Progress acquired IONA for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $162 million and approximately $107 million net of cash and marketable securities reported on June 30, 2008, which it funded with existing cash resources.

Joseph Alsop, co-founder and chief executive officer of Progress Software commented: "The addition of IONA will strengthen Progress' position as the industry's independent choice for infrastructure software supporting heterogeneous, distributed IT environments implementing a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). IONA's products complement the Progress SOA portfolio with leading edge, best-in-class technology and enable a wider variety of interoperability and deployment options, including the support of high-performance, mission-critical systems based on C++ and CORBA. Moreover, Progress intends to leverage IONA's leadership role in standards bodies and open source software development."

In connection with the acquisition, Progress expects to issue options to purchase an aggregate of 542,800 shares of Progress common stock to approximately 90 former IONA employees who have joined Progress as part of the acquisition. The grants will be made pursuant to Progress' 2004 Inducement Stock Plan and are subject to the approval of the Compensation Committee of Progress¹ Board of Directors.

Progress expects to provide updated financial guidance with respect to the 2008 fiscal year reflecting the IONA acquisition in connection with its upcoming third quarter earnings release and conference call currently scheduled for September 18, 2008.