MG, FRTI's now on the GO: Telescan and INVESTools Introduce E-mail Management Service
Phillips Publishing's InvestorPlace.com Signs $1.2 Million Advertising
Sponsorship
HOUSTON and REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Telescan Inc.
(Nasdaq: TSCN), through its wholly owned subsidiary INVESTools, Inc., today
launched an e-mail list management and list representation service and signed
a related sponsorship agreement with Phillips Publishing, Inc. and an e-mail
advertising representation agreement with FreeRealTime.com, Inc.
(OTC Bulletin Board: FRTI).
The new e-mail list management service helps online financial information
companies create quality, free e-mail content focused on information that
helps consumers improve their financial lives. In addition to aiding in
content development, the service can manage mailings, represent the list to
advertisers and track advertising results. INVESTools will host and maintain
the list management and sales representation service from its Redwood City,
California facility.
Simultaneously, INVESTools announced it signed a one-year sponsorship
agreement with Phillips Publishing, Inc., the nation's largest and most
dominant provider of investment advisory newsletters to more than 500,000
affluent, self-directed investors. The agreement calls for a minimum
sponsorship commitment of $1.2 million in 2000 and gives Phillips the
opportunity to sponsor the e-mail lists of FreeRealTime.com, INVESTools.com
and Telescan's financial supersite, WallStreetCity.com. Combined, these e-mail
lists currently reach more than 800,000 registered users monthly.
Nancy Cathey, Vice President of Phillips, said, "The extraordinary growth
INVESTools and Phillips have enjoyed together clearly shows the vibrance of
the subscription-based online advice business model. Phillips is confident
that this important partnership, Phillips accessing INVESTools sophisticated
and extensive audience, will allow us to continue to grow our world class
line-up of advisory services."
INVESTools also reported that FreeRealTime.com, a leading Web-based
provider of real-time market data and financial information services, signed
on as the first e-mail advertising sales client. FreeRealtime.com has a total
registered member base approaching 1 million users and served 180 million page
views in December 1999.
Gordon Rix, Vice President of Interactive Marketing at FreeRealTime.com,
said, "While we have a monthly ad inventory approaching 1 billion impressions
on our website, we've just begun to pursue e-mail ad sales to our large
database of "opted-in" members. INVESTools has an experienced ad sales team
and the sales management capabilities that will allow both companies to
quickly generate significant new e-mail ad revenue. Phillips Publishing is
also the ideal sponsor for our community of independent investors, so this
should be a "win-win-win" for all three of us."
Telescan Chairman David Brown said, "List management is a natural
extension of our internal list sales and is an organic expansion of our
business-to-business marketing services unit at Telescan. The list management
service expects to sign many more lists and many more sponsors in the online
financial space over the next year."
About Telescan and INVESTools
Houston-based Telescan (http://www.telescan.com) is an industry-leading
financial application service provider that develops and operates Internet
sites and major online networks for the financial and publishing industries,
and also provides proprietary analytics and content to individual investors.
Telescan's Internet supersite, Wall Street City(R)
(http://www.wallstreetcity.com), provides a powerful suite of search tools,
technical analysis and financial data. Telescan's wholly owned subsidiary,
INVESTools Inc., operates the leading investment advisory subscription website
(http://www.investools.com), featuring portfolio advice from proven money
managers. INVESTools also offers business-to-business subscription marketing
services for digital financial content providers.
Telescan provides financial application services via private-label
versions of its proprietary Internet technology to many of the nation's
leading financial services and media companies, including America Online,
American Express, Fidelity Investments, FreeRealtime.com, GlobalNet Financial,
NBC, Time Inc. New Media (Fortune) and Playboy Enterprises.
"Safe Harbor" statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995: Except for historical information, the matters discussed in this
news release that may be considered forward-looking statements could be
subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results
to differ materially from those projected. These include uncertainties in the
market, competition, legal, success of marketing efforts and other risks
detailed from time to time in the company's SEC reports. The company assumes
no obligation to update the information in this release.
SOURCE Telescan Inc.
-0- 02/17/2000
/CONTACT: David Brown, 805-695-0750, or Ronald Warren, 281-588-9700 of
Telescan; or Jeffrey Goldberger, IR, or Keith Lanigan, Media, of Stern & Co.,
212-888-0044; or Dan Olson, 650-482-3050 extension 218 of INVESTools/
/Web site: telescan.com
(TSCN FRTI)
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