Bloomberg News Service to Broadcast Marketing Intelligence From AICE; American IC Exchange Gathers Pricing Data On Integrated Circuits

Business Wire, June 1, 1998

ALISO VIEJO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 1, 1998--American IC Exchange(R) (AICE(TM)) Monday announced that the pricing data it collects on the worldwide market for integrated circuits will now be broadcast throughout the United States via television and radio stations subscribing to the Bloomberg LP (BLP) Financial Markets Commodities News service.

According to the agreement with the Princeton, N.J.-based news service, AICE will supply BLP with twice daily updates on the IC market, giving its reporters crucial background information on commodity type ICs and the computer industry in general.

In addition to television and radio outlets, the news service will make the AICE information available to BLP's "terminal" and Internet subscribers. These BLP media channels provide news stories targeted directly to brokers, analysts and other members of the financial services industry.

BLP will attribute the pricing data to AICE in its news stories, and AICE's logo and contact information will be included on the "fixed pages" it provides to terminal and Internet subscribers. In turn, AICE will provide visitors to its RAMDEX(tm) Web site, at www.aice.com, with a direct hyperlink to BLP's Semiconductor Newswire.

AICE Has Been Publishing IC Pricing Data For More Than Two Years

AICE has been publishing global open market pricing information on ICs for more than two years now and making it available to customers through its RAMDEX Web site. The products followed on RAMDEX are the most common types of ICs, or "computer chips," including DRAMs (Dynamic Random Access Memory) and CPUs (Central Processing Units). The company compiles its pricing data from its channel of open market IC sources located throughout the world.

The pricing information AICE collects on ICs is helpful to understanding the financial pressures on computer companies. DRAM is the most common type of electronic memory used in computers today. So, the current open market pricing for DRAM gives analysts and journalists a key indicator of future production costs for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), in addition to telling industry watchers how commodity chip manufacturers will perform financially.

"RAMDEX was started as a way for our OEM customers to see what was going on in the open market and confidently buy product from us or sell their excess supply to us," said Jim Binford, director of sales and marketing for AICE. "It has enhanced our credibility immeasurably as a industry source for ICs and this agreement with BLP offers further evidence of the high regard that analysts have for RAMDEX."

AICE's RAMDEX information is already quoted regularly by at least one other news gathering source. Every Monday, AICE is cited in the Business Section of The San Jose Mercury News, in "The Whole Valley Index," for providing the open market price of DRAM.

For more information contact AICE at 800/229-7690 or www.aice.com.

American IC Exchange

American IC Exchange, based in Aliso Viejo, is a distributor of integrated circuits to or iginal equipment manufacturers and PC peripherals to corporate buyers. The May 11, 1998 issue of Electronic Buyers' News ranked AICE seventh in the nation among "Nonfranchised Distributors." Founded in 1988, the company employs 75 people, with revenues during 1997 exceeding $90 million.

    CONTACT:  American IC Exchange
               Jim Binford, 714/362-6555
               Fax: 714/362-5333
               Web: http://www.aice.com
                or
               Fisher Business Communications Inc.
               Larissa Longenecker, A.E./P.R.
               William L. Prichard, V.P./P.R.
               714/556-1313
               Fax: 714-556-1216
               Web: http://www.fbiz.com