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TORONTO and SALT LAKE CITY – Sept. 30, 2004 – Avotus® Corporation
(TSX Venture: AVS) of Toronto today announced that it is has
acquired 49% of Applied Research Technologies (ART) of Salt Lake
City, with an exclusive option to purchase the remaining 51%,
exercisable at any time prior to June 2005. Through the acquisition
of ART with its innovative e-procurement technologies, including its
online auction capabilities and best practices methodologies, Avotus
further extends the leadership position of its Intelligent
Communications Management™ (ICM) solution set. Exact terms of
the acquisition remain confidential.
To facilitate the transaction, Jefferson Partners provided Avotus
with a secured loan of CDN$2.0 million repayable on or before
January 2007. As additional consideration for granting the loan,
Jefferson will be issued up to 664,000 Avotus common shares, payable
in semi-annual installments, valued at CDN$0.50 per share. As of
June 30, 2004, Jefferson Partners owned 62.4% of the issued and
outstanding capital of Avotus.
“With the addition of ART’s capabilities into Avotus’ ICM model,
Avotus now provides the complete automated, communications
management cycle from procurement through to payment approval,” said
Fred Lizza, Avotus President and CEO. “No one else in the industry
has the combination of technology and domain expertise to help
organizations fully manage their communications environments in
outsourced, hosted, or in-house deployments. Avotus ICM is now the
breakthrough next generation in automated communications
management.”
The investment in ART follows Avotus’ acquisition of Formity
Systems Inc. in February. It positions Avotus as the most
comprehensive technology and service provider of management for
traditional telephony, wireless, Voice over Internet Protocol
(VoIP), and data communications -- from sourcing to payment.
“This is an excellent next step for us,” commented ART President,
Brad Buxton. “Avotus has the most complete automation-driven vision
and ART, with its best practices and ARTools ® e-procurement
technologies, complements Avotus’ full range of expense, usage and
infrastructure management tools. Avotus also has the marketing and
sales clout to bring ARTools into new and expanded markets.
Together, we are uniquely able to execute against that vision. No
one else can touch our combined abilities.”
“Through this acquisition Avotus is extending its technology
leadership and demonstrating to customers, old and new, its
commitment to providing best-in-class solutions,” stated David Folk,
Chairman of the Board of Avotus and Managing General Partner of
Jefferson Partners. “The ART investment is also exciting in the
context of Jefferson’s portfolio since we believe that the big
opportunities in the enterprise software market today are in
high-value, easy-to-adopt business process automation and
outsourcing solutions. Even better, in the case of Avotus ICM, we
have a chance to lead a wave of improvement that is long overdue and
applies to a very broad global market."
Industry analysts contend that companies should leverage
automation technology for optimum results in communications cost
management initiatives. A recent Aberdeen Group report recommends
that companies understand all telecommunications service spending on
an enterprise level, identify opportunities for vendor consolidation
and competition, and use e-sourcing and e-procurement tools where
possible.
“ Aberdeen’s recent enterprise benchmark research showed that
while companies are increasingly turning to automation to support
telecom invoice reconciliation activities, the strategic sourcing of
telecommunications contracts is still mired in manual, paper-based
processes for the most part,” commented Christa Degnan, Aberdeen
research director. “But applying an automated e-sourcing platform
backed by a best-in-class pricing database to telecommunication
carrier negotiations can save companies as much as 40% in hard
dollar telecommunication costs our case studies have shown, which
coupled with a centralized systematic information technology
platform to ensure contract compliance over time, promises optimum
savings and total telecom cost management success.”
About Avotus
Avotus provides solutions that dramatically reduce the cost and
complexity of enterprise communications. Intelligent
Communications Management is Avotus’ unique model for a single,
actionable environment that enables any company to bring together
decision-critical information about communications expense
management, procurement and systems usage, for wired, w ireless and
VoIP systems. Deployed as an onsite or hosted application, or as a
completely outsourced value-added managed solution, Avotus enables
dramatic savings while improving productivity and efficiency. Avotus
is empowering Fortune 500
companies as well as thousands of organizations worldwide to gain
insight into and control over their communications environment. Its
solutions are strongly supported and endorsed by industry-leading
partners such as Avaya, Cisco, and Nortel. For more information,
visit www.Avotus.com.
Certain information contained in this news release is
forward-looking and is subject to unknown risks and uncertainties.
The actual results, performance or achievements of the Company may
differ materially from the results, performance or achievements of
the Company expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
For further information, please visit the Company's website at http://www.Avotus.com
and its filings with SEDAR available through www.sedar.com.
The TSX Venture Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved the
contents of this press release.
In connection with the Jefferson loan, Avotus will be filing a
material change report in compliance with the related party
transaction rules found in Ontario Securities Commission Rule 61-501
(the “Rule”). As the transaction and related agreements were only
finalized today, it was not possible to file the material change
report 21 days prior to the closing of the transaction, as
contemplated by the Rule.
Avotus is a registered trademark and Intelligent
Communications Management is a trademark of Avotus Corporation.
All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
EDITORS – For further
information:
Jo Martell
Avotus Corporation
Burlington
Centre
35 Corporate Drive, 4 th floor
Burlington, MA
01803
781-685-4681 (US)
905-568-6895 (Canada)
Jo.Martell@avotus.com
Sandy McLaughlin
Soucy Communications
Group
162 Great Rd.
Acton, MA
01720
USA
978-266-1700
SMcLaughlin@scg-pr.com
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