PageNet and TIBCO Partner to Create Information Services Hub For Delivery of Customized Content To Wireless Subscribers

Business Wire, Sept 22, 1998

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 22, 1998--

New System Will Enable PageNet Customers to Receive

The Information They Want, When They Want It

PageNet (Nasdaq:PAGE), the world's largest wireless messaging and information company, and TIBCO Software, Inc., the pioneer and leader in enterprise application integration (EAI), today announced that the companies will partner to create an Information Services Hub that will enable the delivery of an unparalleled range of customized content to PageNet subscribers.

Acting as a "content engine," the Information Services Hub will receive and aggregate information flowing in from a variety of sources, such as PageNet's branded content partners, the Internet and corporate Intranets. The Hub will then filter, process, format and deliver this information to PageNet subscribers, customized to their individual information needs and the specific capabilities of their pager or other mobile device.

Through PageNet Two-Way service, customers will also be able to direct queries through the Information Services Hub to retrieve specific information from the Internet or from corporate Intranets.

The Hub will also collect usage data for delivery to PageNet's billing system.

"PageNet and TIBCO together have created the `engine' necessary to provide customized information services to consumers and advanced wireless solutions for our business customers," said John P. Frazee, Jr., chairman, president and chief executive officer of PageNet. "Also importantly, this engine gives us the flexibility to format and deliver information to the widest possible range of devices, with various capabilities and from various manufacturers."

"Information delivery channels are the next wave of the digital future," said Vivek Ranadive, TIBCO chairman and chief executive officer. "This project demonstrates to end-users for the first time how enterprise information integration plays a new yet crucial role in gathering content and distributing it nationwide to wireless customers. For them, the future is here and now."

Under the agreement, PageNet will utilize many of the software components from TIBCO's TIB/ActiveEnterprise, a suite of software products for enterprise application integration. The Information Services Hub will allow PageNet to transparently integrate multiple content sources for delivery to a variety of wireless devices via a variety of protocols, such as TNPP, WMTP and GCP. Users will be able to subscribe to services via a Web interface that will immediately program the services into the wireless device, eliminating the need for custom solutions for each wireless device. The system also provides PageNet with both a highly scalable and flexible platform to provide support for new wireless devices as they become available.

TIBCO's software is a de facto standard for event-driven computing and enterprise application integration (EAI) in finance, manufacturing, construction, electronic commerce and other industries. The company's patented publish/subscribe technologies allow for interapplication communications across heterogeneous computing environments. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., TIBCO Software Inc. was formed from TIBCO Inc., which was acquired in 1994 by Reuters Group PLC (Nasdaq:RTRSY) the international news and financial information services group. TIBCO Software Inc. is majority owned by Reuters Group PLC. Cisco Systems, Inc. and Mayfield Fund are minority shareholders. Its sister company, TIBCO Finance Technology Inc., is a premier supplier of digital trading systems and integration technologies to finance services firms worldwide. For more information, contact TIBCO at 650/846-5000, or on the Internet at www.tibco.com.

PageNet (Nasdaq:PAGE) provides wireless messaging and information services to more than 10 million subscribers in the United States, Canada and Spain. The company provides a full range of paging and advanced messaging services, including Internet messaging, assured-delivery messaging and two-way interactive messaging. In addition to these services, the company has announced its intention to create and deliver a wide array of branded, customized, value-added wireless information services. Detailed information and coverage maps for PageNet service are available on the Internet at www.pagenet.com.