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Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA

iSYNDICATE EUROPE ACQUIRES nFACTORY S.A.
CONTENT POWERHOUSE EXPANDS INTO ADDITIONAL MARKETS

Hamburg/Paris/San Francisco (ots)

iSyndicate Europe, the joint
venture between Bertelsmann Content Network and iSyndicate, Inc.,
acquired today the French-Spanish content syndication company
nFactory S.A., clearly positioning iSyndicate Europe as the
pan-European content syndication market leader. iSyndicate Europe
will take a majority share in nFactory S.A., including business units
in France, Belgium, Spain and Morocco, complementing its existing
operations in the United Kingdom and Germany.
nFactory S.A. was founded in 1999 and is the largest provider of
syndicated content in France and Spain today, representing more than
600 European content providers including leading brands as La
Tribune, VNU.fr and El Mundo. The company employs a staff of 85 and
serves more than 50 customers including Cap Gemini, France Telecom
and Banques Populaires.
With nFactory S.A.'s content providers, iSyndicate Europe will
offer more than 1800 popular content providers in languages including
English, German, French and Spanish. nFactory's French and Spanish
business units will be structured into individual national companies.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
"Companies want an end-to-end solution for the best content,
applications and technologies to manage content important to their
business," said Joel Maske, president and CEO of iSyndicate, Inc.
"This acquisition doubles iSyndicate Europe's ability to provide
syndicated content and infrastructure services to the pan-European
market. We look forward to building on nFactory's success in the
French and Spanish region."
The Bertelsmann Content Network is the division of Bertelsmann
that manages the company's syndication strategy. Rolf Schmidt-Holtz,
CEO of the Bertelsmann Content Network, said, "The acquisition of
nFactory is an important step towards the continued development of
iSyndicate Europe. We complement each other in terms of strategy and
geography. With this joint venture, we're the first to establish a
pan-European platform for the syndication of content."
iSyndicate Europe was formed in September 2000 as a joint venture
between Bertelsmann and iSyndicate, Inc. nFactory S.A. is iSyndicate
Europe's first acquisition. Following the acquisition, more than 100
employees will work for iSyndicate Europe in six countries including
the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium and Morocco.
iSyndicate enables its customers to maximize the power of
information distribution and exchange on the Internet.  With
iSyndicate's services, companies can boost their Internet traffic,
build community and enrich their e-commerce services. iSyndicate's
syndication infrastructure solutions enable companies to manage their
information assets, so that mission-critical information is delivered
to the right audience at precisely the right time.
iSyndicate content covers virtually every category, topic, and
type found on the Web today, such as breaking news, feature articles,
commentary, sports scores, stock quotes, comics, puzzles, games,
weather, photos, and rich media including full-motion video, and
music. European content providers include The Financial Times, dpa,
Haymarket publications, Eurosoccer and the Golf Network among others.
For content providers, iSyndicate offers additional revenue
opportunities through licensing and increased brand awareness by
greatly increasing the potential audience for content.
The Bertelsmann Content Network encourages cooperation and
networking across the company's divisions to speed the digital
conversion of Bertelsmann´s diverse content assets and develop
"communities of interest" from a range of content products and
offerings. This includes establishing cross media brands of content,
optimizing the commercial exploitation of content through syndication
as well as taking shares in external companies in order to develop
new businesses.
About iSyndicate (www.isyndicate.com)
   iSyndicate is a leading, global provider of Internet syndication
infrastructure and application solutions. The Company develops,
markets and supports a line of infrastructure and application
software, technologies and tools that allow for the collection,
distribution, exchange and management of digital content and
information across the Internet and to any Internet-connected device.
The Company's solutions allow its customers to maximize the power of
information distribution and exchange on the Internet. Its partners
and customers include some of the world's leading traditional and
Internet brands including over 1,200 digital content and information
providers such as ABCNEWS.com, The Associated Press, Business Week,
CNBC, CNET, The Financial Times, The New York Times, Red Herring and
RollingStone.com.  iSyndicate's solutions are made available to
300,000 customers and affiliates, including Bacardi, Citibank, Major
League Baseball, Nortel Networks, OmniSky, Unisys and Wells Fargo.
iSyndicate supports the ICE (Information & Content Exchange) standard
based on XML, among a variety of others, for all of its content. 
iSyndicate is based in San Francisco with offices in New York, London
and Hamburg. iSyndicate is backed by venture capital firms Scripps
Ventures and Labrador Ventures; investment bank Chase Hambrecht &
Quist; Infospace.com; NBC (GE), Microsoft, News Corporation and
Bertelsmann.  iSyndicate Europe is a 50:50 joint venture between
iSyndicate Inc. and Bertelsmann.
About Bertelsmann AG (www.bertelsmann.com) 
   As the world's most international media enterprise, Bertelsmann
commands leading positions in the global media and entertainment
industries. The Bertelsmann Group consists of publishing and music
companies, book and music clubs, magazines and newspapers, television
and radio stations, print and media service providers, multimedia and
professional information companies represented by such brands as
Random House, BMG, Gruner + Jahr and RTL. Bertelsmann is the world's
largest general-interest publisher and the biggest English-language
publishing house worldwide. Bertelsmann book and music clubs are
number one worldwide. Through RTL Group and Gruner + Jahr, the
company ranks first in the European broadcasting and magazine
sectors, respectively. Bertelsmann is the worldwide leading media
company in the internet, and top ranking in its peer market in
e-commerce with BOL in Europe and barnesandnoble.com in the US. The
organization currently employs 76,000 people in 54 countries and
posted DM 32,4 billion in total revenues in the 1999/00 financial
year ended June 30, 2000.
About nFactory S.A. (www.nfactory.com) 
   nFactory S.A., the European marketplace for vertical content, is a
provider of high value-added, customised and aggregated multi-lingual
digital content to the Internet and Intranet business communities.
nFactory S.A. operates a digital content marketplace bringing
together online content producers and companies requiring
ultra-vertical European focused information to enhance and customise
their web sites and intranets. Content provided by nFactory enables
sites to increase stickiness and build e-commerce environments.
nFactory S.A. has over 600 partnerships with leading European content
providers and is currently serving relevant customised multi-lingual
content to over 50 customers. nFactory S.A. is based in Paris, France
and has offices in Madrid, Spain and operational facilities in
Morocco.
For further information please contact:
Bertelsmann AG: 
Susanne Erdl 
Bertelsmann AG - Media and Financial Relations 
Phone: +49 - 52 41 - 80 25 35  
susanne.erdl@bertelsmann.de
iSyndicate : 
Pat Reilly
iSyndicate, Inc.
Phone: +1 - 415 - 430 23 71
Cell phone : +1 - 415 - 990 31 84  
pr@isyndicate.com
Kelly Scutt / Nick Morris
Bite Communications
Phone: +44 -  208 - 41 11 23 
kellys@bitecomm.co.uk  
nickm@bitecomm.co.uk
nFactory: 
Michael Khoi
NFactory S.A.
Phone: +33 - 1 - 44 82 12 82 
mkhoi@nfactory.com

Original content of: Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, transmitted by news aktuell

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