Thomson Financial Services Acquires digiTRADE; TFS Makes 14th Acquisition of the Year Adding Financial Internet Pioneer.

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 31, 1998--Thomson Financial Services (TFS) announced today that it has acquired digiTRADE, the widely recognized leader of automated Internet and telephone-based trading and account management services. The acquisition brings together the leader in online brokerage services with the top provider of investment research and content. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

digiTRADE is a software developer and service bureau providing Internet and telephone-based trading and account management systems used by thousands of financial professionals and retail investors. The company's mission critical technology solutions are currently used by some of the country's most prestigious securities firms, banking institutions, mutual fund companies and clearing firms. To date, digiTRADE has deployed Internet and telephone-based trading systems for 51 financial solutions including Bank of America, Bear Stearns, Chase Manhattan, Chubb, CitiBank, Dreyfus, First Union, Norwest, LPL Financial, New York Life, T. Rowe Price and Wexford Clearing Services. On any given day, digiTRADE processes over 120,000 automated phone calls, 13,000 equity, option and mutual fund orders and over 2,000,000 real-time quotes.

digiTRADE holds the distinction of being the first company to bring online brokerage services to the Internet. Recognizing the trend toward automated trading systems early on, Theodore Tsung, David McGraw and Jeff Butzer formed digiTRADE in 1994, allowing many financial firms to quickly roll-out Internet and telephone-based trading services. Always an agent for change, digiTRADE recently launched Speak Now, a new service providing speech recognition-based trading and account management to financial services firms.

"As an industry innovator, digiTRADE is a natural fit for Thomson Financial Services," stated David J.S. Flaschen, president and chief executive officer of Thomson Financial Services. "digiTRADE's strategic positioning is a natural bridge between the institutional and individual investors. By supporting digiTRADE's creative efforts to reach investors online, TFS will bring a complete solution to online brokerage."

"As our business continues to grow by leaps and bounds, it was essential to find the backing of a strong partner like TFS who could offer both financial resources and synergy across a variety of related business services," said digiTRADE's president and co-owner, David McGraw.

"Initially, TFS will leverage its existing relationships with digiTRADE, particularly within the Thomson Investors Network, ILX and Beta Systems product offerings. In the future, we anticipate that digiTRADE's client base can look forward to access to the broad range of financial research and data services offered by other TFS companies," stated Ray Kingman, president of Thomson Investors Network and to whom digiTRADE will report.

"Quick & Reilly has been ranked #1 in research offerings by Smart Money in its evaluation of Internet securities trading firms, and Thomson Financial Services has been in the forefront of offering financial information services on an Internet platform," said Michael Quinn, vice president in charge of Internet

Services at Quick & Reilly. "digiTRADE has helped us offer free real time quotes to our Internet securities trading customers in a cost-effective way. In addition, Thomson Investors Network is our chosen provider for portfolio tracking, stock and mutual fund research. Working with TFS, Quick & Reilly will continue to offer the best investment content of any securities trading system on the Web."

The digiTRADE purchase is the 14th Thomson Financial Services acquisition since January 1, 1998. Other properties acquired by Thomson Financial Services in 1998 include Technimetrics, Nelson Information, Viga Technologies, EDI World, PARITY, Privitisation International, Tudor House Publications Ltd., Dalbar Publications, Boston Treasury Systems, Card Tech/Secur Tech, Credit Union Journal/Credit Union News, FutureBank Conference, as well as the insurance business of OneSource.

Thomson Financial Services (TFS) is a leading provider of information services and work solutions to the worldwide financial community. TFS employs more than 6,000 people in more than 40 locations dedicated to the success of our clients and is part of The Thomson Corporation (TTC). With annual revenues approaching US$6 billion, TTC is one of the world's leading information and publishing companies. TTC's common shares are traded on the Toronto, Montreal and London stock exchanges. For more information, visit the TFS Web site at www.tfn.com or visit www.thomsoninvest.net.

    CONTACT: Jenna Focarino, [phone]
               or
              Thomson Investors Network
              Ray Kingman, [phone]
               or
              Thomson Investors Network
              Tanya Hilleary, [phone]
               or
              digiTRADE
              Dave McGraw, [phone]