Baltimore Technologies Adds Next Generation Secure Access Management Through Acquisition of Nevex

Business Wire, Oct 4, 2000

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 4, 2000

Baltimore to Expand Into Rapidly-Growing Access and Authorization

Management Market

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Baltimore Technologies (NASDAQ:BALT)(London:BLM), a global leader in e-security, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Nevex Software Technologies, Inc., an innovator in policy-driven authorization technology for secure e-business deployments.

The total consideration of the acquisition is valued at 4.2 million Baltimore ordinary shares. Based on the Baltimore closing price in London of Stg(pound)6.915 on October 3, 2000, the transaction consideration is equivalent to approximately Stg(pound)29 million (US$42 million) and is expected to close later this month.

"In the new economy, all information and content are critical and valuable assets. Every organization needs to put in place policy-based mechanisms to securely leverage these assets as they open up their networks for e-business," said Fran Rooney, Chief Executive Officer of Baltimore Technologies. "The acquisition of Nevex brings cutting edge XML-based secure access and authorization management technology along with a team of developers who are among the best in this field. This technology represents a quantum leap forward in terms of the solutions available in this market space. Baltimore are now uniquely positioned to offer our customers a new generation of solutions that will seamlessly integrate key elements of the organizations information resource and allow secure sharing and exploitation of this valuable asset within the new virtual enterprise."

Further commenting on the acquisition, Fran Rooney said, "Baltimore's entry into this market is a natural extension of our commitment to provide the most innovative e-security solutions to our customers. This move, coupled with our recent announcement to acquire Content Technologies, will now enable us to provide our customers with a unified infrastructure for information asset management."

The deal enhances Baltimore's global leadership position in the e-security market. Policy-driven access and authorization management is the cornerstone of any robust e-security deployment, and this fast-growth market segment is expected to reach US$3.5 billion by 2003. The evolution of the Internet as a platform for worldwide commerce and information exchange is fuelling demand for comprehensive secure solutions that protect corporate assets and expand business relationships. By 2002, 50 percent of e-business extranets and portals will use these consolidated authentication and authorization systems.

"Because they allow organizations to centrally manage security policy, access management services are quickly becoming a critical component of e-business security infrastructures," commented Jamie Lewis, Burton Group CEO and Research Director. "By acquiring Nevex's XML-based access management system, Baltimore has increased the flexibility of its product line, giving customers the ability to deploy centralized policy management that works with a variety of authentication mechanisms."

As the lines between intranets, extranets and the Internet blur, businesses increasingly need to share valuable corporate resources with users outside the firewall. E-business extranets demand robust authorization and access control management services to support commerce while maintaining security. Baltimore will provide a unified mechanism to manage the authentication of users and implement business rules to connect users to the appropriate applications and data. Secure extranet management reduces administrative costs; improves and personalizes customer experiences through a single point of access; and eliminates the need to build redundant security systems into each application.

Through Baltimore's award-winning PKI-based UniCERT technology, Content Technologies' content security software, and now Nevex's leading-edge access management technology, Baltimore's e-security solutions will enable organizations, enterprises and Application Service Providers (ASPs) to aggressively execute on their e-commerce strategies by controlling: who accesses their corporate networks; what are their privileges; which resources or services they are accessing and what information is transferred in or out. Customers deploying e-business require a centralized, coordinated policy management and enforcement infrastructure. Baltimore will provide this framework along with the associated services to deploy, maintain and enhance a total e-security infrastructure.

About Nevex Software Technologies Inc.

Nevex Software Technologies, Inc., based in Toronto, Canada, is a software development company specializing in policy-driven access and authorization management technology. Founded in 1999, Nevex is made up of innovative and highly skilled professionals who in previous roles helped set the standard for firewall, authentication, encryption, e-commerce, and single sign-on technology. The team that founded Nevex have been working together and demonstrating market awareness and technical proficiency in the network security space for over seven years. They launched one of the first commercially available firewalls at Border Network Technologies, capturing a market-leading position before being acquired by Secure Computing Corporation in 1996. The company draws on the knowledge and expertise of current programming and communications standards, and technological advances to develop solutions that are highly user friendly, flexible and scalable.