<PAGE> 1
EXHIBIT 99.1
TUMBLEWEED COMMUNICATIONS CORP. TO ACQUIRE INTERFACE SYSTEMS, INC.
INTERFACE'S LEGACY DATA SERVICES AND TUMBLEWEED'S SECURE COMMUNICATIONS
CHANNEL TRANSFORM ELECTRONIC STATEMENT DELIVERY
REDWOOD CITY, CA AND ANN ARBOR, MI - JUNE 29, 2000 -Tumbleweed Communications
Corp., (NASDAQ: TMWD), a leading provider of advanced e-mail solutions for
business communications, and Interface Systems, Inc., (NASDAQ: INTF), a leading
provider of Legacy-to-Internet (L2i) technology, today jointly announced that
Tumbleweed has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Interface.
Together, Interface's industry-leading L2i(TM) suite of legacy data conversion
products and services and Tumbleweed's secure channel for electronic bill and
statement presentment provide the necessary technologies and services to
transform electronic statement delivery and hasten its adoption.
Interface's industry-leading L2i products and services greatly simplify the
process of transforming and using data found in legacy systems into electronic
content that is easy to distribute and use online. The L2i products can
automatically take information from mainframe print streams and intelligently
convert it into formats such as pdf, HTML or XML for use online. Tumbleweed's
solutions enable the secure exchange of this information between businesses and
users via Tumbleweed Integrated Messaging Exchange(TM) (IME(TM)), a platform and
set of applications for creating secure communication channels between a
business and its customers, partners, and suppliers.
"Tumbleweed studied the legacy data conversion market for several quarters,
evaluating products, interviewing customers, and meeting management teams from a
number of vendors," said Jeffrey C. Smith, president and CEO, Tumbleweed
Communications Corp. "We concluded Interface was the leader in the legacy to
Internet data conversion market. In fact, we integrated the products at a joint
customer- Wachovia Securities Inc. - to validate the combination prior to
executing the definitive agreement."
"Combining Tumbleweed IME with Interface's L2i products and services gives our
customers a comprehensive end-to-end solution for electronic statement
presentment: legacy data conversion, personalization, secure e-mail delivery,
archival and an automated inquiry/response loop. End users want to aggregate
statements in their existing e-mail boxes - banks, brokerages, telcos,
utilities, and credit card companies want the same thing. These businesses don't
want to simply post statements on web sites and wait for their customers and
business partners to come to them; rather, they want to present those statements
to their customers," continued Smith.
"Electronic Bill Payment and Presentment (EBPP) vendors have focused on
payment and neglected the importance of presentment. Secure e-mail is the key to
solving the presentment problem," said Smith. "The combination of Tumbleweed IME
and Interface L2i creates a vital communications channel between businesses and
their customers that will take EBPP to a new level."
"Tumbleweed's secure communications platform is the ideal means to deliver
information prepared by Interface's L2i products and services," said Robert
Nero, president and chief executive officer of Interface Systems, Inc. "Many of
our customers distribute confidential
<PAGE> 2
documents prepared by our platform inside their corporate firewalls, but the
next major step forward involves sending those documents to customers and
business partners via the Internet. Tumbleweed's secure communications platform
satisfies one of our customers' key strategic growth requirements - a secure
communications platform that reaches anyone on the Internet. We are delighted to
become part of Tumbleweed and to offer our combined products and services to all
of our customers."
"Statement presentment is a significant market opportunity for us. Interface's
L2i technology will help us penetrate further into our target verticals to
solidify our leadership position," said Smith. "Our primary business goal is to
increase the amount of traffic that flows over our secure communications
channel. Interface's diverse sources of legacy data and services can be
automatically sent over Tumbleweed IME."
Upon the completion of the transaction, Interface will become a wholly owned
subsidiary of Tumbleweed. Under the terms of the agreement, Interface
shareholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 0.264 Tumbleweed common
shares for each share of Interface common stock. In connection with the
acquisition, the companies announced their intent to divest the Cleo solutions
group.
The transaction, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2000, is
intended to be tax free to Interface shareholders and to be accounted for as a
purchase. The boards of directors of both companies have approved the
transaction. The completion of the transaction is subject to closing conditions
and the approval of Interface shareholders.
ABOUT INTERFACE SYSTEMS, INC. Interface Systems develops and markets
Legacy-to-Internet software and services solutions under the L2i(TM) brand.
The Company's products, which include MyCopy(TM), eBill Bridge(TM) and
Document Server, enable large organizations to re-deploy information stored on
legacy systems as the foundation for their strategic e-commerce or
Internet-based applications. Interface's products, geared primarily toward the
fast-growing customer statement delivery and online billing markets, offer
rapid, cost-effective implementation without having to alter the legacy
applications.
ABOUT TUMBLEWEED COMMUNICATIONS CORP. Tumbleweed Communications Corp. is a
leading provider of advanced e-mail solutions for business communications. Our
products and services enable businesses to create and manage secure online
communication channels that leverage established e-mail networks and enterprise
applications. Tumbleweed Integrated Messaging Exchange is a platform and set of
applications for creating secure communications channels between a business and
its customers, partners, and suppliers. Tumbleweed Messaging Management System
is a comprehensive solution that extends internal e-mail systems to the Internet
through centralized security, policy enforcement, filtering and archiving. Used
together, Tumbleweed IME and Tumbleweed MMS automatically apply security
policies and redirect sensitive e-mail for secure, trackable delivery.
We urge investors and security holders to read the following documents, when
they become available, regarding the merger described above, because they will
contain important information:
X Interface Systems' definitive proxy statement relating to the special
meeting of its shareholders to be held for the purpose of considering and voting
upon the agreement and plan of merger; and
X Tumbleweed Communications' Registration Statement on Form S-4, containing
such document and other information.
These documents and amendments or supplements to these documents will be filed
with the
<PAGE> 3
United States Securities and Exchange Commission. When these and other
documents are filed with the SEC, they may be obtained free of charge at the
SEC's web site at www.sec.gov. You may also obtain for free each of these
documents (when available) from Tumbleweed Communications by directing your
request to Jennifer Ruddock in Investor Relations at 650-216-2129, or from
Interface Systems by directing your request to Brian Brooks, CFO, at
734-769-5900 ext. 1747.
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed
in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements that involve
risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those projected, particularly with respect to the consummation of the
acquisition as proposed, if at all, and its anticipated effects. In some cases,
forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "may,"
"will," "should," "potential," "continue," "expects," "anticipates," "intends,"
"plans," "believes," "estimates," and similar expressions. For further cautions
about the risks, we refer you to the documents filed by each company from time
to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, particularly the recent
Form 10-K, proxy statement and Form 10-Q as well as the registration statement
or Form S-4 filed subsequently. The companies assume no obligation to update
information contained in this press release.
# # #
L2i is a trademark of Interface Systems, Inc. Tumbleweed is a registered
trademark and Integrated Messaging Exchange, IME, Messaging Management System
and MMS are trademarks of Tumbleweed Communications Corp.
CONTACT
Media:
Lisa Poulson
Tumbleweed Communications Corp
650-216-2020
[email protected]
Sophia Kim
Tumbleweed Communications Corp
650-216-2132
[email protected]
Investors:
Jennifer Ruddock
Tumbleweed Communications Corp
650-216-2129
[email protected]
Brian Brooks
CFO, Interface Systems, Inc.
734-769-5900 ext. 1747
