First Call to offer Proxy Monitor's voting advisories as part of new subscription services program; Online coverage of 8,000 shareholder meetings begins Oct. 1, 1996

Business Wire, Sept 24, 1996

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 24, 1996--Effective Oct. 1, 1996, The Proxy Monitor, a provider of proxy analyses and voting recommendations to institutional shareholders, will become the first independent subscription service available through both FIRST CALL Notes(tm) and Research Direct(tm).

This exclusive online access to a comprehensive proxy advisory database is part of First Call's new subscription services program, aimed at continuously expanding the content available to institutional investors via First Call.

The Proxy Monitor covers 8,000 companies in the U.S. and abroad, reviewing proposals presented to shareholders at annual and special meetings, and providing vote recommendations based on criteria of good governance and protecting shareholder value. This saves institutional shareholders the time and cost of poring over lengthy proxy statements and analyzing the often intricate plans for employee stock options, management compensation, directors' benefits and other proposals affecting the corporation and shareholders.

Proxy voting - a rare activity among investment managers only a few years ago - is now a widely performed task, since the Department of Labor now requires ERISA pension funds, and hence their investment managers, to evaluate and vote on all shareholder proposals. Also, shareholder activism is spreading as a technique for increasing shareholder value, rather than depending on market forces alone. But during the spring "proxy season," when 70 percent of corporations have their annual meetings, keeping up with the proxy materials can be daunting.

"Investment managers need timely, concise analysis to keep informed and vote their shares properly," said Arthur Rosenzweig, vice president of The Proxy Monitor Inc. "I can not think of a more efficient and innovative delivery technology than First Call. We are especially pleased to provide our proxy advisories alongside First Call's top-ranked broker research."

"We are very excited to offer The Proxy Monitor to our Notes and Research Direct customers," said Bruce Fador, president and CEO of First Call Corp. "Time is of great value to our clients and The Proxy Monitor will enable them to complete their proxies more quickly and efficiently. The Proxy Monitor is another value added product available over First Call."

Notes and Research Direct can be accessed through a LAN via Microsoft Windows(tm), through a dedicated First Call terminal, through FIRST CALL On Call(R) -- a dial-up method, or via other third party services. Research Direct is also available via the Internet from WWW.FIRSTCALL.COM.

Research Direct is a state-of-the-art, full-text, electronic equity research service with more than 89,400 global broker research reports available. It allows clients to access original full-text research reports, including all text, charts, graphs, color and formatting, in real-time directly from 67 leading brokerage firms worldwide, 33 of which are non-U.S. based. Nineteen of Institutional Investor's top 20 ranked U.S. research firms are contributors to Research Direct, 12 of them exclusively. Research Direct is used by 327 institutional money management firms and is viewed at 6,220 desktops.

Notes offers real-time delivery of commingled morning meeting comments, intra-day research broadcasts and special equity notes from over 200 sell-side institutions worldwide, including 59 of North America's top brokerage and investment research firms. All of Institutional Investor's top 20 ranked U.S. research firms are contributors to Notes, 16 of them exclusively. There is an average of 1,250 notes per day and a peak of 2,800 notes per day during quarterly earnings report periods. More than 1,700 institutional money management firms use Notes. The product is viewed at over 7,500 desktops in the U.S. alone.

The Proxy Monitor Inc. is a New York-based research firm whose 80 institutional clients include investment managers, pension funds and corporations. The proxy advisories database is updated daily during the fall and spring proxy seasons. The company also provides a voting service, acting as a client's agent in voting shares, record-keeping and reporting. The Proxy Monitor was founded in 1984 by W. Eric Aiken, its president and director of research. Mr. Aiken is widely known as an authority on corporate governance issues.

First Call Corp. delivers real-time, commingled research, earnings estimates and corporate information to the worldwide financial community. In addition to full-text research reports and equity analysts' morning meeting notes, First Call offers its 1,700 customers delivery of corporate financial news releases from more than 1,300 companies. Other First Call products include timely earnings estimates on more than 17,000 companies as provided by leading research firms; a fundamental database covering 5,500 public companies; and a recommendations database that compiles individual buy/sell/hold recommendations from Wall Street analysts. First Call is also a leader in delivery of commingled research, news and commentary on fixed income markets via FIRST CALL BondCall(tm).