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Microsoft and Open Text Announce New Strategic Relationship; Open Text to Introduce New Solutions


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Solutions to deliver powerful ECM capabilities that address the complexities of managing information in global organizations.

ORLANDO, Fla. — Nov. 14, 2005 — Today at LiveLinkUp Orlando 2005, Microsoft Corp. and Open Text™ Corporation (Nasdaq: OTEX, TSX: OTC) announced a new strategic relationship to optimize Open Text’s comprehensive enterprise content management (ECM) solutions for the Microsoft® platform. This effort will take advantage of both companies’ global scale and complementary products to enable ECM solutions in large, complex customer environments.

As part of the announcement, Open Text, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, becomes a worldwide ECM partner with Microsoft. By deepening the relationship between Open Text and Microsoft, the companies will work to enhance Open Text solutions in ways that combine the power of the Microsoft platform and Open Text’s deep understanding of the ECM needs of large enterprises. The resulting end-to-end solutions from Open Text, which will include vertical-market offerings in financial services and government, will help companies address the complexity of managing an ever-growing volume of online information, a major source of productivity loss and compliance risks.

With today’s announcement, Open Text is also introducing two new solutions that use Open Text’s Livelink ECM suite and Microsoft Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003. The expanded relationship and new solutions were unveiled to customers at Open Text’s LiveLinkUp Orlando 2005 user conference, underway this week in Orlando, Fla.

“Managing information more effectively is a priority, both to improve our business and manage compliance,” said Raj Patel, chief information officer at Forest City Ratner Companies, an affiliate of Forest City Enterprises Inc., a $7.4 billion U.S. real estate company, which is adopting a new solution that tightens integration between Livelink ECM and the company’s Microsoft® SharePoint®-based solution. “We are working with both Microsoft and Open Text as our strategic partners, and anything they do to better integrate and enhance one another’s strengths is a win for Forest City. Better integration between the two offers us greater long-term value. The companies bring together two key components of our ECM strategy: content creation and collaboration capabilities with Microsoft and deep enterprise compliance and records management with Open Text.”

“Our expanded relationship with Open Text will mean more innovative solutions that will reduce the complexities and risks of managing enterprise content,” said Rob Bernard, general manager of global ISVs at Microsoft. “As a leader in ECM, Open Text offers both the experience and the enterprise-scale compliance management capabilities we’re looking for to complement our solutions. Tighter integration of our software will offer tremendous value to customers of both companies.”

“We see our close relationship with Microsoft and our commitment to the Microsoft platform as essential to meeting the new challenges our customers face,” said John Shackleton, president and chief executive officer of Open Text. “Microsoft offers the benefits of increased personal and group productivity, while our solutions allow customers to make compliance part of the way they do business every day. Together, we offer a unique blend of compliance and productivity, which helps enterprises succeed in today’s competitive and regulated environment.”

New Open Text Solutions for the Microsoft Platform

The new solutions introduced this week include an Open Text records management solution for Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003, which allows customers to extend compliance-driven records management retention and disposition policies to content maintained in SharePoint Portal Server 2003. The solution builds on Open Text’s previously announced content-archiving capabilities for SharePoint Portal Server 2003, which OpenText announced in August. The records management and archiving offerings help customers create a compliant life-cycle management system with increased security for their SharePoint Portal Server 2003 records.

Open Text is also introducing Web Parts that expose Livelink ECM content and functionality in SharePoint Portal Server 2003. This new level of integration between the two solutions will allow SharePoint Portal Server 2003 users to utilize specific Livelink ECM capabilities and access content stored anywhere in Livelink ECM.

Future versions of Open Text solutions will be built on Microsoft Office “12,” the code name of the next major release of Microsoft Office products. Livelink ECM will connect directly with Microsoft’s ECM capabilities and extend the content created in Office “12” into key business processes.

“In Office ‘12,’ we will offer powerful new capabilities to help companies manage content. Livelink ECM integration with Office ‘12’ will enable customers to easily deploy solutions that increase the efficiency of content-driven business-critical processes across their organizations,” said Sanjay Manchanda, director of SharePoint Products and Technologies at Microsoft.

Last week, Open Text announced plans to offer its Artesia Digital Asset Management on the Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005 database. The combined offering is aimed at media and entertainment companies that need to more effectively manage vast stores of digital assets, such as video, audio and graphics files.

Open Text has also agreed to support the latest version of Microsoft’s flagship development tool, Visual Studio® 2005, for the development of new Livelink ECM solutions that integrate with SharePoint Portal Server 2003. By supporting Visual Studio 2005, Open Text will enable developers and integrators to extend SharePoint Portal Server 2003 functionality with Livelink ECM’s enterprise-grade ECM capabilities and vertical market solutions.

More information on LiveLinkUp Orlando can be found at http://livelinkup-orlando.opentext.com.

About Open Text

Open Text™ (Nasdaq: OTEX, TSX: OTC) is the leading independent provider of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions that bring together people, processes and information in global organizations. Today, the company supports 20 million seats across 13,000 deployments in 114 countries and 12 languages worldwide. For more information on Open Text, go to http://www.opentext.com.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

This news release may contain forward-looking statements relating to the success of any of the Company’s strategic initiatives, the Company’s growth and profitability prospects, the benefits of the Company’s products to be realized by customers, the Company’s position in the market and future opportunities therein, the deployment of Livelink and our other products by customers, and future performance of Open Text Corporation. Forward-looking statements may also include, without limitation, any statement relating to future events, conditions or circumstances. Forward-looking statements in this release are not promises or guarantees and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. The risks and uncertainties that may affect forward-looking statements include, among others, the failure to develop new products, risks involved in fluctuations in currency exchange rates, delays in purchasing decisions of customers, the completion and integration of acquisitions, the possibility of technical, logistical or planning issues in connection with deployments, the continuous commitment of the Company’s customers, demand for the Company’s products and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2005. You should not place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements, which are based on management’s beliefs and opinions at the time the statements are made, and the Company does not undertake any obligations to update forward-looking statements should circumstances or management’s beliefs or opinions change.

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Copyright © 2005 by Open Text Corporation. LIVELINK and OPEN TEXT are trademarks or registered trademarks of Open Text Corporation in the United States of America, Canada, the European Union and/or other countries. This list of trademarks is not exhaustive.

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