First Call Launches Enhanced Web Portal in Multiple Languages.

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 13, 1999--

FIRST CALL Web 6.0 in Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese

Integrates All First Call Research and Quantitative Databases,

Offers Increased Functionality and Performance

First Call Corp., a Thomson Financial company, has launched Web 6.0 in Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese. This enhanced Web portal, which was launched in English in September 1999, offers institutional buy- and sell-side customers worldwide integrated access to all First Call research and quantitative databases. It also offers increased functionality, enhanced performance, access to quantitative portfolio reports, and a new tab-driven user interface. FIRST CALL Web 6.0 in all four languages is accessible from www.firstcall.com.

In addition to the integrated searching capabilities across First Call's research and quantitative databases, FIRST CALL Web 6.0 in Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese offers the following enhancements:

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--   The ability to search by primary ticker
--   Commingled search results from FIRST CALL Notes(TM), Research
     Direct and BondCall Direct
--   Access to eight quantitative portfolio reports available
     from the Quick Search screen
--   The ability to download all quantitative reports into
     Microsoft(R) Excel

The quantitative portfolio reports, available for the first time in Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese, provide access to a range of data on each of the companies in a user's portfolio. This information includes a company's expected report date; year ago earnings per share; high, low and mean estimates; number of brokers covering the company; and the number of brokers with upward and downward earnings estimate revisions.

As part of its continued commitment to enhancing its global Web portal for the institutional marketplace, First Call now offers online access to more than 42,300 research reports in the Japanese language. To date in 1999, First Call has also added 30 new Latin American brokers to its list of contributors. There are now 110 brokerage firms contributing research on Latin American companies to the FIRST CALL(R) Network.

FIRST CALL Web 6.0 in Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese replaces RDj, RD- Espanol, and RD-Portugues, the localized versions of FIRST CALL Research Direct(R). The tool bars and command functions of Web 6.0 are available in English, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese, but users may submit and retrieve research reports in multiple languages. First Call's customers may use their existing usernames and passwords to access this enhanced service in any of the four available languages, at no extra charge.

FIRST CALL Web 6.0 is being driven on the back-end by newly coded, highly customized and faster loading Web servers. First Call's customers worldwide continue to have the ability to set up e-mail alerts on specific tickers, portfolios, and product groups.

Research-by-Request also continues to be available to First Call's Spanish, Japanese, and Portuguese users. This service offers Web access to embargoed research documents from over 500 investment banks, brokerage firms and research firms. Institutional money managers now can access reports that they are not entitled to view in real-time, as well as reports from additional sources not previously available on the FIRST CALL Network. Users of this service are charged only for those reports that they access.

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. More than 5,000,000 research documents are available on the FIRST CALL Network. First Call's distribution capabilities, research services, competitive intelligence product, usage reports and customized business solutions provide value-added links between the institutional buy-side and the sell-side worldwide. For more information, visit First Call's Web site at www.firstcall.com.

Thomson Financial is a US$1 billion provider of information services and work solutions to the worldwide financial community. Through the widest range of products and services in the industry, Thomson Financial helps clients in more than 70 countries make better decisions, be more productive and achieve superior results. Thomson Financial is part of The Thomson Corporation, one of the world's leading information companies. With annual revenues of more than US$6 billion, Thomson has interests in specialized information and newspaper publishing. The Corporation's common shares are traded on the Toronto and London stock exchanges. For more information, visit www.thomsonfinancial.com.