Symyx To Acquire Synthematix To Further Extend Software Offerings; Expands Options For Pharmaceutical And Biotech Customers And Complements Current Symyx Software Suite

Symyx Technologies, Inc. (SMMX) today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Synthematix, Inc., based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Synthematix is a provider of organic synthesis reaction planning software systems for scientific knowledge management in chemistry research, with customers primarily in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. This acquisition enables Symyx to broaden its software offerings with additional capabilities for pharmaceutical discovery and biotech research.

Under the terms of the agreement, Symyx will pay approximately $13 million in cash to acquire all outstanding shares of Synthematix based on Synthematix's current revenue outlook, plus an additional potential earn out of up to $4 million over a one year period based on achievement of incremental revenue targets. As part of the acquisition, Symyx will further issue approximately 27,500 options of its Common Stock for unvested Synthematix employee options that Symyx will assume at the closing. As of December 31, 2004, Synthematix had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $1 million. The acquisition of Synthematix has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is expected to close in April, 2005, subject to various standard closing conditions.

Steven Goldby, chairman and chief executive officer of Symyx, commented, "We see a growing interest from customers for knowledge management solutions which help scientists make better, faster and more efficient decisions. The acquisition of Synthematix immediately extends our Renaissance(R) and IntelliChem software with specific capabilities for pharmaceutical discovery and biotech research, enabling customers to utilize one integrated solution spanning both their discovery and development research activities."

"By joining Symyx, Synthematix will take its success to the next level with a world-class organization that strengthens our commercial capabilities and deepens our technology excellence," said Clay B. Thorp, chairman of Synthematix and general partner of Catalysta Ventures, Synthematix's largest shareholder. "As a part of Symyx, we will bring together a much broader offering of products and technology for chemists from discovery through development," said Robin Smith, founder and chief executive officer of Synthematix.

Synthematix's products, consisting of the ARTHUR(TM) suite of software and informatics products as well as the Synthematix StructureSearch technology, complement the intelligent electronic lab notebook (iELN) offerings of IntelliChem, which Symyx purchased in November 2004, and its Renaissance high-throughput research and data warehousing software suite. The Company intends to maintain the Synthematix development group in its current location in North Carolina.

Symyx will combine Synthematix's software solutions with its suite of Renaissance and IntelliChem software to provide a unified set of tools for high-throughput and conventional research for chemistry-intensive organizations. The resulting integrated suite of applications will allow companies to replace paper laboratory notebooks with an electronic, searchable system, provide scientists with a robust, broad, and easy-to-use set of time-saving and enabling tools for planning and executing experiments, and provide the entire enterprise with real-time collaborative decision-support and analysis capabilities to help scientists, engineers and project managers make better decisions.