BackWeb Forms Strategic Alliances with Individual, Desktop Data to Deliver Integrated Content to Enterprise Desktops

SAN JOSE, Dec. 10, 1997 -- BackWeb Technologies, a leader in enterprise push solutions, announced today strategic alliances with the industry's two leading news and information providers: Individual, Inc. and Desktop Data. The partnerships will allow corporate customers using Individual's First! or Desktop Data's NewsEDGE services to combine customized news and information from hundreds of sources with internal and external content. The announcement coincides with today's launch of BackWeb Infocenter 4.0, which delivers relevant information throughout the day directly to the desktop. "Synthesizing news and information with internal communications and databases is key to the success of knowledge workers," said Eli Barkat, BackWeb's chief executive officer. "Today's announcement with Individual and Desktop Data delivers that synthesis to enterprises."

The BackWeb Solution
Companies using BackWeb can create channels to send relevant information directly to employees' desktops. Organizations can design channels for all employees to see or they can build custom channels for specific groups. Channels provide an easy-to-use method for employees to receive and leverage relevant, up-to-the-minute information that is customized to their needs. Types of information that can be effectively channeled include company news, market information, documents, presentations and multimedia files.

First! and NewsEDGE both provide high-quality, filtered news content to their subscribers. With First!, BackWeb channels are mapped to Individual's Topic Library containing 2,500 pre-built industry topics. Daily news from hundreds of sources are pre-filtered and sorted into industry and company topics by Individual's SMART agent system and editorial review team. The combination of machine and human review insures a high degree of editorial quality and relevance for the reader. The First! topics appear in the BackWeb Client as channel selections, thereby allowing each reader to build a personal profile closely matching their unique information requirements.

"We've always believed that high-precision customization and editorial story selection go hand-in-hand with a powerful delivery and alerting technology like BackWeb's Infocenter," said Michael Kolowich, President and CEO of Individual. "Individual's investment in precise topic editing will mean that BackWeb's corporate customers will get the news that's most relevant to them."

Desktop's NewsEDGE's service provides real-time news into user-definable topics that map to BackWeb channels. Topics are updated continuously during the day from as many as 2,000 different sources. "Desktop Data is committed to customers needs for timely news," said Donald L. McLagan, founder and CEO of Desktop Data. "With BackWeb's Infocenter, our customers gain a competitive advantage with immediate news notification as an integral part of their knowledge management processes."

Both Individual and Desktop Data can configure a wide range of news solutions for BackWeb corporate customers. Both companies offer entry-level services with a fixed number of sources and/or topics, as well as the ability to upgrade customers to a more comprehensive source and topic mix.

BackWeb's Infocenter also gives users advanced searching, alerting and sharing capabilities. Users can specify how they want to receive information, including Flashes, Ticker, screensavers and going into the Infocenter to view the latest headlines.

BackWeb's search agent allows users to easily search the information they have received from their news services or from other channels within their organization. Users can also request to be alerted when specific information becomes available. These features become increasingly important when users are conducting research or working toward a deadline and must ensure they quickly receive correct, up-to-the-minute information.

Pricing and Availability
NewsEDGE and First! are available now to BackWeb's Enterprise customers. Customers interested in subscribing to either news service can contact BackWeb to receive a 30 day free trial. BackWeb users who wish to subscribe to NewEDGE or First! can either contact BackWeb at (800) 863-0100 for additional subscription information or call Individual or Desktop Data directly

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.