Acquisition Gives PR Newswire Presence in France, Spain

[London, ENGLAND] United Business Media announced Monday
its acquisition of French corporate communications services
company Cyperus, adding France and Spain to the markets
reached by United’s PR Newswire.

United is making an up-front payment of EUR 11.5 million
(US $10.7 million), but could eventually pay up to
EUR 23.3 million (US $21.68 million) after three years,
according to the terms of the deal.

Established in 1996, Cyperus distributes corporate
news announcements and provides live coverage of high
tech events in Europe. It not only provides news to 700
journalists but to corporate customers as well. Among
its clients are France Telecom, Lucent, Alcatel and IBM.

Clive Hollick, United chief executive, characterized
Cyperus as a fast-growing communications services company
in what he said were the strategically important French
and Spanish markets.

“As part of PR Newswire’s expanding global network Cyperus
will be able to increase its range of services and offer its
customers access to all major markets,” said Hollick.

Commenting for Cyperus, Chief Executive Jean-Louis Amblard
said customers would benefit from PR Newswire’s global
presence and extensive distribution network.

“We will bring European clients our expertise in reaching
audiences in France and Spain using multimedia, especially
in streaming media for trade shows,” said Amblard.

According to Managing Director Vicky Unwin, PR Newswire Europe
wants to establish itself as the main commercial news distribution
service in Europe. Cyperus will bring essential expert knowledge
of local markets and their clients in two major countries.

Currently, PR Newswire Europe delivers around 1000 news releases
each day on behalf of 40,000 companies worldwide. It distributes
to media and financial markets in 135 countries in 25 languages.

Last week, United Business Media published year-end results,
noting that it plans to sell off its B2C assets in order to
concentrate on B2B Internet projects.