[topicmapmail] Ontopia acquired by Bouvet

[Lars Marius Garshol]

There haven't been many press releases on this mailing list so far,  
but I thought this one was worth it...


ONTOPIA ACQUIRED BY BOUVET
Oslo, 16 March 2007

Ontopia and Bouvet announce that Bouvet has acquired all shares in
Ontopia. Bouvet is a Norwegian consulting house of more than 300
consultants, which has had a strong focus on Topic Maps for a number
of years. Today Bouvet has around 40 consultants building Topic
Maps-based solutions. According to the sales agreement, Bouvet
acquires all of Ontopia's employees, partners, and customers, as well
as the Ontopia Knowledge Suite (OKS). The move further strengthens
Bouvet's Topic Maps focus.

Bouvet has over the past few years built Norway's leading consulting
team on Topic Maps, and has developed more than 40 solutions for
customers like Norway Post, the Norwegian Directorate for Education
and Training, and the Norwegian Consumers' Council. Last month saw the
launch of both the citizen's portal for the city of Bergen, Norway's
second largest city, and TheGovernment.no. Both launches have received
wide media coverage.

Ontopia and Bouvet have had a close partnership over many years, and
together delivered solutions like Kulturnett.no (Norwegian cultural
portal) and the city of Bergen portal. The acquisition makes Ontopia
part of a much larger entity, with the resources to take the Ontopia
vision forward.

"Getting Ontopia's deep Topic Maps competence on board at Bouvet is
very exciting for us. It strengthens our ambition to deliver a broad
range of Topic Maps-based solutions. Given today's focus on semantic
standards the timing is perfect," says Ole-Jørgen Tallaksrud, head of
business development at Bouvet.

"We were looking for alternative ways to grow, and found Bouvet to be
the most attractive option. Bouvet's broad competence complements our
own narrower focus very well," says Ontopia's CTO Lars Marius Garshol.
"We believe we can achieve much more as part of Bouvet than we were
able to on our own."

"Ontopia has played a decisive role in establishing Topic Maps as an
important technology, both in Norway and internationally," comments
Steve Pepper. Steve has been chair of Ontopia's board until the
acquisition. "I'm delighted that Bouvet, with their competence and
professionalism, now take over this inheritance and carry it forward."

For more information, please contact:

Ole-Jørgen Tallaksrud, Bouvet, head of business development.
Email: <ole.tallaksrud at bouvet.no> Phone: +47 91 36 18 89

Lars Marius Garshol, CTO of Ontopia until the acquisition.
Email: <larsga at ontopia.net> Phone: +47 98 21 55 50

Sverre Hurum, Bouvet, CEO, Bouvet.
Email: <sverre.hurum at bouvet.no> Phone: +47 23 40 60 00

-- 
Lars Marius Garshol                         Mobile: +47 98 21 55 50
CTO, Ontopia                                Office: +47 23 23 30 83