Career Site Newmonday.com Discontinues Its Activities.

Business Editors

HAARLEM, The Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 22, 2001

VNU, a leading media and information company, and Randstad Holding, an international staffing company, today announced that they have decided to discontinue the activities of the career site newmonday.com, effective November 1, 2001.

Both companies have a 50% stake in the joint venture.

Newmonday.com, an on-line career center for college graduates, is active in The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Italy and Spain. It has approximately 140 employees.

Due to considerably changed conditions in the recruitment market, the revenue of newmonday.com has not met the expectations. VNU and Randstad consequently foresee insufficient prospects for jointly continuing the activities of the career site.

VNU will integrate a number of activities of newmonday.com in The Netherlands and the United Kingdom into the companies that operate under the name VNU Business Publications. VNU believes that the concepts developed by newmonday.com provide better prospects when they are part of companies that serve the market via various channels (print, electronic, trade shows). For example, the Dutch titles Intermediair and Computable and the British trade magazines Computing and Accountancy Age have leading positions in the recruitment market in their segment. Approximately 40 of the employees of newmonday.com will be employed by VNU Business Publications in The Netherlands and the United Kingdom. VNU and Randstad will put a lot of effort into finding alternative employment for the remaining employees.

VNU is one of the world's leading media and information companies. Its core activities are marketing information, media measurement & information, business media and directories. VNU is active in more than 100 countries, spread across all continents. The company employs over 35,000 people and has annual revenues of approximately EUR 4 billion.