BackWeb Introduces 20 New Internet Content Channels

Internet World Booth #381

NEW YORK, N.Y., December 11, 1996 -- At Internet World today, BackWeb Technologies announced 20 new channels, dramatically expanding the Internet content that can be delivered directly to PC users' desktops in their idle online time. The new BackWeb channels range from financial news to ski reports, astrology forecasts to weather updates, technology news to sports scores, kids games to music. BackWeb develops and markets personalized broadcasting software for the Internet, reversing the web so that rich content finds interested consumers rather than consumers having to search for it.

The channels that will be up and running by year's end include American Singles, Astrology.Net, GeoCities, inquiry.com, The Jerusalem Post, Jumbo!, NetRadio Network, ResourceWorks, SmartGames, The SnowReport Channel, SOFTBANK Expos, The SoundBox, SportsLine USA, TuneUp.com, Vanguard Media, Virtual Vineyards, VocalTec, Web Publisher, Y? Entertainment and WGBH. The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition's BackWeb channel will be available in January 1997. Information on each new BackWeb channel is attached.

BackWeb also announced that WorldCom has joined BackWeb's partner program and will offer a public hosting service for BackWeb channel owners.
To receive content from the new channels, users simply go to the BackWeb web site at http://www.backweb.com, download the free client software and subscribe to their preferred channels. Subscribers will then receive content from their specified channels at regular intervals, downloaded in the background during idle online time. Users will be alerted to the arrival of the content with BackWeb's unique Flashes, which find users in the application they're using and alert them at the bottom of the screen. If interested, the user simply clicks on the Flash to get the downloaded content.

"BackWeb's new channels and its background technology deliver personalized multimedia content directly to consumers, giving them a great experience, while they're using the existing communication infrastructure of 28.8 kbs modems," said R. Victor Varney, marketing manager for the Developer Relations Group, Intel Corp. "BackWeb's technology is an exciting example of our vision for hybrid applications, which combine the capabilities of high-performance, connected PCs with the interactivity of the Internet."

"We've assembled a terrific range of new channels that will accelerate the reversal of the web," said Eli Barkat, CEO of BackWeb Technologies. "We're confident that every user will find something valuable, something fun, something timely. The good news is they only have to find it once. After that, the content comes to them.²

The following Channel owners are already delivering content over the Internet to PC users' desktops using BackWeb's personalized broadcasting software: Clinton/Gore, EarthWeb's Gamelan Java Application Directory, General Motors, InfoSeek, Mecklermedia's iWorld, Open Zone, The Patricia Seybold Group, Pulver.com, Utopia, The Weather Channel, and ZDNet. BackWeb Technologies is exhibiting at Internet World here this week, in booth #381 at the Jacob Javits Center.

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.