FT Group in Joint Venture Agreement
Pearson PLC
6 January 2000
FINANCIAL TIMES MARKETWATCH TO LAUNCH REAL TIME INTERNET SERVICE FOR EUROPE'S
PERSONAL INVESTORS
The Financial Times Group, Europe's premier source of business news and
analysis, and MarketWatch.com, operator of America's leading financial news
website, have today signed a joint venture agreement to launch a new Internet
service that will provide free, fast, incisive, real time financial and market
news to Europe's rapidly growing communities of private investors.
The new site will be modelled on CBS.MarketWatch.com, which is by far
America's biggest and fastest growing financial news site, with 4.6m unique
monthly visitors and 432m page per views in the third quarter of last year.
The site will be launched in the first half of this year. By focusing on the
specific needs of the private investor, Financial Times MarketWatch.com will
complement ft.com, the leading portal for the international business
community, FTYourMoney, targeted at the UK personal finance market, and the
group's leading business websites in France, Spain and Germany.
'There is a revolution occurring in how people manage their money and
investments and the tidal wave that started in the U.S. is coming to Europe'
said Larry Kramer, chairman and CEO of MarketWatch.com and chairman of the new
venture.
'CBS.MarketWatch.com has taken the lead in the US as the primary source of
news for the exploding market of individual investors and with the Financial
Times we aim to capture that same market in Europe. The individual investor
everywhere is desperate for real-time information about this new age economy.
We have leveled the playing field and are giving individuals the very news and
data that until now was available only to the market professional', Mr Kramer
said.
Stephen Hill, Chief Executive of the FT Group, added, 'The site aims to be
Europe's leading personal investment site just as CBS.MarketWatch leads the
way in America. It furthers our goal of providing the very best online
coverage of European companies, markets and economies from every angle and to
suit every taste. It will strengthen the FT Group's position as Europe's
leading online presence in financial and business news, comment and analysis.'
The site aims to capture the expanding market of European private investors
who make their investment decisions online or look to the Internet for quick,
market oriented news. The rapid growth in private investor interest in
European markets is driven by developments such as the launch of LSE's
Techmark and the expansion of NASDAQ into Europe. The tone and content of the
site will have a strong European focus on companies in the telecommunications,
Internet, media and electronic commerce sectors, as well as the UK's mutual
funds market. The site will be launched initially in the English language with
German and French language versions to follow.
Under the terms of the agreement signed today, the FT group will advertise and
market the site through its European network of business newspapers and
websites and MarketWatch.com will supply the technology and infrastructure for
the new site. The site will have its own dedicated team of journalists,
initially covering the London, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam markets, but
will have extensive links to related stories and content on ft.com and
CBS.MarketWatch.com. Zach Leonard, who was instrumental in launching
FTYourMoney.com, the FT's new UK personal finance website, will be the chief
executive of the new venture. Thom Calandra, editor in chief of
CBS.Marketwatch.com and the site's lead columnist, is moving to London to
become editor-in-chief of the new site.
Thom Calandra said: 'European investors are ready to knock down the barriers
to on-line trading. We're going to put small investors in to the driver's seat
with the news about the new economy.'
Notes to editors
In November 1999, the FT group and MarketWatch.com formed a new marketing
alliance as the FT Group announced plans to merge its Financial Times Asset
Management (FTAM) with the Data Broadcasting Corporation (DBC), one of
America's leading providers of real-time financial market data. The FT group
will own a 60% stake in the newly combined business. DBC owns a 32% stake in
MarketWatch.com, operator of CBS.MarketWatch.com. On completion of the deal,
the Financial Times Group will take up DBC's representation on the
MarketWatch.com board. The CBS Corporation has a similar sized stake in
MarketWatch.com.
MarketWatch.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:MKTW) is a global financial news organization,
providing fast, relevant and accurate information via the Internet, television
and radio to help people make and save money. The company operates two of the
leading financial websites at http://cbs.marketwatch.com and
http://www.bigcharts.com . In addition to its comprehensive, real-time
business news, financial programs and analytical tools, the company produces
CBS MarketWatch Weekend, seen on many CBS television stations. The
MarketWatch.com editorial staff also provides business and economic reports to
The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and CBS News' The Early Show and reports
daily on CBS Television and Radio Network news programming. MarketWatch.com
also operates a financial news radio network heard on more than 60 radio
stations around the country via the Westwood One radio network.
MarketWatch.com, Inc. was founded in 1997 by CBS Broadcasting, Inc., a wholly
owned subsidiary of CBS Corporation (NYSE:CBS) and Data Broadcasting
Corporation (NASDAQ:DBCC.) MarketWatch.com is headquartered in San Francisco,
with major facilities and bureaus in New York City, Minneapolis, Washington
D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, Austin, Tokyo and London.
The Financial Times group consists of:
* the Financial Times newspaper, the world's leading international business
newspaper;
* ft.com, one of the world's leading international business information
websites;
* the leading business and financial newspapers and websites in France (Les
Echos) and Spain (Expansion), with a new German language business and finance
newspaper and website to be launched in partnership with Gruner + Jahr, one of
Germany's leading newspaper and magazine publishers, early in the new year;
* Financial Times Business, which produces specialist information on energy
and finance markets;
* Financial Times Asset Management, one of the world's leading sources of
securities pricing and specialist financial information to global
institutional, professional and individual investors;
* FTSE International, a joint venture with the London Stock Exchange, which
provides the professional investment community with the leading UK indices
and, together with the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, publishes the Eurotop family
of indices;
* a 50% stake in The Economist group, which publishes the world's leading
weekly business and current affairs journal.
The Financial Times Group is part of Pearson plc, the international media
company, which also owns Pearson Education, the world's leading education
company; Pearson Television, the world's leading international independent
television production company; the Penguin Group, the world's most renowned
English-language publisher; and Recoletos, one of Spain's leading media
companies. For more information about Pearson plc, go to www.pearson.com.
For further information:
John Fallon Pearson plc + 44 207 411 2310
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