First Call Unveils Highlights From Its 1999 Customer Survey

Business Wire, Feb 2, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 2, 2000

First Call Corp., a Thomson Financial company, today revealed highlights from its 1999 customer survey. First Call polls it institutional buy-side and sell-side customers in the United States on various issues every year. For the 1999 survey, First Call received a response rate of four percent from its institutional buy-side customers and 3.9 percent from its sell-side customers. DataStar Inc, an independent research firm, compiled the data and Meridian Consulting, a market research consulting firm, provided further analytical services.

Below are highlights from First Call's 1999 customer survey:

--80 percent of sell-side respondents have a corporate intranet at their firm, up from 77 percent in 1998 and 66 percent in 1997.

--Internet-based distribution, including the Internet and intranets, continues to be the preferred method of internal distribution for brokerage firms.

--46 percent of the sell-side respondents said their firm has plans to employ extranet technology.

--Of the buy-side respondents, 78 percent perceive themselves to be technically savvy.

--The top five Web sites visited by the buy-side for financial information are:

1. Yahoo!

2. Bloomberg

3. CNN

4. Edgar

5. Broker specific sites (Goldman Sachs and Schwab tied as the most popular site in this category)

--For the second consecutive year, the top three attributes used to describe First Call/Thomson Financial by buy-side respondents are:

1. High quality

2. Industry leader

3. Technologically advanced

--The top three attributes used to describe First Call/Thomson Financial by sell-side respondents are:

1. Responsive

2. High quality

3. Industry leader

--The three most important product features to the sell-side are:

1. Desktop application

2. Ability to target clients and prospects by equity holdings

3. Fully customized Internet/intranet distribution solutions

--The five most important data sets to the buy-side are:

1. Earnings estimates

2. Analyst recommendations

3. Revenue estimates

4. Company pre-announcements

5. Growth rates

First Call Corp. is the global financial community's leading Internet provider of real-time broker-sourced research, earnings estimates, equity and fixed income ownership information, insider trading information, and corporate news releases. More than 5,800,000 research documents are available on the FIRST CALL Network. First Call's distribution capabilities, research services, competitive intelligence product, usage reports and customized business solutions provide value-added links between the institutional buy-side and the sell-side worldwide. For more information, visit First Call's Web site at www.firstcall.com.

Thomson Financial is a US$1.2 billion provider of information services and work solutions to the worldwide financial community. Through the widest range of products and services in the industry, Thomson Financial helps clients in more than 70 countries make better decisions, be more productive and achieve superior results. Thomson Financial is part of The Thomson Corporation, one of the world's leading information companies. With annual revenues of more than US$6 billion, Thomson has interests in specialized information and newspaper publishing. The Corporation's common shares are listed on the Toronto and London stock exchanges. For more information on Thomson Financial, visit www.thomsonfinancial.com.