To: James Kelso who wrote (5281 ) 6/16/1999 2:17:00 PM From: Milk Respond to of 6528
Wednesday June 16, 1:50 pm Eastern Time Company Press ReleaseArete Industries, Inc. Announces Results of Shareholder Meeting BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 16, 1999--ARETE INDUSTRIES, INC. (OTC:AREE - news) today announced the results of its Annual Meeting of Shareholders held Friday June 11, 1999 in Boulder, Colorado. All measures proposed by the Board in the Notice of the Meeting were adopted, as follows: Three incumbent directors were re-elected; Thomas P. Raabe, Keith A. Talbot and Thomas Y. Gorman and the board will stand at a total of three directors. The 1999 Omnibus Stock Option and Incentive Plan was approved and Schumacher & Associates, Inc. were appointed as independent auditors for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1999. No other matters were brought up for shareholder action at the meeting. Over 80% of the voting shares of the Company were represented in person or by proxy at the meeting. The Company estimates that the shares of approximately 2,000 shareholders of record and beneficial owners voted at the meeting. Thomas Raabe, CEO and Chairman, stated that he was very pleased with the turnout for the meeting. The voting record confirms that we have over 2200 shareholders which, in our opinion, insures that the Company will continue to be quoted on the OTC Bulletin Board under the NASD's new eligibility criteria. Raabe stated, ''We also presented the Board's plan for the medium to long term direction of the Company at the meeting. We envision Arete and its subsidiaries providing infrastructure to the merchants, home-based and e-commerce businesses with a broad range of products and services. As we have stated on other occasions,'' Raabe continued, ''we will offer sales and marketing services and fulfillment; and customer service, warranty, inventory and digital asset management and fulfillment services. We are developing these capabilities internally, through strategic alliances such as our relationship with SourceOne Worldwide and through strategic acquisition. In addition to these capabilities, as a public company with substantial financial and executive management expertise, in the medium to long term, we will offer merchant banking services to selected high growth companies and leverage this infrastructure to enhance their chances of success.'' ''Our status as a publicly traded company and our merchant banking and infrastructure capabilities will enable us to compete for the most promising acquisition candidates,'' Raabe stated. Mr. Raabe stated that, ''We have taken radical steps to end historic operating losses and reduce overhead by outsourcing our printing and mail fulfillment to SourceOne Worldwide and relocating operations to Boulder. We now have a small but solid foundation from which we are growing into the new and exciting areas discussed above.'' Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The statements contained herein which are not historical are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, certain delays beyond the Company's control with respect to market acceptance of new technologies or products, delays in testing and evaluation of products, and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact: Stock Enterprises James Stock, 702/614-0003