101communications Expands Its Conference and Event Business With Acquisition of IT Events Ltd.

Business Editors

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 25, 2000

101communications LLC (101) today announced that it has acquired IT Events Ltd. (www.itevents.co.uk), a major conference and exhibition company in the United Kingdom.

The founders of IT Events, Jonathan Horne and Simon Rogers will continue to lead the company as Co-Managing Directors.

&uot;IT Events adds significantly to 101's strong European presence,&uot; said Curt Hessler, 101's Chairman and CEO. &uot;The company is a very high quality provider of specialized trade shows and conferences for IT professionals and will have important synergy with SIGS' U.K. operations and with many of our magazines, events and Web services in the U.S.&uot;

IT Events, founded in 1989, is the largest, specialty technology conference and exhibition organization in the United Kingdom. Its portfolio of events includes The Windows Show, Windows eNTerprise, IT Trade Expo, Windows 2000, Java Expo, Linux Expo, WebMaster Expo and more than 100 days of technical conferences, attracting a total audience of more than 100,000 visitors.

Through its TargetFile business, IT Events also operates one of the U.K.'s most valued and effective list rental databases.

&uot;IT Events is a logical, international extension of 101communications,&uot; said 101's President and COO Jeffrey S. Klein. &uot;Jonathan Horne, Simon Rogers and their excellent team bring first-rate talent to 101's worldwide expansion.&uot;

Rogers, IT Events' Co-Managing Director said: &uot;The acquisition by 101 will enable us to grow within a large group, sharing expo and conference ideas as well as offering new opportunities for our customers and staff.&uot;

&uot;All at IT Events are looking forward to the challenges and opportunities this acquisition presents,&uot; added Horne, Co-Managing Director at IT Events.

101communications, a private company founded in 1998, is building a portfolio of specialized information services and media that serve digital professionals and the information technology vendors who market to them.

The 101communications portfolio includes the following properties: IT Events, The Data Warehousing Institute, MCP Magazine, HP Professional, MIDRANGE Systems, Unisphere, ENT, Enterprise Linux, Enterprise Systems Journal, Application Development Trends, Application Development Advisor, JavaSpektrum, ObjectSpektrum, Java Report, C++ Report, JOOP, Syllabus, Recharger, the Syllabus Conference, Recharger WorldExpo, MCP TechMentor Conferences and the SIGS Conferences in the U.S. and Europe, which include OOP 2000, Object Expo, XML One, Component Development and Application Development Conferences, as well as the Conference for Java Development and C++ World.