---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 1999 13:12:26 -0500
From: Tommy Mitchell <tjmitchell@EBSCO.COM>
Subject: EBSCO Acquires Lange/Springer

For Immediate Release
EBSCO Industries Acquires Lange & Springer Subscription Agency/Customer
Support, Service and Publisher Relations Increased Worldwide

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., U.S.A. - EBSCO Industries has acquired the Berlin-based
Lange & Springer subscription agency and mail order bookseller.

Lange & Springer was a subsidiary of the scientific publishing group
Springer Berlin/Heidelberg/New York, part of Bertelsmann Professional
Information. Employing some 100 staff members, Lange & Springer operates in
Germany, Italy and Eastern Europe distributing scientific books, journals
and electronic media to libraries in the public and private sectors. EBSCO
will integrate the Lange & Springer operations and customer contacts into
its existing network of seven European offices as part of its large EBSCO
Subscription Services division.

"Adding a major European agency such as this to our existing business will
enable us to strengthen our global activities," said EBSCO Industries
President J.T. Stephens. "EBSCO already has a major presence in Europe and
the inclusion of Lange & Springer into our family only solidifies the amount
of customer service, support, and publisher relations and communications we
can bring our customers worldwide."

"This sale is the consequence of an ongoing portfolio review identifying
core and non-core businesses which we have been conducting since Bertelsmann
acquired Springer," said Professor/Dr. J�rgen Richter, chairman of the
Supervisory Board of the Springer group and president and CEO of Bertelsmann
Professional Information. "EBSCO is the ideal company to purchase Lange &
Springer. It will provide the scale and technological skills which Lange &
Springer needs in order to survive in this increasingly competitive
business. It was particularly important to us that the new owner will
maintain the integrity of Lange & Springer and keep its Berlin location."

According to Professor/Dr. Dietrich G�tze, managing director and spokesman
for Springer management, "The main reasons for us to part with Lange &
Springer are the continuing globalization and increased technological
requirements in both the publishing and agency businesses." He emphasized
that agencies must follow the trend of the publishing industry and strive
for global scale so they can invest in Internet-based, electronic systems.
The massive investments required would have necessitated Lange & Springer to
grow substantially, intensifying competition with the large agencies which
are among Springer-Verlag's most important customers. "Withdrawing from this
business circumvents this conflict and maintains our good relationships with
all the major agencies," he added.

As the global information industry has been struggling with managing a
diverse collection of both print and electronic titles,
EBSCO has been developing access and management solutions for its customers,
according to Stephens. "With Lange &
Springer and EBSCO working together we can maximize the potential of the
World Wide Web to make information access as simple as it has traditionally
been with print," he said. "Services such as our electronic journals system,
EBSCO Online�,
and EBSCOhost�, our online reference database system, will enable us to
provide the full text of most electronically produced journals from
throughout the world. Our combined experience of working with publishers and
the information marketplace will be of benefit for our customers as we move
forward in the Information Age."

The international scientific publishing group Springer publishes more than
2,000 new books and approximately 500 journals annually, 400 of which are
also in electronic form. Besides the German-speaking markets, the U.S. and
Asia are the main markets for the publishing house's programs, 60 percent of
which are in English. In addition to the headquarters in Berlin and
Heidelberg, there are subsidiaries in New York, London, Tokyo, Paris,
Barcelona, Milan, Hong Kong and Singapore.

                                Released: June 23, 1999
For more information contact:
Thomas J. Mitchell
Public Relations and Marketing Manager
EBSCO Information Services
tjmitchell@ebsco.com <mailto:tjmitchell@ebsco.com>
www.ebsco.com
(205)991-1368