For Immediate Release Exhibit 99.1
CONTACT:
Media Relations Investor Relations
Mary Athridge Farrell Kramer
Robinson, Lerer & Montgomery Robinson Lerer & Montgomery
212-484-7459 212-484-7474
mathridge@rlmnet.com fkramer@rlmnet.com
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MULTEX.COM ACQUIRES BUZZCOMPANY.COM - BRINGING
POWERFUL E-COMMUNITY TECHNOLOGY TO INTERNET'S LEADING
FINANCIAL E-MARKETPLACE
BuzzCompany.com's e-Community Expertise Strengthens Multex.com's
ASP, B2B and B2C Offerings
Increases Multex.com's Ability to Connect Brokerage Firms, Investment
Banks, Corporations, and Individual and Institutional Investors
NEW YORK, NY, May 10, 2000 - Multex.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: MLTX), the Internet's
leading financial e-marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of financial
services, announced today that it has acquired BuzzCompany.com, Inc., the
leading provider of e-community Internet products and services. The transaction
brings powerful, new e-community and collaboration technology and expertise to
Multex.com's Internet-leading financial e-marketplace.
BuzzCompany.com, a privately held company, develops and markets next-generation
e-community software under the BuzzPower brand, as well as providing Web
application development services. BuzzCompany.com's suite of products and
services will be integrated into Multex.com's Application Service Provider (ASP)
offerings, which include the development, hosting and operation of Web sites and
portals for financial institutions. This will allow Multex.com's ASP clients,
such as Merrill Lynch Direct Markets and Schroders Investment Management, to
offer their customers a more feature-rich and "sticky" interactive experience.
BuzzCompany.com's e-community software and services will enhance the offerings
of Multex.com's Business-to-Business (B2B) unit, which provides real-time, Web-
based financial applications and information to institutional investors and
other financial institutions. They will also be integrated throughout
Multex.com's Business-to-Consumer (B2C) offerings, which deliver financial
applications and
information to individual investors through a network of branded and affiliate
Web sites including Multex Investor(SM), Sage Online(SM) and Market Guide(SM),
which Multex.com acquired in September 1999. Financial terms of the transaction
were not disclosed.
"BuzzCompany.com is the undisputed leader in the e-community space, and we are
thrilled to be welcoming it into the Multex.com family. BuzzCompany.com's suite
of e-community products and services will help us continue building our leading
financial e-marketplace with new, innovative ways to connect the buyers and
sellers of financial services. Our ASP clients tell us `sticky' e-community and
collaboration technology and features are a critical part of their Internet
portal strategies, and BuzzCompany.com's technology will allow us to offer our
clients the very best. It will also help us add functionality to our Sage
Online unit, and eventually support our B2B offerings as well," said James
Tousignant, President of Multex.com.
"Being part of Multex.com's family is a great strategic fit for us. At
BuzzCompany.com, we have worked with a large number of highly successful
companies to deploy e-communities that enable new Internet business models and
build profitable relationships between buyers and sellers. BuzzPower products
and services add cutting edge e-community and collaboration features that will
add strong value to Multex.com's global e-marketplace customers," said Zor
Gorelov, President and Chief Executive Officer of BuzzCompany.com.
"As a Multex.com ASP customer, I'm extremely excited that BuzzCompany.com's
industry leading technology and expertise in e-community is being incorporated
into Multex.com's ASP Web hosting and development services for customers like
Merrill Lynch," said Michael B. Packer, Head of Institutional e-Commerce at
Merrill Lynch & Co.
As part of the transaction, Gorelov has been named a Senior Vice President of
Multex.com. BuzzCompany.com technology currently powers e-community on Multex
Investor (www.multexinvestor.com), the leading individual investor portal, and
will soon bring new functionality to Sage Online, the world's premier online
provider of live events and interactive community for personal finance, which
Multex.com acquired in March 2000.
About BuzzCompany.com
Silicon Alley-based BuzzCompany.com, founded in 1996, is a leading provider of
e-community products and services for both major corporations and "dot-coms."
Key customers include CNBC.com, eB2B.com, Bowstreet, Microsoft, Lucent
Technologies, OnHealth.com, Element K (Previously Ziff Davis University), and
Planetkidz.com.
About Multex.com, Inc.
Multex.com, Inc. (www.multex.com) is the Internet's leading financial
e-marketplace connecting buyers and sellers of financial services. Multex.com
is a global company that provides information and commerce enabling technology
and infrastructure, application services, Web hosting and online community
services to the major financial marketplace participants: brokerage firms,
investment banks, corporations, and individual and institutional investors. The
company focuses on three core business areas: Business-to-Business (B2B), which
provides real-time, Web-based financial applications and information to
institutional investors and other financial institutions; Application Service
Provider (ASP), which develops, hosts and operates Web sites and portals for
financial institutions, enabling them to connect to their clients; and Business-
to-Consumer (B2C), which provides financial applications and information to
individual investors through a network of branded and affiliate Web sites.
Multex.com serves this fast-growing and diverse marketplace through a number of
industry leading brands, including: MultexNET(R), a subscription/transaction
based, real-time, online service providing financial information from more than
700 firms such as Merrill Lynch, Salomon Smith Barney and Robertson Stephens to
more than 10,000 buy-side firms and more than 30,000 subscribers;
MultexEXPRESSSM, a Web-development and hosting business with more than 80 sites
serving more than 1.5 million users; and Multex InvestorSM and Market Guide,
Multex.com's individual investor sites, which total more than 1.5 million
registered users. Multex.com has more than 500 information and distribution
partners including: Reuters, Bloomberg, Dow Jones, AOL, Yahoo!, Quicken.com, CBS
MarketWatch and CNNfn.com.
In March, 2000, Multex.com acquired Sage Online, Inc., the world's premier
online provider of live events and interactive community for personal finance,
including mutual fund and equity content, chat rooms, forums and message boards.
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