Ed-X.Com Expands into Europe

Ed-X.Com, an e-commerce marketplace and Web community for "distance learning," said it will establish a European sales and marketing office in the Netherlands in the third quarter of 2000.

The move will further expand Ed-X.Com's relationships with learning content providers and educational vendors based in the European Union. Ed-X.Com currently maintains offices in Texas and California.

A subsidiary of Digital E Holdings Inc., the Web site operation offers course listings and degree programs from learning institutions from around the world.

"Online education has a worldwide user base," said Mark S. Hall, Ed-X.com's co-founder and president. "Maintaining a presence in the EU will bring us closer to providers and learners in this market, enabling us to fully understand, meet and exceed their educational and business needs."

ID-NL Group of Rotterdam, an international technology transfer organization, will assist the company with site selection and provide local expertise on the transfer of Ed-X.Com's proprietary "Nara" intelligent Web agent technology to potential European licensees.

The Dutch government has been aggressively courting high-growth Internet companies to locate their European operations in the Netherlands.

"As an emerging leader in online education, Ed-X.Com is positioned to take first-to-market advantage of the immense growth in European Internet use," said Michael van der Woude of the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency and one of the Dutch officials responsible for this effort.