Bridgeline Digital Merges with Lead Dog Digital

Bridgeline Software Merges with NY Company Lead Dog Digital          

BURLINGTON, Mass., Feb. 26, 2002 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bridgeline Digital, Inc. (NASDAQ:BLIN), a provider in cloud-based Web Content Management, eCommerce and Marketing Automation software, announced that it has merged with Lead Dog Digital (www.ldd.com), an award winning, multi-million dollar custom web development company based in New York City. The merger brings together a New England and New York office staffed with best in class development teams. Both companies excel in the development robust enterprise Internet solutions. The companies now have an extensive proprietary code library, and proprietary content management software. The merger brings together two distinctively successful management teams that will now share the same goal and vision. The new company will be branded as BRIDGELINE and known as Bridgeline Software.

Company Description

Founded in 1994, Lead Dog Digital (LDD) excels in its approach to overall user experience, which includes information architecture, motion graphics design, and interface development. In addition LDD application development solutions provide customers with proprietary tools for content management, commerce, site optimization and differentiation.

LDD has developed a powerful niche in delivering content management solutions. LDD has deployed both standard commercial products and its own proprietary content management software solution. The LDD solution enables organizations to easily manage content on multiple sites with a single application while integrating custom features unique to that customer. By offering both centralized control and distributed administration capabilities, the system empowers a larger percentage of a client's company to create and update information. Specific content management responsibilities can move to wherever the client needs them most, to anyone ranging from technical staff to the marketing department. All while the system maintains a consistent look and feel to the entire site.

Key Customers

Lead Dog Digital has quality customers such as: Bank of New York, McGraw-Hill, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Nomura Securities, Reuters, Seagram, Prudential, and Sony.

The principals of LDD have joined BRIDGELINE's Senior Management team.

Ronald Heffernan - LDD's co-founder and Chairman has joined BRIDGELINE as Executive Vice President and a member of the Board of Directors.

From 1994 to 2000 Mr. Heffernan served as President & CEO of LDD. Under his leadership LDD experienced over 100% growth every year from its inception, and was featured on NYNMA's list of Top NY development companies.

Prior to LDD, Mr. Heffernan served as founder and CEO of Meditrade, a successful medical supplies import/ export company. His experience in business development stems from the array of sales positions he has held at Olympus Medical, Circon/ACMI, and Pitney Bowes.

Mr. Heffernan has a B.A. in Economics from the State University of New York. In addition Mr. Heffernan acts as advisor to Quantum Leap Ventures.

While at LDD, Mr. Matteo was instrumental in growing the company over 100% annually by hiring quality personnel, expanding service offerings, aligning with industry partners, and delivering complex projects.

Prior to joining LDD, Mr. Matteo served as Vice President of Technology for Spree.com, a large affiliate marketing site. Most of Mr. Matteo's career was spent working for AT&T in strategy, development, deployment, and maintenance of complex information systems. Mr. Matteo's last assignment was in Amsterdam where he was part of a team that established a successful telecommunications partnership for a business communication services offered in 17 European countries.

Mr. Matteo has an MBA degree from the Wharton Business School and a bachelor's degree in both Computer Science and Management Science from the State University of New York.

Robert Seeger - LDD's Vice President of Business Development has joined BRIDGELINE as the Vice President of Business Development for our New York region.

While at LDD, Mr. Seeger was instrumental in LDD's growth into the financial sector. Mr. Seeger has developed and managed client relationships with Bank of NY, Prudential, Nomura Securities, World Bank and Cadaret Grant. To date, Mr. Seeger has developed some of LDD's largest clients and continues to develop new client relationships while making certain LDD continues to deliver world class results for it's existing clients.

Prior to joining LDD, Mr. Seeger worked for Western Industries, Inc. where he was commissioned with opening their New York Office. Mr. Seeger developed a non-presence in the New York market into what is now a multi-million segment of Western's overall operations. Mr. Seeger was promoted to District Sales Manager where he supervised the New York area sales force and drove all corporate initiatives in that district.

Mr. Seeger is a graduate of Rutgers University where he majored in Business and was Captain of The Rutgers University Football Team.

Brett Zucker - LDD's Director of Development and Delivery has joined BRIDGELINE as the Vice President of Development for our New York region.

Mr. Zucker was the Director of Development and Delivery for Lead Dog Digital, a multimillion dollar, award winning, custom web Development Company that merged with Bridgeline Software.

While at LDD, Mr. Zucker rebuilt their development team, bringing on senior developers with strong industry experience. Mr. Zucker was also instrumental in creating LDD's product development and delivery methodology. By encouraging and arranging for advanced training for all employees, he helped create an environment for skill growth at LDD.

Mr. Zucker has had a wide variety of experiences and he has held positions in different fields before joining Lead Dog Digital in September 2000. Formerly a Senior Producer at AppNet, Mr. Zucker was responsible for managing a team of Project Managers, working on a wide range of custom development projects. Brett's duties at AppNet extended beyond client management into business development. Prior to joining AppNet, Mr. Zucker was a Product Manger at Agency.com (a $100M custom web development company) where his customers included Fortune 500 companies such as MetLife, Nike and Texaco.

Before venturing into the custom web development market, Mr. Zucker spent nearly four years as the Controller of Cullen Cashmere, a high-end apparel company based in New York City.

Mr. Zucker holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and a Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.

About Bridgeline Digital

Bridgeline Digital, The Digital Engagement Company™, helps customers maximize the performance of their full digital experience - from websites and intranets to online stores and campaigns. Bridgeline's Unbound (formerly iAPPS®) platform deeply integrates Web Content Management, eCommerce, eMarketing, Social Media management, and Web Analytics to help marketers deliver digital experiences that attract, engage, nurture and convert their customers across all channels. Headquartered in Burlington, Mass., Bridgeline has thousands of quality customers that range from small- and medium-sized organizations to Fortune 1000 companies. To learn more, please visit www.bridgeline.com or call (800) 603-9936.