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EXHIBIT 99.1
CRITICAL PATH AGREES TO ACQUIRE PEERLOGIC, INC., CONSOLIDATING DIRECTORY
SERVICES SPACE AND PROVIDING INFRASTRUCTURE TECHNOLOGY THAT TOUCHES ALL ASPECTS
OF THE EBUSINESS VALUE CHAIN
San Francisco (Aug. 8, 2000) -- Critical Path Inc. (Nasdaq: CPTH), the
dominant global provider of Business-to-business Internet messaging
services, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire
PeerLogic, Inc., a private, San Francisco-based provider of eBusiness
infrastructure software. To complete the acquisition, which is anticipated
to close in the third quarter of 2000, Critical Path will issue 6.4 million
shares of its Common Stock and assume all outstanding PeerLogic options. The
transaction will be accounted for as a purchase business combination.
"Critical Path's rich set of messaging-enabled services is the ideal
infrastructure for secure eBusiness transactions. With PeerLogic, we now
offer the mission-critical directory and integration solutions that allow
business information to flow between any two points in the electronic
economy," said Doug Hickey, Critical Path's CEO. "Our solutions transform
diverse IT environments into a cohesive resource for eBusiness. Now we can
deliver secure, transactional information from back-end systems through
Critical Path's high-availability messaging conduit allowing anyone,
anywhere to do electronic business in a faster, easier, and more secure
environment," said Dan Gregerson, CEO of PeerLogic. Critical Path and
PeerLogic are both leading forces in the global distributed directory
marketplace. This combination will undoubtedly establish Critical Path as a
clear leader in this vital sector. PeerLogic's recent trusted third-party
system wins include major offerings from organizations like EDS,
PricewaterhouseCoopers and Britain's Royal Mail-the first government
sponsored, countrywide security infrastructure supporting eBusiness. Trusted
third-party services will secure a multi-trillion dollar electronic economy
during the next few years. With existing relationships with the national
postal services in Germany, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, The
Netherlands and Sweden and significant meta-directory customers including
The Associates and BNP Paribas, Critical Path is now solidly positioned to
play a central role in building that future. "Directories are at the core of
nearly every information exchange on the Internet and have become the
cornerstone of eBusiness and messaging infrastructure," said Larry Gauthier,
senior analyst of The Burton Group. "This acquisition complements Critical
Path's existing strengths at a time when companies are increasingly
demanding complete end-to-end communication solutions."
Key Acquisition Benefits
- Company expects transaction to be accretive to 2001 consensus
estimates for revenue and earnings per share. Acquisition does not
impact commitment to fourth quarter 2000 profitability.
- Consolidates complementary technologies in the directory services
marketplace and creates an extraordinary position in the eBusiness
value chain.
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- Complements and accelerates Critical Path's business model by
providing additional scale and market presence in secure end-to-end
messaging.
- Introduces Critical Path and PeerLogic to their respective partners,
distributors and customers such as Verisign, Baltimore and Entrust;
Royal Mail/ViaCode and many of the world's national postal authorities;
PricewaterhouseCoopers, KMPG, Worldcom; and others, creating new and
diversified revenue opportunities.
- Integrates PeerLogic's Smart Application Network capabilities to
secure the flow of business information, even over wireless networks.
PeerLogic Directory Services Accelerate Critical Path's Secure Messaging
Strategy PeerLogic's LiveContent DIRECTORY(TM) is a scaleable,
high-performance, high-capacity, comprehensive LDAP directory system
fulfilling messaging, security, public key infrastructure (PKI), and
corporate information requirements in stand alone and distributed directory
environments. LiveContent DIRECTORY(TM) is widely regarded as one of the
leading directory servers supporting global security services due to its
reliability and ability to support millions of entries. Combining this
directory services technology with Critical Path's InJoin(TM) Directory
Server and InJoin(TM) Meta-Directory engine creates the most comprehensive,
scaleable directory services solution available. In global eBusiness,
digital signature technology is the de-facto standard, the dependency of
every transaction being the rapid authentication of all parties via PKI
certificates. PeerLogic's LiveContent DIRECTORY has a proven ability to
store a vast number of PKI certificates on a globally distributed network
without compromising the speed of transaction. Complementing, Critical
Path's InJoin Directory Server, PeerLogic's directory also interoperates
with the major PKI technology providers including Verisign, Entrust,
Baltimore, and Xcert, ensuring easy and rapid implementation of a PKI
Certificate infrastructure. Two recent PeerLogic customer wins that validate
the extraordinary market opportunity for directory services and the robust,
scaleable nature of it's LiveContent DIRECTORY, include the beTRUSTed
initiative from PricewaterhouseCoopers and Britain's Royal Mail/ViaCode
service:
- PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has chosen PeerLogic's LiveContent
DIRECTORY(TM) as the certificate repository for their Web security
unit, beTRUSTed, a new initiative targeting major organizations that
require high levels of security during online B2B transactions through
the issuance of third-party digital certificates. Customers will
include financial service and telecommunication companies, as well as
Fortune 2000 companies that engage in high-volume transactions. PwC
projects that PeerLogic's LiveContent DIRECTORY could ultimately store
more than 50 million certificates, positioning it as potentially the
largest directory deployment in the world.
- Britain's Royal Mail, which established the world's mail delivery
standard 350 years ago, is now enabling secure eBusiness services using
PeerLogic LiveContent DIRECTORY(TM) software as the security
infrastructure for ViaCode, its global business service. Royal
Mail/ViaCode uses digital certificate security to authorize
transactions after rigorous proof of identity is established.
LiveContent DIRECTORY is the strategic component in the Royal
Mail/ViaCode offering that
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stores and manages the digital signatures and certificates, providing
the point of access into the trusted third party service.
Leveraging eBusiness through Smart Application Messaging Critical Path's
rich set of messaging-enabled services provides a comprehensive
infrastructure for secure eBusiness transactions. With PeerLogic, Critical
Path can now offer the mission-critical solutions that allow business
information to flow between any two points in the electronic economy. By
joining forces with PeerLogic and its LiveContent Suite of application
integration solutions, Critical Path will be able to empower any
corporation, regardless of its IT platform, database or directory services
environment, with the ability to join disparate business data and
communications applications into one end-to-end messaging solution.
About PeerLogic, Inc.
PeerLogic, Inc. creates smart application networks for eBusiness. Smart
application networks provide the infrastructure that allows businesses to
automate eBusiness transactions using all corporate data assets. PeerLogic
delivers enterprise application integration solutions that maximize the
eBusiness relationships of more than 1,000 companies worldwide. Leading
international firms rely on PeerLogic to safely extend IT investments to the
Internet economy. Among the over 1,000 customers in over 40 countries that
rely on PeerLogic's products are: Allied Signal, British Telecom, BNP
Paribas, Chase Manhattan, Citigroup, EDS, Express Scripts, Royal
Mail/ViaCode, Verizon (formerly Bell Atlantic), Vodafone, and VW of North
America.
About Critical Path, Inc.
Critical Path, Inc. (Nasdaq: CPTH) is the dominant global provider of
complete end-to-end Internet messaging and collaboration solutions for
wireless, Internet-centric, telecommunication and corporate businesses.
Through its allsourcing strategy, Critical Path is the only advanced
messaging provider to offer businesses the flexibility to outsource,
midsource or insource all or part of their messaging and collaboration
applications. Critical Path has built an industry-leading global
infrastructure with data centers connected to key Internet exchange points.
Critical Path's technology currently reaches more than 25 million end-users
through its customer relationships including more than 25 million wireless
devices. Critical Path provides reliable, secure, and scalable e-mail and a
flexible suite of enhanced messaging services to partners such as E*TRADE,
CompuServe, Network Solutions, U S West, Sprint, France Telecom, British
Telecommunications, and ICQ. Critical Path is headquartered in San
Francisco, with offices in locations nationwide and in Germany, England,
Ireland, France, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, Brazil and Argentina. More
information on Critical Path can be found at www.cp.net.
# # #
Critical Path and the Critical Path logo are the trademarks of Critical
Path, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their holders.
This press release contains forward-looking statements. These statements
maybe identified by the use of words such as "believes," "expects,"
"anticipates," "intends," and "plans."
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Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these
forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on
current expectations that are subject to risks and uncertainties, including
those relating to the possible inability to complete the acquisition as
scheduled or at all. These risks and uncertainties include those that exist
with Critical Path's and Peer Logic's respective business operations. These
risks and uncertainties also include those that relate to the proposed
acquisition including risks that integration of the operations, technologies
and products of the combined companies might not occur as anticipated, that
management attention might be diverted from day-to-day business activities
of both companies during the period through the closing and thereafter, and
that greater than normal employee turnover might occur prior to and after
the closing. Whether or not the proposed acquisition closes, actual results
of Critical Path, including Critical Path's results of operations, may
differ materially from historical results and our expectations of future
results. For a more detailed description of the risks related to Critical
Path, please refer to Critical Path's annual report of Form 10-K and the
other reports that Critical Path files from time to time with the SEC.
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