TestDrive and BackWeb Announce Joint Development of Electronic Commerce Suite; Combines industry leaders in try/buy and push technologies

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--Sept. 8, 1997 -- TestDrive Corporation and BackWeb Technologies today announced that they will integrate TestDrive's try/buy technology with the BackWeb push technology client to provide a Software Electronic Commerce (SEC) client/server product suite. The companies will co-develop a client application that allows electronic merchants to push applications to users in the background and then try and purchase the applications using TestDrive-enabled Electronic Software Distribution (ESD) technology.

The agreement pairs two industry leaders in try/buy and push technologies. TestDrive/Internet is the first true, non-intrusive, complete, try/buy solution for marketing and distributing software on the Internet. BackWeb Technologies is the leading provider of enterprise push software solutions for the Internet and corporate intranets/extranets.

"This partnership combines two of the leading-edge technologies-- try/buy and electronic merchandising -- in the ESD market," said Ed Lauing, president and CEO of TestDrive. "TestDrive's superior try/buy technologies combined with BackWeb's leading push technologies will offer electronic merchants a profitable solution for electronic software commerce."

"Our electronic software commerce customers have seen much success to date," said Eli Barkat, CEO of BackWeb Technologies. "This integrated product will provide companies with an even more powerful solution for true commerce on the Internet."

"The combination of BackWeb's push technologies with TestDrive's transaction technologies offers a compelling sales tool for increasing transactions and sales on the Internet," said Steve Klebe, senior vice president of sales and marketing at CyberSource, the premier supplier of trusted digital commerce services supporting delivery technologies such as the TestDrive/BackWeb solution. "We believe try/buy and push are key enabling technologies for the continued success of electronic product distribution."

The jointly developed SEC client/server product suite will allow electronic merchants to push TestDrive-packaged applications to prospects and customers. The product suite will be based on TestDrive's electronic software distribution product suite and BackWeb's next version. Co-development plans call for a highly integrated solution suite, resulting in an easy-to-use, non-intrusive trial experience for the user and a graphical-rich platform for the delivery of electronic marketing and merchandising materials from electronic merchants. The SEC client/server product suite is expected to be available by the end of the year.

About TestDrive Corporation
TestDrive Corporation is the leading provider of complete, non-intrusive, secure try/buy products and services for ISVs, software retailers and emerging electronic retail channels. TestDrive's patented, advanced encryption, full product trial and purchase technologies and electronic distribution partnerships enable software vendors to distribute their products via the Internet, CD-ROM, floppy or OEM hard drive. The company's products and turnkey creative, technical, customer support, transaction management and fulfillment services are sold directly worldwide. TestDrive Corporation is headquartered in Mountain View, CA, and can be reached at 415-237-6700, or at their web site at www.testdrive.com.

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.