Leading Global Provider of Business Solutions to the Postal Industry Strengthens e-Commerce Offerings

Boston, Mass. - April 3, 2000 - Escher Group Ltd, the world's leading provider of e-commerce solutions to the postal industry, today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Anshe Limited, an Irish-based, privately held postal solutions company. Under the terms of the agreement, Escher Group will acquire all of the capital stock of Anshe Limited in exchange for cash and Escher stock. Operating as Escher Europe, Anshe's management team and its workforce of 25 will provide expanded sales and support for the growing customer base.

Customers will immediately benefit from the acquisition through the release of a range of tools and applications that will extend their investment in Escher's flagship Riposte technology. The acquisition brings together the robustness and proven reliability of Escher's Riposte product with Anshe's Web-based postal solutions. Integration of Anshe technology into Escher's product offerings will commence immediately with specific product releases expected within 90 days.

"The acquisition of Anshe is a key step in our ongoing strategy to provide the latest advances in e-commerce expertise to the postal industry," commented a spokesperson for Escher Group. "Anshe is well-respected throughout the postal community and its management team brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to Escher Group. Additional benefit to our customers will include the patented Anshe web-based user interface, a set of XML vocabularies for postal automation and an Internet fulfillment and shipping solution which helps customers access post office products through the Internet."

Since its introduction in 1993, Escher Group's Riposte has quickly become the market leader in post office automation. Riposte's distributed messaging platform provides unmatched transaction processing speed and reliability. Retail, agency, banking and mails transactions can be easily and securely automated using Riposte.

Building on the success of Riposte, Escher has introduced RiposteDispatch™ a suite of products and services for the definition, sale and delivery of Internet postage, Internet fulfillment and ticketing services. Both Escher's and Anshe's product platforms are based on the self-describing message format XML. This similarity of approach simplifies product set integration.

"The move to doing business on the Internet and the adoption E-commerce is happening at breakneck speed. Escher is the undisputed leader in the provision of advanced solutions for the postal industry, by joining forces, we can provide the technologies that our customers need for e-commerce today," said Liam Church, managing director, Anshe Limited.

About Escher Group, Limited

Escher Group Limited is a leading provider of distributed transaction processing and data management solutions and services. The company offers a business-to-business XML-based transaction management environment, used in thousands of locations worldwide. Since its introduction in 1993, Riposte®, Escher's flagship messaging solution, has grown to become the market leader in post office counter automation.

Trademarks: WebRiposte and Riposte are trademarks or registered trademarks of Escher Group, Limited in the United States and/or other countries. All other product names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

Contact Information:

Escher Group Limited
information@eschergroup.com