Joint Venture

NewMedia SPARK PLC
23 December 1999

     NewMedia SPARK invests £1.5m in Synaptic Systems Ltd
                 alongside GlobalNet Financial


NewMedia  SPARK plc ('SPARK') is pleased to announce  that  it
has invested £1.5m for an equity stake of approximately 9%  in
Synaptic  Systems Ltd ('Synaptic'). At the same  time  SPARK's
partner  company GlobalNet Financial.com Inc. has  invested  a
further  £4.3m in Synaptic on the same terms as SPARK  for  an
equity stake of approximately 25%.

Synaptic is a leading supplier of software systems to  the  UK
IFA  marketplace  covering product research  information.  Its
systems are used by a majority of UK IFAs and encompass a very
substantial  amount of product information, coupled  with  the
ability  to  create  compliance reports justifying  investment
recommendations.  Synaptic  is presently  in  the  process  of
introducing automated pricing systems for a range of  products
in  conjunction  with leading Life and Pensions  offices,  and
SPARK believes that Synaptic leads the UK marketplace in  this
crucial  area.  Following  this investment  by  GlobalNet  and
SPARK, Synaptic now intends to accelerate its plans to migrate
its  products  offering to the Internet. A  flotation  of  the
business is likely over the medium term.

Commenting on this investment Michael Whitaker, CEO of  SPARK,
said:

'We  are  delighted  to  be investing alongside  GlobalNet  in
Synaptic,  which  we  believe has the leading  technology  and
systems in its marketplace.  Hopefully both GlobalNet  and  we
can  assist Synaptic in migrating its systems to the Web,  and
we   also intend to assist with Synaptic's flotation plans  in
due  course. Synaptic is already a profitable business with  a
strong position in the IFA market, and we believe that  it  is
strategically positioned to achieve very substantial growth in
an  area  which is likely to see rapid technology  development
over  the next few years. There may also over the medium  term
prove  to  be  some  synergies between  Synaptic  and  SPARK's
previous  investment in Bridge4U (now renamed 'exxactly.com'),
The  latter  of  which  is targeting the  IFA  market  outside
Europe.'

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For further information please contact:

NewMedia SPARK                                  0171 887 4510
Michael Whitaker                                  0468-555944

Buchannan Communications
Lisa Baderoon                                   0171 466 5000

Peel Hunt & Company
David Davies                                    0171 418 8900