APEX Analytix Acquires Bottom Line Enhancement Services International; Combined Company Serves 26 of the Fortune 100.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

GREENSBORO, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 20, 2004

APEX Analytix, a provider of recovery auditing services and technology solutions to Fortune 500 companies, acquired Minnesota-based Bottom Line Enhancement Services (BL), an international recovery auditing firm. With this combination, the company now serves the second largest customer base in the recovery audit industry, including 26 of the Fortune 100.

In addition to dramatically expanding their presence in the retail audit sector, APEX gains 85 new employees and six offices across the U.S. and Canada. APEX completed the deal via a combination of cash and stock to Bottom Line's shareholders. Noro-Moseley Partners and the Wakefield Group, minority investors in APEX, contributed $3.5 million of additional equity, while RBC Centura provided debt financing to round out the deal.

"Bottom Line is a perfect fit with our vision of changing the recovery audit business," APEX Analytix Chief Executive Officer Michael Lustig said. "As leading companies migrate from retrospective recovery audits to partnership audits and the proactive prevention of errors through technology, APEX is positioned as the leading player in this space. Bottom Line, with its "First Strike" technology solution and deep retail expertise, complements our current service offering, and will accelerate our delivery of new products and services to the marketplace."

Kent Buttelmann, president and chief executive officer of BL, said he's known APEX Founder and Chief Technology Officer Jim Arnold for nearly 10 years, and that they share the same passion, drive and entrepreneurial spirit.

"We are a healthy, growing and successful business, and by combining our companies we can realize our mission of changing the industry," Buttelmann said. "We are both agents of change and realize the role technology plays in the recovery audit field."

Arnold said both companies share the same customer-centric philosophy, and that by joining forces the combined company will continue to redefine the recovery audit space.

"This is a great day for customers of the recovery audit industry," Arnold said. "For more than 30 years, companies around the world were forced to react to vendor payment errors rather than take a proactive approach by detecting, recovering and then preventing those errors from occurring ever again. As we move forward APEX Analytix is excited at the prospect of connecting people and technology in a new, collaborative way."

APEX Analytix, founded in 1988, is the only recovery audit company that focuses on the entire procure-to-pay business cycle, giving large enterprise level companies critical insights into every step and every potential hole, from transaction initiation to final payment. Over the past five years, APEX Analytix has been recognized as an Inc. 500 company in 1999, Verizon's Supplier of Excellence Award in June of 2000, the 2002 Blue Chip Business Award, the 2003 Deloitte & Touche North Carolina Fast 50, the NCEITA 2003 Mid-Sized Company of the Year, and was named to the Triad Fast 50 list from 2001-2003.

About APEX Analytix

Headquartered in Greensboro, N.C., APEX Analytix is a leading provider of professional services and software to organizations to help them manage their spending from purchase to payment. APEX Analytix is the only recovery audit services and technology provider that focuses on prevention as well as detection. For the past 15 years, APEX Analytix has delivered effective business solutions in the end-to-end procure-to-pay realm, enabling the detection, recovery and prevention of errors. APEX Analytix allows its customers to go beyond standard annual recovery auditing to actual error prevention - stopping problems once and for all, rather than simply accounting for them. Services include Recovery Audits, Vendor Verification/Cleansing, Contract Compliance, Spending Analysis, Vendor Analysis and more. Technology Enablers include iAPEX(R), APEX Real Time Audit(R), iInquire(R), and iRemit(R).

For more information call 1-800-284-4522 or e-mail [e-mail]