CCBN Launches New Event Publishing Service; Provides IR Professionals With Access to Powerful Investor Distribution Network.

Business/Technology Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 21, 2001

In another example of the Internet altering how public companies and investors communicate, H&R Block recently became one of several hundred publicly traded companies to take advantage of CCBN's (www.ccbn.com) new Event Publishing service for investor relations (IR) professionals.

Event Publishing is the latest addition to MyCCBN (http://my.ccbn.com), a suite of state-of-the-art online tools designed to help IR professionals manage their communications from one centralized Web-interface.

CCBN's easy-to-use Event Publishing tools let companies push their earnings release dates, conference call webcasts, industry conference presentations, and other event information to all of their investors through CCBN's investor distribution network. First, the IR professional can choose to have the event posted on the company's own IR Web site. Secondly, the company can elect to distribute the information out to institutional investors through StreetEvents, CCBN's password protected database for Wall Street analysts and portfolio managers. Finally, information about the event can be disseminated to individual investors through CCBN's alliances with a number of major retail financial sites including America Online's Personal Finance Channel(R) and many others.

"CCBN's event publishing tools give me an easy way to control the accuracy and timeliness of my event information," comments Mark Barnett, IR Director at H&R Block. "In just a few minutes, I can publish our earnings release date, schedule our quarterly conference call webcast, update the event calendar on my web site, and notify key analysts and investors - all when it was convenient for me."

Over 6,000 public companies publish their investor event information through CCBN's StreetEvents database, which is subscribed to by institutional investors at more than 700 buy- and sell-side firms who rely on this database as their primary source for investment events and webcasts. With CCBN's Event Publishing tools, companies can also elect to set up a one-click RSVP function, cutting down on many back and forth phone calls between analysts and IR professionals.

"Event Publishing gives companies a cost-effective, turnkey means of providing full information to all investors, helping to defend against misinformation," said Rob Adler, President of CCBN. "CCBN has the largest collective investor audience in cyberspace, and disseminating event information through this network helps companies insulate themselves from potential selective disclosure issues."

CCBN Event Publishing is currently a free service open to all public companies and can be accessed at http://my.ccbn.com.

About CCBN

Co-founded in 1997 by Jeffrey P. Parker, creator of First Call, and Robert Adler, CCBN is the global leader in enabling direct communications between public companies and the investment community over the Internet. CCBN builds, manages and hosts the investor relations sections of Web sites for more than 2,500 public companies, providing detailed shareholder information through interactive, multi-media solutions. In addition, CCBN hosts live and archived quarterly conference calls for more than 3,000 corporations each quarter. Through its StreetEvents institutional event management database, (http://www.streetevents.com) and partnerships with leading retail financial portals, CCBN has created a revolutionary investor distribution network that delivers an unprecedented body of direct corporate information to the largest collective audience of institutional and individual investors in cyberspace. Headquartered in Boston, Mass., CCBN has additional offices in San Francisco and London.