VSNT Versant Corp. (MM)

Versant Signs Multi-Year Contract With PeopleSoft to Expand Deployment of Versant Versant Database to be Embedded in PeopleSoft Products, Additional Corporate-wide Development License Enables Broader Usage Internally FREMONT, Calif., Dec. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Versant Corporation (NASDAQ:VSNT), an industry leader in specialized data management and data persistence software, today announced that it has expanded its relationship with PeopleSoft and signed a multi-year license contract with PeopleSoft for Versant's flagship database product, VDS. PeopleSoft is the world's second largest provider of enterprise application software and it currently embeds Versant's VDS in three PeopleSoft products: Demand Consensus, Demand Forecasting, and Supply Chain Business Modeler. PeopleSoft plans to embed Versant's VDS in two additional products: Advanced Forecast Modeling and an additional forthcoming product. Versant's VDS has been embedded in PeopleSoft's Demand Consensus product since early 2002 and in the Demand Forecasting module and Supply Chain Business Modeler since April 2003. The adoption of Versant's technology in new innovative business applications in the supply chain planning software space demonstrates PeopleSoft's satisfaction and commitment to Versant. This contract also includes the purchase of a corporate-wide development license for VDS, which facilitates potential expansion of PeopleSoft's usage of VDS with additional future PeopleSoft products. The contract also enables PeopleSoft to utilize Versant's training and consulting services for projects being developed for PeopleSoft customers. "We carefully evaluated several database management technologies and kept coming back to the success we have experienced with Versant and their VDS product in our Demand Consensus and Demand Forecasting products," said Ed Sitarski, vice president of supply chain planning at PeopleSoft. "This underlying technology enables PeopleSoft to deliver robust, integrated applications with powerful features and low total cost of ownership. Versant provides the performance and scalability we require for these complex, real-time applications." Versant's VDS is well suited for PeopleSoft's supply chain planning products. PeopleSoft customers can leverage the Versant object database, saving deployment and on-going maintenance costs. VDS is invisible to users and manages complex data models that cannot be handled by a relational database. It allows for rapid deployment, ease of use, high performance, and scalability and can handle queries and analysis with a large number of data points, making real-time forecasting and analysis possible. "This business agreement demonstrates Versant's expertise in providing innovative solutions for enterprise systems," said Nick Ordon, president and chief executive officer of Versant. "We are excited about the corporate-wide development license that makes access to VDS available to additional PeopleSoft projects. This can potentially open up opportunity for Versant in other PeopleSoft products in the future." Through features such as online schema evolution, dual caching, replication and fault tolerance, Versant VDS customers benefit from superior performance, reliability, scalability, reduced development times and the ability to adapt to changing business conditions. Versant VDS is uniquely suited to manage the storage and access needs of complex graph, navigational and hierarchical data required in supply chain planning applications. For this class of data and access needs, it provides a superior high-performance and agile alternative to custom handcrafted solutions that are needed with traditional relational storage formats. Versant's prior embedded licensing agreement with PeopleSoft has provided Versant with revenues every quarter since its inception. The amount of revenue varied from quarter to quarter as is common with embedded license contracts. The revenue generated from the prior contract has historically been important but not material in any given quarter for Versant. However, it is possible that in the future with the expansion of the embedded license agreement to include new products and the commitment to existing products this can become a material component of Versant's revenues. About Versant Corporation Versant Corporation is an industry leader in specialized data management and open data access software. Using Versant's solutions, customers cut hardware costs, speed and simplify development, significantly reduce administration costs and deliver products with a strong competitive edge. Versant's solutions are deployed in a wide array of industries including telecommunications, financial services, transportation, manufacturing, and defense. With over 50,000 installations, Versant has been a highly reliable partner for over 15 years for Global 2000 companies such as British Airways, US Government, Financial Times, IBM, and MCI. For more information, call 510-789-1500 or visit http://www.versant.com/. Forward Looking Statements Involve Risks and Uncertainties This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the safe harbor created by those sections. These forward-looking statements include statements regarding the potential expanded use of Versant's VDS into PeopleSoft's products, the term of the contract between PeopleSoft and Versant, the continued adoption of Versant's technology by PeopleSoft into new business applications, PeopleSoft's potential use of Versant's training and consulting, the ability of PeopleSoft's customers to leverage VDS, the potential for the embedded license agreement to become a material component of Versant's revenue, potential future opportunities for Versant products to be embedded in other PeopleSoft products and Versant's ability to adapt VDS to changing business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and these forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, there are important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These risk and uncertainties include, without limitation: that PeopleSoft may not choose to embed Versant's VDS in additional PeopleSoft products; the term of the contract may be terminated early by PeopleSoft; the possibility that PeopleSoft's customers may not be able to leverage Versant's VDS to save deployments and ongoing maintenance costs; the possibility of significant changes to the business relationship between PeopleSoft and Versant if PeopleSoft enters into a merger or other business combination (including without limitation a merger or business combination with Oracle) or PeopleSoft stockholders tender their shares to an acquirer of PeopleSoft; that customers may not adopt PeopleSoft's new business applications; that the demand for existing products may decrease, the possibility that the functionality of relational databases may increase, which could make it more difficult to market object database products, such as VDS. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made only as of the date of this press release, and the Company assumes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause results to differ can be found in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ending 2003 and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ending January 31, 2004, April 30, 2004 and July 31, 2004. NOTE: Versant, VDS is either a registered trademark or trademark of Versant Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other products are a registered trademark or trademark of their respective company in the United States and/or other countries. DATASOURCE: Versant Corporation CONTACT: press, Julie O'Grady of O'Grady Communications, LLC, +1-415-269-1663, or ; or investors, Scott Liolios of Liolios Group, Inc., +1-949-574-3860, or , both for Versant Corporation Web site: http://www.versant.com/

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