Open Text Reports Second Quarter Fiscal 2001 Results

Collaborative Commerce Drives 55% Growth in License Revenue

Waterloo, ON - 2001-02-01 - Open Text Corporation(Nasdaq:OTEX)(TSE:OTC), a worldwide leader of collaborative commerce software for e-business, today announced record results for its second quarter of fiscal 2001, ending December 31, 2000.(See note 1 below) License revenues grew 55% to $20.1 million from $13.0 million in the previous year's quarter. Total revenues for the quarter increased to $37.8 million, up from $26.7 million, an increase of 42% from the prior year. Open Text reported adjusted net income (See note 2 below) for the second quarter of $4.7 million, or $0.22 per diluted share, up from a loss of $0.17 in the previous year. During the quarter, the Company continued to grow its Application Service Provider (ASP) programs and b2bScene Division businesses with net costs (after revenue generated) of approximately $1.0 million, equivalent to $0.05 per share. Prior to this investment, adjusted net income (See note 2 below) was $5.7 million or $0.27 per share (diluted) for the quarter.

"Our strong license growth is an indication of the success of our collaborative commerce strategy," said Tom Jenkins, CEO of Open Text. "Open Text is one of the leading vendors in this new and exciting space and we believe that the overall sector is poised for strong growth in the future." In accordance with US generally accepted accounting principles, the Company reported net income of $3.2 million and earnings per diluted share of $0.15 for the quarter ended December 31, 2000.

Cable & Wireless becomes enterprise wide Livelink user. The company today announced that Cable & Wireless purchased Livelink® for enterprise-wide use. During the quarter, Open Text announced that 16 of the 20 largest telecommunications companies in the world are customers and that the number of telecommunications users has now exceeded 1 million.

Global Growth drives Revenues

Livelink continues to enjoy strong momentum as companies implement collaborative commerce solutions to enhance their CRM, SCM and ERP applications. During the second quarter, Open Text's largest customers drove the results by continued enterprise-wide adoptions. Customers contributing to revenues included British Telecom, Cable & Wireless, Clearnet, IBM, Merrill Lynch, Nissho Iwai, Sun Microsystems, Siemens, Shell Corporation, and Texaco. Revenue results were broadly based across North America, Europe and Asia. For the quarter, 55% of the Company's revenue originated from North American sales, 39% from Europe and the remaining 6% from Asia. New customers contributed to 65% of license revenue and strong repeat orders from existing customers accounted for 35% of license revenue.

Acquisitions

During the quarter, Open Text purchased the shares of Bluebird Systems and certain product assets of LeadingSide. With these acquisitions, Open Text has extended its collaborative commerce solutions to SCM, CRM and ERP applications from vendors such as PeopleSoft and added features to retrieval capabilities. Senior management of Bluebird will remain with Open Text. Open Text paid $6.5 million cash for Bluebird and has provided for additional cash payments depending on future performance. Open Text paid $3 million cash for LeadingSide. Both acquisitions have been accounted for during this second quarter and were accretive to profits.

Major Product Initiatives

During the quarter, the Company delivered its next major product release, Livelink 9.0, which features increased functionality, and expanded enterprise integration capabilities. This product was launched on October 30th at the Open Text Annual Users' Conference.

Major Market Activities

During October, the Company held its annual Users' Conference in San Antonio, Texas and a European user symposium in Paris, France. More than 2,000 attended these events, representing a major expansion of user activity for the Company. The Company also launched a new marketing campaign around Livelink as a collaborative commerce solution.

Other activities in the quarter

During the quarter, the Company repurchased 724,900 shares under the Normal Course Issuer Bid, for a total of $17 million and will continue to repurchase shares which it views are under valued.

Open Text will be conducting a teleconference call to discuss the financial results for second quarter fiscal 2001 at 8:30 A.M., EST. The public is invited to listen in on the call by dialing 416/641-6444. Details for playback of the call are available at www.opentext.com.

1. Reported under U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). All amounts are in US Dollars.

About Open Text

Open Text makes collaborative commerce products that provide organizations with the ability to extend their current CRM, SCM and ERP applications to allow users to work together inside and outside their organization. Open Text has pioneered the development of innovative intranet and extranet ebusiness applications. Since creating one of the first search engines to index the World Wide Web, the Company has remained at the forefront of Internet-based technologies. Its product family called Livelink enables individuals, teams, organizations, and global trading communities to collaborate on e-business applications that facilitate e-commerce and other transactions among Global 2000 organizations. For more information, visit www.opentext.com.

Trademark

Copyright (c) 2000 by Open Text Corporation. Livelink, myLivelink, b2bScene and Open Text are trademarks or registered trademarks of Open Text Corporation. This list is not exhaustive. Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Release Disclaimer

This news release may contain forward-looking statements relating to the deployment of Livelink and myLivelink by customers, and future performance of Open Text Corporation and b2bscene. Forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include, among others, risks involved in the completion and integration of acquisitions, the possibility of technical, logistical or planning issues in connection with deployments, the continuous commitment of the Company's customers and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the final prospectus for the Company's initial public offering of common stock in January 1996, Form 10-K for the years ended June 30, 1997, June 30, 1998, June 30, 1999, and June 30, 2000, and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2000. Forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs and opinions at the time the statements are made, and the Company does not undertake any obligations to update forward-looking statements should circumstances or management's beliefs or opinions change.

For more information, please contact

Alan Hoverd
Chief Financial Officer
Open Text Corporation
519-888-7111 ext. 2480
ahoverd@opentext.com

Greg Secord
Open Text Corporation
+1-519-888-7111 ext.2408
gsecord@opentext.com