Fast Search & Transfer Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2003 Results.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

OSLO, Norway--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 10, 2004

FAST Achieves 14% Revenue Growth in Q4 vs. Q3; 18% Growth for Full Year Earned Positive Adjusted EBITDA of $3.3 million in Q4; $11.1 million for 2003

Fast Search & Transfer(TM) (FAST(TM)), the leading developer of enterprise search and real-time alerting technologies, today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and year ended December 31, 2003.

    Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2003 Highlights

    --  Q4 2003 revenues reached $12.4 million, an increase of 14%
        over Q3 2003

        --  Full year revenues grew 18% from last year, as new
            business grew 43% for the year

    --  Achieved Adjusted EBITDA of $3.3 million, positive for the 9th
        straight quarter

        --  Increased full year adjusted EBITDA to a positive $11.1
            million; 26% of revenues

    --  Operating results and cash flow positive for the 5th straight
        quarter

        --  Generated $1.3 million in operating income and cash flow
            from continuing operations

    --  Client News: Record number of wins in eCommerce, Government,
        Financial Services and Publishing

        --  New enterprise search clients include AIG, Fisher
            Scientific, Input, Marriott, Nissan, Nordstrom, PATB,
            Sensis, Time Warner Telecom. FAST also increased its
            presence in Japan, securing a deal with Yodabashi Camera

        --  Expanded enterprise search relationships with customers,
            such as Elsevier Science and Rakuten

        --  Substantial list of former AltaVista enterprise customers
            renewed maintenance agreements or began migrating to
            FAST's technology including Abbott Labs, Avery Dennison,
            Barnes & Noble, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Hallmark, Hughes
            Electronics, and Lockheed Martin

        --  Established strong base of new business in rapidly growing
            eDirectories space (online yellow/white and pink pages)

Q4 and Fiscal Year 2003 Financial Highlights

                    For the three months ended     For the year ended
                     31-        30-        31-       31-       31-
                  December-  September- December-  December- December-
(Amounts in           03         03         02        03        02
 US$000's)       (unaudited)(unaudited)(unaudited)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ENTERPRISE REVENUE   12,442     10,953     10,585    42,416    36,042
Operating Income      1,353      1,042      1,110     3,797     4,356
EBITDA                2,378      2,644      2,720     8,502     8,730
Adjusted EBITDA(a)    3,303      2,858      3,592    11,147    12,242
----------------------------------------------------------------------

(a) EBITDA, excluding share-based compensation, equity in losses of
    investee, write-down of investment and other non-recurring items.

Financial Performance

Commenting on the results, Dr. John M. Lervik, chief executive officer of FAST, stated, "In the most recent quarter, FAST has demonstrated its continued ability to deliver a strong financial performance and to outperform the market in challenging economic times. With 2003 enterprise search revenues of $42.4 million and adjusted EBITDA of $11.1 million, we are succeeding at delivering increased growth on an annual basis. We have experienced strong development in the market worldwide, and are well-positioned to take additional market share in the quarters to come."

Ali I. Riaz, chief financial officer and chief operating officer at FAST remarked, "Our financial condition continues to strengthen indicated by new business growth of 43% for 2003, which yielded top line growth of 18%; positive operating results and cash flow for the fifth straight quarter; and a year-end cash position of $89.3 million. Additionally, our current ratio of 10:1 remains top in the industry. We remain confident in our financial performance and look forward to a strong 2004," added Riaz.

Corporate Developments

In Q4 2003, FAST realized its vision of transforming search into a key enabler for mission-critical applications and as an IT infrastructure necessity. As a result, FAST added a record number of enterprise search customers to its list, including: AIG, Fisher Scientific, Input, Marriott, Nissan, Nordstrom, Sensis, SOS Children's Village, Time Warner Telecom, and Yodabashi Camera.

In addition to expanding relationships with existing customers including Elsevier Science and Japan's largest online retailer, Rakuten, FAST signed renewed maintenance agreements with a long list of former AltaVista enterprise customers, such as Abbott Labs, Avery Dennison, Barnes & Noble, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Endress & Hauser Infoserv, Fraunhoffer, Hallmark, Hughes Electronics, Lockheed Martin, and Panduit. These deals have provided FAST with significant market opportunity now and into the future.

FAST received multiple awards and industry recognition in 2003 based upon its corporate growth and superior enterprise search offerings. In addition to receiving high praise from many key industry analysts, including IDC, Jupiter Research and Yankee Group, FAST was listed in Gartner's 2003 Search Magic Quadrant report as the "most visionary search provider" in the market.

FAST ranked number two on the 2003 Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology companies in Europe. FAST was the only company to be included within the top 10 of this FAST 500 list for three consecutive years, ranking number three in 2002 and number six in 2001. FAST was recognized on the Europe's 500 as one of the fastest-growing companies; by Computerworld magazine as a finalist in its 2003 Computerworld Honors 21st Century Achievement Award; and by EContent magazine in their annual EContent 100 listing. Additionally, FAST was given a 5-Star Partner rating in 2003 by VARBusiness magazine, one of the leading US publications focused on the Channels market.

While the company itself received many awards, FAST Data Search(TM) was selected by Euro-CASE as a 2004 European IST Prize Winner; by Transform magazine as a 2003 Product of the Year finalist, and by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) as a finalist for "Best Enterprise Search Engine" in its upcoming 2004 Codie Awards.

Innovation

"FAST is working with its customers and partners to expand the role and business impact of enterprise search," commented Lervik. FAST envisions Enterprise Search sitting at the core of all IT infrastructure, enabling organizations to intelligently and dynamically retrieve and analyze the complete collection of information existing across their entire enterprise and from the Web. In Q1 2004, the Company will unveil FAST ESP(TM), its enterprise search platform solution designed to provide companies a single point of access to all of their enterprise information in real time, regardless of data format, structure, or location. Additionally, FAST will introduce five new FAST Data Search product packages, aimed at addressing very specific business problems within the enterprise. With the increased information management and content utilization complexities faced by most companies, FAST envisions the development of several new search derivative applications including marketing intelligence portals (MIP), surveillance and fraud detection.

"FAST's vision for enterprise search is supported by many of the industry's leading industry analyst groups. They view FAST as one of the most visionary and innovative vendors in the enterprise search market. This, along with strong customer testimonials - stating that FAST is the only company that could solve their mission critical problem - gives us the confidence to continue pushing the envelope," commented Lervik.

Strategic Partnerships

In the last quarter, FAST significantly increased its market opportunities by building and expanding its distribution channels through newly signed referral, alliance and developer agreements with companies including Accenture, BusinessOL, eTouch Systems, Hitachi, InfoZen, Sakhr Software, and Sentius. In addition, the company solidified deep partnerships in 2003 with global partners including IBM Life Science, Hewlett Packard, and Oracle (integration of FAST Data Search into the Oracle AS portal product).

"The right strategic partnerships will drive FAST's business to unprecedented levels. Each quarter, we continue to strengthen our foundation for a global network of partners and resellers," said Riaz. "Through our expanded relationships with top-notch partners, FAST is positioning itself to accelerate its revenue growth with unique and outstanding joint value propositions to a targeted client base," added Riaz.

2004 Business Focus

"FAST is delivering strong financial results and continues to outperform the market while dealing with a slowly recovering global economic climate. In the last few months, our business has evolved in some very exciting ways. We are investing in FAST's future by focusing our efforts on developing and delivering our new FAST ESP solutions to the marketplace and expanding our reach into new and exciting areas by creating new SDAs, which can be used to solve demanding business problems. An increasingly positive financial performance, grouped with a rapidly growing top-tier global client and partner base, leaves FAST well-positioned for the first quarter and the remainder of 2004," added Lervik.

About FAST

FAST creates the real-time search and filter technology solutions that are behind the scenes at the world's best known companies with the most demanding search problems. FAST's flexible and scalable integrated technology platform elevates the search capabilities of enterprise customers and connects people to the relevant information they seek regardless of medium. This drives revenues and reduces total cost of ownership by effectively leveraging IT infrastructure. FAST's powerful enterprise search technology solutions are used by a wide range of global customers and partners, including AT&T, Cardinal Health, CareerBuilder.com, Charles Schwab & Co., Chordiant, CIGNA, CNET, Dell, Fidelity Investments, FirstGov.gov (GSA), Freeserve, IBM, LexisNexis, Nordstrom, Overture, Rakuten, Reed Elsevier, Reuters, Tenet Healthcare, T-Online, US Army, Virgilio (Telecom Italia), and Vodafone.

FAST operates globally with presence in the United States, Europe, and Japan. FAST is publicly traded under the ticker symbol 'FAST' on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Please visit www.fastsearch.com for more information.

(C) 2004 Fast Search & Transfer ASA - Fast Search & Transfer, FAST, FAST Data Search, FAST ESP and the FAST four-colored logo are trademarks of Fast Search & Transfer ASA. All rights reserved. FAST disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.