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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

FORM 10-K

ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF
THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the Fiscal Year Ended November 30, 2001

OR

TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF
THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Commission File Number: 0-19417

PROGRESS SOFTWARE CORPORATION

14 Oak Park
Bedford, Massachusetts 01730
(Address of principal executive offices)
Telephone Number: (781) 280-4000

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
None

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:
Common Stock $.01 par value

         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      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.      

As of February 4, 2002, there were 35,759,000 common shares outstanding. As of that date, the aggregate market value of voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant was approximately $578,809,000.

Documents Incorporated by Reference

Portions of the definitive Proxy Statement for the Annual Meeting of Shareholders to be held on April 19, 2002 are incorporated by reference into Part III.

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PROGRESS SOFTWARE CORPORATION

FORM 10-K

FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED NOVEMBER 30, 2001

INDEX

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PART I

CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 contains certain safe harbor provisions regarding forward-looking statements. This Form 10-K, and other information provided by the Company or statements made by its directors, officers or employees from time to time, may contain “forward-looking” statements and information, which involve risks and uncertainties. Actual future results may differ materially. Statements indicating that the Company “expects,” “estimates,” “believes,” “is planning” or “plans to” are forward-looking, as are other statements concerning future financial results, product offerings or other events that have not yet occurred. There are several important factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated by the forward-looking statements. Such factors are described in greater detail below under the heading “Factors That May Affect Future Results” and include, but are not limited to, global economic conditions, the timing of the receipt and shipment of new orders, the timely release of enhancements to the Company’s products, the growth rates of certain market segments, the positioning of the Company’s products in those market segments, market acceptance of the application service provider distribution model, success in the messaging and integration market, variations in the demand for professional services and maintenance, including technical support, pricing pressures and the competitive environment in the software industry, business and consumer use of the Internet, and the Company’s ability to penetrate international markets and manage its international operations. Although the Company has sought to identify the most significant risks to its business, the Company cannot predict whether, or to what extent, any of such risks may be realized, nor can there be any assurance that the Company has identified all possible issues which the Company might face. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements it makes.

Item 1. Business

Progress Software Corporation (PSC or the Company) is a global supplier of products and services for business applications deployed in an Internet or multi-tiered environment. PSC develops, markets and distributes application development, deployment, integration and management software to business, industry and governments worldwide. The mission of Progress Software Corporation is to deliver superior software products and services that empower partners and customers to improve the cost-effectiveness and speed of developing, deploying and managing their complex business solutions. PSC seeks to achieve its mission by providing a robust set of software platforms, tools and services that simplify the process of delivering highly integrated and constantly evolving business applications that support an open, flexible and dynamic architecture. PSC’s products include databases, application servers, messaging servers, application management tools, integration products and development tools for Internet applications as well as for client/server and host/terminal applications.

In December 2000, PSC established three separate operating units and a supporting research and business development unit in order to expand its opportunities in the e-business marketplace. The first operating unit conducts business as the Progress Company and is a division of PSC. The other two operating units, Sonic Software Corporation and NuSphere Corporation, address the needs of rapidly emerging markets and have been established as wholly owned subsidiaries of the parent company, PSC. The Company also established PSC Labs, a division of PSC based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to focus on new business development, research, and strategic investments.

The Progress Company is a global supplier of software products and services for developing, deploying and managing enterprise business applications. The Progress Company provides OpenEdge™, an e-business platform that includes the Progress® RDBMS, one of the leading embedded databases. OpenEdge also includes an integrated, component-based visual development and deployment environment for Internet, enterprise and global-class business applications. The Progress Company’s partners include more than 2,000 independent software vendors (ISVs) and application service providers (ASPs) who supply Progress®-based applications and related services.

Through the ASPen^sm (ASP-enablement) Program, the Progress Company offers a subscription model alternative to the traditional sales model for ISVs who have chosen to ASP-enable their business applications. The subscription option has opened new revenue opportunities for ASPen members. The ASPen Program has grown since its

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inception in 1999 to include business planning assistance, strategic partnerships, and professional services to assist Progress ISVs in deploying their applications through the ASP model. The acquisition of Allegrix, Inc. in June 2001 extended the ASPen Program by adding ASPen Managed Services, which includes the infrastructure necessary to outhost business applications.

Sonic Software enables reliable interoperability of software applications within and across enterprises based on Web services and Internet messaging standards. Sonic Software products provide advanced security capabilities, performance and scalability, and guaranteed delivery of mission-critical information. Sonic Software is a leading provider of Web services and messaging software.

NuSphere Corporation provides one of the first Internet application platforms based on open source components. This platform allows companies to deploy reliable, cost-effective, enterprise-class applications across Windows, UNIX and Linux environments. NuSphere’s principal offering is NuSphere Pro Advantage, an integrated software suite that pairs the reliability and cost-effectiveness of PHP, Apache, Perl and open source databases with new technology for building business-critical Web applications. Revenue from NuSphere in fiscal 2001 was not significant as this organization is currently in the development stage.

Based upon the aggregation criteria for segment reporting within consolidated financial statements, PSC has two reportable segments: E-Business Application Development & Deployment, which includes the Progress Company, NuSphere and PSC Labs, and E-Business Integration, which includes Sonic Software and certain Sonic-related international sales and marketing support activities within the Progress Company.

PSC sells software products and services worldwide to organizations that develop and use mission-critical enterprise business applications. More than half of PSC’s worldwide revenue is realized through its relationships with ISVs who market applications that utilize the Company’s technology. These ISVs sell Internet and networked business applications across diverse markets such as manufacturing, distribution, financial services, retail and health care. PSC also sells software products and services to the Information Technology (IT) organizations of businesses and governments. PSC operates in North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) and the Asia/Pacific region through its subsidiaries as well as independent distributors. Financial information relating to business segments and international operations is found in Note 10 of the Consolidated Financial Statements, Part II, Item 8, incorporated here by reference.

PSC Products

PSC provides intuitive development tools that empower developers to deliver high-quality applications. PSC delivers reliable, high-performance deployment and integration products—such as application servers, databases, and messaging servers—that are essential to successful use of an application, resulting in low total cost of ownership and an extended application lifecycle. The Company’s product lines are designed to continually integrate open standards while delivering high levels of performance. PSC’s products are generally licensed as perpetual licenses.

The Progress Company’s OpenEdge e-business platform contains the Progress® product set, which consists of products such as Progress® Dynamics™, Progress® ProVision® Plus, Progress® WebSpeed®, Progress RDBMS, Progress® AppServer™, Progress® Fathom™, Progress® WebClient™, Progress® DataServers and others as well. The Progress product line provides portability across a wide range of computing and networked environments while affording developers the flexibility to build applications on a range of database management products. The Progress Company began shipping Progress Version 9.1c, the latest major release of the flagship product line, in September 2001. The Sonic product set includes SonicMQ®, a messaging server, and SonicXQ™, an XML-based backbone for integrating diverse applications and technologies across the extended enterprise. The following descriptions detail information about significant product groups:

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Application Development Products

Progress® Dynamics™

Progress Dynamics is the application framework of the OpenEdge business platform for building and deploying distributed enterprise applications. Progress Dynamics uses a repository-based approach to application development. The repository stores object properties and templates, facilitates code re-use, streamlines updating and maintaining objects, and enables dynamic business components. This ability to dynamically generate objects during development and at run time decreases development time, eases deployment, and increases an application’s flexibility to react to market and customer demands.

At the core of Progress Dynamics is a repository database in which developers store the definitions for dynamic application attributes, allowing application components to be largely non-procedural, data-driven objects, allowing a high degree of customization for different organizations or individual user preferences. The repository also provides the framework tools to generate different interfaces for different client platforms, including a graphical user interface, native Web browser-based interface, and even non-visual batch-oriented interfaces. The repository liberates developers from having to make firm decisions about the appearance of the final deployed application during the initial design. The repository allows developers to focus on the core problem of building their business expertise into the application logic. Repository-based development means that many application changes can be accomplished without modifying and recompiling source procedures, minimizing the need for redeployment of compiled code to individual clients and saving development time.

Progress® ProVision® Plus

Progress ProVision Plus is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that allows developers to develop and manage scalable, high-performance applications, whether they are Web-based, client/server, distributed, or host-based. Progress ProVision Plus lets developers create and share common business logic among a variety of clients and Web and application servers, simplifying the development and management of applications.

ProVision Plus permits development, testing, and deployment of applications in a single IDE. It offers the capabilities of the Progress® 4GL language as well as visual, component-based development through the Progress AppBuilder™ and development versions of the Progress AppServer and RDBMS. It also has integrated reporting and source code management, and other tools to help developers create, test, debug, partition and manage applications. Integration with the Progress RDBMS allows developers to build a single, central repository that not only describes the database definitions but the application defaults and business rules as well. The Progress 4GL lets developers build application business logic quickly and efficiently. ProVision Plus includes Progress SmartObjects™ that facilitate the creation of user interfaces as well as business logic components.

Progress ProVision Plus includes Progress WebSpeed Workshop, which allows developers to build Internet Transaction Processing applications that deliver a high level of database connectivity and transaction management. WebSpeed can be used to Web and ASP-enable existing Progress applications. It allows developers to create and edit code remotely via a Web browser. With Progress WebSpeed, organizations can build simple, dynamic Web applications that can scale up to enterprise-class database applications. XML (eXtensible Markup Language) is supported directly in WebSpeed’s SpeedScript language, allowing users to exchange data between Progress-supported data sources and XML documents. XML, the emerging standard for exchanging data between disparate applications, is a markup language like HTML. However, unlike HTML, XML describes document content in terms of the data without regard for how it is to be displayed.

Application Deployment Products

Progress® RDBMS

The Progress RDBMS products are high-performance relational databases that can scale from a single-user Windows system to symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) and cache coherent non-uniform memory access (ccNUMA) systems, supporting thousands of concurrent users. In addition to offering a low total cost of ownership and

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scalability, the Progress RDBMS products offer high availability, reliability, performance, and platform portability. With support for the ANSI SQL-92 Entry Level specification, Progress RDBMS products integrate with enterprise applications, tools and numerous third-party data management systems.

The three Progress RDBMS products — the Progress Enterprise RDBMS, the Progress Workgroup RDBMS, and the Progress Personal RDBMS — allow users to select a solution that satisfies their business objectives. Customers can purchase what is needed today and, as their requirements grow, they can upgrade to a more robust solution without changing program code.

The Progress Enterprise RDBMS is designed for large user environments and the transaction processing throughput of high volume SQL-based and Progress 4GL-based on-line transaction processing (OLTP) applications. The Progress Enterprise RDBMS was developed with a flexible, multithreaded, multiserver architecture. The Progress Enterprise RDBMS is a powerful, open and large-scale enterprise database that can run across multiple hardware platforms and networks.

The architecture of the Progress storage engine lets applications take advantage of powerful computing systems. With support for over 10,000 concurrent users and numerous terabytes of data, it provides the capacity for large-scale, high-performance computing. One reason for this high performance is the addition of the patent-pending Concurrent Commit Lock Protocol. This new feature increases the parallelism allowed within the storage engine for update and commit operations used by most database applications. The net effect is that less work is done inside the storage engine for most operations, and CPU cycles are saved. Highly concurrent processing for on-line interactive users is provided through features that reduce contention for shared resources, such as support for today’s large multi-processor SMP and ccNUMA configurations, fine-grained shared memory locking, and SMP spin locks. The resulting performance advantages allow the Enterprise RDBMS to scale effectively from smaller servers to large enterprise servers.

The Progress Enterprise RDBMS includes the functionality needed to meet OLTP requirements. These capabilities include row-level locking, roll-back and roll-forward recovery, point-in-time recovery, distributed database management with two-phase commit, a complete suite of on-line utilities and support for ANSI-standard SQL-92. Sophisticated self-tuning capabilities and simple graphical interfaces for system administration facilitate installations, tuning and management. With low administration costs, low initial cost of licenses and upgrade fees and limited software implementation costs, the Progress Enterprise RDBMS provides a significant cost-of-ownership advantage over many competing database products.

The Progress Workgroup RDBMS, which offers many of the same powerful capabilities as the Progress Enterprise RDBMS, is designed for workgroups of two to thirty simultaneous users. This department-level solution provides high performance, multi-user support and cross-platform interoperability. The Progress Workgroup RDBMS runs on a wide variety of hardware and operating system platforms. Because the flexible database architecture provides significant throughput on all supported platforms, a database developed on one machine can serve applications on other systems and network configurations.

The Progress Personal RDBMS is bundled with Progress development tools, including Progress ProVision Plus, and is suitable for deploying single-user SQL-based and 4GL-based applications and for developing, prototyping and testing applications.

Progress® AppServer™

Progress AppServer supports distributed enterprise applications that leverage existing applications, support new technologies, and communicate with other applications as needed. An integrated application server for both Progress Version 9 4GL-based applications and Progress WebSpeed Version 3 Web-based applications, Progress AppServer forms a middle tier between an application’s user interface and its back-end data. Progress AppServer allows interoperability with various clients and various data sources and improves the performance and scalability of business applications. Progress AppServer uses a component-based model for partitioning an application for efficient deployment. Progress 4GL procedures can be encapsulated into components that represent an application’s business logic. These components can then be placed on client systems or onto faster server machines distributed

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throughout the enterprise or the Web. When distributed, the business logic components are reusable across multiple applications. A feature called the SmartDataObject gives developers the ability to create these components.

Progress AppServer components can run on a single Windows NT or UNIX workstation for faster processing or on multiple machines for failover capabilities. Additionally, all business logic and components can be accessed by multiple user interfaces for broad client support. The AppServer Partitioning Tool, part of Progress Version 9, makes it possible to code applications using distributed components or “partitions” that can be run either remotely on a Progress AppServer or locally on the client. Furthermore, the decision on whether to run remotely or locally can be made at runtime without recompiling the client application. A developer can create and compile an application once and deploy it in many different Progress AppServer configurations. Progress AppServers can connect across the network to other Progress AppServers in complex, multi-tier configurations, allowing more effective enterprise business solutions that increase available computing resources.

Progress® WebSpeed® Transaction Server

The WebSpeed Transaction Server provides a transaction-processing environment to help customers achieve high transaction volumes and rapid responses for Web applications. With high throughput, sub-second transaction times, and dynamic load balancing, WebSpeed Transaction Server provides the scalability required to handle thousands of simultaneous users. Record locking, transaction rollback, and two-phase commit allow WebSpeed Transaction Server to safeguard application and data integrity, even if transactions are interrupted, and protect the integrity of transactions that span multiple databases. Dynamic load balancing provides high availability of transaction processing resources in a distributed, multi-tier environment. WebSpeed Transaction Server also allows developers to leverage common business logic for client/server and Web applications. Flexible state management offers full support for extended database queries and updates using stateless, state-aware, or state-persistent Web objects.

Progress® DataServers

The Company provides developers with a transparent interface to a wide range of database management systems through Progress DataServers. These products offer full read, write, update and delete capabilities to diverse data management systems and enable developers to write applications once and deploy them across numerous data sources. Progress DataServers also enable existing Progress 4GL and Web-based applications to access non-Progress data sources and allow the integration of new and legacy applications with diverse databases.

Progress DataServer products include the Progress Oracle DataServer, the Progress DataServer for Microsoft SQL Server, the Progress ODBC DataServer, which is available in Enterprise and Personal editions, and the Progress/400 DataServer. These products provide an environment for developing and deploying Progress 4GL and Web-based applications designed for heterogeneous, distributed computing environments.

Progress® WebClient™

The Progress WebClient with IntelliStream™ technology enables customers to deploy an application with a thin client running a rich, graphical user interface over the Internet, an intranet, or a LAN. Application developers can deploy a feature-rich client user interface in the Progress 4GL and leverage the Internet for server functionality. The WebClient provides a real-time graphical client running on an end user’s PC without the use of any emulation technology. The WebClient requires less bandwidth to install and has a much smaller footprint than the traditional GUI client, yet it retains the functionality, including user interface triggers and formatting, and performance. Progress IntelliStream is a technology that automates many deployment tasks. It includes simple and flexible installation technology that performs many common installation tasks. After an application’s initial deployment, IntelliStream provides efficient provisioning. It enables the WebClient to determine whether the application components have changed and the application needs to be updated. IntelliStream simplifies preparing applications for deployment by providing an application assembler that allows developers to create components that reflect how customers will use the application.

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Integration and Messaging Products

SonicMQ®

SonicMQ is a reliable Java messaging solution that provides a highly scalable, standards-based platform for the guaranteed and secure delivery of business critical data across the extended enterprise. SonicMQ is one of the only standards-based messaging systems that fully complies with Sun Microsystems’ Java Messaging Server (JMS) and the World Wide Web Consortium’s XML specifications. SonicMQ V4.0, the latest release, began shipping in October 2001. Distributed applications bring together a number of variables that make the integration and exchange of business-critical data a highly complex endeavor. Messaging allows such applications to exchange data and business logic with each other asynchronously. SonicMQ allows developers to quickly establish and maintain an efficient, high-performance messaging structure that can handle complex business logic flow requirements without compromising application functionality.

SonicMQ provides guaranteed message delivery and high performance through its patent-pending Dynamic Routing Architecture (DRA). The DRA provides the ability to dynamically add numerous business partners to an E-Business application. Messages are delivered across the network of brokers via a routing path that enhances performance and limits outages. SonicMQ dynamically detects all message brokers within the enterprise and across a network, including remote operations and business partners over the Internet. This architecture scales to accommodate rapidly growing intranets and extranets, without the bottleneck of a central server.

SonicXQ™

SonicXQ provides an intelligent XML-based backbone for integrating diverse applications and technologies across the extended enterprise. More open and flexible than traditional integration solutions, SonicXQ offers any-to-any connectivity through a distributed service-oriented architecture. SonicXQ delivers a comprehensive set of components and services for reliably connecting applications within and beyond the enterprise. Leveraging the SonicMQ messaging backbone, SonicXQ provides the foundation for distributed services architectures using Web services and the J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA). The JCA defines a standard architecture for connecting the J2EE platform to heterogeneous enterprise information systems.

SonicXQ offers the reliable, secure messaging infrastructure required by Web services to provide communication across distributed systems, even over the Internet. SonicXQ also provides support for the standards commonly used in the deployment of Web services.

Application Management Products

Progress® Fathom™

Progress Fathom was released in November 2001. Progress Fathom is an enterprise-class application management tool designed to increase the operational effectiveness of business systems. Progress Fathom enhances the availability and performance of Progress-based applications through system monitoring, alerting, and automatic handling of corrective actions. Progress Fathom can allow customers to become more efficient, decrease the cost of managing the Progress environment and maintain high availability and performance.

Progress Fathom provides database administrators and systems operations managers with the performance tools and processes required to configure, monitor, diagnose and manage the Progress environment. Critical information is stored in Progress Fathom’s database and can be accessed at any time to view the status of monitored resources.

Product Development

To date, most of PSC’s products have been developed by its internal product development staff. PSC believes that the features and performance of its products are competitive with those of other available application development and deployment tools and that none of the current versions of its products is approaching obsolescence. However, PSC believes that significant investments in new product development and continuing enhancements of its current products will be required to enable the Company to maintain its competitive position.

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PSC’s product development staff consisted of 263 employees as of November 30, 2001. Product development is primarily conducted at PSC’s offices in North America, including Bedford, Massachusetts; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Nashua, New Hampshire; and Missassauga, Ontario. In fiscal years 2001, 2000 and 1999, PSC spent $42.1 million, $39.5 million and $38.8 million, respectively, on product development, of which $0.4 million, $0.5 million and $0.5 million, respectively, were capitalized in those years. PSC believes that the experience and depth of its product development staff are important factors in its success.

Customers

PSC globally markets its products primarily to ISVs and the IT departments of corporations and government agencies. In addition, Sonic Software also markets to original equipment manufacturers who embed and resell SonicMQ and SonicXQ as part of an integrated solution and to value added resellers who resell Sonic products and services, adding value in the form of complementary product, consulting and/or support. No single customer has accounted for more than 10% of PSC’s total revenue in any of its last three fiscal years.

Independent Software Vendors

The Company’s ISVs cover a broad range of markets, offer an extensive library of business applications and are a source of follow-on revenue. PSC maintains on-line application catalogs and includes ISVs in trade shows and other marketing programs. PSC also has kept entry costs for ISVs low to encourage a wide variety of ISVs to build applications. An ISV typically takes 6 to 12 months to develop an application. Although many of the Company’s ISVs have developed successful applications and have large installed customer bases, others are engaged in earlier stages of product development and marketing and may not contribute follow-on revenue to PSC for some time, if at all. However, if an ISV succeeds in marketing its applications, PSC obtains follow-on revenue as the ISV licenses copies of the Company’s deployment products to allow its application to be installed and used by customers.

IT Departments

PSC licenses its products to IT departments of corporations, government agencies and other organizations to build complex applications. Many IT departments that purchase ISV applications also purchase PSC’s development tools to supplement their internal application development. Like ISVs, IT department customers may also license deployment products to install applications at additional user sites.

Sales and Marketing

PSC sells its products through its direct sales force in the United States and in over 25 other countries and through independent distributors in over 40 countries outside North America. The sales, marketing and service groups are organized by operating company and, within the Progress Company, by region in North America, EMEA, Asia/Pacific and Latin America. PSC believes that this structure allows it to maintain direct contact with and support the diverse market requirements of its customers. PSC’s international operations provide focused local marketing efforts and are able to directly respond to changes in local conditions.

Sales personnel are responsible for developing new ISV and IT accounts, assisting ISVs in closing major accounts and servicing existing customers. PSC actively seeks to avoid conflict between the sales efforts of its ISVs and the Company’s own sales efforts. PSC uses its telephone sales and sales administration groups to enhance its direct sales efforts and to generate new business and follow-on business from existing customers. These groups may provide evaluation copies to ISVs or IT organizations to help qualify them as prospective customers, and also sell additional development and deployment products to existing customers.

PSC’s marketing department conducts a variety of marketing programs designed to ensure a stream of market-ready products, raise general awareness of PSC and its operating companies, generate leads for the sales organization and promote PSC’s various product lines. These programs include public relations, direct mail, participation in trade shows, advertising and production of collateral literature. The Progress Company sponsored a single worldwide users conference in the United States in fiscal 2001 and is planning to hold a similar event in the United States in fiscal 2002.

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Customer Support

PSC’s technical support staff provides telephone support to application developers and end-users. Customers may also purchase an annual maintenance service entitling them to software updates, technical support and technical bulletins. The annual fee for maintenance is generally 15% to 20% of the current list price of the product to be maintained; first year maintenance is not included with the Company’s products and is purchased separately. PSC provides technical support to customers primarily through its technical support centers in Bedford, Massachusetts; Rotterdam, The Netherlands; and Melbourne, Australia.

In December 2001, the Progress Company launched the Progress Software Developers Network (PSDN) to deliver information, education, and software resources for creating business applications with Progress technology. PSDN facilitates the exchange of technical expertise within the Progress developer community. PSDN offers Progress partners access to Progress expertise via technical white papers, live chats with experts, as well as Web seminars.

Professional Services

PSC’s global professional services organization delivers a total business solution for customers through a combination of products, consulting and education. PSC’s consulting organization offers project management, custom development, programming, application implementation and Internet migration and other services. PSC’s consulting organization also provides services to Web-enable existing applications or take advantage of the capabilities of new product releases. The Company’s education organization offers numerous training options, from traditional instructor-led courses to advanced learning modules available on CDs. Personnel at PSC’s international subsidiaries and distributors provide consulting and training services for customers located outside North America.

In December 2001, PSC introduced OpenEdge™ Business Solutions, which help customers quickly enhance and leverage their existing Progress-based applications by utilizing the technology of the OpenEdge platform and the knowledge and experience of the Company’s global professional services organization. Currently, OpenEdge Business Solutions include Application Management Solutions, which improve the performance and availability of Progress-based business applications; Business Intelligence Solutions, which include solutions that can be quickly implemented to help customers analyze key business metrics; Content Personalization Solutions, which allow personalized communications with customers; and Disaster Recovery Solutions, designed to protect IT assets and provide business continuity through online backup and services.

Competition

The computer software industry is intensely competitive. PSC experiences significant competition from a variety of sources with respect to all its products. PSC believes that the breadth and integration of its product offerings have become increasingly important competitive advantages. Other factors affecting competition in the markets served by PSC include product performance in complex applications, application portability, vendor experience, ease of integration, price, training and support.

PSC competes in various markets with a number of entities including database vendors offering development tools in conjunction with their database systems, such as IBM, Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation and Sybase, Inc., as well as numerous messaging vendors and application development tools vendors. PSC believes that Oracle, IBM and Microsoft currently dominate the database market and that IBM dominates the messaging market. PSC does not believe that there is a dominant application development tools vendor. Some of PSC’s competitors have greater financial, marketing or technical resources than PSC and may be able to adapt more quickly to new or emerging technologies and changes in customer requirements or to devote greater resources to the promotion and sale of their products than can the Company. Increased competition could make it more difficult for PSC to maintain its revenue and market presence.

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Copyrights, Trademarks, Patents and Licenses

PSC relies upon a combination of contractual provisions and copyright, patent, trademark and trade secret laws to protect its proprietary rights in its products. PSC distributes its products under software license agreements that grant customers a perpetual nonexclusive license to use the Company’s products and contain terms and conditions prohibiting the unauthorized reproduction or transfer of the Company’s products. In addition, PSC attempts to protect its trade secrets and other proprietary information through agreements with employees and consultants. Although PSC intends to protect its rights vigorously, there can be no assurance that these measures will be successful.

PSC seeks to protect the source code of its products as a trade secret and as an unpublished copyrighted work. PSC holds two patents covering portions of the technology used in the Progress 4GL and two other patents from recent acquisitions. PSC has also made patent applications for some of its various other product technologies. Where possible, PSC seeks to obtain protection of its product names through trademark registration and other similar procedures.

Progress, WebSpeed and ProVision are registered trademarks of PSC. AppBuilder, AppServer, Dynamics, Fathom, OpenEdge, SmartObjects, WebClient and Future Proof are trademarks of PSC. SonicMQ is a registered trademark and SonicXQ is a trademark of Sonic Software Corporation. NuSphere is a trademark of NuSphere Corporation. All other trademarks or trade names appearing in this Form 10-K are the property of their respective owners.

PSC believes that due to the rapid pace of innovation within its industry factors such as the technological and creative skills of its personnel are as important in establishing and maintaining a leadership position within the industry, as are the various legal protections of its technology. In addition, PSC believes that the nature of its customers, the importance of PSC’s products to them and their need for continuing product support may reduce the risk of unauthorized reproduction.

Backlog

PSC generally ships its products within 30 days after acceptance of a customer order and execution of a license agreement. Accordingly, PSC does not believe that its backlog at any particular point in time is indicative of future sales levels.

Employees

As of November 30, 2001, PSC had 1,395 employees worldwide, including 571 in sales and marketing, 339 in customer support and services (including manufacturing and distribution), 263 in product development and 222 in administration. None of PSC’s employees is subject to collective bargaining agreements. PSC has experienced no work stoppages and believes its relations with employees are good.

PSC has various equity incentive plans that permit the granting of options to eligible employees and the purchase of shares by eligible employees. The payment of cash bonuses and contributions to retirement plans is at the discretion of the compensation committee of the Board of Directors and the amounts depend on the level of attainment relative to PSC’s financial plan. These programs are designed to reduce employee turnover, although there can be no assurance that such programs will be successful.

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Executive Officers of the Registrant

The following table sets forth certain information regarding the executive officers of the Company.

Mr. Alsop, a founder of PSC, has been a director and Chief Executive Officer since its inception in 1981.

Mr. Cooper joined the Company in February 2001 as President of NuSphere Corporation, a subsidiary of PSC. From November 1994 to June 2000, Mr. Cooper was employed by Sente, Inc., a computer software company, as President and Chief Executive Officer. From July 2000 to January 2001, Mr. Cooper was Vice Chairman of Sequence Design, Inc., a computer software company.

Mr. Ireland joined the Company in September 1997 as Vice President, Core Products and Services and was appointed Vice President and General Manager, Core Products and Services in March 1998, Vice President and General Manager, Worldwide Field Operations in December 1999 and President, the Progress Company in December 2000. From 1994 to 1997, Mr. Ireland was employed by Marcam Corporation, a computer software company, as a vice president and general manager.

Mr. O’Connor was appointed Vice President, Apptivity Engineering in August 1998 and was appointed Vice President, Sonic Engineering in December 1999 and President, Sonic Software Corporation, a subsidiary of PSC, in November 2001. From 1993 to 1998, Mr. O’Connor held various management positions within the product development organization of the Company. Mr. O’Connor joined PSC in 1992.

Mr. Reidy was appointed Vice President, Development Tools in July 1996 and was appointed Vice President, Product Development in July 1997, Vice President, Products in December 1999 and Senior Vice President, Products in December 2000. Mr. Reidy joined PSC in 1985.

Mr. Robertson joined PSC in May 1996 as Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer and was appointed Vice President, Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer in December 1997 and Senior Vice President, Finance and Administration and Chief Financial Officer in December 2000.

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Item 2. Properties

         PSC owns its principal administrative, sales, support, marketing and product development facility, which is located in a single building of approximately 165,000 square feet in Bedford, Massachusetts. PSC leases approximately 58,000 square feet in Wilmington, Massachusetts, and maintains its manufacturing and distribution operations at this location. In addition, PSC maintains offices in approximately 20 other locations in North America and approximately 40 locations outside North America. The terms of leases generally range from one to seven years. PSC believes that its present and proposed facilities are adequate for its current needs and that suitable additional space will be available as needed.

Item 3. Legal Proceedings

The Company is subject to various legal proceedings and claims, either asserted or unasserted, which arise in the ordinary course of business. While the outcome of these claims cannot be predicted with certainty, management does not believe that the outcome of any of these legal matters will have a material adverse effect on the Company’s consolidated financial position or results of operations.

Item 4. Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders

No matters were submitted to a vote of PSC’s shareholders during the fourth quarter of the fiscal year ended November 30, 2001.

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PART II

Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity and Related Stockholder Matters

The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, the range of high and low trade prices for the Company’s common stock as reported by the Nasdaq Stock Market. The Company’s common stock is traded under the Nasdaq symbol “PRGS.”

The Company has not declared or paid cash dividends on its common stock and does not plan to pay cash dividends to its shareholders in the near future. As of December 31, 2001, the Company’s common stock was held by approximately 6,000 shareholders of record or through nominee or street name accounts with brokers.

Item 6. Selected Financial Data

(In thousands, except per share data)

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Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

Results of Operations

The Company develops, markets and supports application development, deployment, integration and management software. Its core product line, Progress, is composed primarily of the Progress ProVision, Progress RDBMS, Progress WebSpeed, Progress AppServer and Progress DataServer products. In September 2001, the Company began shipping the latest major enhancement to the Progress product line, Progress Version 9.1c. The Company began commercial shipments of SonicMQ, a standards-based messaging server, in December 1999 and shipped the latest release, SonicMQ V4.0 in October 2001. Software license revenue continues to be generated primarily from internally developed products. Geographic expansion in overseas markets has been achieved through a combination of establishing offices in new markets and the acquisition of Progress-related assets of certain distributors. Over the past several years, the Company’s revenue and earnings per share have been adversely affected by the strengthening of the US dollar against many of the major currencies from which a substantial portion of its international revenue is derived.

In December 2000, the Company began conducting business through three separate operating units and a supporting research and business development unit in order to enhance the Company’s opportunities in the e-business marketplace. The first operating unit conducts business as the Progress Company and provides the Progress product set and services for building e-business solutions. The second operating unit, Sonic Software Corporation, is a provider of Web services and messaging software. The third operating unit, NuSphere Corporation, provides enhanced open source software and services. PSC Labs is the unit that has responsibility for research and new business development activities.

The following table sets forth certain income and expense items as a percentage of total revenue, and the percentage change in dollar amounts of such items compared with the corresponding period in the previous fiscal year.