MS Announces Its Intention to Acquire PlaceWare

REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 21, 2003 -- Microsoft Corp. today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire PlaceWare Inc., a leading provider of Web conferencing services that enable businesses to conduct real-time, interactive presentations and meetings over the Internet. By combining key assets and working in tandem, the two companies aim to provide customers with innovative and easy-to-use online conferencing solutions that will help connect more people seamlessly in a real-time conferencing environment. Microsoft also hopes to provide industry partners with improved technologies they can use to develop and deliver new custom business solutions that take advantage of advanced real-time collaboration capabilities. As PlaceWare is a privately held company, terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"This acquisition complements our business and is an important step forward in our strategy to expand our information worker solutions base," said Jeff Raikes, group vice president of Productivity and Business Services at Microsoft. "PlaceWare is a solid company and, with CEO George Garrick's leadership, has built a strong Web conferencing business. We look forward to merging our strengths to effectively deliver new real-time collaboration capabilities and solutions for this emerging and expanding online conferencing market."

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