Data Broadcasting Launches eSignal Version 5.3 With Enhanced Alerts Capabilities and Improved Nasdaq Level II Tools.

Business Editors

HAYWARD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 12, 2000

New eSignal Provides Customers With Advanced Trading Features

Data Broadcasting Corporation (Nasdaq:DBCC), America's leading provider of real-time financial market data to traders and individual investors, today announced the release of eSignal version 5.3 with enhanced alerts capabilities, redesigned and optimized Nasdaq Level II window and market maker ticker, charting enhancements and a new day trading menu. eSignal 5.3 is being made available to all subscribers free of charge to ensure over 20,000 users have the most advanced trading software possible.

"The enhanced features of eSignal 5.3 further solidify our number one position as the product of choice among active traders," said Chuck Thompson, senior vice president and managing director of DBC. "By assessing the needs of brokers and active traders, eSignal now incorporates unique features like Nasdaq Level II market maker ticker, a feature not found anywhere else."

eSignal is the quote system preferred by individual traders and more than 60 online brokerages including Ameritrade (Nasdaq:AMTD), Dreyfus (NYSE:MEL), and Lind-Waldock.

Thompson also noted that eSignal is aligned with direct access brokerages, offering subscribers direct access trading that provides users the opportunity to select ECNs or automatic order routing. These include Cybercorp (NYSE:SCH), All Tech, Carlin, On-Site Trading, Inc. and PreferredTrade.com. With these capabilities, customers are able to receive confirmations of their trades in seconds instead of minutes.

   Among the product's newest features:

-   Enhanced alerts capabilities. A totally redesigned alerts package
    is now the most powerful and flexible available. It allows
    customers to effectively manage both their current portfolio and
    trading prospects. In addition to allowing users to set alerts on
    over 20 fields and set global alerts on each symbol tracked in the
    layout, the new software will automatically re-arm each alert
    according to their user specifications. Customers save time, gain
    better control over their portfolio and monitor market trends more
    efficiently than previously possible.

-   Optimized and redesigned Nasdaq Level II window. A redesigned
    window provides more real-time decision support for the active
    Nasdaq Level II trader. With a very powerful Nasdaq Level II
    market-maker ticker, users are able to track crucial buying
    patterns of selected market makers, allowing customers to easily
    spot breakouts, trends or reversals on an entire list of stocks.
    Users can create multiple market maker tickers for added power.

-   Improved charting. Customers can now create symbol overlay charts
    in historical and intraday modes and display up to 30 days of
    intraday data.

-   New day trading menu. This new menu includes valuable Web sites
    containing market scanning, before and after hours trading, market
    leaders, rumors, stock picks and analysis, IPOs, glossaries,
    message boards and more.

As part of this release, DBC is offering a free month of service to users of competitive systems including Hyperfeed Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:HYPR), WindowOnWallStreet.com (Nasdaq:OMGA), Track Data Corporation (Nasdaq:TRAC), A-T Financial, Inc. (NYSE:PMK) and QCharts (Nasdaq:LCOS), so users can review eSignal and compare products. Unlike most competitive systems, eSignal offers speed and reliability by providing direct connections to the exchanges and multiple geographically dispersed server farms for data redundancy.

About eSignal:

eSignal delivers vital streaming real-time financial data over the Internet to active traders and individual investors. The eSignal application includes portfolio manager, Nasdaq Level II display, fundamental data, intraday and interday charts, analytics, full-text news and research, customized tickers, time and sales, and option montage. eSignal also provides full text news from CBS MarketWatch (Nasdaq:MKTW), Dow Jones News Service (NYSE:DJ) and Comtex, and can deliver limit alerts via pager, cell phone or e-mail.

eSignal supports Windows(R) 95/98/NT and is available for downloading at http://www.eSignal.com. A complete listing of partnered brokerages and software systems can be viewed at http://www.eSignal.com/partners.

About Data Broadcasting Corporation

Data Broadcasting Corporation is a leading global provider of financial and business information to institutional and individual investors. The company supplies time sensitive pricing, dividend, corporate action and descriptive information for more than 3.5 million securities traded around the world including hard-to-value unlisted fixed income instruments. At the core of the business are its extensive database expertise and technology resources.

DBC delivers real-time, end-of-day and historically archived data to customers through a variety of products featuring Internet, dedicated line, satellite and dial-up delivery protocols. Through a broad range of partnerships and alliances, the company provides links to most of the world's best-known financial service and software companies for trading, analysis, portfolio management and valuation.

DBC, with approximately 1,700 employees, is headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts and has more than 20 offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia including the world's key financial centers of New York, London and Tokyo.

The company is approximately 60 percent-owned by Pearson plc (London:PSON)(ADR:PRSNY), an international media company with four main businesses: Pearson Education is the world's premier educational publisher; the Penguin Group is the world's most renowned English-language publisher; Pearson Television is the world's leading independent international television producer, and the Financial Times Group is the premier source of global news, comment and analysis.

Matters discussed in this release include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may be materially different. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include the response of competitors to the company's new services, acceptance of the Internet as a valid real-time distribution platform by institutional customers, activity levels in the securities markets and other risk factors listed in the company's 10-K and 10-Q reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission.