MERLIN Software Technologies Announces Expansion

BURNABY, British Columbia - (BUSINESS WIRE) - Oct. 18, 2000 - MERLIN Software Technologies International Inc. , a leading developer of Linux based software applications and utilities has completed a number of infrastructure changes designed to better position the company for future growth.

"Moving is never fun," said Robert Heller, President of MERLIN, "But it is something that has to be done from time to time in a company such as ours that is growing at a rapid rate. In the past six weeks alone we have expanded our engineering team by seven, our support and Q/A departments have doubled in size and we have added additional network and database administration staff. We could never have done that in our old facilities so we have moved to a location that provides us with more than three times the space. We are now well positioned to meet the needs of our growing client base, a client base that includes the U.S. District Courts, companies such as AT&T, I.B.M. and many other International firms. Demand for our existing products is strong and we expect significant increased demand as we prepare to release new products over the coming months."

In addition to the expansion of the company's offices and engineering departments, the company will be accepting two new members to the Board of Directors. These individuals will add significant high-tech industry expertise. Full details will be available at www.freeedgar.com/ once the filings are complete.

MERLIN develops high quality applications software for the Linux operating system, such as the award-winning PerfectBackUP+ 6.2, the most economical, and powerful network backup tool available. It provides backup scheduling and remote backup, recovery, encryption, robotics module, enhanced security and many other features with both a graphical and character interface. PerfectBackUP+ is available for all major Linux distributions including Caldera OpenLinux 2.3, eServer 2.3, Turbolinux 4.0 and 6.0, versions 6.0 and 6.1 from RedHat, SuSE 6.0/1/2/3, Debian 2.0, Mandrake 6.1, and the Linux 1.0 release from Corel.

IDC reported at a recent conference that the storage management industry reached $5 billion dollars in 1999 and is expected to grow to $13 -- $14 Billion by 2004. The backup and restore segment of this market, where MERLIN's PerfectBackUP+ is targeted, was approximately $2.5 Billion for 1999 and is expected to grow at 17% compounded annually through 2004.

About MERLIN Software Technologies International, Inc.

MERLIN Software Technologies Inc. (MERLIN Softech), is a software publishing company that provides Linux, UNIX, Windows and Mac users with unique Linux and UNIX based software that dramatically improves a system's productivity and reliability. MERLIN Softech has offices in Burnaby, British Columbia and Seattle, Washington.

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Statements in this news release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, including any statements regarding belief, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Unforeseen factors could cause results to differ materially from expectations, and include risks that marketing efforts may not result in sales, among other potential risks.

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