News February 17, 13:06 Eastern Time
National Discount Brokers Group, Inc. Elects Russell C. Horowitz to Board of Directors Chairman, CEO, CFO and Co-Founder of Go2Net, Inc. Joins Board as Part of Strategic Alliance
JERSEY CITY, N.J., Feb 17, 2000 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- National Discount
Brokers Group, Inc. (NYSE: NDB), the parent company of National Discount Brokers
Corporation/ndb.com, an online discount broker, and Sherwood Securities Corp., a
Nasdaq and other OTC securities market maker, today announced the election of
Russell C. Horowitz, Chairman, CEO, CFO and co-founder of Go2Net, Inc. (Nasdaq:
GNET), to its board of directors effective Monday, February 7, 2000. Horowitzis
joined ing the board of National Discount Brokers Group as part of the agreement
announced last week between National Discount Brokers Group, Inc., Go2Net, Inc.
and Vulcan Ventures Incorporated, the investment organization of Paul G. Allen.
"Russell will be a key strategic addition to the NDB board," said Arthur Kontos,
President and Chief Executive Officer of National Discount Brokers Group, Inc.
"His experience in building Internet companies, success in creating Web
communities and overall e-commerce savvy is unparalleled. He will be an
important asset as we continue to build on NDB's leadership position as a
provider of online financial services and leverage the many opportunities
afforded by our new partnership with Go2Net and Vulcan Ventures."
Under Horowitz' leadership, Go2Net has grown from a two-person start-up in 1996
to a profitable publicly-traded Internet company with more than 400 employees
nationwide. Based in Seattle, Go2Net provides consumer services, business
services, and enabling technologies. The Go2Net Network's sites focus on the
categories of personal finance, search and directory, commerce and business
services, and multi-player games. These include Silicon Investor, MetaCrawler,
HyperMart and PlaySite, among others. As part of the Company's growth, Horowitz
was instrumental in securing a $300 million cash investment in Go2Net by Paul
Allen and his investment organization, Vulcan Ventures Incorporated. This March
1999 investment also positioned Go2Net as a primary provider of content and
technologies for Vulcan's broadband assets, including Charter Communications,
the nation's fourth-largest cable provider.
"NDB.com has consistently proven its leadership in the online brokerage sector,
and I believe the company is very well positioned for continued progress, both
in narrowband and broadband environments," said Horowitz. "I look forward to
working with NDB's National Discount Brokers' leadership team to leverage the
many opportunities ahead."
In addition to the appointment of Horowitz to the board of National Discount
Brokers Group, Inc., NDB.com will become the exclusive integrated brokerage
service for the Go2Net Network under a three year agreement. Futhermore, Go2Net
will develop and license to NDB.com a co-branded version of the Silicon Investor
financial discussion boards to enable NDB.com's more than 200,000 account
holders to view and post messages within NDB.com. The agreement also includes an
investment of up to $30 million dollars by Vulcan Ventures and Go2Net in common
stock of National Discount Brokers Group.
Headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, National Discount Brokers Group, Inc.,
an S&P Small Cap 600 Index company, is the parent company of two financial
services entities: National Discount Brokers Corporation/ndb.com and Sherwood
Securities. National Discount Brokers at November 30, 1999 had 178,400 customer
accounts, with assets of $8.9 billion. It recently announced that during the
first week of February 2000 NDB.com had reached 200,000 customer accounts.
Sherwood Securities' main operations are as a market maker in approximately
4,500 Nasdaq and other OTC securities as of November 30, 1999. The Company has
offices in Jersey City, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Denver
and Boston. Customers can access National Discount Brokers Corporation/ndb.com
at ndb.com, via the PowerBroker automated touch-tone telephone system
800-631-8884 or by calling 800-4-1-PRICE.
SOURCE National Discount Brokers Group
(C) 2000 PR Newswire. All rights reserved.
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