A New Leader Emerges in the Online Travel Technology Market.


PhoCusWright LIVEurope, Montreux, Switzerland; and ATTIS, Dublin, Ireland, May 10, 2000 - Datalex (www.datalex.com) completed its merger with Sight & Sound Software (www.book-smart.com) today. Sight & Sound Software's leading product, BookSmart, is a top-performing online travel booking engine. Datalex is a leading provider of e-Business applications, such as the BookIt! suite of Internet booking engines, and full service travel industry solutions such as the ARIVA CRM suite and web-hosting. The combined company is better positioned to serve new and existing customers, bring innovative solutions to market faster and deliver the underlying technologies needed to allow the online travel industry to continue to expand and reach its full potential.

Neil Wilson remains CEO of Datalex Limited global group operations located in Dublin, Ireland while Jeff Kennedy officially assumed the role of CEO of Datalex Communications USA Inc. located in the United States. "We are pleased to say we've received positive feedback from our customers," said Wilson, whose clients include Delta Air Lines and British Airways. "We will remain committed to our customers as we combine the best technology and architectural attributes of both BookSmart and BookIt! and surround them with products that support tours and private fares reservations, travel vendor connectivity and CRM."

"This merger reflects the demand for sophistication and personalization in booking engine technology," Kennedy said. "We are both looking forward to extending Datalex's ability to serve the needs of the online travel enterprise."

The company's full range of products satisfy the needs of the online travel businesses and provide the open architecture needed to work with other best-of-class solutions to build a complete enterprise infrastructure.

"I would call this the perfect marriage," said Mark Tilden, CTO of Sight & Sound. "Datalex brought travel breadth to the organization while Sight & Sound added a technical depth."


Company & product plans
The combined company's corporate headquarters will remain in Dublin, Ireland. The Dublin office will serve customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and function as the center of excellence for research and development of leisure travel products. The Portland office will become a center of excellence for booking engine research and architectural development.

"Datalex's global presence will deliver this technology worldwide through locations in Europe, North America, Australia and Africa, and through a network of global integration and hosting partnerships." Wilson added.


About Datalex
Datalex is the leading global provider of full-service, end-to-end Information Technology solutions to the airline and travel industry. Founded in 1985, the company is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, and maintains offices in Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Johannesburg, South Africa; Manchester, England; Melbourne, Australia; and Portland, Oregon, USA. Datalex employs more than 370 professionals. The company's core competence is in devising solutions for e-Commerce, Enterprise Application Integration and Customer Relationship Management. Each day Datalex products and solutions are used throughout the world by major airlines, travel agencies and thousands of travel consumers. Datalex was recently announced as a technology partner for the new airline travel site founded by United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines. Other major travel customers include Aer Lingus, Amadeus, Air Canada, American Airlines, Amtrak, British Airways, California State Automobile Association, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, KLM, Korean Air, Lufthansa, Mexicana, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Tickets.com, Thai Airways, Varig and Worldspan. For more information please visit the company's Web site at www.datalex.com.