Palo Alto, CA & Vancouver, BC – March 7, 2006 – Justsystems US Holding, Inc. and Blast Radius, Inc. today announced that they have reached an agreement for Justsystems to acquire the XMetaL software business of Blast Radius. XMetaL is an industry leader in
XML content creation and collaboration solutions. The transaction is subject to various conditions prior to closing.
“We respect XMetaL’s high level of technology expertise and application know-how based on its long years of experience,” says Kazunori Ukigawa, CEO of Justsystems Corp. “We believe that Justsystem and XMetaL together can develop the world’s best XML solutions for customers and partners.”
“We are proud of the work done over the past 2 years with XMetaL. XMetaL now has strong momentum in the XML authoring marketplace,” says Gurval Caer, president and CEO, Blast Radius. “This transaction allows Blast Radius to continue to invest in other products and focus on growing our leadership position in customer experience innovation.”
The XMetaL family of XML authoring solutions provide a variety of functions, including content development and authoring, realtime document collaboration and multi-channel publishing. The XMetaL solutions also provide an advanced collaboration platform, enabling users to simultaneously work on XML documents, greatly enhancing productivity. The XMetaL family includes:
• XMetaL Author: Empower content authors with easy, familiar XML content creation, without requiring technical skills
• XMetaL Author: DITA Edition: Allow users to create, reuse, and deliver technical information in an environment optimized for DITA
• XMetaL Reviewer: Allow authors and reviewers to work more effectively and efficiently with a collaborative, realtime, web-based content reviewing solution
• XMetaL Developer: Accelerates the development of custom authoring solutions that match the needs and skills within an organization
• XMetaL Central: Delivers custom, just-in-time authoring interfaces to end-users • XMAX – XMetaL for ActiveX: Enable business users to contribute content anytime, anywhere by
embedding XML authoring into any application
XMetaL has more than 1,000 customers, including Bosch, Continental Airlines, DaimlerChrysler, European Space Agency, Philips, Renault Trucks and Texas Instruments.
“The union of XMetaL with Justsystems will enable our customers to benefit from the blend of technology leadership and corporate strength,” said Dr.Bruce Sharpe, the general manager of the XMetaL product line at Blast Radius. “XMetaL’s legacy of innovation and brand awareness combined with Justsystems’ commitment to the XML market and strong technology vision will enable our respective customers to benefit from the next generation of advanced XML solutions.”Justsystems intends to continue all current XMetaL activities, including product development, sales, and marketing. XMetaL customers will continue to receive new product updates, service and technical support through the XMetaL division. In addition, Justsystems will offer leading edge XML solutions and services based on a combination of XMetaL’s application know-how and Justsystem’s xfy technology.
About Blast Radius
Blast Radius (www.blastradius.com) helps businesses deliver innovative and profitable customer experiences by combining business strategy, experience design, and industry-leading technologies, including its unique content lifecycle management solutions. With offices in the US, Canada and Europe, Blast Radius has formed long-term relationships with companies such as Aeroplan, A&E Television Networks, BMW, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Heineken, Nike, DIRECTV, Nintendo and Philips.
About Justsystems US Holding, INC:
Justsystems US Holding, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Justsystems Corporation (JASDAQ: 4686), and owns its subsidiary, Justsystems, Inc., based in Palo Alto, CA. Justsystems Corp., based in Tokushima, is one of the largest software developers and vendors in Japan.
In addition to XML solutions, Justsystems has two other product lines: desktop applications and natural language technology. Justsystems was a pioneer in developing the Japanese computer environment and, in recent years, has been active in Java and XML based technology development.
In November 2004, Justsystems announced “xfy technology,” which can process any type of XML data seamlessly. It enables easy visualization and data handling within XML.
xfy is the supreme client platform for service oriented architecture (SOA).”xfy Enterprise Solution 1.0,” scheduled for release in the second quarter of 2006, helps enterprises build SOA and Web service client systems and supports rapid XML application development. Justsystems announced plans to release “IBM DB2 Viper Extension Kit” in November 2005, for collaboration with IBM on “Workplace Client Technology” in February 2006 and to work release “Oracle Database 10g Extension Kit” in March 2006. Justsystems has been actively developing xfy solutions which enable ultra-rapid application development (Ultra RAD) based on xfy’s outstanding front-end capabilities for handling XML databases and Web services.
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