EXHIBIT 99.1
RoweCom Announces Acquisition Of NewsEdge Corporation
Addition of customized global news applications provide the centerpiece of e-
commerce knowledge offering
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--December 7, 1999 - RoweCom Inc. (Nasdaq: ROWE), the leading
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provider of business-to-business e-commerce solutions for managing the purchase
of knowledge resources, today announced the execution of a definitive binding
agreement for the acquisition of NewsEdge Corporation (Nasdaq: NEWZ), a leader
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in global news and current awareness solutions for business.
Building on the core competencies of both companies and a mutual commitment to
quality service, the acquisition is intended to further RoweCom's strategic
vision of creating a comprehensive e-media news, information and services
environment for managing knowledge resources across the enterprise. Simple,
easy-to-use Web e-commerce tools and excellent client support coupled with
relevant, personalized content offerings deliver immediate value-added benefits
and fiscal control over the deluge of information bombarding today's
organizations. The combination of RoweCom and NewsEdge will facilitate the
emergence of RoweCom's next-generation of information and knowledge management
solutions covering the spectrum of intelligence on which today's professionals
rely.
"The merger of RoweCom and NewsEdge should create a true industry leader and
result in a perfect marriage of content and commerce," said Dr. Richard Rowe,
RoweCom's President and CEO. "The corporate need for information is expanding
rapidly and is accelerating exponentially. The addition of NewsEdge's news and
current awareness services should greatly enhance the appeal of RoweCom's
offerings and will spur the growth of our core knowledge management business
while further satisfying the informational needs of our clients."
The acquisition is intended to permit RoweCom to provide its clients with timely
and customized business, technical and political news from hundreds of sources,
organized into thousands of topics of interest contextually integrated from
NewsEdge into RoweCom's Knowledge Store (kStore) service. Conversely, embedded
links within NewsEdge stories would provide immediate access to related kStore
offerings including over 200,000 magazines and journals; 5,300 electronic
journals; 4,000 market research reports and 12 million article abstracts and
citations from RoweCom's vast catalog; as well as millions of books via RoweCom
partner barnesandnoble.com.
NewsEdge Corporation is the leading independent provider of global news and
current awareness solutions. The NewsEdge Refinery(TM) processes tens of
thousands of news stories each day, categorizing, prioritizing and organizing
them into real-time news services and topics that are delivered directly to the
client's desktop. The company consists of two core business units: "Enterprise,"
which derives its revenues from corporate subscribers; and "Individual.com,
Inc.(TM)," a free Web-based service for individual business people, which
derives its revenues from advertising and e-commerce.
Under the terms of the agreement, RoweCom will exchange .26 shares of common
stock for each share of NewsEdge stock. Based on RoweCom's closing price on
December 6th, the transaction is valued at about $227 million. In addition,
NewsEdge and RoweCom will pursue over the remainder of the month a number of
options for Individual.com, Inc., including the sale of a significant portion of
the company to an investor. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the
1st quarter of 2000. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions,
including approval by both RoweCom and NewsEdge stockholders, and is subject to
expiration or termination of the waiting periods under the Hart-Scott-Rodino
Antitrust Improvements Act.
"The deluge of information on the Internet has proven to be too much for the
average business person to sift through efficiently and effectively," said Don
McLagan, NewsEdge's
Chairman and CEO. "Together, RoweCom and NewsEdge solutions will help our
clients solve the twin problems of information overload and information
overlook. Our clients and shareholders alike will benefit from the synergies
created by the combination of our two companies."
The acquisition of NewsEdge will represent an example of the achievement of all
three tenets of RoweCom's growth strategy as it was stated during the company's
IPO early in 1999.
. Expand Market Share. RoweCom would instantly add 1,000 new corporate
clients to its global client base and over 650,000 new business end
users, at a cost lower than that of organic growth via sales efforts.
NewsEdge enterprise clients include 43 of the Business Week global 50.
RoweCom would leverage NewsEdge's large enterprise sales team of nearly 100
individuals, who are dedicated to promoting the company's many services and
products to new accounts as well as servicing and up-selling to existing
ones. The company's solution-based sales method focuses on meeting the
individual needs of each of its clients.
RoweCom's leading presence in global markets will be bolstered by
NewsEdge's direct client-focused operations in the U.S., Canada, the United
Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Japan, and by NewsEdge agency
relationships in markets such as Israel, Argentina and South Africa.
The addition of such a significant number of corporate and business end
users would greatly mitigate the seasonality currently experienced by
RoweCom and inherent to the sale of serials to corporate and academic
institutions.
. Deepen Content. RoweCom intends to offer its clients access to news
and current awareness services from the NewsEdge Refinery. This
includes real-time newswires, newspapers, magazines, trade journals
and specialty news services, delivered electronically either real-
time, pre-publication or at the time of publication. The NewsEdge
Refinery enhances news value for clients by normalizing content
structure and adding metadata to stories making the news easier to
search. The addition of contextual links pointed to kStore resources
will add even greater value to clients. NewsEdge will also deliver
NewsEdge Review topics to RoweCom clients.
The acquisition would supplement RoweCom's current market-leading
electronic text database both with respect to the number of titles as well
as the subject matter. Whereas the content offered by RoweCom's IQ service
focuses primarily on science, technical and medical publications, NewsEdge
would add content centered on business and financial information.
NewsEdge's subscription-based real-time news and current awareness services
creates for RoweCom an additional revenue stream while at the same time
providing kStore clients with more incentives to visit
the service repeatedly, creating "stickiness." The addition of content will
also facilitate the migration of RoweCom's traditional corporate clients to
the company's online service. Due to their increasing need for information
on a timely basis, RoweCom's academic and government clients are expected
to benefit as well.
. Increase Functionality. The customizable nature of NewsEdge's offering
would enhance RoweCom's ability to provide its clients with a broad
range of personalized knowledge products and services. The use of
personalized information enhances the company's ability to cross-sell
other products its clients may want or need.
"Our Enterprise clients require the most rigorous and comprehensive knowledge
environments," said Cliff Pollan, NewsEdge's President and COO. "The merger
leverages our joint strengths, empowering our users with a 21/st/ Century
solution."
Dr. Rowe concluded, "The acquisition would create significant operational
benefits for our company. We will expand our client base, create another
distribution channel for our core products, introduce new sources of revenue,
add content and services that will create significant operating leverage, and
enhance our ability to foster sales via increased customization."
About RoweCom
A first mover in business-to-business e-commerce, RoweCom Inc. develops and
operates Web-based services that enable businesses and academic institutions to
manage the acquisition of print and electronic knowledge resources such as
magazines, newspapers, articles and books. RoweCom's flagship services,
Knowledge Store (kStore), Knowledge Library (kLibrary), Subscription Depot and
Information Quest provide new levels of control, convenience, and cost-savings,
allowing companies to order, pay for and manage 200,000 titles online as well as
millions of discounted books via RoweCom partner barnesandnoble.com. With
clients ranging from Fortune 1000 companies to large academic libraries, RoweCom
serves organizations with intensive knowledge requirements and high-volume
purchases. The publicly held company (Nasdaq: ROWE) is headquartered in
Westwood, Mass. and has several offices in North America, Europe and Australia.
In the corporate arena, RoweCom focuses on knowledge intensive industries such
as professional services, financial services, health services and high
technology. RoweCom's over 20,000 clients include industry leaders such as
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Arthur Andersen, Ernst & Young, KPMG, Prudential
Securities, John Hancock, Charles Schwab (NYSE: SCH), Dun & Bradstreet (NYSE:
DNB), BASF (GF: BAS), Hewlett Packard (NYSE: HWP), Owens Corning (NYSE: OWC),
First Union (NYSE: FTU), Aurora Healthcare and Johns Hopkins University. RoweCom
also has an impressive partner list that includes barnesandnoble.com (Nasdaq:
BNBN), Ariba (Nasdaq: ARBA), Commerce One (Nasdaq: CMRC) and Sun-Netscape
Alliance. For more information about RoweCom, please visit the company's Web
site at http://www.rowe.com.
About NewsEdge Corporation
NewsEdge Corporation (Nasdaq: NEWZ) is the leader in global news and current
awareness solutions for business. The Company's mission is to make news valuable
for business by helping people find the most important, relevant stories from an
overwhelming volume of daily news and enabling them to act on the most current
information possible. NewsEdge's Enterprise unit serves approximately 1,450
organizations, including 43 of Business Week's 50 largest global companies with
award-winning news and information solutions including NewsEdge Insight(TM),
NewsEdge Live(TM), and NewsEdge Review(TM) topics. NewsEdge is headquartered in
Burlington, Massachusetts with sales offices and distributors throughout North
America, South America, Europe, Japan and the Middle East. Wholly owned
subsidiary, Individual.com, Inc(TM) - formerly NewsPage.com, Inc. - provides
over 1 million
business professionals with the most precise and highly customized free
collection of specialized trade and industry news, combined with business, world
and financial news available on the Internet today. For more information about
NewsEdge Corporation, please visit the company's Web site at
http://www.newsedge.com.
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Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in
this news release may contain forward-looking statements made under the safe
harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All
forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. RoweCom's or
NewsEdge's actual results may differ materially from the results discussed in
the forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such a difference
include, but are not limited to, those discussed in the companies' SEC filings.
RoweCom Contact NewsEdge Contact
Paul Hands Sarah Garnsey
RoweCom Inc NewsEdge Corporation
(617) 497-5800 (781) 229-3351
phands@rowe.com sarah.garnsey@newsedge.com
Investor Contact (RoweCom) Media Contact
Gene Marbach Joanne Gallucci
Makovsky & Co Makovsky & Co.
(212) 508-9645 (212) 508-9648
Emarbach@makovsky.com Jgallucci@makovsky.com