"Borland believes that the .NET platform will rapidly succeed as organizations experience the benefits of this robust platform for Web Services," said Simon Thornhill, vice president and general manager of Rapid Application Development solutions at Borland. "Borland's full support of the .NET platform provides developers a fast and productive path for leveraging existing skills and IT investments to gain the many benefits of .NET. Our customers can be assured that Borland is committed to providing the support developers need to take advantage of the rich functionality, code safety, and Web Services interoperability of the .NET platform."

Borland plans for future versions of Borland rapid application development (RAD) products Delphi and C++Builder to support and accelerate the creation of managed-code applications for the Microsoft .NET Framework by integrating support for the Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL). Through this integration, customer investments in RAD skills, source code, and platform flexibility are preserved. Seamless interoperability between Microsoft .NET, Windows®, Java™and Linux® platforms is provided through Web Services in current and future Borland development products including Delphi, C++Builder, Kylix™, and JBuilder™.

"Microsoft is thrilled with the significant commitment that Borland has demonstrated by adding Delphi and C++Builder to the ecosystem of development environments for the Microsoft .NET platform," said Eric Rudder, senior vice president, .NET and Platform Evangelism at Microsoft Corp. "These two development environments are a significant advancement for our shared customers."

About the Microsoft® .NET™ Platform
Microsoft .NET, Microsoft's XML-based Web Services platform, will benefit both businesses and end-users. For businesses, it changes the way they build software and sell products, making information technology a significant contributor to corporate success and introducing new business models. For end users, .NET will produce unparalleled access to a dramatically more personal, integrated computing experience. XML Web Services are constructed using XML for data exchange to help applications, services and devices work together. Sharing data through XML allows Web Services to be independent of each other while simultaneously giving them the ability to loosely link themselves into a collaborative group that performs a particular task.

Borland Web Services Initiatives
As a leader in platform independent technologies and a supporter of open standards, Borland continues to build on key Web Services initiatives. In 2001, Borland successfully launched Delphi 6, the first rapid application development (RAD) environment for building Web Services on the Windows operating system; Borland Kylix, for rapid development of Web Services and e-business applications on the Linux platform; and Borland Web Services Kit for Java for enterprises to create and deploy Web Services with the Java and J2EE™ (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition) platform using Borland JBuilder. For more information on how Borland is delivering Web Services, please visit the Borland Web site, http://www.borland.com/webservices.