ActiveState acquired by employees and Pender Financial Group

ActiveState Acquired by Employees and Pender Financial Group
Company renews focus on tools and solutions for dynamic languages

Vancouver, BC — Feb. 22, 2006 — ActiveState, the leading provider of
tools and services for dynamic languages, announced yesterday that it has
been acquired by ActiveState Software Inc., a new company jointly owned by
the employees of ActiveState and Pender Financial Group Corporation, an
investment company focused on technology and healthcare. All of
ActiveState's business, assets, and liabilities were acquired from Sophos,
Inc., a subsidiary of Sophos Plc., for the purchase price of US$2,250,000.

As an independent entity, ActiveState will continue to develop and support
its award-winning programming tools, language distributions, and enterprise
support services for dynamic languages, with major releases of all tools
scheduled to ship later this year.

ActiveState will be led by Bart Copeland as President and CEO, and
Dr. David Ascher as CTO and VP, Engineering.

Copeland brings 20 years of leadership, management, finance, and business
experience to his role.  Most recently, he was Interim CEO of iMessaging
Systems, Inc., a New Hampshire-based interactive voice response software
company, President & CEO of Recombo, Inc., a content integration
technology company, and President and CEO of PhotoChannel Networks Inc., an
online image and printing/picture messaging services for retailers and
wireless carriers.

"I'm excited to be joining ActiveState at this stage in the company's
evolution," said Copeland.  "They are an established leader who have
achieved many successes to date, and are well-positioned to be a major
force in the industry. I look forward to leading the company to further
success."

As CTO and VP, Engineering, Ascher will focus on product and technology
strategies. He has spent the past six years providing business and
technical leadership for ActiveState, most recently in the position of
Chief Technologist, and has over 17 years of experience as a developer,
consultant, and advocate of open source software.

"This investment allows ActiveState to once again be independent," said
Ascher. "This is great news for us, and, more importantly, for our
customers, who will benefit not only from our renewed focus on current
product lines, but also from the wealth of expertise and resources that
Bart and our new investors will contribute toward future growth."

In addition, Kelly Edmison, President and CEO of Pender Financial Group,
will become Chairman of ActiveState's Board, and David Roberts, President
of PenderFund Capital Management Ltd., will join Edmison and Copeland as a
Director.


About Pender Financial Group Corporation

Pender Financial Group Corporation (TSX-V: PDF) is a publicly traded
investment company that owns or manages approximately $35 million of assets
focused on technology, life sciences and healthcare companies based in
British Columbia. Pender's strategy is to build long-term value by
investing its capital into a relatively few undervalued companies and to
actively participate in their development so as to enhance their value and
the liquidity of Pender's investments. Through its wholly owned subsidiary,
PenderFund Capital Management Ltd., Pender is the manager of Pender Growth
Fund (VCC) Inc. and Pender NDI Life Sciences Fund (VCC) Inc.

About ActiveState

ActiveState is the leading provider of tools and services for dynamic
languages such as Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Tcl. Over two million
developers rely on ActiveState's cross-platform professional development
tools, high-quality language distributions, and enterprise services.

© 2006 ActiveState 
All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.