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Inso Corporation Acquires LEVEL\5 from Information Builders LEVEL\5
Provides Award-Winning Solutions for the Convergence of Databases, the
Internet, and Best-Fit Data Search and Discovery
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Date: Thursday, April 24, 1997
Source: PR Newswire
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BOSTON, April 23 /PRNewswire/ via Individual Inc. -- Inso Corporation
(Nasdaq: INSO) today announced that it has acquired LEVEL\5 Research, Inc.
from Information Builders, Inc. (IBI) for $5 million in cash. LEVEL\5 is a
leading developer of software and systems that apply intelligent
technologies to data access management. The Company's leading product,
Quest, is an award-winning desktop data search and discovery tool for
non-data analysts. Applying proprietary fuzzy logic and concept searching
techniques, Quest combines advanced query and reporting to automatically
compare, contrast, rate, rank, and score any popular ODBC-enabled
databases. LEVEL\5's SmartMode and SiteAnalyzer products will remain with
Information Builders.
Steven R. Vana-Paxhia, Inso's President and Chief Executive Officer, said,
"The acquisition of LEVEL\5 is an important step in Inso's strategy to
build leading products for the information lifecycle -- information
creation, distribution, and access. We are impressed with the quality of
the LEVEL\5 team and their Quest technology (see attached list of reviews).
Like Inso, LEVEL\5 provides valuable solutions to difficult problems by
applying their knowledge of structured databases, artificial intelligence
technologies, and the Internet. We believe that LEVEL\5 will make a strong
contribution to the development of new knowledge management applications
which are directly on target for Inso's information access business.
LEVEL\5's Quest enables non- data analysts to effectively access structured
databases to discover and evaluate relationships within the data. We
believe that Quest's competency with structured databases will be
particularly powerful in combination with Inso search tools for
unstructured information. As an example, Quest in combination with Inso
components could yield an application to facilitate fact extraction from
stock market information and then identify investments that are most
similar to the last big winner."
Karl Seiler, LEVEL\5's President said, "In recent months, an initial
version of Quest has received outstanding product reviews in PC Computing,
Byte, InfoWorld, Web Developer, Database Advisor, DBMS, and others. We
believe that Inso's multi-channel sales force and commitment and
contributions to Quest's forthcoming software developer's version, will
translate to considerable commercial success for a technology that we are
very proud of."
With the acquisition, the approximately 20-person staff of LEVEL\5 will
become Inso employees. They will form the core of a new Inso technical
development center in Melbourne, Florida. Mr. Seiler has been named Vice
President and General Manager of the new development center.
The transaction will be accounted for as a purchase and includes certain
technology under research and development, which is to be written off with
a one-time charge, estimated to be between $3.5 and $4.5 million, to Inso's
consolidated 1997 second quarter earnings.
Inso Corporation is a leading provider of multilingual software products
that help people create, access, and distribute electronic information in
environments ranging from computer desktops to the Internet. Inso's
products are designed to address the proofing, searching, and electronic
publishing markets worldwide. The Company markets its products to original
equipment manufacturers of computer hardware, software, and consumer
electronics products, as well as to major corporations, government
agencies, and end users. Additional information about Inso and its products
is available on the Company's home page at www.inso.com.
NOTE: Inso and the Inso logo are registered trademarks of Inso Corporation.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
PRESS MENTIONS
-- "Level Five's Quest 2.5: A unique datamining tool", NETWORK COMPUTING,
March 1997
-- "LEVEL\5 Quest - Empowers the User", DBMS, March 1997
-- "Quest forges ahead in Web database development", APPLICATION
DEVELOPMENT TRENDS, February 1997
-- "Find it with Fuzzy Logic", DATABASED ADVISOR, February 1997
-- "SQL for Smarties" DBMS, February 1997
-- "Stocksmart teams up with LEVEL\5" INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS REPORT, January
1997
-- "No Brainer Database Publishing", WEB DEVELOPER, January/February 1997
-- "LEVEL\5 goes on Quest for Canadian VARs", COMPUTER DEALER NEWS,
January 1997
-- "Make it Useful", WEBMASTER, December 1996
-- "LEVEL\5 QUEST 2 Catching Data in Your Web", COMPUTER SHOPPER, November
1996
-- "Middleware eases the webmaster's burden", NEWMEDIA, October 1996
-- "Put Your Database in Cyberspace", PC COMPUTING, September 1996
-- "test bench Level\5 Quest Server 2.0", NETGUIDE, September 1996
-- "Level 5 Quest Server features fine fuzzy searches", INFOWORLD,
September l6, 1996
-- "LEVEL\5 Desktop", DATAMANAGEMENT REVIEW, July, 1996
-- "Search relational databases on the Web", BYTE, July 1996
-- "Fuzzy Searches on the Internet", DATABASE PROGRAMMING & DESIGN,
June 1996
-- "Level Five Research", COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS, July 8, 1996
-- "Toward a new Level", DBMS, June 1996
-- "Tools help author Web sites, build fuzzy logic searcher", COMDEX,
June 3, 1996
-- "The Internet (New Products)", COMPUTER WORLD, March 11, 1996
-- "Quest Server takes data searches to next level", PC WEEK,
March 4, 1996
-- "Level Five tool will allow data searching via Web browser", INFOWORLD,
March 4, 1996
-- "Channel Info, Services, Search Capabilities on Web", COMPUTER RESELLER
NEWS, March 4, 1996
-- "Fuzzy Searches, Databases on the Web", PC A1 MAGAZINE,
January/February 1996
SOURCE Inso Corporation
/CONTACT: Betty Savage, Investor contact of Inso Corporation, 617-753-6539
or [email protected] or Craig Librett, Media contact of Miller Shandwick
Technologies, 617-536-0470, Ext. 129/ (INSO)
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