U.S. Venture Partners and PeopleSoft, Inc., Invest in Leading Provider of
Secure Middleware Solutions
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Building upon a chain of successes over the past year, Open Horizon today announced its third round of funding intended to fuel its growth as a leader in middleware market for securing client/server, Intranet and Internet applications. The company received $6 million in capital from U.S. Venture Partners, a Menlo Park-based venture capital firm, and PeopleSoft, Inc., a leading provider of client/server business applications.
This round of financing brings the total investment in Open Horizon to $10 million, and will enable the company to capitalize upon the momentum they have built in the middleware market. In addition to doubling in size since January, Open Horizon entered into joint development and marketing relationships with both Hewlett-Packard Company and Apple Computer, Inc., and signed a worldwide reseller agreement with IBM Corporation. Additionally, Open Horizon broadened its product offering via a relationship with CyberSafe Corporation, and became the first middleware vendor to support Java(TM) connectivity to databases for Intranet and Internet applications.
"As the Web has burst onto the business world, organizations are rushing to jump on the bandwagon. However, most people don't realize that a robust infrastructure is needed to make it all work," said Irwin Federman, General Partner with U.S. Venture Partners, a venture capital firm specializing in high technology, biotechnology and consumer special retail. "Open Horizon's expertise in distributed computing, coupled with their leadership position in secure client/server solutions, positions them perfectly to become the leading provider of middleware for both the enterprise and the Internet."
The company's flagship product, Connection, is a middleware solution that enables customers and application vendors to add user authentication, encryption, data integrity and secure single sign-on (SSSO) to their client/server, Intranet and Internet applications -- without requiring any changes to the applications. Unlike proprietary middleware technologies that require customers to fundamentally change their infrastructure, Open Horizon's solutions are built upon industry standards to offer customers immediate benefits within their existing frameworks.
"Our relationship with Open Horizon is highly synergistic. PeopleSoft focuses on developing a rich suite of applications, while Open Horizon concentrates on delivering robust and secure middleware," said Ron Codd, chief financial officer of PeopleSoft, Inc. "To maintain our position of leadership, PeopleSoft will continue to leverage key partners to add value to our solutions. This is our first investment of this kind, which clearly demonstrates our belief in the value of Open Horizon, and we look forward to continued success in our joint development and marketing efforts."
In addition to broadening support for its Connection family of products, Open Horizon is investing in solutions to support Intranet- and Internet-based applications.
"Open Horizon has established core expertise and a leadership position in the client/server middleware market, and we clearly recognize the opportunities that exist around the Internet," said Nicholas Zaldastani, president and CEO of Open Horizon. "Working closely with our customers and business partners, we will aggressively deliver best-of-breed solutions that fill the void in the middleware space for commercial applications on the Web."
About Open Horizon, Inc.
Open Horizon is a leading supplier of secure middleware solutions to Global 2000 customers, application providers, and value-added resellers. It's flagship product, Connection, transparently adds authentication, encryption, data integrity and secure single sign-on (SSSO) capabilities to customers' client/server, Intranet and Internet applications. The solution ties together applications, databases and security services without the need to make any changes to the customer's existing applications.
Founded in 1993, Open Horizon maintains alliances with leading industry companies including Apple Computer, Inc., AT&T NCR, Claremont Technology Group, Inc., CyberSafe Corporation, Deloitte & Touche LLP, Dynasty Technologies, Inc., Forte Software, Inc., Gradient Technologies, Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, IBM Corporation, Informix Software, Inc., JavaSoft (a Sun Microsystems Inc. Business), Oracle Corporation, PeopleSoft, Inc., Scopus Technology, Inc., Sybase, Inc., USoft. Open Horizon distributes its products internationally through Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Japan), Open Horizon, Ltd. (UK), Totins (Korea), IBM, and Transarc.
For more information, send e-mail to info@openhorizon.com, call 415-869-2200, or visit the Web site at http://www.openhorizon.com.
NOTE: Connection, Database Broker, Application Broker, Security Broker, Directory Broker, Management Broker, Connecting the Enterprise, and QuickBrew are trademarks of Open Horizon, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.
SOURCE Open Horizon Inc.
-0- 08/26/96
/CONTACT: Press: Maria Salomao of Niehaus Ryan Group, 415-827-7061 or maria@nrgpr.com; or Chip Overstreet, VP of Marketing & Business Development of Open Horizon, 415-869-2260 or chip_overstreet@openhorizon.com; or Elizabeth Orgel of The Horn Group for PeopleSoft, 415-579-6400/
CO: Open Horizon Inc., U.S. Venture Partners, PeopleSoft Inc. ST: California IN: CPR SU: FNC
JC-SS -- LAM025 -- 0810 08/26/96 08:05 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com
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