Acxiom Corporation, Abacus Direct Announce Landmark Strategic Alliance.

BROOMFIELD, Colo. and CONWAY, Ark.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 12, 1999--

Acxiom(R) Corporation (Nasdaq:ACXM) and Abacus Direct Corporation (Nasdaq:ABDR) today announced a multi-year strategic product development and distribution agreement aimed at capitalizing on the information and technology strengths of both companies to create new and more powerful data products for customers in selected vertical industries.

Under the terms of the agreement, Abacus will maximize the power of its Alliance database, the nation's largest database of consumer catalog buying behavior, in conjunction with Acxiom's InfoBase(TM) database, the nation's premier source for demographic information, to create new, jointly marketed data products.

"This relationship offers our customers tremendous benefits," said Charles D. Morgan, Acxiom Chairman and Company Leader. "Linking Abacus' information about catalog consumers with our demographic data will provide unmatched knowledge to assist our mutual customers in their strategic marketing efforts."

Tony White, Abacus Chairman and CEO, stated, "We are continually working to supply larger, better targeted and more deliverable universes to Abacus participants and to broaden the information in our market research reports. This alliance with Acxiom will greatly enhance our ability to deliver in all of those areas."

The alliance will also provide for Abacus' prompt adoption of the AcxiKey(SM) data management technology and application of key data variables to the AcxiKey database. The AcxiKey technology, which is Acxiom's proprietary data linking and integration technology, will allow Abacus to increase the effectiveness of its internal list integration processes. This will allow Acxiom to take yet another step in expanding the coverage of the fast-growing AcxiKey database while also improving Abacus' operating efficiency.

Additionally, Abacus will explore ways to apply Acxiom's data processing and data integration expertise internally within the Abacus organization, and both companies will jointly research ways to expand data delivery capabilities of the Acxiom Data Network(SM).

For a variety of business reasons, Acxiom has begun implementing a strategy to discontinue investment in its SmartBase(R) product, which is similar in function to the Abacus Alliance Database. Accordingly, SmartBase will be phased out over the next several years. As part of this alliance, Acxiom and Abacus will work together to transition existing Smartbase customers to the Abacus Alliance in a smooth and seamless fashion honoring the commitments that Smartbase has made to its existing clients.

About Acxiom Corporation

Acxiom provides a wide spectrum of data products, data integration services, mailing list services, modeling and analysis, and information technology outsourcing services, as well as data warehousing and decision support services to major U.S. and international firms. Acxiom is a member of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), the Individual Reference Services Group (IRSG), and the Online Privacy Alliance (OPA). Acxiom supports the Fair Information Practices standards of these organizations. Founded in 1969, Acxiom is headquartered in Conway, Arkansas, with operations throughout the United States and in the United Kingdom, France and Spain. Acxiom's World Wide Web address is (URL) http://www.acxiom.com or e-mail to [e-mail]. Acxiom is a registered trademark of Acxiom RTC, Inc. SmartBase and Direct Media are registered trademarks of Acxiom Corporation. InfoBase, AcxiKey, and Acxiom Data Network are trademarks or service marks of Acxiom Corporation. For more information contact Dale Ingram, Acxiom Corporation, 301 Industrial Blvd., Conway AR 72032, 501/342-4346.

About Abacus Direct Corp.

Abacus manages the premier membership database, the Abacus Alliance, which is the nations' largest proprietary database of consumer catalog buying behavior used for target marketing purposes. The Abacus Alliance database currently contains records from 1,100 merchandise catalogs, with more than 2 billion consumer catalog transactions representing virtually all U.S. consumer catalog buying households. Abacus applies its proprietary modeling techniques to the power of shared data to improve profitability, to improve targeting efficiency, and reduce unwanted mailings. Founded in 1990, Abacus Direct Corp. is headquartered in Broomfield, Colo. and has offices in Teddington, England, New York City, Atlanta, San Francisco, Chicago, and Hawthorne, NY. For more information, visit Abacus Direct's Web site at http//www.abacus-direct.com or contact Cindi Gallucci, Abacus Direct Corp, 22 Saw Mill Rd, Hawthorne NY 10532, 914/345-0441.

The discussion in this release regarding the strategic alignment between Acxiom Corporation and Abacus Direct Corporation contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including risks detailed from time to time in each companies' SEC reports. Actual results may differ materially.