EXHIBIT 99.1
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DATAWATCH ACQUIRES MERGENCE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
NEW ACQUISITION EXTENDS DATAWATCH SOLUTIONS FOR COMPLIANCE, AUDITING,
ACCOUNTING AND BILLING BUSINESS PROCESS MANAGEMENT
LOWELL, MA - AUGUST 11, 2004 - Datawatch Corporation (NASDAQ: DWCH), a leading
provider of report management, data transformation and service management
solutions, announced that it today acquired Mergence Technologies Corporation,
www.imergence.com, a privately-held provider of content management software
headquartered in Rutherford, NJ. Mergence products enable collaborative,
documented research of enterprise content and metadata to support compliance,
auditing, accounting and billing processes.
Mergence has been providing enterprise content and research
management services for over five years, primarily to the financial services
sector, with sales in 2003 of approximately $1 million and 2004 year-to-date
sales of approximately $600,000. Datawatch acquired 100% of the shares of
Mergence for $2.5 million in cash. In connection with the acquisition there is a
payout clause, which provides for Datawatch to make cash payments equal to 10%
of the sales of the Mergence Researcher product for a period of six years. The
Researcher product is in its final development stages with a planned release
during this quarter.
Datawatch will rename the acquired subsidiary Datawatch Technologies
Corporation ("DTC") and plans to consolidate the general and administrative
functions into its headquarters in Lowell, but will retain a sales and support
office in Rutherford, NJ to provide services to customers in the metropolitan NY
area. DTC also has a software development and testing facility in the
Philippines.
DTC's Researcher product increases productivity, reduces accounting
and reporting errors, enhances collaboration in conjunction with document and
business-process management software, and integrates data and related documents
into a library of meaningful and accessible information that can be shared by
collaborative reporting teams. The web-based enterprise application provides an
easy to use research and
investigation environment, improving the management of data-driven business
processes including compliance, auditing, accounting and billing management,
particularly critical for financial services.
Commenting on the transaction, Datawatch President and CEO Robert
Hagger said: "The acquired technologies and solutions compliment and further
extend Datawatch's offerings in the enterprise report and content management
markets. This acquisition brings three key additions to Datawatch:
o An ongoing revenue stream from existing DTC products and
services, primarily marketed in the financial services
sector,
o An important new product called "Researcher" that we expect
will be ready for release to current Datawatch customers and
new prospects in this quarter, and
o An experienced and cost-effective development team in the
Philippines.
We are particularly excited about the prospects for the Researcher
product; software that searches inter-related data, documents, and
communications scattered over multiple and disparate repositories, then merges
and analyzes the results into comprehensive actionable case records. The
combination of Datawatch|ES, a full featured, compliance-ready enterprise report
management and mining solution, and Researcher will allow our customers to unite
enterprise information to support better decision-making and reporting
activities related to compliance initiatives. Businesses in brokerage, banking,
healthcare and our other key verticals will be able to integrate and reconcile
almost every source of enterprise information, merge and analyze data,
investigate and manage exceptions, and meet regulatory obligations.
I welcome DTC President Rene Tenazas and his team to Datawatch, and
look forward to working together to help our customers capitalize on enterprise
information to optimize internal and external business reporting."
Datawatch will discuss the DTC acquisition in a conference call to
be held Thursday, August 26, 2004, at 2 p.m. EDT. The conference call will be
broadcast live on
the Internet at: http://www.vcall.com/ClientPage.asp?ID=89038. Listeners are
recommended to go to the website at least 15 minutes early to register and
download any necessary audio software. An archived replay of the broadcast will
be available for 30 days at the same location.
ABOUT DATAWATCH CORPORATION
Datawatch Corporation helps organizations easily access, store, distribute,
transform and analyze information throughout the enterprise. From report
management and analytics to data transformation and Internet presentment,
Datawatch Corporation provides solutions that allow organizations to fully
integrate and leverage their existing sources of information. Datawatch products
are used in more than 20,000 companies, institutions and government agencies
worldwide.
The corporate address for Datawatch is 175 Cabot Street, Suite 503,
Lowell, MA 01854-3633; telephone (978) 441-2200. More information on Datawatch
and its solutions can be found at www.datawatch.com.
SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995
Any statements contained in this press release that do not describe
historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements as that term is
defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such
statements contained herein are based on current expectations, but are subject
to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ
materially from expectations. The factors that could cause actual future results
to differ materially from current expectations include the following: risks
associated with the integration of DTC and the anticipated benefits of the
acquisition; risks associated with the uncertainty of the current economic
climate; risks associated with fluctuations in quarterly operating results;
Datawatch's dependence on its principal products; risks associated with
international sales; risks associated with distributor sales; an unfavorable
result in any litigation; market acceptance of new products; dependence on the
introduction of new products and possible delays in those introductions. Further
information on factors that could cause actual results to differ from those
anticipated is
detailed in various publicly-available documents, which include, but are not
limited to, filings made by Datawatch from time to time with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, including but not limited to, those appearing in the
Company's Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 2003 and Form 10-Q for the
quarters ended December 31, 2003, March 31, 2004 and June 30, 2004. Any
forward-looking statements should be considered in light of those factors.
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FOR PRESS INFORMATION:
Datawatch: Larry Bouchie, larry_bouchie@datawatch.com, 978-275-8264