantz represents an excellent opportunity for Viathan," said Mike Peronto, CEO of Viathan. "Our world-class development organization has been working very hard to bring our technology to market, and I'm confident that those efforts will continue to thrive under Larry's trusted leadership."

Over time, the combination of Dantz's Retrospect Backup software and Viathan's virtualization technology will enable the combined company to create products that set the agenda for storage protection and management software.

"We're excited about the capabilities that Viathan's virtualization technology can bring to our storage products and pleased to have it supplied by Dantz," said Philippe Spruch, chairman and CEO of LaCie, Ltd., a preeminent supplier of storage and other peripheral products. "Dantz is a long time partner of ours and has a consistent track record of delivering high quality software products."

Though financial details of the acquisition were not made available, Dantz will realize the immediate benefits of strong relationships with three top venture capital firms: SBVC, ARCH Venture Partners, and Madrona Venture Group, each of which led funding rounds in Viathan. In addition, Greg Galanos, managing director of SBVC, and Alex Knight, managing director of ARCH Venture Partners, will become members of Dantz's board of directors upon completion of the acquisition. "The acquisition of Viathan will provide Dantz with a fantastic storage development team and intellectual property in storage virtualization to expand well beyond data backup and disaster recovery into next generation storage resource management products." said Greg Galanos.

"As the world moves more and more towards anytime-anywhere-any-device computing, managing storage resources is becoming even more critical," said Alex Knight. "Dantz's acquisition of Viathan will provide a tremendous opportunity to deliver products that successfully address those needs."

About Dantz

Dantz Development, a privately-held company, has been innovating storage-related software technologies for more than 15 years. Dantz's patented technologies provide small and medium businesses affordable backup software with proven reliability unavailable in other backup products. Dantz products are distributed and supported worldwide. Dantz's headquarters are located at 4 Orinda Way, Building C, Orinda, CA 94563. For additional information, please call +1 925/253-3000 or visit the Dantz website, www.dantz.com.

About SBVC

With offices in Mountain View, California and Superior, Colorado, SBVC is a $2.5 billion U.S.-based private equity venture capital firm managed by an unparalleled team of former CEOs and entrepreneurs, technology pioneers, senior executives from major technology corporations, and leaders from the investment banking community. SBVC specializes primarily in early-stage investments in the areas of: communications systems, software and services; infrastructure software and services; professional services; enterprise applications; healthcare informatics; consumer and small business applications; components; and emerging technologies. In affiliation with its largest institutional investor, SOFTBANK CORP., SBVC combines its technology expertise and broad financial assets with the industry's best entrepreneurs to create a powerhouse portfolio of over 175 of the world's leading high technology companies. For more information on SBVC's investment team, technology vision and portfolio companies, please visit www.sbvc.com.

About ARCH Venture Partners

ARCH Venture Partners is a premier provider of seed and early stage venture capital for the commercialization of innovations in information technology, life sciences, and physical sciences. The partnership's special expertise is to found, co-found, and build technology firms from startup. Following this unique investment model, ARCH has delivered superior returns for investors and entrepreneurs. ARCH maintains offices in Albuquerque, Austin, Chicago, New York, and Seattle. For more information, visit www.archventure.com.

About Madrona Venture Group

Madrona Venture Group LLC (www.madrona.com) is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on Information Technology in the Pacific Northwest. The firm targets investments with an emphasis on communications and networking, infrastructure and platform technologies, and consumer and business software and services. Madrona's team combines deep venture experience, technology knowledge and entrepreneurial and business-building expertise to select and grow the strongest investment opportunities. Based in Seattle with a presence in Portland, Oregon, Madrona manages a $250 million fund, and its extensive portfolio represents an invaluable network for entrepreneurs and those seeking access to the most diverse and promising set of companies in a thriving technology region. For more information, visit www.madrona.com.

Note to Editors: Retrospect is a registered trademark of Dantz Development Corporation. All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.