bCandid Concludes Licensing Deal with Road Runner for Usenet Discussion Software; New Agreement with High-Speed Online Service Valued at Over $1 Million

Business Wire, June 1, 1999

BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 1, 1999--

bCandid Corp. announced today that Road Runner, the nation's leading cable-based online service, has signed a new agreement to increase its use of bCandid's Usenet discussion software.

The agreement, valued at over $1 million, provides Road Runner with an enterprise license to support the expansion of its discussion capabilities through the use of bCandid's Cyclone news router and Typhoon news server software, according to bCandid President and Chief Executive Officer Frank Bergen.

"Road Runner has created a world-class network that meets the unprecedented demands of cable users by delivering content at speeds over 30 times greater than those experienced by dial-up users," said Bergen. "This new agreement is a further endorsement of Cyclone and Typhoon -- of how well they support the requirements of cable-based online services with lightning fast, fully redundant discussion software that's able to deliver excellent performance in a global, '24 by 7' distributed environment."

"Clearly, bCandid's software was the best Usenet discussion solution for our state-of-the-art network," said Bob Rusak, Road Runner's Vice President of Business Development. "By expanding our relationship with bCandid, we are insuring that our subscribers will continue to experience the benefits of Usenet discussions with all the high-performance attributes they've come to expect from Road Runner."

bCandid Corp. ( www.bcandid.com ) was formerly known as ISPNews-Highwind, a company formed as a result of a 1998 merger of two leading providers of Usenet discussion technology for Internet service providers and regional Bell operating companies. The company's client list includes nearly 600 ISPs worldwide, as well as such companies as AT&T, Bell South, Bell Canada, British Telecom, GTE, MCI, Media One, Sprint, Time Warner and Verio.

Road Runner is currently available to approximately 8 million homes. The service will eventually be able to reach more than 30 million cable homes nationwide. Road Runner is a joint venture among affiliates of Time Warner Inc., MediaOne Group, Microsoft Corp., Compaq Corp. and Advance/Newhouse. It combines the resources and strategic talent of the five partners who are world leaders in media, broadband communications, computer software and hardware and publishing. The Road Runner character is a trademark and copyright of Warner Bros., a division of Time Warner Entertainment Company L.P.