NextBoston announces the successful completion of its Strategic Consulting and Turnaround engagement with Gensym Corporation, Inc

Business Wire, Nov 2, 2007

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- NextBoston, LLC and its Managing Partner, Jeffrey Smith, engaged by the Board of Directors of Gensym Corporation, Inc. in August 2006 to execute a turnaround of the enterprise software firm, announce the successful acquisition of Gensym by Versata Enterprises, Inc. The formal closing of the Gensym acquisition took place on October 25, 2007 at $2.35 per share in cash, a 79% premium over the sixty-day trailing price.

NextBoston partnered with the Gensym Board of Directors and Robert Ashton, Interim CEO, in August 2006 to effect a full financial restructuring and product repositioning while managing the internal investigation, review and restatement of financial years 2000 -2005 and Q1 2006. The restructuring effort affected Gensym companies in North America, Europe and North Africa.

Reversing six quarters of mounting losses, Gensym generated significant profits, positive cash flow and increasing revenues throughout NextBoston's engagement. These results were achieved despite major incremental restatement, restructuring and due diligence expenses.

Gensym completed its restatement of financial results in June 2007 and, after a completing an extensive strategic review process, agreed on August 13, 2007 to be purchased by Versata Enterprises, Inc., a privately held, Austin, TX based provider of enterprise business solutions.

Randy Jacops, CEO of Versata stated, "From our first meeting, Jeff and NextBoston demonstrated their understanding of the complex software market and facilitated our understanding of Gensym's business. Their restructuring program stabilized operations and afforded potential buyers the opportunity to review and evaluate both challenges and opportunities. We believe NextBoston was instrumental in enabling Gensym shareholders to receive fair value for their shares and we appreciate the opportunity to work with them through the evaluation and purchase process."

About NextBoston

NextBoston is a Strategic Consulting and Investment firm based in Boston and Milan. Founded in 1999, by Mr. Smith, NextBoston specializes in executing strategic reorganizations and cross border growth initiatives for mid tier, international companies. Its partners, acting as Managing Principals, CEO's and Senior Advisors, have made investments and executed projects in over 25 countries. Focus sectors include Enterprise Software, Systems Integration. Environmental Engineering, Publishing, Food, Consumer Goods and Industrial Engineering.