San Jose, Calif. (April 9, 2001) (Nasdaq: ADBE)--Adobe Systems Incorporated the leader in Network Publishing, today announced the immediate availability of Adobe® Acrobat® 5.0 software, one of the company's cornerstone applications. Since its introduction in early March, the product has received overwhelmingly positive press coverage around the world, as well as early kudos from key customers and analysts. The new version offers numerous enhancements, including tighter Web integration, support for industry standard protocols like Open DataBase Connectivity (ODBC) that connect Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) forms with back-end databases, and easier data exchange in Adobe PDF files through support for the eXtensible Markup Language (XML). "In order to succeed in today's networked environment, where business moves at Web speed, companies must be agile and able to meet pressing deadlines," said Elizabeth Sun, Senior Program Director, Electronic Business Strategies, META Group, Inc. "Products like Acrobat 5.0 and technologies like Adobe PDF are crucial because they enable corporations to streamline their business processes using the Web, both internally and across their extended enterprise of customers and partners." Early Acrobat 5.0 customers are equally impressed with the benefits of the new version, including more powerful functionality within the Web browser. "The enhanced Web-based functionality in Acrobat 5.0 that lets users simultaneously review and share comments online enables our staff to comment efficiently on draft documents and arrive at a consensus more quickly," said Carolyne Gibson, learning products manager, Agilent Technologies. "Since we view Acrobat as an enterprise solution something most of our employees rely on in one form or another to work more efficiently˜the ability to share and view materials reliably is critical."