Aharon Nizani

Veritas buying Precise for $537M in cash
Shades of the bubble: Software giant Veritas Software Corp (Nasdaq:VRTS) is buying Israel’s Precise Software Solutions (Nasdaq:PRSE) for $537 million cash, the companies announced today. Precise software’s CEO is the ExScite Shimon Alon, Ex STCL, STA and STE.
Veritas is paying $16.5 per share in cash, a 37% premium above Precise?s closing price of $12.05 on Wednesday. That is a handsome premium over the company’s current market cap of $357 million. Veritas, one of the world?s largest software companies, is traded at a market cap of $7.1 billion. Precise shareholders can also elect to receive up to 25% of the consideration for the deal in Veritas stock, with the remainder being paid in cash. Based on a fixed exchange ratio of 0.2365, a maximum of 7.5 million shares will be issued to Precise shareholders.
Shimon, who holds more than a million shares of PRSE is expected to scoop $17.1M following the sale.
The two companies will cooperate on providing solutions to optimize computer power by companies.
“Precise Software products proactively detect and correct the root cause of performance problems before they affect response times,” Veritas said in a statement. “This is a natural extension of our existing business.” “Veritas and Precise will provide a unique solution for IT professionals to run mission-critical applications with optimal performance and continuous availability. Industry analysts predict this market opportunity will grow to $11 billion by 2006,” the statement said.
Gary Bloom, the chief executive of Veritas, said the acquisition is strategic. Shimon Alon called it “an exciting opportunity” for the company’s shareholders and everybody else. “Veritas’ scale and global distribution will accelerate the market penetration of our industry leading application performance management solutions,” Alon commented.
Published in the Israeli economic papers TheMarker and Globes Dec 19, 2002

Two Ex-STA ExScite?s are among the DDAP (Digital
Distribution of Advertising for Publications) executive committee leadership.

Barbara Hanapole is the Executive Director of the DDAP Association which
promotes the Digital Distribution of Advertising for Publications. In addition,
she is President of B2 Marketing, a marketing consultant group specializing in
strategic planning, promotion and event management for high tech companies.
Previously, Barbara chaired the Digital Ad Lab. She also worked as the Corporate
Marketing Director for NEC, Inc. of Nashville, TN and as a Business Development
Manager for Scitex America focusing on the publishing industry.
Frank Scott,
a Consultant, and Digital WorkFlow Specialist has over 25 years experience in
the printing and publishing industry, specializing in digital workflows. He was
the VP, Director of Research at Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, Director of
Digital Development at Time Inc. and VP of Technology at Applied Graphics
Technologies in Washington DC. He was 2.5 years at Scitex America. Frank has
been a frequent speaker at Seybold Seminars and the DDAP Annual Conference.

DDAP (Digital
Distribution of Advertising for Publications)

http://www.ddap.org Association is a leading graphic arts industry group
charged with promoting “Universal Exchange of Advertising through Open Process
Integration and Accredited Standards”. With the focus on digital delivery of
advertising, this group advocates the use of accredited file formats in digital
workflows and supports our members’ transition to digital ads through the
development of educational tools and seminars and consultation to build solid
business practices. The next DDAP conference will take place on March 12-15,
2003 in New Orleans LA.

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The privately held software company iKnowledge Inc., of Lexington,

Richard Klapholz is the VP Customer Support at Orbotech USA. Richard held various marketing positions at Scitex is Israel and in Brussels before joining Orbotech in Israel.
Orbotech