Persistence Software to Acquire 10BaseJ; Servlet Engine Enhances Persistence's Best-of-Breed Enterprise E-Commerce Infrastructure

Business Wire, Feb 29, 2000

Business Editors and High-Tech Writers

SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 29, 2000

Persistence Software (Nasdaq: PRSW), The Engine for E-Commerce(TM), today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 10BaseJ. Based in San Diego, Calif., 10BaseJ is a leading developer of a specialized, high-performance enterprise Java servlet engine, ServletMill(TM). The ServletMill 1.1, a scalable Java servlet container system, was introduced last December and is being integrated into the Q1 2000 release of PowerTier.

"Servlet engines play a critical role in our best-of-breed e-commerce infrastructure solution. Coupling the sophisticated load balancing and fault-tolerant capabilities of ServletMill with PowerTier's patented caching and fault-tolerance will result in one of the most complete, scalable, and reliable internet standards-based infrastructure available today," said Randy Hietter, Vice President of Product Management at Persistence Software. "Also, we are pleased to expand our software engineering team with the experienced and talented individuals at 10BaseJ."

The acquisition fulfills the e-commerce infrastructure announced by Persistence last fall. PowerTier now integrates all the components of a standards-based e-commerce solution -- including a web server, servlet engine, application server and integration server -- into a single product offering, PowerTier. The servlet engine layer, the link between the world of HTML and the enterprise Java transaction processing environment of PowerTier, is critical to the overall performance, scalability and reliability of the Internet infrastructure upon which large-scale web applications run.

According to Steve Eastin, president and CEO of 10BaseJ, the acquisition is an indication of the continuing industry trend for one-stop shopping. "Our scalable Java servlet engine complements the Persistence e-commerce solution and is a crucial link in the end-to-end e-commerce transaction flow. Uniting ServletMill with PowerTier provides customers with the essential elements for building e-commerce applications in a single product offering that is easy to use and install."

Persistence reports that all 10BaseJ employees will join Persistence in its San Diego facility.

About 10BaseJ

10BaseJ is a leading expert in the design, development and deployment of Web and Java technologies. 10BaseJ has a strong background in developing enterprise middleware products and industrial strength Unix-based TP monitors. The company's Unix-based TP monitors were bundled with NCR Technology's TOP END enterprise middleware technology and product family. ServletMill is the result of integrating this comprehensive message-passing engine with "open source" software components from the Apache Software Foundation (http://www.apache.org). The combination of robust middleware technology and reliable open source software delivers not only a highly available and scalable server-side Java container system, but one that is also competitively priced for the market. 10BaseJ offers products and services that enable its customers to successfully implement their Web/Internet solutions. For more information, visit 10BaseJ at www.10BaseJ.com.

About Persistence Software

Persistence Software, The Engine for E-Commerce(TM), empowers customers with a comprehensive e-commerce infrastructure, providing solutions for companies in the early stages of developing an architecture to those building large-scale enterprise systems. Persistence's patented caching technology harnesses the power of the Internet and enables customers to create a highly personalized e-commerce experience. The PowerTier product family delivers concrete business advantages through rapid development, scalability, reliability, and business integration. Combined with the company's consulting, education, and support services, Persistence is providing the technology for customers such as Cisco, FedEx, and Instinet to build some of the world's most innovative and reliable e-commerce architectures. Persistence Software (Nasdaq: PRSW) was founded in 1991, and is headquartered in San Mateo, California. For more information, visit Persistence at www.persistence.com.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this news release are forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, Persistence Software's limited operating history, potential fluctuations in our operating results, uncertainties related to our long sales cycle, our reliance on a relatively small number of customers, our dependence on the Java programming language and the Enterprise JavaBeans standard becoming widely accepted standards, failure to manage our growth or attract and retain the services of key employees, our need to deliver products that meet rapidly changing technology standards, our need to build a strong direct sales team and develop third party sales channels, our dependence on the deployment of enterprise-wide system deployments, and our need to address competition from companies with substantially greater resources. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in our prospectus dated June 24, 1999 and in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.