WASHINGTON, D.C., October 29, 2001 -Bantu, Inc., the leader in secure, business-grade instant messaging and presence management solutions, today announced a partnership with Blackboard, the leading e-Education software infrastructure company. The companies have developed product extensions that allow the Bantu IM & Presence Platform to interoperate with Blackboard 5.5. The IM product enhancement offers real-time communication and collaboration for Blackboard's 2,200 customers.

"IM and presence are innovative and important enhancements for the Blackboard e-Education platform," said Dan Cane, Senior Vice President of Research and Development. "With Bantu, students, faculty, and staff using Blackboard can see each other's online presence and instantly collaborate - regardless of their locations." The Bantu IM & Presence Platform is one of a select group of new Blackboard "Building Blocks," extensions to its suite of enterprise software products and services. The Building Blocks program is being launched today at the Educause 2001 Conference in Indianapolis.

"Our partnership with Blackboard teams Bantu with a clear leader in the e-Education market," said Larry Schlang, President and CEO of Bantu. "By working together, we enable Blackboard's 5.4 million plus users to access secure, platform-independent IM that is built in to the education software they use every day to manage their classwork." Available immediately to customers using Blackboard 5.5 Level 2 and Level 3, the Bantu IM & Presence Building Block is slated for installation at 10 sites before year's end. These will encompass a wide variety of educational environments, including large, small, public, private, corporate, non-profit, college, K-12, English-speaking and non-English speaking institutions.

Bantu's secure, device-independent solution is already earning high marks in the education community. Ross McKenzie, Director of Information Systems for the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH), reports an "overwhelmingly positive" user response since launching Bantu Instant Messaging in June. The school's custom-branded JHU Messenger facilitates collaboration among students, faculty and administrators at its Baltimore facilities, as well as at geographically diverse research locations around the world.

"Because it can be accessed from desktop computers, wireless phones and other mobile devices, Bantu Instant Messaging is exceptionally flexible for academic use," said McKenzie. "After only two and a half months, it has become a key communications and productivity tool for our academic community." JHSPH is also pleased with the Bantu platform's security features, including patent-pending, two-way message encryption. Prior to selecting a solution, staff in the school's Information Systems group who hold the Certification for Information System Security Professionals (CISSP) evaluated several IM products and "passed Bantu with flying colors," said McKenzie.

A staple for teenagers, IM has become a natural extension as a tool for online learning and collaboration. The Pew Internet & American Life June 2001 report on Teenage Life Online found that 74 percent of online teens, compared with 44 percent of online adults, use IM. "Students today expect the same communication and collaboration convenience in their academic tools that they experience in their cyber social life," noted Cane. "With the Bantu IM Building Block for Blackboard 5.5, they can have it all."

About Blackboard Inc. Blackboard Inc. was founded to transform the Internet into a powerful environment for teaching and learning. The company offers a complete suite of enterprise software products and services that power a total "e-Education Infrastructure" for schools, colleges, universities and other education providers. Blackboard solutions deliver the promise of the Internet for online teaching and learning, campus communities, auxiliary services and integration of Web-enabled student services and back office systems.

Blackboard's two major lines of business, Course & Portal Solutions and Commerce & Access Solutions, are consistently ranked by industry analysts as the market share and customer satisfaction leaders for thousands of academic institutions and a leading number of the Internet's most popular consumer education sites. The company is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with offices and staff across North America, Europe and Asia. Please visit www.blackboard.com for more information.

About Bantu, Inc.: \ban' too\ 1 : Ancient root language of the African people; 2 : Leading provider of secure, business-grade Instant Messaging and Presence solutions. The Bantu IM & Presence Platform enhances communication and collaboration in industries such as financial services, telecommunications, government and education. Bantu is secure, platform- independent, and interoperable, and it easily integrates into any application or service. Bantu is based in Washington, D.C. Its customers and partners include AverCom, Citrix, the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA), Corechange, Data Connection Limited, Johns Hopkins University, SAIC, Sprint, SRA/Assentor, VeriSign, and the U.S. Army. (www.bantu.com)