First Call's Research Direct and BondCall Direct Offered Via FactSet.

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 10, 1999--

All First Call Research Services Now Available On FactSet

First Call Corp., a division of Thomson Financial Services, announced today that FIRST CALL Research Direct(R) and FIRST CALL BondCall Direct(R) are available as subscription services via FactSet. This is in addition to FIRST CALL Notes(tm) and FIRST CALL's Real Time Earnings Estimates Database, which have been available via FactSet since March of 1993 and February of 1990, respectively.

FactSet is a leading provider of online integrated database to the financial community. Its services are accessed by 18,000 investment professionals worldwide. The integration of First Call's Research Direct, BondCall Direct, Notes and Real Time Earnings Estimates Database on FactSet allows users to screen the commingled data by symbol, broker, subject, industry, sector and date range. FactSet clients can access up-to-the-minute research as well as years of archived information.

"We are excited to offer all of our research services via FactSet," said Brent Delehey, president of First Call Corp. "At First Call, our goal is to provide our products and services to our customers over the platforms of their choice. The combination of FactSet's functionality and First Call's high caliber proprietary data is a powerful one - users can customize First Call's data to better serve their individual needs."

"With the addition of Research Direct and BondCall Direct, FactSet is able to offer investment professionals a fairly unique suite of services," said William Faulkner, FactSet's director of product development. "FactSet presents a thoroughly integrated package of First Call products: notes and research headlines are displayed together and presented alongside real-time earnings estimate data."

More than 280 brokerage firms worldwide, including all of Institutional Investor's top 20 ranked U.S. research firms, use Research Direct to electronically distribute their research and earnings models in real-time. More than 22,500 money managers worldwide in turn use Research Direct to access the more than 910,000 broker-sourced research reports available on the service. In the U.S. alone, 98 percent of institutional money management firms subscribe to First Call's research services, as measured by actively managed assets.

FIRST CALL BondCall Direct is the one-stop source for global fixed income research from broker/dealers, rating agencies and other third parties. It allows clients to electronically access more than 100,000 commingled, original full-text, fixed income research reports, as well as intra-day research notes and analysis, in real-time.

FIRST CALL Notes electronically delivers real-time, commingled morning meeting comments, intra-day research broadcasts and special equity notes from over 250 brokerage firms worldwide. More than 2,000 institutional money management firms use Notes - it is currently viewed at over 12,100 desktops in the United States alone. All of Institutional Investor's top 20-ranked U.S. firms are current contributors. There is an average of 2,290 broker-sourced notes per day on the system and a peak of 3,600 broker-sourced notes per day during quarterly earnings reporting periods. Users can also access FIRST CALL Corporate Release(R) via FIRST CALL Notes. This service delivers full-text unedited news releases and investor messages from 2,300 corporations.

First Call's Real Time Earnings Estimates Database offers access to real-time earnings estimates on more than 18,000 companies as provided by more than 600 brokerage firms worldwide. The database features more than 200 data items including earnings estimates, operating actuals, expected reporting dates, footnotes and company-issued guidelines. From this database, First Call produces the FIRST CALL consensus estimate, a proprietary number often cited in leading financial publications. All earnings data is processed by computer-generated quality control tests, then verified by teams of professionals.

In addition to FactSet, First Call products can be accessed through a desktop PC via a Windows(tm)-based LAN, through a dedicated terminal, via other third party distributors, or via the Internet from www.firstcall.com. FIRST CALL Notes, First Call's Real Time Earnings Estimates Database, and First Call's Recommendations and Fundamental Databases are also available through FIRST CALL On Call(R) - a dial up service.

For investment managers, investment bankers, and other financial professionals, FactSet is a comprehensive, one-stop source of financial information and analytics. FactSet combines more than 100 databases into a single mainframe information system. Using FactSet software, clients are afforded simultaneous access to disparate data sources. They can also search for specific data and download it directly into their spreadsheets or other applications. FactSet Research Systems Inc. (NYSE:FDS) was formed in 1978 and now conducts operations from six locations worldwide. FactSet is a registered trademark of FactSet Research Systems Inc.

First Call Corp. is the global financial community's leading source of real-time broker-sourced research, earnings estimates, equity and fixed income ownership information, insider trading information, and corporate news releases. For more information, visit First Call's Web site at www.firstcall.com. Thomson Financial Services (TFS) is a leading provider of information services and work solutions to the worldwide financial community. For more information, visit the TFS Web site at www.tfn.com.