Open letter from Yan Calotychos, founder of iView Multimedia

Tuesday June 27, 2006 - Today marks an exciting new chapter for iView and its relationship with our customers. We’re announcing that iView has been acquired and is now part of the Microsoft Corporation. With Microsoft’s purchase of iView, we are in a position to enhance our industry-leading product, whilst strengthening our customer service and support.As digital asset management has become an essential requirement for all creative professionals, many of you have told us that iView MediaPro is a critical component of your business. We take that responsibility very seriously. In my view, this Microsoft acquisition affords us an unprecedented opportunity to be even more responsive to a thriving market and ensure that iView MediaPro continues to perform to its full potential. Our engineering and marketing team here at iView are energized and excited to be joining the Microsoft team, and I personally will continue to be involved in the evolution of the product for years to come.

What this acquisition will mean for you, our customers, is that together we face a bigger and brighter future in managing your creative workflow. The product that was born on the Mac will remain on the Mac as well as on the Windows operating system. All iView products will continue to be sold on the iView website and through our partners and channel. Bottom line: You all can continue to use and buy iView products knowing that they will be fully supported as Microsoft evolves the products in the future on both the Windows and Mac platforms.

Your feedback and suggestions have been integral to the development and tuning of our software, and as always we welcome your comments and questions. We have provided an FAQ regarding this announcement and we will keep you informed through regular newsletters and blog postings as appropriate.

Thank you again for your support, and we look forward to sharing with you the evolution of iView MediaPro — the industry’s true standard for digital asset management.

Sincerely,
Yan’s signature
Yan and the iView Team

Acquisition FAQ

Microsoft completed the acquisition of iView Group Limited on June 22, 2006. iView Multimedia is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft Corporation. With the acquisition, the iView products and team are now part of Microsoft.

Q: Why did Microsoft buy iView?

A: Microsoft bought iView because we are a premier provider of digital asset management (DAM) technology. Today’s creative and business professionals create, share and store large volumes of digital files. iView’s DAM software tools are essential for streamlining workflows to manage and use these files.

Q: What are Microsoft’s plans for iView products?

A: Microsoft has many exciting plans for iView’s technologies and product line. Details on future product plans and availability will be announced at a future date.

It is important for current iView customers and those considering buying iView products to know the following:

  * All iView products will continue to be sold on the iView web site and through many of iView’s existing partners/channel. Existing customers and new customers who buy iView products will continue to receive full support, per their iView software agreements.
  * Macintosh versions of iView products will continue to be available and fully supported.
  * Users of iView products will be offered promotional upgrade pricing for any future products that Microsoft releases that are based on the existing iView products.
  * Users of earlier versions of iView MediaPro (pre v3.x) and iView Media will continue to qualify for upgrades to the version 3.x product line, and can upgrade now and in the future to the latest version.

Therefore, customers can continue to use and buy iView products knowing that they will be fully supported as Microsoft evolves the iView product line in the future, for both Windows and Macintosh platforms.

Q: What are Microsoft’s plans for the Macintosh versions of iView software?

A: The Macintosh versions of iView software are great products with a large and loyal user base that is important to Microsoft. As Mac users know, workgroups and teams often include a mixture of users working on both Windows and Mac workstations with a need for a high degree of collaboration.

Microsoft will fully support the existing Mac products, will continue to sell Mac versions of the current iView product line and will offer upgrade pricing to all Mac users of future products that may be available based on the iView products.

Q: When can iView and Microsoft tell us more about the future of the iView product line?

A: As with any acquisition, we are working on our full plans and will communicate them as soon as we can to our customers.

Q: What is happening to the iView Team?

A: The entire iView team is staying on board, so you can expect the same level of professionalism and enthusiasm that you have become accustomed to, from the same people. The development team including Yan will be relocating to Redmond to join forces with Microsoft. The web site, support network and forums are open for business as usual, and you can contact us in the same ways you have done in the past — we look forward to hearing from you!