OXID eSales Goes Open Source

FREIBURG, GERMANY--(Marketwire - November 3, 2008) - OXID eSales, a leading European software etailer, today announced the release of the source code for its flagship eSales product, OXID eShop PE4, to the Open Source world to create a new Community Edition. The new Community Edition, OXID eShop CE, will offer the identical software to the latest release of OXID's proprietary professional edition, OXID PE 4.0, providing a fully functional out-of-the-box software solution for companies looking to build an online shop. The Community Edition is available for free download immediately under the GNU Public License version three (GPLv3).

"Open Source entrants gained traction in the etailer market albeit with inferior solutions. We felt that by Open Sourcing the core of OXID's software we could offer the highest quality Open Source eShop available and lead the new growing market sector," explained OXID CEO Roland Fesenmayr. "We successfully restructured the company to take full advantage of the benefits of Open Source development and distribution, as well as to guard against some of the risks the new business model brings along. We firmly believe that Open Source is the most effective way to expand our presence in the global marketplace."

"Moving forward, we have big plans for the new company and the new community, but we appreciate the scale of the changes we are making and we find it critical to take one step at a time," elaborated Roland Fesenmayr. "At this stage we simply want people to download and try the software, experience the power of OXID CE and ideally join OXID's Open Source community."

As OXID eSales AG has streamlined its internal development process to take full advantage of the rapid pace of innovation and faster product cycles it expects as an Open Source solution. Furthermore, OXID has begun adopting a similar business model to some of the most successful corporate-backed Open Source projects. Throughout all of these changes, OXID will continue to offer its software under proprietary license for customers and partners who prefer this option, and will offer a supplemented Enterprise Edition, OXID EE, with enhanced scalability, manageability, multi-site functionality and enterprise-grade support options.

Based on the popular LAMP software stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP), OXID has a clean, clear, modular architecture that is well suited to the Open Source development model. Changes to the core software kernel will remain under the control of OXID, with the company moderating suggestions from its community for improvements and bug solutions. Developers can create modules to extend the product and develop new add-on functionality, with the option to have these quality checked and certified by OXID. Under the dual-license model, partners will be able to sell these certified and non-certified modules as proprietary add-ons to the OXID eShop PE or distribute them under the GPL as add-ons for the OXID eShop CE Open Source version.

As a key part of the move forward as an international Open Source solution, OXID has developed an English-language forum as the focal point for its new Open Source community. The forum will include an area for members of the community to upload and share new modules or extensions that they create on top of the core product. It will also include community discussion boards for kernel development and trouble-shooting. OXID has trained technical staff on the forums and intends to play a key role in nurturing the new Open Source community.

About OXID

OXID eSales AG provides the most commercially proven, Open Source online shopping software solution available, backed by a flexible range of support and licensing options, Software as a service (SaaS) offerings and additional Enterprise Features. OXID provides a simpler, faster and cleaner eShop software solution than anything previously available under an Open Source license. The company is committed to a commercial Open Source development model based on delivering unrivalled value to its community, responding fast to capturing the value it receives in return and innovating even faster to deliver value added products and services around the core offering. For more information, please go to www.oxid-esales.com.

OXID is a registered trademark of OXID AG. All other trademarks and/or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Contact Information: Contact info: Terpin Communications for Oxid eSales Xenia von Wedel (415) 595-2030