Software AG and SoftQuad Software Form Strategic Alliance for XML Web Publishing Applications.

Business/Technology Editors

DARMSTADT, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 18, 2000

Software AG (Darmstadt, Germany) and SoftQuad Software Inc. (Toronto, Canada) have announced a joint initiative to integrate Software AG's Tamino XML Information Server and SoftQuad's XMetaL XML authoring environment. The integrated products provide customers with a complete solution for developing, managing and publishing XML content for a wide variety of electronic business applications.

The rapid growth in Web applications such as electronic commerce, Web portals, knowledge management and customer relationship management is fueling demand for XML content. Tamino is the ideal information server for XML information because it can store, integrate and exchange data directly in XML native format. This guarantees high performance and scalability since no extra layer is needed for data conversion to and from XML.

"Software AG has a reputation for producing state-of-the-art database technology," says Roberto Drassinower, president and CEO, SoftQuad Software Inc. "We believe that our partnership will now bring ease-of-use and flexibility to mission-critical enterprise applications based on XML standards."

"I have had the opportunity to use SoftQuad's products in many diverse and technically challenging projects and have found them to be indispensable," says Mike Champion, XML expert from Software AG. "We are excited to have SoftQuad as a partner, because XMetaL is the leading authoring solution for creating and maintaining XML documents."

In the first stage Software AG will deliver a Tamino partner solutions CD containing Tamino and XML tools useful for creating XML applications, including SoftQuad's XMetaL.

Please visit us on the Internet at: www.softwareag.com

Software AG, based in Darmstadt, Germany, with currently more than 2,500 employees and sales amounting to DM 626 million (euro 320 million) in 1998, is one of the largest system software companies worldwide. Software AG is the premier provider of database management technology. Both products and services, used in more than 90 countries, are focused on mission-critical electronic business applications spanning heterogeneous platforms, from mainframe, OpenVMS, AS/400, Unix and Windows NT to the Web. About one third of the company's revenue is achieved through professional services. Software AG has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Main Market) since April 1999 (Security identification number 724260 / SOWG.F).

Software AG is a founding member and active participant in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS).

SoftQuad Software Inc. is a leading provider of award-winning, standards-based Web publishing solutions targeting electronic publishing, e-commerce and knowledge management applications for corporations and Web professionals. XMetaL 1.2 is an advanced, simple-to-deploy XML content authoring solution that delivers a familiar word processing-like interface, allowing mainstream users to create, publish and manage sophisticated Web sites.

Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with European operations based in London, SoftQuad is a founding member and active participant in the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) and XML.org.