Vignette Acquires Epicentric

Web-application provider Vignette Corp. announced it has completed its acquisition of portal-solution provider Epicentric Inc. According to Vignette, the combination of offerings will help it enable the real-time enterprise. Vignette says the combined technologies will enable its customers to build and deploy Web applications that can access virtually every electronic asset of a company regardless of where it is stored and deliver it in the context of any user's needs. Nolan Rosen, vice president of worldwide marketing at Vignette, says there are two driving forces behind the acquisition and Vignette's attempts at offering real-time solutions: Companies needing to access and deliver valuable content in any context, and the shift away from huge, monolithic applications towards smaller, custom-built data-delivery models. "Vignette has always been on the content side of things," Rosen says. "The main value proposition has been allowing for easy, instant access to disparate types of data. Epicentric's portal solution allows us to deliver valuable content effectively while securely managing every piece of content. Through a common browser users can manage and have access to all types of information." Under the terms of the agreement, originally announced on October 29, 2002, Vignette paid $26 million in cash for outstanding Epicentric stock and may pay up to $6 million in a combination of cash and restricted stock for retention-related payments over the next two years. Michael Crosno, chairman, president, and CEO of Epicentric, has joined the Vignette leadership team as senior vice president of worldwide operations.