Thursday October 21, 12:01 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
TRO Learning Partners with Digital River to Launch
E-Commerce Site for PLATO Educational Software
Products
November Launch Date
MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 21, 1999--TRO Learning, Inc. (Nasdaq:TUTR - news) announced today it has
entered into a strategic alliance with Digital River (Nasdaq:DRIV - news) for the development and management of its new
e-commerce site for PLATO educational software products. Launching in early November, this new e-commerce site at
www.plato.com will make 66 PLATO software titles available for immediate download or purchase on CD-ROM.
John Murray, executive vice president and CFO for TRO Learning, commented, ''Digital River is the leader in Web-based
commerce for digital products and we are excited to join with them in building and managing our e-commerce Web site. They
bring to us a complete package of services, including electronic and packaged fulfillment, merchandising and marketing services,
Web store hosting, secure online credit transaction processing, and access to over 1,200 online retailers, including K-Mart,
Wal-Mart, and Comp USA.''
William R. Roach, president and CEO of TRO Learning, added, ''We believe that partnering with Digital River will allow us to
dedicate our energies toward reaching new markets for PLATO products. With this in mind, the PLATO e-commerce site is
tailored to bring PLATO solutions directly to the teacher in the classroom, small schools with limited budgets, businesses
needing employee skills training, and parents and home schoolers looking for quality educational software. These new
customers will be able to locate our site from all the large search engines, such as Yahoo!, Alta Vista, and Excite, through vastly
improved meta tags and key words. Once there, they will find an informative, rapidly changing site with the capability to review
PLATO products online.''
Joel Ronning, chief executive officer for Digital River, said, ''We know educational software is in high demand and the quality
and instructional integrity of PLATO makes it stand out in the marketplace. PLATO is a powerful educational resource and its
instant availability through e-commerce will make it possible for a whole new world of users -- classroom teachers, trainers,
parents, and adults everywhere -- to gain immediate access to its benefits. We are delighted to have the opportunity to work
with TRO Learning in making PLATO so readily available to such a large audience, as well as to leverage PLATO sales
through a wide variety of promotional activities and our online retail channel.''
TRO Learning is the developer and marketer of computer-based PLATO products and services. With PLATO revenues of
over $40 million, TRO Learning, Inc. is a publicly held company traded as TUTR on the NASDAQ-NMS. Offering more than
2,000 hours and 10,000 learning objectives of comprehensive academic and applied skills courseware designed for adolescents
and adults, PLATO Learning Systems are marketed to middle and high schools, colleges, job training programs, correctional
institutions, military education programs, and corporations. PLATO curricula are delivered via networks, CD-ROM, the
Internet, and private intranets. In addition, single topic PLATO courses are available through the company's online store at
www.plato.com. (Opens 11/99)
TRO Learning is an international training and education company with headquarters located at 4660 West 77th Street, Edina,
Minnesota 55435, (612) 832-1000 or (800) 869-2000. TRO's executive offices are located at Poplar Creek Office Plaza,
1721 Moon Lake Boulevard, Suite 555, Hoffman Estates, Illinois 60194, (847) 781-7800. TRO Learning has domestic offices
located throughout the United States, and international offices in the United Kingdom, and throughout Canada. TRO Learning
has international distributors located in Malaysia, Puerto Rico, Singapore, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. The
company's Web site addresses on the Internet's World Wide Web are www.tro.com and www.plato.com.
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