20 Brokerage Firms Partner With FIRST CALL Interactive to Develop Customized Global Internet-Based Solutions.

Business/Technology Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 7, 2000

Twenty brokerage firms - including Legg Mason Wood Walker, Scott &Stringfellow, and Tucker Anthony Cleary Gull - have partnered with FIRST CALL Interactive to develop customized global Internet-based solutions for the internal distribution of their research and quantitative data. FIRST CALL Interactive is a division of First Call Corp., a Thomson Financial company. Each site developed by FIRST CALL Interactive incorporates the firm's logo, colors and graphics, and is customized to meet the unique needs of that specific company.

Employees at sell-side firms using FIRST CALL Interactive's customized solutions are now able to access the following information in real-time via their corporate intranet or password-protected sites on the Internet:

-- Their own company's research notes and full-text reports

-- Correspondent brokers' research notes and full-text reports

-- Detailed and consensus earnings estimates

-- FIRST CALL Alerts

-- Fundamental and historical pricing data

-- A menu of content from Thomson Financial companies and third party content providers

The FIRST CALL Interactive solutions save brokerage firms money by reducing their global printing and distribution costs. They also enable the sales and trading teams at the firms to receive their company's research and quantitative data at the same time as their customers who subscribe to First Call's real-time services.

&uot;We are very pleased with the customized Internet site that First Call developed for us,&uot; said Rob Brown, senior vice president at Scott &Stringfellow. &uot;They worked closely with us to clearly identify our needs and to ensure that their solution meets those needs.&uot;

&uot;Our goal is to provide each of our buy- and sell-side customers worldwide with an efficient, cost-effective Internet-based distribution solution that is customized to meet each user's unique needs,&uot; said Tim Duncan, First Call's executive vice president, heading the FIRST CALL Interactive division. &uot;We are very pleased with the success we have had to date. The feedback we have received has been overwhelmingly positive.&uot;

FIRST CALL Interactive clients now can access the content on First Call's services, content from other Thomson Financial companies, their own internal information, and select content from the Web via their intranet, extranet or password-protected sites on the Internet. The display of this integrated data may be customized for each user. The wealth of content and the integrated data capability offered by First Call are unparalleled in the industry. First Call has more than 70 individuals supporting its Interactive division.

First Call Corp. is the global financial community's leading Internet provider of real-time broker-sourced research, earnings estimates, equity and fixed income ownership information, insider trading information, and corporate news releases. More than 5,800,000 research documents are available on the FIRST CALL Network. First Call's distribution capabilities, research services, competitive intelligence product, usage reports and customized business solutions provide value-added links between the institutional buy-side and the sell-side worldwide. For more information, visit First Call's Web site at www.firstcall.com.

Thomson Financial is a US$1.2 billion provider of information services and work solutions to the worldwide financial community. Through the widest range of products and services in the industry, Thomson Financial helps clients in more than 70 countries make better decisions, be more productive and achieve superior results. Thomson Financial is part of The Thomson Corporation, one of the world's leading information companies. With annual revenues of more than US$6 billion, Thomson has interests in specialized information and newspaper publishing. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the Toronto and London stock exchanges. For more information on Thomson Financial, visit www.thomsonfinancial.com.