In the next several days, Pitney Bowes will
commence a tender offer at a value of $1.39 per share for
the outstanding common shares of Alysis. The companies anticipate
that the transaction will be completed by mid-to-late April.
"The contemplated acquisition of Alysis
is directly in line with our mission to support our customers'
mission-critical mail and document management processes,''
said Michael J. Critelli, Chairman and CEO of Pitney Bowes.
`Increasingly, electronic bills and statements are being recognized
as an under utilized opportunity to advance customer relationships.
Firms are seeking ways to increase the flexibility of their
processes to accommodate customer preferences for web-based
self-service, and workflow integration within businesses.
Combined, Pitney Bowes and Alysis will answer this need, supporting
businesses as they go through the evolution of these critical
processes.''
Pitney Bowes Document Messaging Technologies
(DMT) offers professional services and software solutions
for Internet billing and statement presentment and payment
applications, and has deployed the Alysis technology for more
than two years to provide "best of breed'' web-enabled
solutions. Current customers of both companies include The
Post Office of the United Kingdom, Aetna Insurance, Detroit
Edison, Wisconsin Energy, United Illuminating, State of Oregon
and the Jersey Post.
"By combining Alysis' technology, talent
and customer base with our customer reach, products and service
capabilities, Pitney Bowes will be poised to take a significant
position in the growing digital delivery environment,'' said
Mr. Critelli. "Given our long-standing and highly successful
relationship with Alysis, we anticipate a smooth transition
that will enable us to sustain market momentum and handle
the increasing demand for implementation services.''
"Last fall, we set out to identify strategic
alternatives for Alysis, and to that end an acquisition by
Pitney Bowes accomplishes that goal,'' said Kevin Moran, CEO
of Alysis. "Through this transaction, the combined resources
of the two entities will create a strong global distribution
for the Workout® technology platform. Both of our companies
share similar markets and strategies and together we will
be poised to increase market share worldwide.''
Alysis' cutting-edge WorkOut server, which
enables companies to streamline billing, payment, processing,
dispute management, workflow and data analysis, is built on
XML technology and an Enterprise Java Beans (EJB) platform.
This architecture is uniquely designed for business-to-business
and e-commerce applications and ensures seamless integration
and effective handling of high volumes of data. It will also
drive utilization of Pitney Bowes professional services and
related products. "Alysis' combination of a true web
architecture, unique product functionality, and business-to-business
market focus clearly differentiates it from other electronic
bill presentment and payment (EBPP) companies,'' said Brian
Baxendale, President, Pitney Bowes Document Messaging Technologies.
Targeting the business-to-consumer, business-to-business,
and internal messaging markets, Pitney Bowes product offerings
provide software solutions for Internet billing, payment and
statement applications to companies that seek to transition
their paper-based billing and statement processes to web-enabled
delivery. For billers, Pitney Bowes provides a fast, low-cost
way to distribute bills and collect payments, a new, highly-targeted
one-to-one marketing channel, accelerated document delivery
and receipt of payments, and the capability of extracting
bill information and providing it to bill consolidators and
consumer service providers.
"Alysis has created a unique, innovative
and robust platform that enables organizations to rapidly
implement the digital document delivery capabilities they
need in order to support their electronic businesses. The
combination of this technology with the market reach and financial
strength of Pitney Bowes will be extremely compelling for
almost any business and will enable us to build a new franchise
in a market that has awesome potential,'' said James Flynn,
Chief Operating Officer, Alysis Technologies.
Pitney Bowes is a $4 billion global provider
of integrated mail and document management solutions headquartered
in Stamford, Connecticut. The company serves over 2 million
businesses of all sizes in more than 130 countries through
dealer and direct operations. For additional information about
Pitney Bowes, please visit our website at www.pitneybowes.com.
Alysis Technologies is a leading provider
of component-based e-billing software that snaps-in to any
major e-commerce implementation. Its modular Workout products
enable companies to solve complex business problems via streamlining
billing, payment, processing, dispute management, workflow
and data analysis.
This announcement is neither an offer to purchase
nor a solicitation of an offer to sell shares of Alysis. At
the time Pitney Bowes commences this offer, it will file a
tender offer statement and Alysis will file a solicitation/recommendation
statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The tender offer statement (including an offer to purchase,
a related letter of transmittal and other offer documents)
and the solicitation/recommendation statement will contain
important information which should be read carefully before
any decision is made with respect to the offer. Pitney Bowes
will make available to all holders of common stock of Alysis,
at Pitney Bowes' expense, the offer to purchase, the related
letter of transmittal and certain other offer documents and
alysis will make available to all its holders of common stock,
at Alysis' expense, the solicitation/recommendation statement.
The tender offer statement (including the offer to purchase,
the related letter of transmittal and all other offer documents
filed with the commission) and the solicitation/recommendation
statement will also be available for free at the commission's
website at www.sec.gov.
