January 10, 2001

Mitek Systems Inc. of San Diego, a developer of automated document recognition technology, has signed a multiyear licensing agreement with BankWare of Birmingham, Ala., for integration of its QuickStrokes intelligent character recognition software into BankWare's ImageCentre solution.

Mitek received an order from BankWare for QuickStrokes as a result of the contract.

BankWare will integrate QuickStrokes into its ImageCentre product, the financial industry's first and only completely Internet browser-based check imaging, document imaging, remittance processing, and COLD solution.

"Mitek's software is utilized as a key component of our ScanAll Recognition System,” says Bob Darty, principal of BankWare. “We are confident that QuickStrokes will continue to provide the efficiencies, the high recognition rates, and the advanced recognition capabilities that BankWare customers have come to expect from our ImageCentre solutions."

"We are very pleased to be working with BankWare,” says John M. Thornton, chairman and CEO. “Many advanced features of the QuickStrokes and CheckScript software are being used by BankWare within the ImageCentre system, which support recognition of various elements on a check such as courtesy and legal amount recognition, change of address detection, address extraction and signature verification."

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WebSideStory Inc. of San Diego has received $7.5 million in funding from two Silicon Valley-based venture capital firms.

The investment from TA Associates and Summit Partners — two of the largest investment firms in the United States, with combined capital of $10 billion under management — caps 2000 for WebSideStory.

The company, which pioneered the real-time method of Web traffic analysis in 1996, saw growth in several areas last year:

• The number of WebSideStory's HitBox Enterprise customers grew 700 percent from 1999 to include such companies as Cisco Systems, Akamai, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, ESPN, Terra Networks, El Sitio, New Line Cinema, Universal Studios, Skechers.com, and more.
• The firm expanded its operations overseas in 2000, opening an office in Europe, as well as in Miami to focus on Latin America.
• The company nearly doubled the number of employees and in January 2000 became the anchor tenant of a six-story office building in Sorrento Valley. The move into a 60,000-square-foot space sets the stage for future growth.

“2000 was truly an outstanding year for us despite the great volatility in the rest of the Internet sector," says John Hentrich, president and CEO of WebSideStory. "We expect to continue our strong growth through 2001."

The $7.5 million will be used for general operating purposes, Hentrich said.

Both venture capital firms have made previous investments in WebSideStory.

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Women First HealthCare Inc. has been listed among "Hottest Nasdaq Stock" in the February issue of Worth. The magazine's "Hot List" identifies the top-performing stock on Nasdaq and on the NYSE, and top-performing mutual funds, during the one-month period ended Dec. 13.

Women First, a San Diego-based specialty pharmaceutical company, was listed because the Company's stock increased 135 percent for that period, Worth reports.

"Recent events that contributed to the price increase," says Edward F. Calesa, Women First chairman, president and CEO, "include our acquisition of all rights to ORTHO-EST in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, including the ANDA, from Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical Inc., effective Jan. 1, 2001; our contract renegotiation with Laboratoires Fournier S.A., which made possible our agreement with Novation, the largest supply cost management company in health care, for Esclim; the support of The National Association of Nurse Practitioners in Women's Health of Daily Difference; and the announcement of my intention to personally acquire additional shares."

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Widcomm Inc. of Sorrento Valley and Denso Wireless of Carlsbad demonstrated Bluetooth technology at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Bluetooth is the industry's name for a short-range technology that allows people with Bluetooth-enabled wireless devices, such as phones, handhelds, laptops, pagers and PDAs, to communicate with one another and connect to the Internet without wires and cables. The technology is expected to revolutionize personal mobile connectivity.

Widcomm was selling a complete software solution that enables PC hardware manufacturers to add Bluetooth to desktop and notebook computers and Denso demonstrated how its Bluetooth handset wireless phone could communicate with a Toshiba Bluetooth laptop.

Denso also participated in a "intelligent home of the future" exhibit featuring a variety of next-generation consumer products.

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LightPointe Communications Inc., a designer and manufacturer of free-space optical products that provide quick and cost-effective connections to metropolitan fiber networks, has secured $6.5 million in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank and GATX Ventures Inc.

The funds will be used to provide working capital and equipment for the company’s continued expansion efforts in the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America and India.

The funding brings the amount of capital raised by LightPointe in less than four months to $18.5 million.

"Silicon Valley Bank is pleased to be a financial partner to LightPointe Communications," says Raquel Cunningham, Southern California v.p. of Silicon Valley Bank's regional office in San Diego. "LightPointe is a compelling company, combining strong management and investors with proven technology that economically, flexibly and reliably satisfies an undeniable need in the communications market."

LightPointe is completing field trials with major telecommunications carriers and preparing for carrier customer orders in 2001. The company is also rapidly expanding its marketing and sales activities in the Asian, Latin American and Indian markets.

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Joe R. Armstrong has been appointed CFO at Sorrento Networks, a leading provider of metro and regional optical networking solutions.

Armstrong brings more than 25 years of corporate finance, investor relations, treasury, legal and IT management experience to San Diego-based Sorrento Networks, having spent 15 years with State Of The Art Inc., a leading provider of accounting software.

As CFO, vice president, finance and secretary of State Of The Art, he managed two rounds of venture capital financing, the company’s initial public offering and several significant acquisitions and mergers.

"We feel very fortunate to have someone with Joe's background," says Jim Dixon, president and COO of Sorrento Networks. "His management experience in a high-growth environment and focus on financial performance will be invaluable in helping us achieve our aggressive expansion plans."

In his role as CFO of both Sorrento Networks Inc. and parent company Osicom, Armstrong will be the company’s senior contact for financial communications and will have responsibility for the company’s finance and information technology functions.

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PeopleFirst.com has appointed Alan Amico to the post of chief privacy officer.

Reaffirming the leading online vehicle lender's continuing commitment to online privacy, Amico will be responsible for the San Diego company’s privacy policy and practices including making sure PeopleFirst.com maintains a secure environment to attract and retain customers.

Amico will also work to increase public awareness regarding the company’s efforts in those areas.

"PeopleFirst.com has always taken the high road with respect to customer privacy," says Gary Miller, CEO of PeopleFirst.com. "We do not sell or share any customer's personally identifiable data with any marketing organization without our customer's consent."

Amico brought more than 15 years of experience to PeopleFirst.com when he joined the company in February. Along with his new role as CPO, Amico will continue his duties as general counsel and secretary of PeopleFirst.com.

"Privacy is an issue that consumers are concerned about and one that we take seriously," Amico says "As chief privacy officer, I will act as an advocate for the privacy interests of our customers by ensuring that PeopleFirst.com is fulfilling its commitment to privacy and by continuing to work with our partners on privacy issues."

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Greg Elias has been hired at Servistream, an outsourced online customer service and support provider, to join its management team as sales director.

This move comes as San Diego-based Servistream expands its services to include customer support for B2B marketplaces and ASPs.

"Greg's background and expertise are a welcomed addition to our management team,” says Thomas J. Bernsen, COO of Servistream. “He will be a great asset as we increase Servistream's successful service offerings and reach out into new markets."

Elias was previously v.p. of business development for GiantOffice Inc., a San Diego-based building-centric provider of bandwidth-intensive network services and software applications. There, he was responsible for establishing relationships with telecommunication vendors and suppliers, among other duties.

Servistream is a division of The National Dispatch Center Inc.

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Claritas Inc., a provider of intelligent marketing information and target marketing services, has signed a new agreement with Simmons Market Research Inc. that will allow it to build new products and support existing ones with Simmons media and lifestyle survey data.

"As the preferred provider of media and lifestyle information, Simmons affords San Diego-based Claritas the ability to provide marketers with a precision marketing tool that addresses today’s highly fragmented world of media and consumerism,” says Chris Wilson, president of Simmons.

“Simmons' robust lifestyle data allows marketers to see that behavior is a great predictor of product and media consumption and this is critical in putting together any successful marketing and advertising plan," Wilson added.

Claritas President and CEO Bob Nascenzi says the agreement, which renews and broadens an existing agreement with Simmons, "further solidifies our outstanding relationship, which has been firmly in place since 1983.

As part of the new agreement, Simmons will provide Claritas its National Consumer Study, which is the only syndicated, multi-media survey measuring adults 18 and older and their product consumption, media habits, attitudes and opinions, as well as access to its exclusive Kids, Teens and Hispanic studies, Nascenzi explained.

The Hispanic Study details the media and product usage as well as attitudes and opinions of Hispanic adults in the United States.

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Websense Enterprise has been awarded the CRN Test Center Editor's Choice Award for filtering software, based on the technical merit of Websense's "pass-through" technology and its channel program.

With a circulation of 117,500, Computer Reseller News is "the technology Bible" for solution providers worldwide, including systems integrators, value-added resellers and independent software vendors.

In the publication's Jan. 1 issue, the CRN Test Center staff evaluated all leading Internet filtering products before announcing Websense the winner.

"By using pass-through filtering, Websense guarantees that all network packets are inspected, an ideal solution for large enterprise networks," CRN Test Center reported. Pass-through products are the only filtering solutions that provide the necessary level of deployability, scalability and reliability required by enterprise-level environments.

One of the primary reasons CRN honored Websense with the Editor's Choice Award was the accuracy and granularity of the Websense Master Database.

"The nod goes to Websense, which provides as much as (3 million new Web pages) per week contained in over 60 categories," the center reports.

"It is Websense Enterprise's recurring revenue feature that is most attractive to resellers," says John B. Carrington, Websense CEO. "Priced at $15 per user per year, the software's return-on-investment takes about one hour. Upon factoring in employee productivity gains and network bandwidth savings, organizations of any size are eager to use the software to manage how their employees use the Internet at work."

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Novatel Wireless Inc. of San Diego has released the Minstrel 540 Wireless Modem for the HP Jornada 540 series Pocket PC.

The Minstrel 540, in conjunction with the HP Jornada Pocket PC, becomes a virtual office users can take with them anywhere. The modem is compatible with the HP Jornada's bundled Pocket Inbox and Pocket Explorer applications, delivering wireless access to e-mail, the Internet, and corporate LANs to users on the go and on the road.

"The Minstrel 540 is the perfect fit for the HP Jornada 540 series," reports Greg Hill, product manager for Novatel. "The sleek, ergonomic design of the Minstrel 540 is perfectly mated to the HP Jornada 540 series, by offering secure access to all the key tools of the office, the Pocket PC/Minstrel unit becomes a powerful wireless solution for professionals who want to be mobile."

Because the Minstrel 540 operates at 19.2kbps full duplex using the Cellular Digital Packet Data network, the modem delivers impressive functionality at considerable speed with low usage costs.

The CDPD network sends and receives packet data over existing analog cellular voice networks, which keeps usage rates low. CDPD is currently the fastest wide-area wireless network available nationally.

"The Minstrel 540 retails at $369, which puts the Minstrel 540 at a cost that is far below other wireless WAN modems," Hill says. "When used with flat rate CDPD service plans, the Minstrel 540 creates a very affordable wireless computing solution for mobile users, and CDPD technology ensures that transmissions are fully secure at all times. In a phrase, the Minstrel 540 gives HP's Jornada 540 series Pocket PC access to the business world."

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In other Novatel news, the company has selected Space4rent (S4R) to manage its e-commerce network infrastructure.

S4R will provide Novatel with comprehensive hosting, network management and information technology infrastructure services designed to assist the company’s expansion in the wireless communications marketplace.

S4R will provide professional network management and hosting services based on its "netsourcing" service model to assist Novatel with its Internet presence as well as support the company’s marketing data analysis, online customer support, Web-based company store and links to Novatel Wireless' partners and resellers.

"Novatel Wireless required a hosting service for its Internet business activities that could also provide an extensive array of managed network services," says Carl Sarrazolla, director of information services at Novatel. "We decided to use Space4rent after we reviewed the hardware, software and staffing resources required to maintain a 24/7 operation.

"Space4rent came to us with a very competitive pricing structure coupled with an impressive breadth of service offerings and technical expertise. The company built our operation from the ground up and had it running without a glitch within two weeks of signing the contract."

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LXN Corp. has appointed George Pache to the position of v.p. and CFO. In addition, the company named Clint Severson and Nancy Katz as new members of its board.

Pache, joins San Diego-based LXN from EduPoint.com, where he served as v.p. of finance and administration and CFO. He brings more than 15 years of experience as the senior financial officer from both public and private companies.

"Pache's financial management expertise, gained in both technology and biomedical companies, will be invaluable for LXN Corporation as we expand the market for our In Charge Diabetes Control System, which includes a weekly fructosamine self-test demonstrated to help lower HbA1c scores," says Michael Beeuwsaert, president and CEO of LXN. "Additionally, welcoming two new board members with significant experience in medical diagnostics strengthens our position in helping people with diabetes lead healthier, happier lives."

Severson has served as president, CEO and director of Abaxis Inc., a medical diagnostic company, since June 1996. Katz has served as president, COO, CFO and director of Calypte BioMedical Corp., a public health care company developing diagnostic products and servers for HIV-1, sexually transmitted diseases and other chronic illnesses, since October 1999.

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Greg Bond of North Island Investments & Insurance has been named one of the nation's Top 50 Banking Financial Consultants by Bank Investment Marketing Magazine.

The award ranking, which appeared in the magazine’s December issue, acknowledges the performance of 50 investment professionals who have posted outstanding numbers for their respective institutions in gathering assets under management, generating revenues across investment programs, diversifying into new fee-income areas, acquiring new clients and growing year-over-year commissions.

Bond, a senior financial consultant, has worked with NI Investments clients for more than seven years. He provides financial and insurance products and services to North Island Financial Credit Union members and to the general public from NIFCU's Chula Vista branch office.

Of those nominated for awards, qualified applicants were ranked in six categories: commissions production, assets management, number of clients, and growth in these three areas from 1999 to 2000.

“Our organization is extremely proud that Greg has been recognized nationally as one of the leading individuals in the investment industry," says NI Investments’ COO, Brett Everhart. "He has consistently been one of our top performers at providing clients with personalized service and expert knowledge on investment and insurance products."

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