Coldwell Banker Turns 93; Reveals Origin of Its Name.

PARSIPPANY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 27, 1999--

Today, Coldwell Banker (R) Real Estate Corporation turns 93 years old. While most of the public recognizes the company as the nation's premier real estate organization, many don't realize that the company name has nothing to do with an institutional or banking origin.

The company began at the turn of the century and was named after its original founders. In 1906 a 23 year-old real estate agent named Colbert Coldwell felt the need to establish honest real estate practice after the devastating earthquake and fire that leveled San Francisco. A few years later, salesman and agent Benjamin Arthur Banker joined the firm as a partner. Mr. Coldwell and Mr. Banker were either at the helm of the company or actively involved well into the 1960s and had the pleasure of watching their local, one-office California real estate firm grow into a national entity.

Today, after 93 years, Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation remains the leader in evolving the real estate industry and has established real estate history throughout its existence. In the past decade alone, it pioneered the real estate industry web site medium through the award-winning www.coldwellbanker.com and offered consumers across the nation one of the first national comprehensive one-stop shopping programs called COLDWELL BANKER Conciergesm. The company continues its vision of the American Dream for all Americans through its non-profit alignment with Habitat for Humanity International, dedicated to providing housing for deserving families.

In 1998 alone, the COLDWELL BANKER affiliates closed $141.6 billion in sales volume, sold 4,305 homes in the million dollar and up price range and was ranked No. 1 in real estate services by Entrepreneur Magazine. Today, Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation (a subsidiary of Cendant Corporation, (NYSE: CD)) franchises nearly 3,000 independently owned and operated real estate offices with more than 70,000 sales associates throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Israel and Singapore. In the words Alex Perriello, the company's current president & CEO who displays portraits of the founders in the corporate headquarters lobby, "Colbert and Benjamin would be extremely proud."