Objectivity announces European distribution strategy; names Rick ter Horst to lead European organization and appoint 2AI as French distributor.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 13, 1995-- Objectivity Inc. Monday unveiled its strategy for European distribution of Objectivity/DB, the leading object database (ODBMS) for mission-critical client/server applications.

The announcement coincides with the company's appointment of Rick ter Horst as the company's new general manager of European Operations and the addition of 2AI as its distributor in France.

Objectivity's strategy is to market through select, premier European distributors while building advanced technical support capabilities at its international headquarters in Amsterdam. The addition of 2AI brings the number of Objectivity's European distribution partners to four. Existing distribution partners include MICRAM Object Technology in Germany, NORSYS Technology in Scandinavia, and SLIGOS-Mesarteam in Italy.

"French developers are increasingly turning to object-oriented programming, and we believe Objectivity/DB will emerge as the ODBMS leader in the commercial marketplace in France," said Joel Fizycki, managing director of 2AI.

2AI, a recent "spin-off" from the French Bull organization, has been successfully marketing in the open systems market since the late 1980s. With a staff of over 30 engineers, 2AI has begun establishing a strong technical base devoted to object technology.

"The object database market in Europe is expanding rapidly, as industries such as telecommunications and trading systems recognize that relational databases are just too slow," said Dave Caplan, president and chief executive officer of Objectivity. "Since Objectivity's focus is on mission-critical applications," he continued, "we intend to provide our European customers with the same excellent support we offer our domestic customers."

Rick ter Horst

Rick ter Horst, Objectivity's new European general manager, joins the company from EPOCH Systems, where, as general manager for European Operations he was responsible for establishing and growing that company's distributor and reseller operations. Prior to EPOCH, he was managing director for Sybase's subsidiary in Holland. He has also held sales and management positions for Oracle and Comshare.

"Our international efforts are focusing on Europe in 1995," said James Berry, Objectivity's vice president of International Operations. "Rick's knowledge of the best qualified business partners will help us develop the right distribution operation throughout the European region," he said.

Objectivity/DB

Objectivity/DB is the ODBMS designed for mission-critical client/server applications. It combines high performance and scalable access to objects with traditional database management capabilities such as transactions, referential integrity and fault tolerance.

Objectivity/DB version 3.5 is the first ODBMS to support both an advanced multi-threaded server architecture and Objectivity/DB's scalable distributed architecture. The choice of deployment architectures gives Objectivity/DB customers the flexibility to deploy applications in whichever configuration provides them with the performance and scalability they require, and then easily change configurations as their needs evolve.

Objectivity/DB supports development language interfaces for C++ and ParcPlace Smalltalk, as well as ANSI-standard SQL with ODBC support for integrating applications into existing database environments. Objectivity/DB objects are interoperable between, and can be shared among, all the language interfaces.

The company

Objectivity is the leading provider of distributed client/server ODBMS solutions for corporate developers building scalable mission-critical applications for work groups throughout the entire enterprise. Objectivity serves a wide range of industries, including telecommunications, manufacturing, finance, transportation and design automation, building advanced applications in the areas of document management, process control, network management, design, logistics, financial management, multimedia and groupware.

Objectivity's North American headquarters are located at 301B East Evelyn Avenue, Mountain View, Calif. 94041. For more information, contact the company at phone [phone], fax [phone] or electronic mail [e-mail] through the Internet. Objectivity's international headquarters are located at Rondedans 3, 2907 AA Capelle a/d Yssel, The Netherlands, phone [phone].

For more information on Objectivity in France contact Paul-Ellie Hamou, 2AI, 6 Rue du Champoreux, 91540, Mennecy, France, phone [phone], fax [phone].

For more information on Objectivity in Italy contact Oscar Sibilla, SLIGOS, S.p.A., Via Vaninetti, 27, 10148 Torino, Italy, phone [phone], fax [phone].

For more information on Objectivity in Scandinavia contact Christer Anderson, Norsys Technology AB, Finlandsgaten 12, Box 1239, S-164 28 Kista, Sweden, phone [phone], fax [phone].

For more information on Objectivity in Germany contact Dr. Matthias Frei, MICRAM Object Technology GmbH, Universitaetsstrasse 142, 44799 Bochum, Germany, phone [phone], fax [phone].

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Note to Editors: Objectivity and Objectivity/DB are registered trademarks of Objectivity Inc. Other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.

CONTACT: Objectivity

Vickie Clements, 415/254-7141

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Phase Two Strategies

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