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EXHIBIT 99.1
PRESS RELEASE
Corinne Gilmore, Director of Marketing,
Altris Software Inc., 9339 Carroll Park Drive, San Diego, CA 92121
Tel: (858) 625 3000, Fax: (858) 546 7671
E-mail: [email protected], Web page: http://www.altris.com
ALTRIS SOFTWARE ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION OF
STRATEGIC PARTNER
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA, NOVEMBER 14, 2000 - Altris Software, Inc. (OTCBB:
ALTS), a leading Document Service Provider (DSP), today announced that the
Company has acquired Spescom KMS, the document management operations of Spescom
Ltd UK. Spescom KMS has been the Company's exclusive distributor for the
Company's eB product suite outside the Americas. Spescom Ltd. UK is a subsidiary
of Spescom Limited, which owns a majority of the Company's common stock.
Under the transaction, in exchange for the principal assets of the Spescom
KMS operations, the Company will issue 550,000 shares of Altris common stock to
Spescom and will assume certain liabilities relating to the Spescom KMS
operations. The transaction is deemed effective as of October 1, 2000.
The transaction will assist both organizations to obtain greater leverage
from strategic accounts held on a global basis, allowing better synergy and
reduced duplication. It also facilitates the pursuit of customers that have
international requirements, ensuring that the combined team can more effectively
satisfy those requirements. The Spescom KMS group will continue to be managed by
Mr. Denton Van Niekerk who brings 15 years of industry experience, the last six
with Unisys where he was responsible for, among other activities, establishing
inter-business unit collaboration on major deals and for increasing revenue
through their indirect channels business throughout Europe. Mr. Van Niekerk
joined the Spescom KMS organization early this year and has completely rebuilt
the sales organization by bringing in a new sales team with a total of more than
25 years of document management experience. Mr. Van Niekerk's team was directly
responsible for the
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closing of the Abbey National Bank contract for 5,000 licenses of eB which was
announced in July of this year.
"I am very pleased and excited about the Spescom KMS team becoming a key
part of the Altris organization. Their seasoned management team will be of great
benefit to Altris as we expand our marketing and sales efforts worldwide."
commented Roger Erickson, CEO of Altris Software. He added "The team in London
has several exciting opportunities with customers and partners that we want to
leverage here in the United States. As a consolidated entity, Altris will also
now be able to take better advantage worldwide of the eBusiness initiatives
being driven here in the U.S."
Mr. Van Niekerk added "We are delighted with this opportunity to join the
Altris family. With sales of eB on the increase it made sense for Altris and
Spescom KMS to be together with the common goal of satisfying our customers'
needs and creating new business opportunities worldwide."
- ENDS -
SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT
Except for historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in
this release include forward-looking statements that are dependent on certain
risks and uncertainties, including such factors, among others, as market
acceptance, market demand, pricing, changing regulatory environment, the effect
of the company's accounting policies, potential seasonality and other risk
factors detailed in the company's SEC filings.
NOTE TO EDITORS:
ALTRIS eB IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ALTRIS SOFTWARE INC. ALL OTHER NAMED
PRODUCTS MENTIONED IN THIS RELEASE MAY HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED BY TRADEMARKS OR
REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE HOLDERS.
ALTRIS SOFTWARE, INC.
Altris Software develops robust, scalable and highly innovative solutions that
manage, control and disseminate the knowledge contained within an organization's
documents, enabling our customers to gain e-business competitive advantage. As a
leading Document Service Provider (DSP) for eBusiness, we provide documents as a
service to customers' line-of-business and specific applications. This delivers
the ability to manage and control the information content throughout the
document lifecycle.
SPESCOM LTD.
Spescom is one of the foremost communications and information technology
companies in South Africa. It is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
Spescom employs more than 200 software engineers in the fields of knowledge
management and digital voice processing. Spescom develops its own technology and
is also engaged in alliances with several of the world's top corporations in its
field.
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ALTRIS eB-Registered Trademark-
eB is a registered trademark of Altris Software Inc. eB is an integrated
document management suite - providing the user with document management,
imaging, COLD and workflow. eB is designed to enable organizations to manage the
creation and revision life-cycle for office applications as well as e-mail,
engineering and computer-aided design drawings. eB extends document management
to provide the necessary control of document content and the analysis of the
effects of change within the organization.
KEY ALTRIS CUSTOMERS INCLUDE MICROSOFT CORPORATION, CONTINENTAL AIRLINES, BP,
GEC MARINE, BRITANNIA AIRWAYS, SCOTTISH POWER, ENTERGY, NORTH EAST UTILITIES,
LONDON UNDERGROUND, MACK TRUCKS AND MANY OTHERS.
For further information, please contact:
Corinne Gilmore
Altris Software Inc.
Tel: 858 625 3000
Fax: 858 546 7671
Email: [email protected]
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