Mirus Advises Upspring Software on its Sale to MKS

Boston, MA, March 28, 2001 – Mirus Capital Advisors, Inc., a leading middle market investment bank in Boston, is pleased to announce the sale of its client, Upspring Software, Inc, to Mortice Kern Systems (MKS) (TSE:MKX) of Lombard, Illinois and Toronto Canada.

Upspring Software, exclusively represented by Mirus in the sale process, is a leading software infrastructure solutions company providing powerful software solutions that assist eBusiness organizations and mission-critical development organizations in analyzing and then modifying their software infrastructure to address and facilitate significantly improved productivity, measurably enhanced quality, and positive change. UpSpring’s blue chip customer base includes such companies as Cisco Systems, Federal Express, Lockheed Martin, Motorola, NCR and Nortel. Upsping has been venture backed by Charles River Ventures as well as by a number of other well-known venture capital firms.

“The combination of Upspring’s robust software development management system and MKS’ configuration management software is a natural fit into the market and greatly enhances MKS’ ability to offer its customers a more integrated, end-to-end application lifecycle management solution,” said Peter Alternative, a partner at Mirus. “This acquisition stands to drive an enormous amount of value for MKS, as the Company looks to accelerate its sales and earnings growth”. “MKS is also receiving critical engineering and enterprise sales talent as well as a new, strategic New England presence.” According to an earlier press release, MKS will maintain the Burlington, Mass. office of UpSpring as an engineering, sales and service office.

MKS develops and markets software solutions that assist programmers in the creation of traditional and Web-based software and in the management of the software development process. MKS’ Toolkit business provides solutions for UNIX-Windows interoperability, cross-platform development, and system administration.

About Mirus Capital Advisors

Mirus Capital Advisors provides investment banking solutions to corporate clients in the areas of software, online media, business services and niche manufacturing. Founded in 1987, Mirus provides corporate finance advisory services on engagements including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, recapitalizations and valuations. Additional information about the firm is available at www.merger.com.