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SAN FRANCISCO, CA, USA - July 12, 2004 - SPL today announced that it has finalized the acquisition of the major assets of CES International-a pioneer and market leader in utility outage management. The acquisition plans were announced in May.

"For the first time," said SPL CEO Harry Debes, "utilities can acquire two vital applications-customer care and billing as well as outage management-from a single vendor.

"This acquisition," he continued, "is a major step toward our goal: to offer a complete and integrated suite of best-in-class utility-specific applications. We aim to provide the economies of one-stop shopping, a common interface, and unprecedented application efficiency to a market that, up to now, the software industry has underserved."

"The best-of-breed/ point-solution era in utility-specific applications has enabled innovative companies like SPL and CES to propel software development forward at an unprecedented pace," said Debes. "Now this era is drawing to a close because customers have found that the cost of developing and maintaining the various point-solution interfaces has become prohibitive. Utilities want vendors with a more holistic view. While CES is our first acquisition, it will not be our last."

"In the current economic and industry environment, electric utilities are strongly focused on achieving operational efficiency and regulatory compliance," said Rick Nicholson, Vice President of Energy Information Strategies at META Group, a leading provider of information technology research, advisory services, and strategic consulting. "In order to drive costs out of the business, these companies must integrate and optimize complex business processes such as revenue, customer, commodity and asset management. Additionally, they must achieve higher levels of system reliability. As a result, we expect to see increased investment in applications related to the utility asset lifecycle and the integration of these applications with customer information systems."

"Outage management is the backbone of full customer service," said Debes. "By offering utilities an expanding menu of integrated applications, we are helping them expand their services and lower costs."

SPL will retain the CES product development facility in Minnesota, and the two companies' product strategy and development teams will merge immediately. The development of integrations between the products is already underway.

Over the next few months, the sales forces will merge, but the products will continue to be offered both separately and together.

The financial terms of the acquisition were not released publicly.

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About SPL
SPL delivers the proven customer care, billing, outage and distribution management solutions that help utilities around the world achieve competitive advantage and excellence in business performance. SPL solutions are specifically designed for energy, water and service companies, providing a platform from which clients serve residential, commercial, and industrial customers in regulated and competitive markets, across multiple products. Working with systems-integration and technology partners around the world, SPL has an unparalleled record of implementation success. Financially strong, and with customers on six continents, SPL focuses on clients' return on investment and fosters long-term relationships based on confidence and trust. Visit SPL at www.splwg.com or call +1-866-468-6775 (San Francisco), +44-207-851-6840 (London), or +61-2-8258-8200 (Sydney). Within the US +and Canada, call +1-800-275-4775.

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