Standard & Poor's Chooses Click2learn's Aspen to Build Standard & Poor's University; Enterprise-Wide Learning Initiative Will Deliver Training to 5000 Employees Worldwide

Business Wire, April 7, 2003

Business Editors

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 7, 2003

Click2learn (Nasdaq:CLKS), leader in enterprise productivity solutions, today announced that Standard & Poor's, a leading provider of independent investment research, ratings and indices such as the S&P 500, has chosen the Aspen Learning Management System (LMS) to expand its Standard & Poor's University into a company-wide learning initiative that will deliver education and development programs to more than 5000 employees in 19 countries around the world.

Standard & Poor's will use Aspen's unique, single-platform features and functionalities to provide "Expanded Analytical Training," a curriculum-based continuing education program and a core component of an expanded Standard & Poor's University. The comprehensive initiative is designed to ensure that analysts continue to maintain the highest level of analytical excellence. Further, Standard & Poor's plans to deliver expanded learning opportunities to employees across the global office network.

"Our goal is to have a blended approach to learning which capitalizes on instructor-led programs, as well as e-learning options," commented Jeffrey Crane, head of global learning and development for Standard & Poor's. "We believe a continuous learning environment will afford us a sustainable competitive advantage for the future."

"Global credit markets and financial products have become increasingly more complex in the past decade and our customers rely on us to help them understand and navigate a risky financial landscape. As a trusted leader in our industry, Standard & Poor's is committed to high-quality, internal analytical credit education and training to keep everyone in our organization abreast of these changes," said Edward Tyburczy, managing director at Standard & Poor's. "Aspen will help us ensure consistency, accuracy and excellence, as we move to a global, curriculum-based training program. Going forward, Standard & Poor's also will explore ways to use Aspen for external customer education programs through its Risk Learning Institute, which offers comprehensive risk analysis and risk assessment training for intermediate-level financial professionals."

"Through our comprehensive productivity suite, Click2learn has enabled some of the world's largest financial institutions to tackle the mission-critical challenges of keeping employees current on regulatory compliance and continuing education requirements," said Kevin Oakes, chairman and CEO. "At the same time we often expand beyond internal education and work with these same customers to create new revenue channels by helping their customers make sound financial decisions through better education. We are pleased to support Standard & Poor's commitment to providing their world-class professionals with a world-class education solution."

About Aspen

Click2learn's award-winning Aspen Enterprise Productivity Suite(TM) enables organizations to strategically manage corporate knowledge and workforce productivity to improve business performance. With Aspen organizations can deploy a comprehensive, integrated solution for their specific learning needs, all under one platform with one, seamless user experience. The Aspen Suite consists of separate but integrated modules, including

-- Learning Management (LMS)

-- Learning Content Management (LCMS)

-- Virtual Classroom (VCS)

-- Performance Management

-- Collaboration, Knowledge Exchange & Instant Messaging

-- Information Management

-- Simulation Creation and Editing

-- Auditing and Compliance Tracking

Whether organizations choose to deploy the entire Aspen suite, or to integrate select Aspen applications with existing infrastructure, Aspen's standards-based (AICC, SCORM, XML, etc.) modular and open architecture is designed to help companies reduce total cost of ownership and meet a wide variety of business goals.

About Standard & Poor's

Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), is a leader in providing widely recognized credit opinions, financial data, analytical research and investment analysis to the global capital markets. With more than 5,000 employees located in 19 countries, Standard & Poor's is an integral part of the world's financial architecture. Additional information is available at www.standardandpoors.com.

About Click2learn

Click2learn (Nasdaq:CLKS) is the recognized leader in enterprise productivity solutions for Global 2000 organizations and government agencies seeking to improve business performance and workforce productivity. Using Click2learn's Aspen Enterprise Productivity Suite(TM), many of the world's best-known corporations improve sales force readiness, achieve and demonstrate regulatory compliance, improve speed and quality of customer service, and educate customers and partners, while at the same time realizing significant cost savings. Click2learn's clients include such industry leaders as Accenture, American Airlines, AstraZeneca, Century 21, Fujitsu, Microsoft, Pfizer and Symantec. Based in Bellevue, Wash., with offices throughout the U.S., Click2learn (www.click2learn.com, 800.448.6543) also is represented in, Europe, Australia, Japan and India.