LoansDirect Partners With Hoover's; Leading Online Lender Makes Award-Winning Web Site Available Through Co-Branding Partnership

Business Wire, Jan 2, 2001

Business Editors High-Tech Writers

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 2, 2001

LoansDirect Inc., the nation's leading online consumer direct lender, Tuesday announced that it has entered into an agreement with Hoover's Inc. (Nasdaq:HOOV), a leading provider of online business information, tools, and content integration and syndication technology, to market via a co-branded Web site a full array of mortgage products and services to users of the businessperson's portal Hoover's Online (http://www.hoovers.com).

"Hoover's Online is pleased to be able to offer our audience of demographically desirable businesspeople the types of tools provided by LoansDirect," said Jani Farlow Spede, senior vice president and publisher, Hoover's Online.

"We recognize that our audience not only has business questions, but also financial planning questions that relate to their personal lives, and we feel confident that LoansDirect offers the high-quality types of services that our users can trust and will value."

The agreement gives Hoover's Online users access to live custom rate quotes, 90-second loan approval, real-time loan tracking, online appraisal and loan document signing appointments, as well as the industry's most comprehensive customer satisfaction guarantees. LoansDirect will gain access to a key audience of individuals and business decision-makers who seek value-added business products and services.

"We are pleased about the opportunity to incorporate our transportable, direct platform into Hoover's Online," said Anthony Hsieh, president and CEO of LoansDirect. "Our alliance with Hoover's is particularly exciting because both companies share a common vision and commitment to providing business-critical information and services over the Internet."

About LoansDirect

LoansDirect funded more than $2 billion in consumer residential mortgages in 1999, through June 2000, making it one of the largest and strongest independent retail mortgage lenders in the nation. The company was founded in 1983, as a conventional mortgage company, and in 1994 began transforming its operation to a virtual mortgage bank, leading the way for the Internet-direct lending platform.

LoansDirect offers consumers a diverse array of loan products, including conventional, sub-prime, government and second mortgages, through its Web site at www.loansdirect.com and via telephone. The company also offers business-to-business online mortgage solutions through the integration of its proprietary OnTrak(TM) technology and call center with co-branded or private-label Internet sites.

Through its MyLoanAccount(TM) technology, LoansDirect offers borrowers the ability to manage 100% of their mortgage transaction online. Consumers visiting the company's Web site can compare rates, and apply for and obtain loan approval and guaranteed mortgage pricing within minutes. Borrowers can also schedule appraisal and loan signing appointments online, view and print their loan documents and track detailed progress of the loan transaction as it occurs.

LoansDirect charges absolutely no application fee, and can close loans online in as little as four days. In August 2000, the company was ranked No.1 in Consumer Confidence, and maintained its overall ranking in the top three online mortgage-lending sites by Gomez Advisors in its Fall 2000 Internet Mortgage Scorecard(TM). In March 2000, the company received the highest five-star rating from Inside Mortgage Technology Magazine.

About Hoover's Inc.

Hoover's Inc. (Nasdaq:HOOV) provides online business information, tools, and content integration and syndication technology to help businesspeople get their jobs done.

Hoover's information is available through the company's destination sites Hoover's Online and Hoover's Online U.K. (http://www.hoovers.com and http://www.hoovers.co.uk ), through syndication and co-branding agreements with more than 30 other online services, and through customized applications developed for enterprise information portals, corporate intranets and business-to-business vertical and content sites.

Hoover's investors include Time Warner (NYSE:TWX), Media General (AMEX:MEG.A), NBC -- a unit of General Electric (NYSE:GE), and Knowledge Universe, through its Knowledge Net Holdings and Nextera Enterprises (Nasdaq:NXRA) units. Hoover's has headquarters in Austin, Texas, and has offices in Linthicum, Md.; London; New York City; Reston, Va.; and San Francisco.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:

This news release may contain forward-looking statements relating to future events or results that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding the expected benefits of strategic relationships, future services and new products. Among the important factors which could cause actual results of Hoover's to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are the market demand and acceptance of new and enhanced services, the success of new features and tools from Hoover's Online and Hoover's Media Technologies, the retention of subscribers and customers, ability to attract new subscribers and customers, competition, economic conditions specific to the Internet, as well as general economic and market conditions and other factors described in Hoover's reports and documents filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its prospectus and recent 10-K and 10-Q filings.