BEA To Acquire WebLogic To Deliver End-To-End
Internet Solutions
Acquisition to Marry Market Leaders in Java Web Application Servers and Business-Critical
Middleware
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 28, 1998--BEA Systems, Inc., (Nasdaq:BEAS - news), a market leader in
mission-critical middleware solutions for the world's largest enterprises, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to
acquire WebLogic, Inc., the privately held provider of an industry-leading Java(tm)-based web application server.
Through this acquisition, BEA seeks to redefine the application server market. For the first time, companies that want to run their
business over the web will be able to obtain complete software infrastructure and integrated services from a single enterprise supplier.
BEA's combined product suite will provide a robust end-to-end solution for secure Web applications by marrying the rapid application
development environment of Java and Internet technologies from WebLogic with the robustness, scalability, manageability, and security
of BEA's business-critical middleware.
''The WebLogic acquisition is BEA's most important strategic move since we acquired TUXEDO(R) nearly three years ago,'' said Bill
Coleman, chairman and CEO of BEA. ''BEA is taking a bold step to expand our solution set for customers doing significant business
over the Web, and in doing so we are seeking to reshape the application server market. Internet applications must be low cost, easy to
build, quick to deploy, but at the same time be as reliable, scalable, and manageable as mainframe systems. In this respect, WebLogic
is an excellent complement to our current middleware solutions -- they provide the only web application server that delivers both the
quick development of Web applications and the investment protection provided by comprehensive support for the Java enterprise
standards. WebLogic will be the cornerstone of our e-commerce solutions.''
''We are excited to join forces with BEA as part of their major focus to provide customers a strong Web-based business solution,''
said Ali Kutay, president and CEO of WebLogic. ''By combining our expertise and resources in this important market, we plan to
deliver some of the most innovative and high quality software for Internet applications, backed by the services that customers need to
support business transactions over the Web.''
Founded in 1995 and headquartered in San Francisco, WebLogic has 94 employees, including a strong sales, marketing, and
development staff. The company has an installed base of over 800 customers. Although terms of the acquisition have not been
disclosed, BEA announced that the acquisition will be a stock-for-stock transaction that BEA intends to account for as a pooling of
interests. The acquisition is subject to certain conditions, including the approval of WebLogic's shareholders and is expected to close by
Sept. 30, 1998.
Combining the Web Application Server and Mission-Critical Middleware
Corporations seeking to leverage the Web within their information systems have greatly increased their use of Java and application
servers. These technologies are not only the basis for e-commerce, but are also being deployed across large-scale corporate intranets.
With Internet commerce having doubled every 100 days according to some analysts, business applications are often called upon to
scale to usage volumes vastly exceeding original expectations.
''As our end users extend their information services across the Web to their customers, suppliers, and distributors, the ease of
development and integration a web application server enables makes it an essential piece of the overall solution, and therefore important
for BEA to provide,'' said Alfred Chuang, cofounder and chief technology officer for BEA.
''This merger marks a transition to the next phase of the application server market,'' said Paul Ambrose, cofounder and chief
technology officer for WebLogic. ''In phase one we saw rapid innovation and a proliferation of vendors. As the oldest Java startup and
the first to focus on Java-based application servers, WebLogic emerged as a leader in this market. Going forward, however, it was
clear to us that the long-term winners would also have to deliver business-critical middleware infrastructure, legacy integration services,
as well as global support and services. As part of BEA, we will be well-positioned to offer our customers end-to-end solutions and
support for all their enterprise applications, enabling them to better leverage both existing systems and leading-edge technology without
having to rewrite their applications.''
BEA Founder to Run New BEA WebXpress Division
Following the acquisition, WebLogic will form the core of a new BEA division called BEA WebXpress. Chuang, one of the cofounders
of BEA, will assume a new role as general manager of the division. Chuang will also remain BEA's chief technology officer. BEA's
WebXpress division will be responsible for the development, marketing, sales, and support of the WebLogic application server product
line. The WebXpress division will provide BEA an additional sales channel, selling the WebLogic product line as an entry point into
BEA's middleware suite, a suite that includes infrastructure for Internet applications.
''BEA will be able to help companies deliver Internet applications quickly and easily and then provide the quality of service necessary
to scale those applications to handle massive volumes, all without having to change their applications' business logic,'' said Chuang.
''We believe the new WebXpress division is the ideal way to deliver this solution to our customers.''
BEA to Support Enterprise JavaBeans Technology and Microsoft's COM
The acquisition of WebLogic will also broaden BEA's support of several key industry technologies and standards that are important to
customers wanting to protect their technology investments. The WebLogic application server was the first application server on the
market to support the Enterprise JavaBeans(tm) (EJB) 1.0 specification that JavaSoft published with the help of BEA and other
industry leaders. EJB is the component model for the set of Java industry standards that define server-side Java.
WebLogic boasts the most complete implementation of the EJB 1.0 specification, supporting all the required and optional features. In
addition, the WebLogic application server is the only solution on the market today that provides comprehensive support for the
Enterprise Java application programming interfaces (APIs): Java Database Connection, Servlets, Java Server Pages, Remote Method
Invocation, Java Transaction Service, and the Java Naming and Directory Interface. These standards are essential to protecting users'
application investment.
''We believe Java is taking an important step forward in the enterprise as a result of this acquisition,'' said Scott Dietzen, vice president
of marketing for WebLogic. ''BEA customers will be able to use commodity Java tools to build all types of Internet applications, from
smaller departmental applications, to those that are mission-critical and are accessed by thousands of users.''
In addition, the WebLogic application server works seamlessly with Microsoft technologies like COM/ActiveX, Visual Basic, Visual
C++, and Active Server Pages. This allows server-side Java applications to be easily integrated with Microsoft desktops as well as
Web browsers and Java client applications.
The WebLogic application server is a strong complement to BEA's existing product line of enterprise middleware solutions. With BEA
TUXEDO and BEA TOP END(R), BEA is the marketshare leader in the distributed transaction processing market, and this summer
BEA delivered the next generation of transactional middleware the first production-ready component-based middleware framework,
called BEA M3(tm). BEA believes the addition of the WebLogic application server to the existing BEA middleware product family will
allow customers to scale applications without having to rewrite them, deploy and manage them with a single tool set, while
interoperating seamlessly with mainframe and client/server applications.
About the WebLogic Application Server
The WebLogic application server is an industry-leading application server for developing, integrating, deploying, and managing
large-scale web, network, and database applications in Java. With its comprehensive support for the enterprise Java APIs including the
EJB technology, the WebLogic application server protects user investment and makes it possible to build portable, scalable
applications that interoperate seamlessly with other applications and systems. The WebLogic application server works easily with
industry-leading databases, Java development tools, and web publishing tools. The WebLogic application server is built entirely in Java.
About WebLogic
Founded in 1995, WebLogic is an industry-leading supplier of Java application servers and database integration solutions. WebLogic's
software has been licensed by more than 800 end users and ISVs around the world to build their applications. WebLogic works
closely with the Java industry leaders, including International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM - news), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HWP
- news), Intel (Nasdaq:INTC - news), Novell (Nasdaq:NOVL - news), Symantec (Nasdaq:SYMC - news), Sun (Nasdaq:SUNW -
news), Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT - news), Informix (Nasdaq:IFMX - news), Oracle (Nasdaq:ORCL - news), and Cambridge
Technology Partners (Nasdaq:CATP - news). |
