BackWeb Reports Q1 Revenue, Earnings In Line With Preliminary Results

Announces Signing of First Two ProactivePortal Server Customers ProactivePortal Server Version Two Launch Scheduled for May

SAN JOSE, Calif., April 18, 2002 – BackWeb Technologies (Nasdaq: BWEB), the leading provider of ProactivePortal™ technologies for the enterprise, today announced results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2002.

Revenues for the first quarter of 2002 were $2.3 million compared with $7.2 million for the same period last year and $4.4 million reported in the fourth quarter of 2001. Including amortization related to intellectual property, other intangibles and deferred stock compensation, net loss for the first quarter of 2002 was $5.7 million, or a loss of $0.15 per share. This compares with a net loss of $7.9 million, or a loss of $0.21 per share in the same period last year and a loss of $6.0 million, or a loss of $0.15 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2001.

Excluding these charges, net loss for the first quarter of 2002 was $4.8 million, or a loss of $0.12 per share compared with a net loss of $7.0 million, or a loss of $0.18 per share in the same period last year. This compares with $5.0 million, or a loss of $0.13 per share reported in the fourth quarter of 2001.

"During the first quarter we continued to deliver on our portal strategy," said Eli Barkat, chairman and CEO of BackWeb Technologies. "Although we are still in the early phase of our portal sales cycle, we are encouraged by the strength of our customer pipeline. Our first two customers' decision to embrace BackWeb's technology as a core element of their new portal initiatives is an exciting development for the company. While we were disappointed that revenues from our legacy business declined faster than we anticipated, we have taken steps necessary to lower our expense levels and maintain our cash position. We were quite pleased with the tangible progress we made in our portal business and remain focused on reaching profitability by the end of the calendar year."

Quarterly Highlights

FIRST TWO PROACTIVEPORTAL SERVER CUSTOMERS SIGNED
The company announced the signing of its first two ProactivePortal Server customers. Owens-Illinois, a BackWeb® e-Accelerator™ customer and one of the world's leading producers of glass and plastics packaging products, has chosen to implement the ProactivePortal Server to enhance the capabilities of its new enterprise portal. Using BackWeb's notification and offline portal capabilities, Owens-Illinois will be able to accurately monitor and assess the productivity of its manufacturing plants by sharing critical information, including plant efficiency levels. BackWeb also announced that it has signed a ProactivePortal Server license agreement with a leading provider of Internet security software. This well-known company, has chosen BackWeb technology to offline enable the sales section of its corporate portal. The software company expects to increase productivity of key personnel by providing offline access to critical content. Both companies are in the first phase of portal deployment and have included BackWeb technology as a critical component. By increasing productivity and providing up-to-date critical information, each company expects to increase its portal return-on-investment.

"Both of these customer wins represent another significant milestone on the strategic roadmap we outlined. During a very short period, BackWeb has successfully introduced a unique portal product; acquired solid industry analyst endorsement of its critical value; and established strategic partnerships with the leading portal framework and system integration providers," said Mr. Barkat. "We are pleased that we have been able to translate this general market momentum into our first ProactivePortal Server customer wins and believe that they represent significant progress in our portal strategy."

PROACTIVEPORTAL SERVER V2 LAUNCH SCHEDULED
BackWeb plans to launch version 2 of its ProactivePortal Server product on May 1, 2002. Version 2 is the result of a major research and development effort and was designed to meet specific customer requirements. Some of the new capabilities include the ability to create an offline portal user interface (UI) that is identical to the online experience; the ability to integrate seamlessly with any portal framework; the ability to fine-tune the information received offline through personalized subscriptions; and the ability to leverage BackWeb's patented Polite® delivery technology to ensure a scalable and transparent networking experience.

Offline access is now recognized as an essential component of a successful portal strategy, one that corporations need to incorporate in the initial phase of portal deployment. The newest version is an exciting enterprise-ready solution that allows corporations to seamlessly integrate offline access capabilities. By placing BackWeb ‘OTML' tags on their portal HTML pages, companies can plug the pages into existing portal frameworks without any programming changes.

EXPENSE REDUCTIONS
In addition to various cost cutting measures implemented during the first quarter that led to a 21 percent reduction of expenses, excluding bad debt, over the fourth quarter of 2001, the company has also instituted a company-wide salary reduction early in the second quarter. The company expects to reduce the second quarter 2002 expense levels by an additional four to five percent from the first quarter 2002 run-rate.

Conference Call
Management will hold a conference call to discuss these results today, Apr. 18, at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Those wishing to join should dial (312) 470-7209, passcode "BackWeb" at approximately 1:45 p.m. A live webcast of the conference call will also be available via the company's website at www.backweb.com. A replay of the call will be available starting one hour after the completion of the call until Apr. 25, 2002. To access the replay, please dial (402) 220-9816.