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Thursday July 15, 8:59 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Reuters, Sun Microsystems and TIBCO Software Expand Strategic Business Relationship to Accelerate Move Toward On-Line Delivery of Financial Data and Solutions
Reuters Names Sun as Strategic Technology Platform; Sun Licenses TIBCO Software's Real-Time Internet Infrastructure Software, Takes Minority Stake in TIBCO
PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 15, 1999-- Significantly expanding a business relationship started more than a decade ago, Reuters Group PLC (Nasdaq:RTRSY - news), Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq:SUNW - news), and TIBCO Software Inc. (Nasdaq:TIBX - news) today announced a series of global initiatives aimed at accelerating momentum for on-line delivery of financial solutions and data.
As part of the expanded strategic relationship, Reuters named Sun as a preferred vendor for its hardware, infrastructure and data delivery systems, which distribute information to nearly 500,000 people every day. TIBCO also named Sun a preferred platform for its Tibco.net Web hosting service. Sun, meanwhile, agreed to take a minority stake in the form of common stock at TIBCO's initial public offering and licensed an array of TIBCO products for possible inclusion in the Sun and Sun-Netscape Alliance product lines.
"The explosion of Internet technology is making the industry more network-centric than ever, underscoring the need for a scalable, reliable and secure architecture," said David Ure, executive director for Reuters. "We couldn't have made a better choice than Sun when looking for a strategic ally and a premier platform for our business."
"With the relentless growth of the Net Economy, close working relationships between information providers like Reuters and technology leaders like Sun and TIBCO are becoming imperative," said Ed Zander, president and chief operating officer, Sun Microsystems. "This expanded relationship will allow us to meet many of the technical challenges behind delivering network-based information services at a time when the entire financial services market is racing to 'dot-com' their industry."
Other elements of today's announcement include:
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-- Sun will license the source code to TIBCO's PGM (Pragmatic
General Multicast) software for possible embedding in Sun
technology, such as the Java(TM) platform and the Solaris(TM)
operating environment. TIBCO's PGM software is based on the
proposed PGM reliable transport protocol standard, and was
jointly developed with Cisco Systems, Inc. PGM technology enables
reliable, efficient usage of the network to reach millions of
users simultaneously with corporate, audio and video data.
-- Sun is licensing TIBCO's TIB/ActiveEnterprise(TM) for possible
internal use.
-- Sun agreed to purchase 500,000 shares of TIBCO common stock at a
purchase price of $15 per share.
About Reuters
Reuters supplies the global financial markets and the news media with the widest range of information and news products including real-time financial data, collective investment data, numerical, textual, historical and graphical databases plus news, graphics, news video, and news pictures, reaching over 485,000 users located in 57,900 organisations.
Reuters designs and installs enterprise-wide information management and risk management systems for the financial markets as well as providing equity and foreign exchange transaction systems. It extensively uses internet technologies for wider distribution of information and news. The Group employed 16,938 staff in 218 cities in 96 countries at 31 December 1998.
Reuters is the world's largest news and television agency with 2,072 journalists, photographers and camera operators in 182 bureaux serving 157 countries. News is published in 23 languages. For more details see www.reuters.com/aboutreuters.
About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network Is The Computer(TM)," has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq:SUNW - news), to its position as a leading provider of high quality hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $11 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at sun.com.
About TIBCO Software Inc.
TIBCO Software Inc. (Nasdaq:TIBX - news) is a leading provider of real-time infrastructure software for the Internet and enterprise. TIBCO's products and services enable computer applications and platforms to communicate efficiently across network. The TIB/ActiveEnterprise(TM) product suite facilitates the distribution of information and integration of business processes by connecting applications to a network through patented technology called The Information Bus® or TIB®.
TIB technology was first used to "digitize" Wall Street in the 1980s and has since been adopted in diverse industries, including manufacturing, energy, telecommunications, and electronic commerce. TIBCO Software's global client base includes Cisco Systems, Yahoo!, NEC, 3Com, Bechtel, Philips, PageNet, and Netscape. Headquartered in Palo Alto, TIBCO Software can be reached at 650/846-5000 or on the web at www.tibco.com.
This release may contain forward-looking statements regarding TIBCO Software's business, customers or other factors that may affect future earnings or financial results. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed in or indicated by the forward-looking statements. Many of these risks and uncertainties are discussed further in the section entitled Risk Factors in the Prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Note to Editors: Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Java, Solaris and The Network Is The Computer are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
Contact:
TIBCO Software Inc.
Caroline Phillips, 650/846-5697
caroline@tibco.com
or
Reuters Group PLC
Robert Crooke, 212/603-3587
robert.crooke@reuters.com
or
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
David Berkowitz, 650/786-7511
david.berkowitz@sun.com |
