Consortium to Invest in Prominent Information Plc

NewMedia SPARK PLC 9 February 2000 PROMINENT INFORMATION PLC (CHANGING ITS NAME TO CLIPSERVER.COM PLC) RAISES £1.5M OF NEW EQUITY A consortium of investors led by Intrinsic Value PLC, the investment trust, NewMedia SPARK plc, the internet investment company, and COBA Technology Partners has agreed to invest £1.5 million for a holding of 29.9% (5 million shares) in Prominent Information Plc ('Clipserver.com') (www.newsserver.co.uk). NewMedia SPARK's contribution to the investment is £550,000, giving SPARK a shareholding of approximately 11% in the Company. The subscription price for the new shareholders is 30p and as part of the investment the consortium will also receive one warrant for every two new shares. The funds raised will be used to establish an operation in the US, to continue the development of its technology offering and to broaden its value added services. Clipserver.com is one of the UK's leading online news monitoring businesses. It monitors over 400 European publications, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and alerts its clients to major published stories by the provision of editorial summaries delivered over the Internet. Clipserver.com aims to establish the largest brand in this area, combining high quality editorial content, broad geographic coverage and electronic delivery. Clipserver.coms management team has a proven track record in on-line business and credibility amongst the large, multi- national companies that are the core of its customer base. Gary Forrest, co-founder of Clipserver.com, has established a reputation in the news monitoring business by leading the application of technology to a previously low tech industry. The management team includes Roger P. Williams who has worked closely with several leading UK news and media monitoring companies. Roger P. Williams, Chairman of Clipserver.com, said 'We welcome the involvement of our new directors Luke Johnson and Mark Farrer-Brown. The involvement of Intrinsic Value and NewMedia SPARK will give Clipserver.com additional credibility with investors and customers.' Clipserver.com currently has a team of 15 full time editorial staff, 49 production staff supported by 14 administrative and software staff, all producing high quality 'content' for its clients. Currently Clipserver.com has over 50 large corporate clients within which 70,000 people access Clipserver.com's information. These clients have been gained largely since Clipserver.com launched its Internet service in November 1999. Luke Johnson, co-manager of Intrinsic Value and non- executive director of NewMedia SPARK, who is to join the Board of Clipserver.com as a non-executive director, said: 'We believe that in this age of intense competition and information overload the specialist on-line services that Clipserver.com offers will help keep their customers a step ahead. Clipserver.coms technology offering is superior to its competitors and we will be looking to exploit that advantage and to expand Clipserver.coms value added services focusing on the Internet.' Clipserver.com was established in 1997 by merging the assets of two established press cutting agencies and is quoted on Ofex. It is likely to move onto AIM shortly. The business began as a supplier of information packs of clippings by courier or fax. It has migrated to electronic delivery and is increasingly moving to the supply of information over corporate intranets and the Internet. Intrinsic Value PLC is an authorised investment trust whose objective is to achieve growth by investing primarily in smaller quoted and unquoted companies, principally in the UK. The co-managers of Intrinsic are Luke Johnson, Mark Horrocks and Mark Farrer-Brown. NewMedia SPARK plc is one of Europe's leading early stage Internet investment companies with a market capitalisation of approximately £250m. Clipserver.com is the fourteenth investment by SPARK since its shares began trading on the Alternative Investment Market on 28th October 1999. Coba Technology Partners ('CTP') is a subsidiary of The COBA Group, a specialist strategy consultant focusing on technology and e-commerce. CTP provides investment screening and due diligence services to private equity providers and corporates, as well as business development and fund-raising support for e-entrepreneurs. For further information: Roger P. Williams/Gary Forrest 'Clipserver.com PLC' 0171 959 1204/0171 959 1202 Luke Johnson/Mark Farrer-Brown 'Intrinsic Value PLC and NewMedia SPARK plc' 0171 499 5311
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