ASCL Ascential Software - Common Stock (MM)

Ascential Software and Merlin Technical Solutions, Inc. Enter Into Strategic Agreement Partnership Extends Industry Leading Enterprise Data Integration Capabilities in the Public Sector WESTBORO, Mass., and McLEAN, Va., Dec. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ascential Software Corporation (NASDAQ:ASCL), the enterprise data integration leader, and Merlin Technical Solutions, Inc., a solutions provider serving federal agencies and state and local governments, today announced a reseller agreement. Under its terms, Merlin will provide professional services on data integration solutions for its public sector clients using the Ascential Enterprise Integration Suite(TM). This agreement will empower Merlin's public sector customers to successfully tackle the most significant data integration challenges. "Government data assets are currently highly underutilized, especially in cross-organizational leverage opportunities," said Scott Bittler, analyst, META Group. "The highest value from information-based solutions comes from integrating information and solutions across department or agency boundaries. The design of typical siloed government organizations and systems creates barriers to sharing information, leading to the current situation of underutilized government data." Ascential Software and Merlin are well-positioned to address this issue. Tasks commonly faced by public sector organizations - for instance, running compute-intensive jobs; attempting to consolidate expenditures for greater purchasing leverage; and ensuring the validity of electronic transactional data - require exceptional data integration capabilities. Merlin recognizes the public sector's data integration challenges and, through the partnership with Ascential Software, has demonstrated its commitment to helping customers overcome these challenges. "Merlin has a long tradition of recruiting the industry's strongest technology partners to enable the most powerful solutions for our customers," said Dennis Nadler, chief technology officer, Merlin Technical Solutions. "With many of our public sector customers running mission-critical, data- intensive environments, we sought the industry's most scalable and functional data integration solution. These criteria led to our selection of Ascential Software as our partner." "Merlin enjoys an excellent reputation in the public sector, particularly among government procurement officers. Our partnership with an organization of this caliber will increase our momentum in the public sector," said Bill Smith, director of Ascential Software's Federal division. "We anticipate many future customer successes as a direct result of this partnership, in both the federal, state and local markets." The Ascential Enterprise Integration Suite is a comprehensive data integration solution that profiles, cleanses, and transforms data from virtually any application or system regardless of data volume or latency. Ascential Software's integrated offering is designed to help companies streamline operations, improve customer support, expedite business transactions, and make better tactical and strategic decisions on the basis of the best available information. The Suite provides unlimited scalability through parallel processing, complete meta data management, any-to-any data source and application connectivity, and delivers on demand data integration seamlessly within an enterprise's service-oriented architecture. About Merlin Technical Solutions Merlin is a solutions provider that brings together a unique combination of technology products, consulting services and vertical market expertise to help its customers improve their financial and operational performance. Partnering with best-of-breed technologies enables Merlin to provide integrated solutions to over 500 clients that include Federal agencies, state and local governments and leading commercial companies. Merlin also offers an added value for its customers by recognizing federal government budget restraints by offering deferred payment plans that enables the option of paying over several years, giving customers the ability to purchase the latest, innovative technology without cutting into current budgets. Merlin is a service-disabled, veteran-owned, 8(a) business. More information can be found at http://www.merlints.com/. About Ascential Software Ascential Software Corporation (NASDAQ:ASCL) is the leader in enterprise data integration. Customers and partners worldwide use the Ascential Enterprise Integration Suite to confidently transform data into accurate, reliable and complete business information to improve operational performance and decision-making across every critical business dimension. Our comprehensive end-to-end solutions provide on demand data integration complemented by our professional services, industry expertise, and methodologies. Ascential Software is headquartered in Westboro, Mass., and has more than 3,000 customers and partners globally across such industries as financial services and banking, insurance, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, consumer packaged goods, telecommunications and government. For more information call 1-800-966-9875 (508-366.3888 if calling from outside the US or Canada) or visit the Ascential Software website at http://www.ascential.com/. Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future events, and these statements are subject to important factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this release address a variety of subjects including, for example, the functionality, characteristics, quality and performance capabilities of Ascential Software's products and technology; results achievable and benefits attainable through deployment of Ascential Software's products and provision of services; the ability of Ascential Software to increase momentum in the public sector; the ability of Ascential Software to successfully tackle the most significant data integration challenges for public sector IT staffs; and improvements in operational performance and decision-making. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements: the ability of the company to expand its market share; growth rates for the enterprise data integration software market; general business conditions in the software industry, the technology sector, and in the domestic and international economies; rapid technological change in the markets served by the company; dependence on international operations; global and geopolitical instability; compliance costs associated with regulations to which the company is subject, including the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and the impact of such regulations; and difficulties that the company may experience integrating technologies, operations and personnel of completed or future acquisitions. For a detailed discussion of these and other cautionary statements, please refer to the filings made by Ascential Software with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, the most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Ascential Software disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements made herein to reflect any change in Ascential Software's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which such statements are based. Ascential Software is not responsible for statements attributed to third parties within this release or in any materials referenced herein. Partnerships described herein shall be deemed to be strategic alliances only, and shall not imply the power of either partner to bind the other partner or to incur obligations on behalf of the other partner. Ascential and Ascential Enterprise Integration Suite are trademarks of Ascential Software Corporation or its affiliates and may be registered in the United States or other jurisdictions. Other marks are the property of the owners of those marks. DATASOURCE: Ascential Software Corporation CONTACT: Chas Kielt of Ascential Software Corporation, +1-508-599-7256, ; or Kristina LeBlanc of Porter Novelli - Ascential Software, +1-617-897-8200, ; or Sinikka Mondini of Sage Agency - Merlin, +1-630-226-0298, Web site: http://www.ascentialsoftware.com/

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