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VERITAS TO ACQUIRE E-MAIL ARCHIVING LEADER KVS

VERITAS Software Corp announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire KVault Software Limited (KVS), the worldwide leader in e-mail archiving software, in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately US$225 million. With the addition of KVS, VERITAS will have the ability to offer customers industry-leading software to store, manage, backup and archive corporate e-mail and data, enabling organizations to quickly address regulatory compliance while driving down storage management costs.

VERITAS is the industry's leading provider of software for non-array based storage management, backup and recovery and KVS is the industry's leading provider of e-mail archiving software. With more than 1.7 million seats, privately-held KVS is the only provider listed as a leader in analyst firm Gartner's e-mail archiving Magic Quadrant. Through the acquisition of KVS, VERITAS will extend its leadership position in the storage software market by offering industry leading products for storage, management, backup and archiving of all types of corporate information. Gartner projects e-mail archiving to grow at a 57 percent compound growth rate through 2007.

KVS software allows policy-based archiving of business critical information held within Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Office and file systems. Archiving infrequently accessed information with KVS software enables organizations to more easily manage storage growth in their e-mail environments while reducing associated hardware and management costs. Most importantly, KVS archiving and indexing simplifies the process of search and discovery. In the event of a regulatory inquiry, administrators can quickly discover and deliver items of interest in a fully automated fashion, minimizing disruption to the business.

"By helping improve the availability and performance of Microsoft Exchange and driving down storage costs, KVS will add another strategic component to the VERITAS utility computing portfolio," said Gary Bloom, chairman, president and CEO of VERITAS Software. "With growing regulatory requirements, customers need solutions that allow them to quickly discover specific information, whether it's in e-mail or personal documents. With the addition of KVS, we can deliver customers the market leading software for storing, managing, backing up and archiving all their information."

"VERITAS and KVS both have a strong track-record for providing independent, market-leading software. This synergy of customers, market penetration and partners will provide a logical and exciting opportunity to accelerate KVS momentum in the market," said Mike Hedger, CEO of KVS. "We share common visions and the combination of our two companies will bring tremendous benefit to our customers."

VERITAS expects to complete the acquisition by the end of September, at which time the KVS team of approximately 200 employees worldwide will operate as a separate unit under the leadership of the current KVS management team. Building on KVS' 2003 revenues of $23 million, VERITAS expects the transaction to be accretive to the company's earnings within 12 to 18 months.

About KVS

KVS is a provider of content archiving software, and was one of the first companies to identify the need to address the issues resulting from the explosive growth of information in messaging and collaborative systems. From legal/regulatory compliance and risk mitigation to infrastructure and migration challenges, KVS brings industrial strength to e-mail and collaboration systems by delivering content archiving solutions that protect and prevent a company's intellectual capital from becoming lost or dormant. The company's flagship product, Enterprise Vault reduces storage costs, simplifies the management and enables the discovery of content held within Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint and FileSystems. KVS is an international software company with offices in the United Kingdom, United States, Benelux, France, Germany and Australia. Further details can be found at www.kvsinc.com.