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UNITED STATES

FORM 10-K

(MARK ONE)

[X]	ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED MARCH 31, 2000
[   ]	TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Commission File Number              

webMethods, Inc.

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code:  (703) 460-2500

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

      Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes  [X]     No  [   ]

      Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.  [   ]

      The aggregate market value of Common Stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of May 31, 2000 based upon the closing price of the Common Stock on the Nasdaq National Market for such date, was $1,141,909,577.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

      The registrant intends to file a definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus for its annual meeting of stockholders pursuant to Regulation 14A within 120 days of the end of the fiscal year ended March 31, 2000. Portions of such joint proxy statement/prospectus are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Form 10-K.

PART I

      This report contains forward-looking statements. For this purpose, any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Without limiting the foregoing, the words “believes,” “anticipates,” “plans,”, “expects,” “intends” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. The important factors discussed below under the caption “Factors that May Affect Future Operating Results,” among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated by forward-looking statements made herein and presented elsewhere by management from time to time. We do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Item 1.  BUSINESS

      The following description of our business contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ significantly from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Some of the factors that may cause such results to differ include, but are not limited to, those discussed in “Factors that May Affect Future Operating Results” contained in Item 1 and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” contained in Item 7.

Overview

      We are a leading provider of infrastructure software and services for achieving business-to-business integration, or B2Bi. B2Bi software is a new category of software that enables companies to work more closely with their customers, suppliers and other business partners through the real-time exchange of information and transactions. We achieve this integration by connecting our customers’ existing enterprise applications over the Internet. Our customers can use our software, webMethods B2B, to achieve varying levels of integration, from integration with a single business partner up to full integration across an entire trading network. With webMethods B2B, a company’s portfolio of existing enterprise applications can be extended to its customers, suppliers and other business partners. Our software is also incorporated into the operation of a number of major business-to-business marketplaces.

      webMethods B2B permits our customers to rapidly and cost effectively deploy new real-time business-to-business e-commerce applications by integrating the customers’ existing enterprise systems with those of their business partners. For example, webMethods B2B can improve supply chain management by integrating the procurement, order processing, inventory management, shipping and fulfillment systems and enterprise resource planning systems of companies doing business together. As a result of this integration, inventory can be automatically replenished, orders can be processed faster and more accurately, components can be shipped sooner and customer queries can be addressed more rapidly. By using webMethods B2B software, we believe that our customers can:

	•	Create new revenue opportunities due to improved customer retention, improved customer service and the ability to deliver additional value-added services and customized product offerings;
	•	Strengthen relationships with their customers, suppliers and business partners due to new direct, secure connections across multiple computing platforms, applications and protocols;
	•	Improve supply chain efficiencies through shortened cycle times, lower inventories and reduced error rates; and
	•	Increase return on investment from existing enterprise software systems.

      We market our software globally through a direct sales force and a number of resellers and systems integrators. A key element of our sales and marketing strategy is to leverage relationships with our customers and business partners. We believe that by providing solutions to leading buyers, suppliers, portals and enterprise software and hardware companies pursuing B2B e-commerce opportunities, our software sales will increase substantially as our technologies become more widely deployed in the

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      webMethods B2B has been licensed to customers in a variety of industries including high-technology manufacturing, telecommunications, financial services, shipping and logistics, chemicals and insurance. As of March 31, 2000, we had over 160 customers, including SAP AG, Eastman Chemical, W.W. Grainger, Dell Computer, Hewlett Packard, Compaq Computer, Federal Express, Dun & Bradstreet, Lucent and Lexmark. In addition, we have established strategic relationships with leading business-to-business e-commerce marketplaces such as mySAP.com, the Ariba Network, Commerce One, Grainger.com, VerticalNet, ChemConnect, Staples.com, Buzzsaw, TPN Marketplace, e-Steel, retail.com and Ventro, many of which have purchased our software to operate their trading networks. We also have strategic relationships with enterprise application vendors that incorporate our technology into their software or resell our software. We are an SAP AG development partner and have licensed a version of our software to them for inclusion into their products.

Industry Background

Growth of the Internet and business-to-business electronic commerce

      The competitive environment for businesses has intensified dramatically in recent years, causing companies to seek new ways to generate sustainable competitive advantages. Over the last decade, companies have invested heavily in enterprise applications to automate and improve the efficiency of their internal business processes. As competition has increased and markets have become more dynamic, companies have begun to recognize that they must coordinate more closely with their customers, suppliers and business partners. Traditional enterprise applications, however, do not readily support business processes beyond the borders of an enterprise. As a result, companies relying only on their enterprise applications have not been able to easily integrate their business processes with those of their customers, suppliers and other business partners to achieve productivity gains.

      In the midst of this environment, the Internet has emerged as a crucial medium for electronic commerce. The widespread adoption of the Internet as a business communications platform has created a foundation for B2B e-commerce that has already enabled organizations to tap new revenue streams, streamline cumbersome processes, lower costs and improve productivity. We believe the next wave of business innovation will focus on greater collaboration among businesses and the sharing of business processes among members of a business community. Businesses are seeking a B2Bi solution that allows them to utilize their existing portfolio of enterprise applications to exchange information and transact business with customers, suppliers and other business partners over the Internet.

      Based on the growth of the Internet and the expectations for growth in e-commerce, we believe the market opportunity for B2Bi software and services is substantial. Research has been conducted to project the size of the B2Bi market. This research is based on interviews and surveys of industry associations and companies and measures only revenue to be received from Internet commerce sites. According to Forrester Research, revenue generated from business-to-business e-commerce will exceed $2.7 trillion by 2003, representing a far larger market opportunity than business-to-consumer e-commerce. Forrester Research also estimates that B2B e-commerce will account for more than 90% of U.S. e-commerce transactions by 2004. In an attempt to capitalize on this opportunity, businesses are spending heavily to develop the infrastructure to communicate and transact business effectively over the Internet. International Data Corporation, or IDC, projects that the worldwide Internet commerce application market will grow from $444 million in 1998 to over $13 billion in 2003.

Current approaches to business-to-business integration are inadequate

      The variety of computing environments and the inability to share information across those environments have been a major impediment to B2Bi. For example, the co-existence of mainframe-based legacy systems and enterprise applications within a single business often makes it difficult to share information internally. More importantly, many organizations’ applications, particularly their enterprise

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      Current B2Bi approaches are costly, problematic and ineffective. For example, traditional electronic data interchange, or EDI, is inflexible because it is based on pre-defined, fixed data formats that are not easily adjusted. EDI usually requires the use of expensive and proprietary communications networks and software and often requires difficult and time-consuming point-to-point integration. In addition, EDI is not readily scalable for large numbers of business partners, and because it is batch processed, it lacks real-time data exchange capability. It has taken years and millions of dollars to implement EDI trading networks among large communities of business partners.

      Enterprise application integration, or EAI, software and other middleware technologies also fail to fully deliver B2Bi. These packages integrate systems within a single company, but typically cannot provide the open and scalable inter-company integration that is critical for B2Bi. EAI relies on proprietary, custom architectures and software, which must be implemented by all parties to enable any inter-company usage. It is difficult to convince multiple parties in a trading network to implement the same products or technologies. In addition, EAI solutions experience operating difficulties because many corporate security firewalls do not readily recognize the communications protocols these solutions employ.

      First generation e-business Web sites based on Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML, also do not address the requirements of B2Bi. HTML is designed chiefly for the presentation of data, and does not directly support data exchange between the enterprise applications of participating companies. Since these Web sites were designed primarily for human-to-system communication, they are difficult to incorporate into shared multi-company business processes that require system-to-system communication. Achieving this integration usually requires significant re-keying of data from at least one, if not both, parties to a transaction, increasing costs and rates of error. For example, many large companies that procure goods from their suppliers’ Web sites must first enter orders into an internal enterprise application and then completely re-key them into vendors’ Web sites through their Web browsers.

      While recently developed Internet procurement and order management applications often reduce the overall cost of procurement, they do not provide comprehensive B2Bi. These applications generally focus on ordering goods, such as office supplies, that do not become part of a finished product, rather than the procurement of goods that become part of a company’s own products. The automation of procurement over the Internet of goods used to manufacture a product requires inter-company, system-to-system integration of ERP and manufacturing applications.

      A comprehensive B2Bi solution must provide companies with integrated direct links to their major customers and suppliers, while also facilitating participation in B2B marketplaces to leverage their networks of buyers and suppliers. It should also allow companies to offer their business partners the ability to exchange information and conduct transactions across the Internet securely, reliably and in real time, regardless of installed technology infrastructure. To meet the challenges raised by the changing competitive environment, organizations are searching for a solution that provides comprehensive B2Bi. The existing approaches have proven inadequate due to their high cost, inflexibility and inability to easily adapt to large numbers of business partners. In addition, existing approaches have typically encountered difficulties working across many corporate security infrastructures.

The webMethods solution

      Our solution provides the foundation for a new class of B2Bi applications that can be delivered with shorter, more cost-effective implementation cycles and the ability to scale to large numbers of business partners. webMethods B2B provides companies with integrated direct links to buyers and suppliers, connects them to major B2B marketplaces and enables real-time, interactive communication through the Internet regardless of existing technology infrastructure. The webMethods B2B software provides support for a broad range of current and emerging B2B communication standards, including eXtensible Markup Language, or XML, traditional EDI, Open Buying on the Internet, or OBI, and XML-based e-commerce frameworks, such as RosettaNet, cXML, Commerce One’s xCBL and Microsoft BizTalk. With

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      New Revenue Opportunities. Our solution enables companies to increase market share by allowing them to bring products to market more quickly, and to provide value-added services to their customers. For example, a manufacturer can use our software to make it easier for customers to purchase products by linking its customer’s internal procurement application directly to the manufacturer’s ordering system. Value-added services may also include the provision of data concerning purchased goods for direct incorporation into a customer’s asset management system. In the financial services industry, the ability of webMethods B2B to manage and exchange many XML document formats can be used to create and configure new financial products and services. This capability allows companies to rapidly offer new and more targeted products and services to customers.

      Strengthened Relationships with Customers, Suppliers and Trading Partners. The webMethods B2B solution gives companies the ability to interact directly and securely with a variety of customers, suppliers and other business partners, resulting in improved coordination and decreasing the time it takes to respond to increasingly rapid changes in their markets. For example, to further improve their relationships with their customers, companies may directly link their customer relationship management, or CRM, systems through the webMethods B2B solution. This CRM system integration allows customers to use their own uniform problem reporting systems to enter and track product or service problem reports, which are communicated to their vendors and facilitates the coordination required to resolve open issues. Furthermore, because the webMethods B2B solution requires limited customization and does not require all the parties in a trading network to install identical software, trading partners are able to rapidly develop trading networks in a cost effective manner.

      Improved Supply Chain Efficiencies. Achieving a close degree of collaboration with suppliers allows many companies to realize cost efficiencies by outsourcing a significant share of their manufacturing. With or without an outsourcing strategy, companies can use our software to achieve significant cost savings and productivity enhancements by reducing cycle times, lowering inventories and reducing error rates through the real-time exchange of information. Closer integration with their suppliers and buyers helps our customers improve their planning and forecasting capabilities. Additionally, our customers can use webMethods B2B to gain the competitive advantage of providing their customers with real-time pricing and availability information for key products and services. For example, webMethods B2B can enable a company to automatically check the availability of a requested item in its supplier’s inventory and relate pricing, availability and shipping information directly to its customer. An order for the requested item could then be automatically entered directly into the supplier’s order processing system. For suppliers, direct receipt of orders in this way means the order can reach the supplier’s manufacturing operation in minutes, compared to the hours or days taken when the order is received by fax or EDI.

      Increased Return on Technology Investments and Rapid Implementation. Over the years, companies have invested significant amounts in ERP and other enterprise applications. Our solution maximizes the returns on these investments by extending the benefits provided by those applications to a company’s customers, suppliers and other business partners. We believe our solution entails lower deployment costs than competing products, in part because limited customization is required. Implementation time for our software averages about six weeks, which allows our customers to begin deriving benefits quickly. Our solution is also easily scalable to accommodate the growth of a customer’s trading network. As our customers’ trading networks and the number of transactions grow, they can continue to use our software for their e-business requirements without having to acquire new software products.

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The webMethods growth strategy

      Our objective is to enhance our position as a leading global provider of B2Bi infrastructure software and services that enable companies to easily and effectively link their existing business applications and share data in real-time over the Internet. To achieve this goal, we are pursuing the following strategies:

      Leverage Customers and Partners as Distribution Channels. We believe that because we provide solutions to some of the leading e-commerce buyers, suppliers, portals and enterprise software and hardware companies, our product sales benefit from a multiplier effect as our customers expose more of their business partners to our solution. As of March 31, 2000, we had over 160 customers including SAP AG, Eastman Chemical, W.W. Grainger, Dell Computer, Hewlett Packard, Compaq Computer, Federal Express, Dun & Bradstreet, Lucent and Lexmark. In addition, we have established strategic relationships with leading business-to-business e-commerce marketplaces such as mySAP.com, the Ariba Network, Commerce One, Grainger.com, VerticalNet, ChemConnect, Staples.com, Buzzsaw, TPN Marketplace, e-Steel, retail.com and Ventro, many of which have purchased our software to operate their trading networks. We also have relationships with leading enterprise application software providers including SAP AG and Baan. We believe that we can leverage our base of customers and business relationships into additional direct sales. For example, our relationship with SAP AG gives us access to SAP AG’s customer base of over 12,000 leading companies worldwide. SAP AG is offering its customers the SAP Business Connector, an OEM version of webMethods B2B that can only be used to integrate SAP applications. This provides us with significant opportunities to sell to these customers the full webMethods B2B product, which supports integration of non-SAP applications.

      Extend Technology and Product Leadership. webMethods believes that it has developed the broadest and most comprehensive B2Bi software currently available, supporting more B2B protocols and data format standards than any competing product. webMethods has been a pioneer in the application of XML and Java technologies for B2B integration and e-commerce. webMethods intends to continue investing in research and development and to remain actively involved with industry standards bodies to ensure that its products incorporate developing technology and industry standards. webMethods also intends to increase the performance, functionality and ease of use of its software by integrating new technologies and supporting a wider range of enterprise applications. In the future, webMethods may acquire technology or businesses that enhance or complement its technology.

      Leverage Professional Services Capabilities. We have established strong relationships with our customers by designing and developing successful B2Bi solutions for them. In order to continue this, we plan to expand our direct professional services capabilities by increasing the number of professional services consultants and adding additional service locations throughout the United States and Europe. In addition, we intend to offer quality professional services through third-party alliances. We are currently developing additional relationships with major system integrators and KPMG, Deloitte Consulting and EDS have all created business practices around our solutions. We believe that developing these relationships will provide us with the ability to manage multiple concurrent, large-scale projects while maintaining its commitment to quality service. We intend to commit significant resources, both financial and personnel, to providing professional services support to selected customers that are creating major B2B marketplaces and trading networks. We believe that devoting significant resources to these key relationships will lead to increased opportunities to license additional software to these customers and their business partners. Creating a strong base of successful and high profile customers is essential to the continued growth of our business.

      Expand Global Sales Efforts. We are aggressively pursuing a global, multi-channel distribution strategy that leverages both our direct sales force and our relationships with resellers, systems integrators and international distributors. We currently have eleven offices around the world including eight offices in North America and sales and support offices in the U.K., Germany, and the Netherlands. We plan to expand our international presence by establishing additional overseas offices in Europe and expanding its indirect sales channels in Europe and Asia. In addition, we plan to increase our customer and partner base through aggressive sales and marketing campaigns and by conducting joint marketing efforts with some of

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      Further Develop Model for Predictable, Recurring Revenue. We believe our revenue model is designed to provide substantial and predictable recurring revenue. We have developed a multi- faceted revenue model that provides revenue from a number of sources, including new license sales, license renewals, maintenance fees, professional services and OEM licenses. We expect that our market leadership position and our network of strategic relationships will drive new license sales. Although most software providers offer perpetual licenses with a single payment received at the time of the license grant, we typically offer two-year renewable software licenses. At the end of two years, customers can either renew for another two-year period, with a new license fee due, or terminate their license. We believe that, because of the critical nature of the services performed by webMethods B2B, renewal rates will be high, which should provide a source of predictable revenue over time. In addition, as part of its comprehensive solution, we provide professional services to insure the successful implementation and deployment of our software. We have also entered into long-term OEM and other licenses that provide an additional source of revenue.

Products and services

      We began commercial shipments of our webMethods B2B software in June 1998. Since then, we have continued to enhance the functionality and performance of webMethods B2B. The most recent version, webMethods B2B 3.1, was first shipped in April 2000. We also recently introduced webMethods B2B for RosettaNet, which allows our high technology manufacturing customers to use RosettaNet for supply chain integration.

      webMethods B2B contains features that help integrate business partners, marketplaces, buyers and suppliers into online trading networks. Our software helps companies directly integrate with their business partners while also participating in B2B marketplaces and portals. The software supports a broad range of current and emerging standards for B2B communications, including XML, traditional EDI, OBI and XML-based e-commerce frameworks such as Commerce XML, xCBL and FpML. In addition, webMethods B2B provides support for and interoperability with EDI applications, such as Sterling Commerce’s GENTRAN. Our product offerings are summarized below:

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Product Architecture and Technology

      webMethods B2B has been designed to allow our customers to achieve B2Bi with business partners in less time, at lower cost and with fewer alterations to their existing applications than current alternatives.

Product Components

      The webMethods B2B Integration Server, the webMethods B2B Developer and the set of webMethods B2B Integration Modules comprise the principal components of webMethods B2B. These components work together to create and execute intercompany applications and data exchanges that link enterprise and legacy applications, databases, EDI software and Web sites between companies participating in online trading networks.

      The webMethods B2B Integration Server automates the exchange of data across the Internet by securely and reliably transporting, mapping and transforming business documents and data messages of different types among a diverse array of applications and databases. An integration server is a software product that processes requests for sending and receiving data across the Internet. The requests are submitted by existing enterprise applications. Using an integration server, applications may directly access Web data across the Internet in real-time without the need for costly application redevelopment. The webMethods B2B Integration Server can be used to integrate with applications developed in a variety of languages and technologies. Because the webMethods B2B Integration Server provides open application interfaces and supports a wide array of current and emerging B2B data standards, our software can successfully integrate otherwise incompatible enterprise applications, EDI and EAI deployments and XML and HTML-based Web sites.

      Unlike proprietary EAI applications, the webMethods B2B Integration Server can perform all communications using standard Hypertext Transport Protocol, or HTTP, as the data transport protocol. For this reason, communications sent through the webMethods B2B Integration Server are not rejected by

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      The webMethods B2B Developer is a development, testing and management environment used by application developers and system integrators to define data flow definitions and transformations between inbound and outbound business documents and messages, and the enterprise applications or Web sites that will create and receive them. These data flow definitions and transformations are displayed and manipulated using familiar visually oriented tools and metaphors. The webMethods B2B Developer is also able to define conversions between XML documents of different types. For instance, it can be used to define a conversion from a purchase order in Commerce XML format into the equivalent Open Applications Group data format. The webMethods B2B Developer provides the capability to upload the data flow definitions and transformations to the webMethods B2B Integration Server, which executes them on actual business documents and messages.

      webMethods B2B Integration Modules provide functionality specific to a particular enterprise application, such as Baan or SAP R/3, that permits its application programming interfaces to be accessed securely and reliably by business partners across the Internet. This differentiates them from the adaptor modules employed by proprietary EAI products for purely internal integration. We also provide documentation and software tools that allow our customers to build their own custom integration modules.

      WebMethods B2B for RosettaNet provides support for RosettaNet framework and all released RosettaNet partner interchange processes. In addition to providing complete support for this leading supply chain integration standard, webMethods B2B for RosettaNet processes transactional data and offers scalable trading partner profiles and business rule management.

XML

      Our software suite makes extensive use of eXtensible Markup Language, or XML, a relatively recent standard that defines a universal method for structuring data. We believe that XML will be a key enabler of both B2B e-commerce and the open integration of applications across enterprises in general. XML was formally recommended by the World Wide Web Consortium as a standard in February 1998. Since then, a number of industry leaders, including Microsoft, SAP AG, IBM, Sun and Oracle, have announced support for XML.

      Unlike HTML, the standard currently used in most Web applications, XML permits data to be coded for content rather than solely for presentation. This coding difference allows applications to examine and manipulate data contained in a document. Descriptive tags are attached to each piece of data so applications can understand the meaning of the data and process it accordingly. This feature eliminates the need for re-keying data transmitted across the Internet.

      XML is a standard, not a technology, and therefore, existing applications must be adapted to learn to communicate using XML and integration servers are required to process, route and translate data. Furthermore, to properly utilize XML, a method must be found to translate between the various XML document types that proliferate among organizations. A solution must offer services to ensure acceptable performance and maintain security. webMethods B2B Integration Server and webMethods B2B Developer provide the infrastructure required to manage the integration process, securely and reliably route requests and translate messages that conform to different document types.

Cross-platform support and compatibility

      webMethods B2B has been developed exclusively in the Java programming language, which means webMethods B2B can be readily deployed on almost all commonly available computing hardware and operating systems. This makes it easy to deploy the webMethods B2B solution across a large trading network running different hardware and operating systems. We currently support major server platforms, such as Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000, Sun Microsystems Solaris, Linux, Hewlett Packard

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Scalability, performance and reliability

      webMethods B2B has been designed to handle thousands of simultaneous business partner connections and service a high volume of transactions among partners. Using a clustered multi-server, multi-threaded architecture, the software’s performance is optimized for multi-processor systems, and supports high-volume server-side processing of business documents. Business partners that are both running webMethods B2B can take advantage of guaranteed delivery features that ensure that critical messages or business documents get delivered from one partner to another.

Reusable B2B services architecture

      webMethods B2B is built around a reusable architecture for B2B services, which models business processes and operations such as purchase order submission and order tracking. The webMethods B2B Developer includes graphical development tools permitting B2B services to be reused and combined across multiple trading partner relationships.

Support for large numbers of trading partners

      webMethods B2B includes features that allow companies to readily manage deployments across a large number of trading partners. For instance, a package replication feature allows an administrator to bundle a set of B2B service definitions, code and data transformations that provide a certain B2B capability, such as order receipt, into a package that can be automatically replicated across an entire network of business partners.

Security

      webMethods B2B contains a comprehensive set of security features that enable enterprises to utilize the Internet to transmit proprietary information with confidence. These features can provide security even if the webMethods B2B Integration Server is used by only one party to a transaction. The software includes X.509 digital certificates, RSA public key encryption and SSL encryption, which are ways to encode information transmitted over the Internet to make it unintelligible to all but intended recipients, and access control lists to ensure authentication, authorization and data privacy. In addition, because all communications sent through the webMethods B2B Integration Server can be sent using HTTP, which passes through corporate firewalls, the business partners of our customers are not required to modify their applications’ security features.

Ladder of integration

      We offer our customers and their business partners the option to choose the level of integration they desire. Our “Ladder of Integration” allows flexibility by providing integration solutions that do not depend on business partners having the same technologies or levels of integration. Business partners may advance to higher levels of integration as their needs change. New partners can be added to existing networks with minimal effort because existing applications do not require extensive changes as partners’ applications and data formats develop over time.

      Business partners may choose from the following integration levels:

	•	The minimal level of integration connects a customer’s webMethods B2B Integration Server to its business partner’s HTML or XML-based Web site. This option requires no adjustments to the business partner’s system.
	•	A more advanced level of integration connects a customer’s webMethods B2B Integration Server to its business partner’s XML or other B2B integration server using common Internet B2B protocols or message formats such xCBL, EDI and RosettaNet. Although this option

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		requires that the customer and its business partners agree upon the protocol or message format to be used for business documents, no changes to the business partner’s system are necessary.
	•	Full integration involves both a customer and its business partner using webMethods B2B. The customer and its business partners may fully integrate ERP systems and/ or legacy applications for real-time interactive data exchange. Because webMethods B2B is managing communications on both sides of a transaction, customers can take advantage of value-added services such as guaranteed delivery of business documents or messages.

Professional services and customer care

      As part of a complete solution, we offer comprehensive professional services that complement our software, including strategic planning, project management and systems integration, as well as consulting services and training relating to our software products. As of March 31, 2000, our professional services and customer care group consisted of 63 employees.

      Professional Services. A majority of our customers make use of our professional services to help them design and develop a successful business solution. Experienced consultants work with customers to design a solution based on the customers’ existing applications and required functionality and then ensure that the selected solution is successfully implemented, from installation to ongoing maintenance. Our consultants have participated in or led a number of important B2B integration projects for our customers and partners, including the development of my SAP.com marketplace for SAP AG, development of the Ariba Network and the Commerce XML specification for Ariba, and the Grainger.com portal for W.W. Grainger.

      To supplement our internal professional services capabilities, we have established strategic relationships with several consulting firms, including KPMG, Deloitte Consulting, EDS, Sera Nova, Collaborex and Lante. These system integrators provide webMethods with a substantial body of expertise relating to enterprise applications and the creation of B2B e-commerce networks, as well as the flexibility to handle both large and small projects and deliver complete solutions. These systems integrators also give us feedback on our software and its implementation that we can incorporate into product enhancements. We believe these relationships benefit our business by exposing our software to the substantial customer base of each of these systems integrators.

      Services are provided by either our professional services group or third-party systems integrators and include the following:

	•	architecture and application design services;
	•	application development;
	•	installation services;
	•	testing and implementation services and maintenance services; and
	•	on-site support and coaching.

      We charge for these services on a time and materials basis and provide them through our professional services groups based in our Fairfax, Virginia; New York, New York; Chicago, Illinois; San Francisco, California; Hilversum, Netherlands; and Reading, United Kingdom facilities. We plan to increase the number of our professional services consultants and add additional service locations throughout the United States and Europe.

      Customer Care. We believe that offering a superior level of customer service is essential for our long-term success. Because customer service is a standard feature of our licenses, almost all of our customers utilize our customer support. We offer our customers a choice of several levels of customer support, all of which provide dependable and timely resolution of customer technical inquiries. The most comprehensive option offers support 24 hours, seven days a week. We are committed to resolving customer

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      We also provide our customers with education and training. We regularly offer training courses for the software professionals responsible for implementing our software. These training courses provide practical instruction on topics such as the potential uses of our software, creation of XML schemas for different types of business documents, integration of data from multiple internal and external sources, automation of data-sharing by business partners using the Web, bundling and redeployment of usable business logic and administration and maintenance of webMethods B2B. We also provide customized classes at customer locations and offer a certification program for customers and systems integration partners that requires completion of designated courses, field experience and a certification examination.

Customers

      As of March 31, 2000, we had licensed our software to over 160 customers. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2000, one customer, SAP AG, accounted for approximately 22% of webMethods’ total revenues. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 1999, two customers, Telstra and Object Design accounted for approximately 13% and 10%, respectively, of total revenues. Many of our customers are Global 2000 companies and the companies that serve them and represent a broad spectrum of enterprises within diverse industry sectors, including high-technology manufacturing, telecommunications, financial services, shipping and logistics, chemicals, insurance, and business-to-business marketplaces. The following is a partial list of customers that have licensed our software and that we believe are representative of our overall customer base:

Chemical Industry

Federal

Financial Services

Insurance

Shipping and Logistics

Utilities

eProcurement and B2B Marketplaces

Enterprise Application Vendors

Retail

High-Technology Manufacturing

Telecom

Industrial/ Distribution

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Strategic relationships

      To increase our leadership in the market, we have formed strategic alliances with B2B e-commerce portals and marketplaces, enterprise application vendors, B2B e-commerce technology leaders and system integrators. These relationships enable us to capitalize on the growing market for e-commerce solutions by embedding and integrating our software into the products and services provided by its strategic partners. In addition, many of these relationships expose our software to the customer base of these companies. Our strategic relationships include the following:

Relationship with SAP AG

      In March 1999, we entered into a development partner agreement with SAP AG. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2000, SAP AG accounted for approximately 22% of our total revenues.

      Our relationship with SAP AG provides us with an important endorsement of our software, will expose the capabilities of a restricted version of webMethods B2B software to the SAP AG customer base and gives us the opportunity to license the unrestricted version of webMethods B2B software to the SAP AG customer base.

      SAP AG provides our software to their customers as the SAP Business Connector. In addition, webMethods B2B provides the transaction integration infrastructure that links mySAP.com, an open electronic hub that creates intercompany relationships for buying and selling and collaborating within and across industries. SAP AG customers already utilizing SAP R/3 connect to this marketplace using the SAP Business Connector. We provide non-SAP customers the ability to connect to mySAP.com via webMethods B2B.

      Under the development partner agreement, we granted SAP AG a perpetual license to include webMethods B2B in their software. The license limits SAP AG to using our software to connect SAP installations solely to other SAP installations. The license prevents us from selling webMethods B2B to any user seeking to connect SAP installations solely to SAP installations. However, we are able to sell our fully featured version of webMethods B2B to SAP AG’s customers, which would enable them to integrate their SAP systems to enterprise applications of other vendors. Under the development partner agreement,

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      Upon expiration of the initial term of the agreement in March 2002, and subject to payment of all amounts due to us under the development partner agreement, SAP AG will have the right to obtain a perpetual limited license for the version of our software that is then embedded in its products. In addition, SAP AG will have access to the source code for this version of our software for purposes of integrating and embedding the software into SAP AG’s products. SAP AG’s right to the perpetual license may be accelerated if:

	•	a major competitor of SAP AG in enterprise resource planning or supply chain management acquires an equity interest in us that exceeds SAP AG’s investment;
	•	we assign the assets representing the licensed software to a third party; or
	•	a person other than Phillip Merrick who is not reasonably acceptable to SAP AG acquires 30% of our voting shares.

      SAP AG has become a significant customer, accounting for approximately 22% of our revenues for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2000, as a result of the development partner agreement. Under the agreement, SAP AG agreed to pay a fixed fee payable in 11 quarterly installments beginning with the quarter ended June 30, 1999. This fee is, and may continue to be, a significant portion of our revenue if we are not able to expand our revenue base. SAP AG must pay this fee even if the agreement is terminated. In addition, we receives revenue as a result of SAP AG customers that upgrade to the fully featured version of webMethods B2B. If SAP AG chooses not to renew the license arrangement to receive access to the latest version of our software at the expiration of the development license agreement, our revenue may decline and our business could be adversely affected.

Sales and marketing

      We sell our software through our direct sales force, resellers who package our software with their product suites and third-party systems integrators. While the majority of our sales are made by our direct sales force or through resellers, a number of our sales are the direct result of leads generated by strategic relationships with systems integrators. The sales cycle for our software typically ranges from 60 to 180 days. As of March 31, 2000, our sales and marketing group consisted of 112 professionals located in our headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia, and offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles, California; Englewood, Colorado; New York, New York; Plano, Texas; Alpharetta, Georgia; Columbus, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts; Hilversum, Netherlands; Frankfurt, Germany and Reading, United Kingdom. We plan to expand our sales and marketing group through aggressive recruitment of qualified individuals.

      Our sales strategy involves targeting entities we view to be critical e-commerce users, which are generally Global 2000 companies. Because we believe that our products can increase an enterprise’s return on investment, we direct our marketing efforts to officers and executives with responsibility for areas such as procurement and supply chain management, as well as chief information officers. In addition, we frequently participates in trade shows, seminars and conferences. We intend to leverage our existing customer relationships and strategic alliances to gain new customers through exposure of our software to the business partners of our customers, resellers and systems integrators, some of which, in turn, may purchase our software. We plan to continue conducting joint marketing and selling efforts, such as informational seminars and joint sales calls, with our customers. In the past, we have conducted such joint efforts with SAP AG, Ariba, Eastman Chemical and Dell Computer.

      We use a variety of marketing programs to build customer awareness of the company, our brand name and our software. We use a broad mix of programs to accomplish these goals, including market research, product and strategy updates with industry analysts, public relations activities, direct mail and relationship marketing programs, seminars, trade shows, speaking engagements and Web site marketing.

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Research and development

      We have made substantial investments in research and development, primarily through internal development. We believe that we have demonstrated significant innovations in our application of Java and XML technologies to the problems of B2Bi. While we evaluate externally-developed technologies for integration into our software, most enhancements to the software have been, and is expected to continue to be, developed internally. The majority of our research and development activity consists of developing new versions of and enhancements to the webMethods B2B software to better serve the needs of our customers. We originally introduced our webMethods B2B software in March 1998 and began shipping it in June 1998. A number of enhancements have been added in subsequent releases.

      As of March 31, 2000, we had 69 employees dedicated to research and development. Our research and development expenditures in the fiscal years 1998, 1999 and 2000 were approximately $569,000, $1,655,000 and $6,418,000, respectively. We expect to continue committing significant resources to research and development in the future.

      In addition to our proprietary research, we actively participate in a number of major XML-based standards initiatives and industry consortia and some non-XML-based B2B standards initiatives and consortia. We participate in the following B2B standards initiatives: Microsoft BizTalk (B2B e-commerce), Information & Content Exchange (content syndication), ACORD (insurance), OBI (B2B e-commerce), Commerce XML (procurement), FpML (financial derivatives), Directory Interoperability Forum (directories) and RosettaNet (information technology supply chain). We are also a member of the World Wide Web Consortium where we have participated in and contributed to several of the XML working groups. We have collaborated with Microsoft on new XML standards and technologies, such as the eXtensible Query Language, or XQL, for querying against data contained in XML documents.

Competition

      The market for B2Bi solutions is rapidly changing and intensely competitive and is likely to become more competitive as the number of entrants and new technologies increases. While none of our competitors or potential competitors currently produces a solution that is identical to our solution, we are subject to current or potential competition from large software vendors; B2B marketplaces that develop their own B2B integration solutions; certain EDI vendors; and vendors of proprietary EAI and application server products, such as Extricity, escrow.com, Citibank and Bluestone, who have added XML capabilities to their products. In addition, customers and other companies with whom we have strategic relationships may become competitors in the future.

      We believe that the principal competitive factors affecting our market include breadth and depth of solution, interoperability of solution with existing applications, a substantial base of customers and strategic alliances, core technology, product quality and performance, product features (including security), customer service, and speed and ease of deployment. We believe our solution currently competes favorably with respect to these factors. However, our market is relatively new and evolving rapidly. We may not be able to maintain our competitive position against current and potential competitors, especially those with significantly greater financial, marketing, service, support, technical and other resources.

      Some large potential competitors have longer operating histories, larger customer bases, greater brand recognition, and significantly greater financial, marketing and other resources than we do and may enter strategic or commercial relationships with larger, more established and well-financed companies. Some of our competitors may be able to secure alliances with customers and affiliates on more favorable terms, devote greater resources to marketing and promotional campaigns and devote substantially more resources to systems development than we do. In addition, new technologies and the expansion of existing technologies may increase competitive pressures on us. We may not be able to compete successfully

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Intellectual property and other proprietary rights

      Our success is heavily dependent upon its proprietary technology, the webMethods brand name, and the goodwill associated with it. We rely primarily on a combination of copyright, trade secret, trademark and patent laws, confidentiality procedures, contractual provisions and other similar measures to protect its proprietary information and intellectual property rights. As part of its confidentiality procedures, we enter into non-disclosure agreements with certain of our employees, consultants, customers, prospective customers and companies with which we have strategic relationships. We also enter into license agreements with respect to our technology, documentation and other proprietary information. Such licenses are generally non-transferable, are renewable and have terms of two years for end-users and up to five years for original equipment manufacturers which integrate our technology into their products. A small number of the agreements we have entered into contain provisions that, under certain circumstances, would allow third parties to obtain the source code for our software.

      The unauthorized reproduction or other misappropriation of our proprietary technology could enable third parties to benefit from the technology developed by us without paying for it. In addition, the steps we have taken to protect our proprietary rights and intellectual property may not be adequate to deter misappropriation. We may not be able to detect unauthorized use of our proprietary information or take appropriate steps to enforce our intellectual property rights. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy or otherwise obtain and use software or technology that we consider proprietary and third parties may attempt to develop similar technology independently.

      We currently hold a trademark registration in the United States for the webMethods name. We also have a pending application for the trademark registration of the B2B Integration Server name in the United States and have pending applications for the registration of the webMethods name in the European Union, Japan and Australia. In addition, we have two pending patent applications for technology related to webMethods B2B. It is possible that the patents, copyrights or trademarks held by us could be challenged and invalidated. In addition, existing patent, copyright and trademark laws afford only limited protections. Effective protection of intellectual property rights may be unavailable or limited in certain countries because the laws of some foreign countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States. Monitoring unauthorized use of patents and trademarks is difficult and expensive, particularly given the global nature and reach of the Internet. Furthermore, it is possible that our competitors will adopt similar product or service names, impeding its ability to protect its intellectual property and possibly leading to customer confusion. While we are not aware that any of our products, patents, trademarks, copyrights or other proprietary rights infringe the proprietary rights of third parties, any infringement claims, with or without merit, brought by such third parties could be time-consuming and expensive to defend.

Employees

      As of March 31, 2000, we employed 276 full-time employees. These included 112 in sales and marketing, 63 in professional services and customer care, 69 in research and development and 32 in administration and finance. Our future success will depend in part on our ability to attract, retain and motivate highly qualified technical and management personnel, for whom competition is intense. From time to time, we have employed, and will continue to employ, independent contractors and consultants to support research and development, marketing and sales, and business development. Our employees are not represented by a collective bargaining agreement and we have never experienced a strike or similar work stoppage. We consider relations with our employees to be good.

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FACTORS THAT MAY AFFECT FUTURE OPERATING RESULTS RISK FACTORS

Risks Related To Our Business

      We are an early stage company, so we have only a limited operating history with which you can evaluate our business and prospects.

      We commenced operations in June 1996 and first shipped webMethods B2B in June 1998. Accordingly, we have only a limited operating history with which you can evaluate our business and our prospects. In addition, our prospects must be considered in light of the risks encountered by companies in the early stages of development in new and rapidly evolving markets, especially the business-to-business integration software market. Some of the risks we face include our ability to:

	•	attract and retain a broad customer base;
	•	negotiate and maintain favorable strategic relationships; and
	•	plan and manage our growth effectively.

If we fail to manage these risks successfully, our business could be harmed.

      We expect to incur losses in the future.

      We have never been profitable. We have incurred net losses in every fiscal period since we began operations. For the year ended March 31, 2000, our net loss was approximately $10.4 million. For the fiscal year ended March 31, 1999, our net loss was approximately $3.3 million. As of March 31, 2000, our accumulated deficit was approximately $32 million. We expect to substantially increase our sales and marketing, research and development and general and administrative expenses. As a result, we will need to generate significant additional revenues to achieve and maintain profitability in the future. We are not certain when we will become profitable, if ever. Even if we do achieve profitability, we may not sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. Failure to achieve or maintain profitability will materially and adversely affect the market price of our common stock.

      We have not been able to fund our operations from cash generated by our business, and we may not be able to do so in the future.

      We have principally financed our operations to date through the private placement of shares of our mandatorily redeemable, convertible preferred stock and bank borrowings. If we do not generate sufficient cash resources from our business to fund operations, our growth could be limited unless we are able to obtain additional capital through equity or debt financings. Our inability to grow as planned may reduce our chances of achieving profitability, which, in turn, could have a material adverse effect on the market price of our common stock.

      Our quarterly financial results fluctuate and are difficult to predict and, if our future results are below the expectations of the public market analysts and investors, the price of our common stock may decline.

      Our quarterly revenue and results of operations are difficult to predict. We have experienced, and expect to continue to experience, fluctuations in revenue and operating results from quarter-to-quarter. As a result, we believe that quarter-to-quarter comparisons of our revenue and operating results are not necessarily meaningful, and that such comparisons may not be accurate indicators of future performance. The reasons for these fluctuations include, but are not limited to:

	•	the amount and timing of operating costs relating to expansion of our business, operations and infrastructure;
	•	the number and timing of new hires;
	•	our utilization rate for our professional services personnel; and
	•	changes in our pricing policies or our competitors’ pricing policies.

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      We plan to significantly increase our operating expenses to expand our sales and marketing operations and fund greater levels of research and development. Our operating expenses, which include sales and marketing, research and development and general and administrative expenses, are based on our expectations of future revenues and are relatively fixed in the short term. If revenue falls below our expectations in a quarter and we are not able to quickly reduce our spending in response, our operating results for that quarter could be harmed. It is likely that in some future quarter our operating results may be below the expectations of public market analysts and investors and, as a result, the price of our common stock may fall.

      Variations in our sales cycle could impact the timing of our revenue, causing our quarterly operating results to fluctuate.

      The period between our initial contact with a potential customer and the purchase of our software and services is often long and subject to delays associated with the budgeting, approval, and competitive evaluation processes which frequently accompany significant capital expenditures. A lengthy sales cycle may have an impact on the timing of our revenue, which in turn could cause our quarterly operating results to fluctuate. We believe that a customer’s decision to purchase our software and services is discretionary, involves a significant commitment of resources, and is influenced by customer budgetary cycles. To successfully sell our software and services, we generally must educate our potential customers regarding their use and benefits, which can require significant time and resources.

      We expect to depend on webMethods B2B for all of our revenue for the foreseeable future and if it does not achieve broad market acceptance, our revenue could decline.

      We currently derive all of our revenue from licensing our webMethods B2B software and providing related professional services, maintenance and support. We expect that we will continue to depend on webMethods B2B for our revenue for the foreseeable future. Consequently, a decline in the price of, or demand for, webMethods B2B, or its failure to achieve broad market acceptance, could seriously harm our business and results of operations.

      webMethods B2B is based in large part on XML, which has not yet achieved broad market acceptance and if broad market acceptance for XML does not develop, webMethods B2B may not achieve commercial acceptance.

      webMethods B2B is currently based in large part upon XML, or eXtensible Markup Language, an emerging standard for sharing data over the Internet. While we anticipate that XML will achieve broad market acceptance in the near future, it is possible that a competing standard perceived to be superior could replace XML, in which case the market may not accept an XML-based product. If a new standard were perceived to be superior, our software might not be compatible with the new standard or we might not be able to develop a product using this standard in a timely manner. Consequently, a failure of XML-based products to achieve broad market acceptance or the introduction of a competing standard perceived to be superior in the market could harm our business.

      If our strategic relationships terminate, we may lose important sales and marketing opportunities.

      We have established strategic relationships with B2B e-commerce marketplaces, resellers, enterprise application software providers, system integrators and other technology leaders. These relationships expose our software to many potential customers to which we may not otherwise have access. In addition, these relationships provide us with insights into new technology and with third-party service providers that our customers can use for implementation assistance. If our relationships with any of these organizations were terminated, we might lose important opportunities, including sales and marketing opportunities, and our business may suffer.

      If our relationship with SAP AG terminates, our revenues may decline and we may lose important sales and marketing opportunities.

      In March 1999, we entered into a development partner agreement with SAP AG. The partnership was expanded in June 2000 when we signed an amendment to the development partner agreement under which

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      SAP AG has become a significant customer, accounting for approximately 22% of our revenues for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2000 and 12% for the quarter ended March 31, 2000, as a result of the development partner agreement. Under the agreement, SAP AG agreed to pay a fixed fee payable in eleven quarterly installments beginning with the quarter ended June 30, 1999. This fee is, and may continue to be, a significant portion of our revenue if we are not able to expand our revenue base. SAP AG must pay this fee even if the agreement is terminated. In addition, we may receive revenue as a result of SAP AG customers that upgrade to an unrestricted version of webMethods B2B. Under the terms of the amendment, we have set up a formula to compensate SAP AG for sales referrals for our products. If SAP AG chooses not to renew the license agreement in order to receive access to the latest version of our software at the expiration of the development license agreement, our revenue may decline and our business could be adversely affected.

      If our customers do not renew their licenses, our revenue may decline.

      Although most enterprise software providers offer perpetual licenses with a single payment received at the time of the license grant, we typically license our webMethods B2B software on a two-year renewable basis. We first shipped webMethods B2B in June 1998 and, to date, none of our initial two-year licenses has reached its renewal date. If a significant portion of our customers were to elect not to renew their licenses for our software or were to seek perpetual licenses in the future, we would lose a recurring revenue stream on which we base our business model, which could cause our revenue to decline and harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

      We may not be able to increase market awareness and sales of our software if we do not expand our sales and distribution capabilities.

      We need to substantially expand our direct and indirect sales and distribution efforts, both domestically and internationally, in order to increase market awareness and sales of our webMethods B2B software and the related services we offer. We have recently expanded our direct sales force and plan to hire additional sales personnel. webMethods B2B requires a sophisticated sales effort targeted at multiple departments within an organization. Competition for qualified sales and marketing personnel is intense, and we might not be able to hire and retain adequate numbers of such personnel to maintain our growth. New hires will require training and take time to achieve full productivity. Our competitors have attempted to hire our employees away from us and we expect that they will continue such attempts in the future. We also plan to expand our relationships with system integrators, enterprise software vendors and other third-party resellers to further develop our indirect sales channel. As we continue to develop our indirect sales channel, we will need to manage potential conflicts between our direct sales force and third-party reselling efforts.

      Our operating results may decline and our customers may become dissatisfied if we do not expand our professional services organization or if we are unable to establish and maintain relationships with third-party implementation providers.

      We cannot be certain that we can attract or retain a sufficient number of highly qualified professional services personnel. Customers that license our software typically engage our professional services staff to assist with support, training, consulting and implementation. We believe that growth in our software sales

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      The business-to-business e-commerce industry is highly competitive and we may not be able to compete effectively.

      The market for B2B e-commerce solutions is rapidly changing and intensely competitive. We expect competition to intensify as the number of entrants and new technologies increases. We may not be able to compete successfully against current or future competitors. The competitive pressures facing us may harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

      Our current and potential competitors include, among others, large software vendors, companies and trading networks that develop their own business-to-business integration e-commerce solutions, electronic data interchange, or EDI, vendors, vendors of proprietary enterprise application integration, or EAI, solutions and application server vendors who have added XML capabilities to their products. In addition, our customers and companies with whom we currently have strategic relationships may become competitors in the future. Many of our competitors and potential competitors have more experience developing Internet-based software, larger technical staffs, larger customer bases, more established distribution channels, greater brand recognition and greater financial, marketing and other resources than we do. Our competitors may be able to develop products and services that are superior to our software and services, that achieve greater customer acceptance or that have significantly improved functionality as compared to our existing software and future products and services. In addition, negotiating and maintaining favorable customer and strategic relationships is critical to our business. Our competitors may be able to negotiate strategic relationships on more favorable terms than we are able to negotiate. Many of our competitors may also have well-established relationships with our existing and prospective customers. Increased competition may result in reduced margins, loss of sales or decreased market share which in turn could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

      We have experienced significant growth in our business in recent periods and we may not be able to manage our future growth successfully.

      Our ability to successfully offer software and services and implement our business plan in a rapidly evolving market requires an effective planning and management process. We have increased, and plan to continue to increase, the scope of our operations at a rapid rate. The number of people we employ has grown and will continue to grow substantially. As of March 31, 2000, we had a total of 276 employees, an increase from 65 employees at March 31, 1999. Future expansion efforts could be expensive and may strain our managerial and other resources. To manage future growth effectively, we must maintain and enhance our financial and accounting systems and controls, integrate new personnel and manage expanded operations. If we do not manage growth properly, it could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

      If our software contains defects, we could lose customers and revenue.

      Software as complex as ours often contains known and undetected errors or performance problems. Many serious defects are frequently found during the period immediately following introduction of new software or enhancements to existing software. Although we attempt to resolve all errors that we believe would be considered serious by our customers, our software is not error-free. Undetected errors or performance problems may be discovered in the future and known errors considered minor by us may be

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      If we cannot develop our software in a timely and effective manner, our operating results could suffer.

      Because of the complexity of our software, internal quality assurance testing and customer testing may reveal product performance issues or desirable feature enhancements that could lead us to postpone the release of new versions of our software. In addition, the reallocation of resources associated with any postponement could cause delays in the development and release of future enhancements to our currently available software. We may not be able to successfully complete the development of currently planned or future enhancements in a timely and efficient manner. Any such failure or delay could harm our operating results.

      Our executive officers and certain key personnel are critical to our business and these officers and key personnel may not remain with us in the future.

      Our future success depends upon the continued service of our executive officers and other key personnel and none of our officers or key employees is bound by an employment agreement for any specific term. If we lose the services of one or more of our executive officers or key employees, or if one or more of them decide to join a competitor or otherwise compete directly or indirectly with us, our business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed. In particular, Phillip Merrick, our Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer, would be particularly difficult to replace.

      If we cannot meet our future capital requirements, we may not be able to develop or enhance our products, take advantage of business opportunities and respond to competitive pressures.

      We currently anticipate that the net proceeds from this offering, together with our existing working capital immediately prior to this offering, will be sufficient to meet our anticipated working capital and capital expenditure requirements through at least the next twelve months. The time period for which we believe our capital is sufficient is an estimate; the actual time period may differ materially as a result of a number of factors, risks and uncertainties. We may need to raise additional funds in the future through public or private debt or equity financings in order to:

	•	take advantage of opportunities, including more rapid international expansion or acquisitions of complementary businesses or technologies;
	•	develop new products or services; or
	•	respond to competitive pressures.

      Additional financing we may need in the future may not be available on terms favorable to us, if at all. If adequate funds are not available or are not available on acceptable terms, we may not be able to take advantage of opportunities, develop new products or services or otherwise respond to unanticipated competitive pressures. In such case, our business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed.

      We intend to continue expanding our international sales efforts but do not have substantial experience in international markets.

      We intend to expand our international sales efforts in the future. We have very limited experience in marketing, selling and supporting our software and services abroad. Expansion of our international operations requires a significant amount of attention from our management and substantial financial resources. If we are unable to continue to grow our international operations successfully and in a timely manner, our business and operating results could be harmed. In addition, doing business internationally involves additional risks, particularly:

	•	unexpected changes in regulatory requirements, taxes, trade laws and tariffs;
	•	restrictions on repatriation of earnings;

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	•	differing intellectual property rights;
	•	differing labor regulations;
	•	changes in a specific country’s or region’s political or economic conditions;
	•	greater difficulty in staffing and managing foreign operations; and
	•	fluctuating currency exchange rates.

      If we are unable to protect our intellectual property, we may lose a valuable asset, experience reduced market share, or incur costly litigation to protect our rights.

      Our success depends, in part, upon our proprietary technology and other intellectual property rights. To date, we have relied primarily on a combination of copyright, trade secret, trademark and patent laws, and nondisclosure and other contractual restrictions on copying and distribution to protect our proprietary technology. We have two pending patent applications for technology related to our software, but we cannot assure you that these applications will be successful. A small number of our agreements with our customers and systems integrators contain provisions regarding the rights of third parties to obtain the source code for our software, which may limit our ability to protect our intellectual property rights in the future. Litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights or protect our trade secrets could result in substantial costs and may not be successful. Any inability to protect our intellectual property rights could seriously harm our business, operating results and financial condition. In addition, the laws of certain foreign countries may not protect our intellectual property rights to the same extent as do the laws of the United States. Our means of protecting our intellectual property rights in the United States or abroad may not be adequate to fully protect our intellectual property rights.

      Third party claims that we infringe upon their intellectual property rights could be costly to defend or settle.

      Litigation regarding intellectual property rights is common in the Internet and software industries. We expect that Internet technologies and software products and services may be increasingly subject to third-party infringement claims as the number of competitors in our industry segment grows and the functionality of products in different industry segments overlaps. We may from time to time encounter disputes over rights and obligations concerning intellectual property. Although we believe that our intellectual property rights are sufficient to allow us to market our software without incurring liability to third parties, third parties may bring claims of infringement against us. Such claims may be with or without merit. Any litigation to defend against claims of infringement or invalidity could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources. Furthermore, a party making such a claim could secure a judgment that requires us to pay substantial damages. A judgment could also include an injunction or other court order that could prevent us from selling our software. Our business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed if any of these events occurred.

      In addition, we have agreed, and may agree in the future, to indemnify certain of our customers against claims that our software infringes upon the intellectual property rights of others. We could incur substantial costs in defending ourselves and our customers against infringement claims. In the event of a claim of infringement, we and our customers may be required to obtain one or more licenses from third parties. We, or our customers, may be unable to obtain necessary licenses from third parties at a reasonable cost, or at all. Defense of any lawsuit or failure to obtain any such required licenses could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.

      If we become subject to product liability claims, they could be time consuming and costly to defend.

      Since our customers use our software for mission critical applications such as Internet commerce, errors, defects or other performance problems could result in financial or other damages to our customers. They could seek damages for losses from us, which, if successful, could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition. Although our license agreements typically contain provisions designed to limit our exposure to product liability claims, existing or future laws or unfavorable

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Risks Relating To Our Industry

      Our market is subject to rapid technological change and our future success will depend on our ability to meet the changing needs of our industry.

      Our market is characterized by rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards and frequent new product announcements. To be successful, we must adapt to our rapidly changing market by continually improving the performance, features and reliability of our software and services. We could incur substantial costs to modify our software, services or infrastructure in order to adapt to these changes. Our business could be harmed if we incur significant costs without adequate results, or if we are unable to adapt rapidly to these changes.

      Continued adoption of the Internet as a method of conducting business is necessary for our future growth.

      The market for Internet-based, business-to-business integration software is relatively new and is evolving rapidly. Our future revenues and any future profits depend upon the widespread acceptance and use of the Internet as an effective medium for business-to-business commerce. The failure of the Internet to continue to develop as a commercial or business medium could harm our business, operating results and financial condition. The acceptance and use of the Internet for business-to-business commerce could be limited by a number of factors, such as the growth and use of the Internet in general, the relative ease of conducting business on the Internet, the efficiencies and improvements that conducting commerce on the Internet provides, concerns about transaction security and taxation of transactions on the Internet.

      We depend on the speed and reliability of the Internet and our customers’ internal networks.

      The recent growth in Internet traffic has caused frequent periods of decreased performance. If Internet usage continues to grow rapidly, its infrastructure may not be able to support these demands and its performance and reliability may decline. If outages or delays on the Internet occur frequently or increase in frequency, business-to-business e-commerce could grow more slowly or decline, which may reduce the demand for our software. The ability of our webMethods B2B software to satisfy our customers’ needs is ultimately limited by and depends upon the speed and reliability of both the Internet and our customers’ internal networks. Consequently, the emergence and growth of the market for our software depends upon improvements being made to the entire Internet as well as to our individual customers’ networking infrastructures to alleviate overloading and congestion. If these improvements are not made, the ability of our customers to utilize our solution will be hindered, and our business, operating results and financial condition may suffer.

      Increased security risks of online commerce may deter future use of our software and services.

      A fundamental requirement to conduct Internet-based, business-to-business e-commerce is the secure transmission of confidential information over public networks. Advances in computer capabilities, new discoveries in the field of cryptography, or other developments may result in a compromise or breach of the security features contained in our software or the algorithms used by our customers and their business partners to protect content and transactions on Internet e-commerce marketplaces or proprietary information in our customers’ and their business partners’ databases. Anyone who is able to circumvent security measures could misappropriate proprietary, confidential customer information or cause interruptions in our customers’ and their business partners’ operations. Our customers and their business partners may be required to incur significant costs to protect against security breaches or to alleviate problems caused by breaches, reducing their demand for our software. Further, a well-publicized compromise of security could deter businesses from using the Internet to conduct transactions that involve transmitting confidential information. The failure of the security features of our software to prevent security breaches,

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      Internet-related laws could limit the market for our software.

      Regulation of the Internet is largely unsettled. The adoption of laws or regulations that increase the costs or administrative burdens of doing business using the Internet could cause companies to seek an alternative means of transacting business. If the adoption of new Internet laws or regulations causes companies to seek alternative methods for conducting business, the demand for our software could decrease and our business could be adversely affected.

Item 2.  PROPERTIES

Facilities

      Our principal administrative, sales, marketing and research and development facility is located in Fairfax, Virginia, and consists of approximately 64,725 square feet of office space held under a lease that expires in March 2005. In March 1999, we leased 4,000 square feet of office space in San Francisco, California, under a three-year lease expiring in February 2002. We also maintain offices for sales and support personnel in New York, New York; Los Angeles, California; Alpharetta, Georgia; Plano, Texas; Columbus, Ohio; Chicago, Illinois; Englewood, Colorado; Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts; Hilversum, The Netherlands; Frankfurt, Germany; and Reading, United Kingdom.

Item 3.  LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

      We are involved from time to time in routine litigation that arises in the ordinary course of our business, but are not currently involved in any litigation that we believe could reasonably be expected to have a material adverse impact on our financial position, results of operations or cash flows.

Item 4.  SUBMISSION OF MATTERS TO A VOTE OF SECURITY HOLDERS

      None.

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Table of Contents

PART II

      Since February 11, 2000, webMethods’ Common Stock has been publicly traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol “WEBM.” Prior to February 11, 2000, webMethods common stock was not publicly traded. The high and low sales prices of the Common Stock as reported by the Nasdaq National Market were: