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Exhibit 99.1
THE THOMSON CORPORATION
Toronto Dominion Bank Tower, Suite 2706
PO Box 24, Toronto-Dominion Centre [THOMSON LOGO]
Toronto, Ontario M5K 1A1
Tel (416) 360-8700 Fax (416) 360-8812
www.thomson.com
NEWS RELEASE
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INVESTOR CONTACTS: MEDIA CONTACTS:
John Kechejian David Scott Jason Stewart
Vice President, Investor Relations Vice President, Marketing Director, Corporate Communications
The Thomson Corporation NewsEdge Corp. The Thomson Corporation
(203) 328-9470 (781) 229-3000 (203) 328-8339
john.kechejian@thomson.com david.scott@newsedge.com jason.stewart@thomson.com
Ron Benanto John Shaughnessy
Vice President, CFO Director, Corporate Communications
NewsEdge Corp. Thomson Legal & Regulatory
(781) 229-3000 (651) 687-4749
ron.benanto@newsedge.com john.shaughnessy@westgroup.com
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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THE THOMSON CORPORATION TO ACQUIRE
NEWSEDGE CORPORATION
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TORONTO AND BURLINGTON, MASS., AUGUST 7, 2001 - The Thomson Corporation
(TSE: TOC), a leading e-information and solutions company in the business and
professional marketplace, and NewsEdge Corporation (NASDAQ: NEWZ), today
announced that they have signed a definitive agreement under which Thomson will
acquire NewsEdge.
Under the terms of the agreement, a newly formed Thomson subsidiary
will make a cash tender offer for all of the shares of NewsEdge common stock, at
a price of US$2.30 per share, or approximately US$43 million, which includes
cash in the business.
"The acquisition of NewsEdge builds on the commitment of The Thomson
Corporation to provide broad and powerful information and tools to the business
and professional market," said Brian H. Hall, president and chief executive
officer of Thomson Legal & Regulatory. "Like Westlaw(R), Dialog(R) and other
Thomson products, NewsEdge offers timeliness, breadth of coverage and editorial
excellence. It also provides an important complement to our news and current
awareness services, and enhances our position in the business news and corporate
market segments," he added.
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THOMSON TO ACQUIRE NEWSEDGE
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August 7, 2001
NewsEdge is a US$71 million provider of real-time news and information
products and services to approximately 1,500 corporations and professional
service firms worldwide. NewsEdge combines proprietary technology, content and
specialized editorial processes to deliver tailored information and
decision-support solutions to knowledge workers through its information products
and content solutions. Thomson plans to align NewsEdge with The Dialog
Corporation, a leading provider of online information services for business,
science, engineering, finance and law professionals, as part of the Thomson
Legal & Regulatory market group. NewsEdge will continue to be run by its current
management team, headed by President and Chief Executive Officer Clifford M.
Pollan, a long-time information services executive.
Roy Martin, president and chief executive officer of Dialog, said
NewsEdge is seen as a key to supporting the Thomson strategy of integrating its
information and technology tools within the infrastructure of its customers. "In
today's business environment, critical decisions are only as good as the
information they are based on," said Martin. "NewsEdge's unique strength in
developing enterprise content and decision-support solutions helps its customers
more easily navigate and unlock the unrealized value of all of their information
assets, shaping the strategies and decisions that drive the success of the
organization."
NewsEdge President and Chief Executive Officer Pollan said, "Today's
announcement signals a new future for NewsEdge, giving us new resources and an
even stronger presence in the corporate enterprise market. By leveraging the
strength, technology and reputation of The Thomson Corporation across our lines
of business, we can deliver even greater value to our customers, our partners
and our employees."
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THOMSON TO ACQUIRE NEWSEDGE
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August 7, 2001
The closing of the offer, which is expected to be completed during the
second half of the year, is conditioned upon the tender of a majority of
NewsEdge's shares and customary closing conditions. All of NewsEdge's directors
and certain of the executive officers, as well as a significant shareholder of
NewsEdge, have pledged to tender their shares in the offer and/or vote in favor
of the Thomson acquisition. NewsEdge was advised by Broadview Associates LLC,
which rendered a fairness opinion to its board.
The offer will be followed by a back-end merger of the Thomson
subsidiary with and into NewsEdge on the same terms as those in the offer and
will be subject to customary closing conditions. The offer is expected to
commence as soon as practicable following filing of required documents with the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
This news release is for informational purposes only. It does not
constitute an offer to purchase shares of NewsEdge or a solicitation/
recommendation statement under the rules and regulations of the Securities
and Exchange Commission. At the time Thomson commences the offer, Thomson
will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission a tender offer
statement on Schedule TO and NewsEdge will file a solicitation/recommendation
statement on Schedule 14D-9. These documents will contain important
information and security holders of NewsEdge are advised to carefully read
these documents (when they become available) before making any decision with
respect to the tender offer. These documents will be provided to NewsEdge
security holders at no expense to them and, when filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, may be obtained free at www.sec.gov.
ABOUT THE THOMSON CORPORATION
The Thomson Corporation (TSE: TOC), with 2000 revenues of approximately
$6.0 billion, is a leading global e-information and solutions company in the
business and professional marketplace. The Corporation's common shares are
listed on the Toronto and London stock exchanges. For more information, visit
The Thomson Corporation at www.thomson.com.
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THOMSON TO ACQUIRE NEWSEDGE
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August 7, 2001
ABOUT DIALOG
Dialog (www.dialog.com) is the worldwide leader in providing
online-based information services to organizations seeking competitive
advantages in such fields as business, science, engineering, finance and law.
Its products and services, such as Dialog(R), Profound(R) and DataStar(TM),
offer organizations the ability to precisely retrieve data from more than 6
billion pages of key information, accessible via the Internet or through
delivery to enterprise intranets. For almost three decades, Dialog's brands have
been known for their breadth and depth of content, precision searching and
speed. Headquartered in Cary, N.C., U.S.A., with offices around the world,
Dialog products are used by more than 100,000 professional researchers in more
than 100 countries.
ABOUT NEWSEDGE
NewsEdge Corporation (NASDAQ: NEWZ) is a global provider of content
solutions for business. Its customers include both content creators and the
operators of the world's most active Web sites. NewsEdge offers technology and
services for its customers to create, manage and deploy content for millions of
end-users through enterprise sites, portals, publisher Web sites and
distribution channels. NewsEdge services make organizations smarter, attract
specialized audiences, foster high-frequency usage, promote Web site
"stickiness" and ultimately cultivate commerce. NewsEdge serves thousands of
sites and companies with highly targeted content solutions from the NewsEdge
Refinery(TM), including industry-specific topics, wireless services, turn-key
permission marketing and publishing tools, outsourced editorial capabilities and
sub-second live news feeds and applications. The NewsEdge Refinery combines a
patented combination of sophisticated technology and human editorial review to
deliver highly targeted news on more than 2,000 business topics from more than
2,000 sources. NewsEdge is headquartered in Burlington, Mass., with offices and
distributors throughout North America, South America, Europe, Japan and the
Middle East. For more information about NewsEdge Corporation, visit
www.NewsEdge.com.
Certain statements made herein are forward-looking statements under the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. They include statements regarding
expected benefits of the NewsEdge acquisition. These statements are based on
management's current expectations and estimates; actual results may differ
materially due to certain risks and uncertainties. For example, Thomson's
ability to achieve expected results may be affected by competitive price
pressures, inability to successfully integrate NewsEdge's operations, failure of
the transaction to close due to the inability to obtain regulatory or other
approvals, failure of NewsEdge shareholders to tender shares or to approve the
merger, if that approval is necessary, inability of the combined company to
retain key executives and other personnel, conditions of the economy, industry
growth and internal factors, such as the ability to control expenses. For a
discussion of additional factors affecting Thomson, see the Thomson Annual
Report on Form 40-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2000 as filed with
the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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