BackWeb Launches Universal Push Initiative

Lucent and HP Join Other Industry Leaders in Support of Effort to Bring Push Technology to Any Network, Any Device and Any User

SAN JOSE, Calif. — July 24, 2000 — BackWeb® Technologies (Nasdaq: BWEB), a leading provider of push for e-business solutions, today launched a strategic, industry-wide initiative to enable Universal Push. Powered by next-generation push technology, Universal Push provides e-businesses with a single communications infrastructure for any application to deliver content to any user on any common data device via BackWeb Polite™ Push, email, wireless, fax, and voice mail. Several industry leaders – including Lucent Technologies EMEA and Hewlett Packard Company – announced support for the initiative and for the benefits of universally bringing critical or time-sensitive information to desktop and laptop systems, mobile phones, pagers and other wireless devices.

The launch of Universal Push coincides with the debut of the BackWeb Push Application Server, which features first-of-its-kind technology to support multiple delivery methods via Internet and wireless and incorporating standard CORBA and XML interfaces. The new server also includes a groundbreaking "escalation" feature that allows information to dynamically "find" the user by roaming from one device to the next until it reaches the intended recipient. BackWeb today also announced strategic push technology alliances with IBM (NYSE: IBM) and FILMSPEED.

"Universal Push represents a revolutionary shift in how important information will reach users, and relieves e-business applications from having to care where users are located or what device they are using," said Eli Barkat, chairman and CEO of BackWeb Technologies. "This presents enormous opportunities for e-business innovators who understand that delivering the right information to the right people becomes a competitive advantage only when it's delivered at the right time. With so many industry leaders voicing their strong support for this effort, we anticipate Universal Push will continue to gain accelerated acceptance worldwide."

"A terrific opportunity awaits any company that can create a truly universal push delivery infrastructure for the Internet," said Geoffrey Moore, best-selling author, chairman and founding director of The Chasm Group, and a venture partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures. "The Universal Push opportunity encompasses every major vertical market and communications application, and BackWeb is beautifully poised to seize it."

A New Application Server for the Changing Internet
BackWeb's Push Application Server is designed to enable companies to use one software server to push notifications or data to any user, whether by BackWeb Polite Push, email, wireless, or other methods. Providing a modular, flexible architecture, the BackWeb Push Application Server allows companies to specify the use of any delivery method via a single software interface and single reporting system. The Push Application Server will route deliveries to any appropriate delivery method and escalate or change delivery methods based on easy-to-define business logic. For example, if a user is not at his desk to receive a time-sensitive notification at his PC, the content would be automatically re-routed by the Push Application Server to his handheld device or mobile phone.

Enabled by BackWeb's proven success in powering push for e-business applications, Universal Push presents exciting new opportunities for a broad range of companies, including:

e-CRM and e-commerce applications that require on-time communications of promotions, service alerts and market changes – no matter where users are located and what devices they are using;
Portal hosts that require on-time notifications for critical content, as well as those who want proactive delivery of large content to portal subscribers for online or offline use;
B-to-B exchange applications that require on-time communications of RFP/RFQs, catalogs, pricing lists, bids, and IT notification throughout the supply chain;
Executive communications applications that require on-time delivery of notifications as well as rich-media announcements to employees, partners and customers; and
Web entertainment providers who need proactive delivery of rich-media content including music, video, and games to their subscriber base.

As part of its strategy to enable its customers to proactively deliver content across any network, BackWeb will provide a broad range of productized delivery methods and a modular architecture that allows customers to easily add their own delivery. To speed development of wireless delivery methods, BackWeb recently acquired the technology assets of Mobix Communications Ltd., a leading provider of technology platforms for wireless data solutions. Combining Mobix technology with the BackWeb Push Application Server enables BackWeb software to deliver content across many common wireless networks, including GSM, Mobitex, and CDMA.

With BackWeb's Polite push technology as the delivery method from the Push Application Server, even media-rich content can be pushed to users with no effect on the performance of other network applications such as email and browsing. As a result, Global 2000 companies can simultaneously deliver audio and video files, slide presentations and other sophisticated multimedia content to any number of recipients – from thousands of employees and partners to millions of consumers.

Global 2000 Leaders Voice Support for Universal Push
While BackWeb's Universal Push supporters represent a broad range of industries and application areas, all of them recognize the competitive advantages of using Polite push technology to deliver vital information across the last mile of the Internet.

"The benefits of Universal Push are obvious," said Mike Alex, director of E-Commerce Services for Jefferies & Company, Inc., which serves large institutional investors such as pension fund and mutual fund managers. "The ability to automatically escalate an urgent communication from one device to the next can mean everything to institutional investors who trade millions of dollars each day. Universal Push redefines the notion of efficient Internet communication."

"BackWeb's Universal Push initiative represents a major step forward in Internet-based communications," said Ralph Anzarouth, director of channel marketing at Lucent Technologies EMEA. "Lucent already uses push technology to update its distributors and resellers on the latest news and information, so the benefits of extending the reach of push are obvious to us. We are delighted to see push technology reach such new heights."

About BackWeb Technologies
BackWeb Technologies is a leading offline Web software company. BackWeb extends the value of technology investments by offering mobile and remote employees offline access to portals, intranets and other Web-based applications and content. The company's products reduce network costs and improve the productivity of an increasingly mobile workforce. At the core of BackWeb's products is its patented Polite® synchronization technology that can distribute large amounts of data even over narrow bandwidth connections. BackWeb® customers include market leaders such as Boehringer Ingelheim, Centocor, Eastman Kodak, GE Healthcare, Guidant, HP, KLA Tencor, Lam Research, Pfizer and more than one hundred other companies. BackWeb also has strategic reseller alliances with software industry leaders: Plumtree, SAP and IBM. The company is headquartered in San Jose, Calif. and Rosh Ha'ayin, Israel. For more information, visit www.backweb.com or call (800) 863-0100.

Statements in this news release, which are not purely historical, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Securities laws, including statements of beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Examples of these statements include, but are not limited to, the ability of BackWeb software to allow customers to gain mobile, disconnected use of their portals and help increase field sales and field service productivity, the integration of BackWeb software with BEA products will help developers extend portal applications for offline use without changing the way they work, and the ability of the resulting applications to help field sales and service organizations realize maximum productivity, cost savings, and process acceleration gains while disconnected from the network. Actual results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include unforeseen technological issues related to use of the BackWeb software, deployment issues related to implementation, unforeseen software errors, competitive factors and business and expense factors that may affect the perceived efficiencies from use of BackWeb's products, and the risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in BackWeb's periodic reports and registration statements filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. BackWeb assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release.