"The license of Lotus BeanMachine to NetObjects underscores our company brand in the Web developer community and demonstrates the synergy between IBM, Lotus and NetObjects," said Samir Arora, NetObjects' CEO. "As a company focused on site builders' needs, NetObjects is able to anticipate emerging market needs such as those of Java component builders and target them with best-of-breed products."

Under terms of the agreement, NetObjects will assume the product definition and brand development of BeanBuilder, while Lotus will continue to distribute BeanBuilder through existing channels.

As Web sites evolve from simple billboards to dynamic business entities, site builders and developers are looking for technologies and products that help them rapidly create highly optimized Web-based business applications that can be easily integrated into Internet and intranet sites. Component technology has long promised the ability to shorten development cycles and speed deployment through the creation of reusable code. JavaBeans, the Java component technology from Sun Microsystems (NASDAQ: SUNW), was created to address exactly those needs and has garnered widespread adoption in the industry. However there are very few products designed specifically to enable the creation of JavaBean-based Web applications. NetObjects BeanBuilder addresses this need by providing a robust environment to rapidly and visually connect JavaBeans to create a variety of applications such as custom database applications, secure Web applications and interfaces to legacy systems.

NetObjects BeanBuilder demonstrates NetObjects' commitment to the Java market and is debuting to support from leading Java companies such as Marimba.

"We're excited that NetObjects will spearhead the evolution of BeanBuilder," said Kim Polese, president and CEO of Marimba, Inc. "The combination of NetObjects BeanBuilder and Marimba's Castanet allows developers to seamlessly distribute, manage and maintain JavaBean components."

NetObjects BeanBuilder Features and Benefits

• Visual application development: NetObjects BeanBuilder enables developers to create a variety of applications quickly and easily without any programming.
• Extensible Java environment: NetObjects BeanBuilder is extensible enough to support any standard JavaBeans from third party developers, or customer designed, allowing users to take advantage of the latest networking, database and UI Beans.
• Access to JavaBean code: NetObjects BeanBuilder allows more advanced users to take advantage of its built in editor to access code, or publish their own class files as JavaBeans. Additionally, Java developers can use this feature for prototyping their own JavaBeans.
• Visual component connections: Properties from each JavaBean are dynamically inserted in the details property box to allow easy connections between Beans. Additionally, the connection browser allows users to view all the connections within a given application.
• Database Bean with Query Wizard and support for ODBC and JDBC: NetObjects BeanBuilder enables users to easily connect to corporate databases by providing database JavaBeans as well as a wizard to allow quick access to standard datasources via JDBC and ODBC and native support for leading databases such as DB2, Oracle and Sybase.
• Multiple deployment formats: NetObjects BeanBuilder supports all major Java language standards and offers users multiple output choices including Java applet, Java application, JavaBean, and NetObjects Fusion Components allowing users to optimize the product based on their specific needs.
• Local or remote publishing: NetObjects BeanBuilder allows users to easily publish their applications to a Web site or a Marimba Castanet Transmitter from any location using a built-in remote publishing wizard.

Pricing and Availability
NetObjects BeanBuilder will be available for an estimated street price of $295 in September 1998. For more information visit the NetObjects Web site at www.netobjects.com.

About NetObjects
NetObjects, Inc. is a privately-held company that is funded by IBM, Perseus LLC, AT&T Ventures, Norwest Venture Capital, Venrock Associates, Rae Technology LLC and private investors. The NetObjects product family consists of NetObjects Fusion Personal Edition, NetObjects Fusion™ 3.0, NetObjects TeamFusion™, NetObjects ScriptBuilder™ 2.0 and NetObjects BeanBuilder. NetObjects develops and markets award-winning Web site building software for businesses.