Bentley Acquires Cook-Hurlbert; Adds Expert Designer, the Leading Distribution Design Software for Utilities, to Portfolio

EXTON, Pa.--Feb. 6, 2006--Bentley Systems, Incorporated today announced that it has acquired the assets of Cook-Hurlbert of Austin, Texas, a leading provider of engineering design software for electric and gas distribution networks. Cook-Hurlbert's Expert Designer spatial network layout and analysis software was among the first developed specifically for utility designers and engineers. Users of this open and integrated software include many leading utilities such as Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE), a Constellation Energy Company, and Xcel Energy.

"The addition of the Cook-Hurlbert products to Bentley's comprehensive portfolio of software solutions represents another exciting milestone for us," said Styli Camateros, vice president, Bentley Geospatial. "It expands our offerings to include software that provides utility companies with optimized network designs. Among the software's many benefits to the utility designer and engineer are increased productivity, enhanced data integrity and systems integration, and streamlined workflows."

"Moreover," Camateros continued, "as part of a long-term strategy initiated by Bentley, the acquisition of Cook-Hurlbert will enable us to do the same thing for electric and gas utilities that the acquisition of Haestad Methods enabled us to do for water projects, and that the acquisition of the FOCUSOne product line enabled us to do for the communications industry: provide best-of-breed geospatial engineering tools for critical network design.

"This stage of our strategy will benefit from the extensive industry experience of Larry Hurlbert and Vonnie Cook Smith, both of whom have accepted senior positions with the Bentley Geospatial vertical organization. Their in-depth knowledge of electric and gas utilities will be invaluable as we continue to enhance and extend the Expert Designer product line."

Said Vonnie Smith, director of electric utilities products for Bentley, "We are very pleased to join Bentley and have our products become part of its extensive portfolio of integrated solutions. Bentley's global reach and vision for making the lifecycle of infrastructure as efficient as possible are sure to drive new market opportunities for our software. At the same time, our existing users are sure to benefit from the enhanced service and support provided by the Bentley Professional Services organization."

Key features of the Cook-Hurlbert product line include:

-- Functionality for process measurement and tracking, work order management and tracking, design layout, estimating, optimization, structural analysis, vegetation management, and job closeout.

-- An open architecture that allows for seamless integration with Bentley's MicroStation and other popular spatial platforms (GE Power's Smallworld Core, AutoCAD, and ESRI's ArcGIS), as well as external systems such as work management and emergency response and outage management systems.

About Bentley

Bentley Systems, Incorporated provides software for the lifecycle of the world's infrastructure. The company's comprehensive portfolio for the building, plant, civil, and geospatial verticals spans architecture, engineering, construction (AEC) and operations. With 2004 revenues exceeding $300 million, Bentley is the leading provider of AEC software to the Engineering News-Record Design 500 and major owner-operators.

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Bentley, the "B" logo, Expert Designer, and MicroStation are either registered or unregistered trademarks or service marks of Bentley Systems, Incorporated or one of its direct or indirect wholly-owned subsidiaries. Other brands and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.