is upping its stake in Tectum Beratungsgesellschaft für Informationsverarbeitung mbH, Leinfelden-Echterdingen, a company acquired through its wholly owned Swiss subsidiary EDIFACT AG, to 51.04%.

EDIFACT AG had already acquired 41.53% of the shares in Tectum and taken over the management of the company effective October 1, 2000.

By integrating Tectum in the consolidated group, caatoosee is seeking to expand its product portfolio for online network platforms. Tectum will strengthen EDIFACT AG's competences in linking these platforms to existing materials management environments. EDIFACT AG develops software solutions for intercompany electronic data interchange between materials management and transaction settlement systems.

Tectum's solutions ideally complement the platform products of the caatoosee Group. For example, Tectum has developed a software solution for quality management in semiconductor production that is currently being successfully implemented in a major corporation in the industry. "Until now our product made optimal internal quality management possible," explained Tectum's managing director Martin Seith. "In the future customers of semiconductor manufacturers will be able to directly track the production process over an online platform and conduct quality controls." By linking caatoosee's platform products with Tectum and EDIFACT's solutions, processes between suppliers, manufacturers, and customers are expected to become significantly faster, more transparent, and more efficient.

The orders situation at Tectum, which in 1999 generated sales totaling DM 14.2 million with 60 employees, is progressing favorably. "We have already secured a capacity utilization of 80% for the coming business year," said Seith. Both major contracts from existing customers and connections established with new customers contributed to this development. Tectum's customers include big-name companies like Philips, Epson, Hitachi, Motorola, Siemens, and Bosch.

"By acquiring the majority of Tectum, is strengthening its involvement in the integration of ERP systems in our company's online network platforms. As result, caatoosee is significantly expanding its core competence as a full-service supplier of information logistics solutions," says 's CEO Guido Alt.

was listed on the Neuer Markt on September 20, 2000 [Securities Identification No. ], and as a specialist for information logistics and data networking connects companies, markets, and media. caatoosee organizes, networks, and markets vertical platforms for the development and expansion of networks inside and outside of a company. caatoosee provides additional support for the platforms by offering information and business services. caatoosee is active in six locations in Europe and the USA and as of August 1, 2000 had 227 employees. caatoosee supplements its own product portfolio with numerous joint ventures, holdings, and strategic partnerships. In the 1999/2000 business year the com-pany generated pro forma sales totaling DM 14.8 million.