NCR Corporation Acquires Ceres Integrated Solutions

NCR Corporation announced the acquisition of Ceres Integrated Solutions, a leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, and a leader in retail targeted marketing applications. The cash and stock transaction is valued at approximately $90 million.

The acquisition, effective immediately, creates a market leader with the combination of NCR's Relationship Optimizer CRM suite, and Ceres, to form the NCR CRM Solutions Division. The combination provides true multi-channel CRM, with timely personal offers and the ability to analyze customer behavior from many dimensions. The new division is expected to drive sales of new data warehouses and expansion of existing warehouses.

NCR and Ceres have a partnership that already serves customers such as WalMart, Kmart, and Office Depot. Ceres has established a clear advantage and market-leading position in the retail arena with additional clients such as Eddie Bauer, Blockbuster, JCPenney, Marks & Spencer, Federated Department Stores and Neiman Marcus, and will be a strong complement to Relationship Optimizer. NCR's Relationship Optimizer customers include Continental Airlines, KT Freetel, National Australia Bank, Union Bank of Norway and others.

Peter Heffring, president and co-founder of Ceres, will head the new NCR division, which will be headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. As part of the data warehousing group, the new division will be supported by NCR's global data warehousing sales force and professional services consultants as well as a growing set of channel partners.

"The integration of NCR and Ceres clearly shows our commitment to being a world-class solutions provider. We are fortunate to have Peter Heffring, a proven leader in CRM applications software, to head the new division," said John Tulley, NCR's Director of Customer Management Solutions."Our combined development team will quadruple in size, thus increasing our speed to market with superior data warehousing and CRM solutions for all customers, especially those engaged in e-business."

"NCR's Relationship Optimizer and Ceres deliver a complete end-to-end customer relationship management suite, providing us with strong differentiation over competitors such as Exchange Applications, Prime Response and E.piphany. We will focus on the Teradata and Oracle database platforms for best-of-breed application and performance," said Tulley.

"The CRM applications are fully optimized around Teradata active warehouse to give us the fastest and most scalable CRM solution," Tulley added. "We will continue the technology roadmaps of both Ceres and Relationship Optimizer and merge the best of both products."

Ceres will maintain its leading position in the retail industry. The new division's CRM solutions will be extended across industry lines and will be industry pacesetters.

As a part of the transaction, NCR also acquires the 25 percent stake in Ceres owned by Acxiom Corporation since June 1998. Acxiom will continue as a partner to the new NCR division.

About Ceres Integrated Solutions

Ceres Integrated Solutions, a privately-held firm based in Raleigh, N.C., is a leading provider of intelligent operational software and analytical services. Founded in 1996, Ceres is dedicated to meeting the growing demand for high-quality retail targeted marketing and customer relationship management software. More information about Ceres may be found at http://www.ceresios.com.

About NCR Corporation

NCR Corporation is a recognized world leader in providing Relationship Technology solutions for the retail, financial, communications, travel and transportation, and insurance markets. NCR's Relationship Technology solutions include store automation, ATMs and privacy-enabled Teradata warehouses. The company's business solutions are built on the foundation of its longestablished industry knowledge and consulting expertise, value-adding software, global customer support services, a complete line of consumable and media products, and world-leading hardware technology. More information about NCR and its solutions may be found at www.ncr.com.

For further information Stacey Ferris-White, NCR Canada Ltd 416-351-2055 stacey.ferris-white@canada.ncr.com, John Dinning, Ceres Integrated Solutions 919-858-0217, jdinning@ceresios.com.