German Press-Agency Deutsche Presse- Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany), AFX News Ltd (London) and Teledata Boersen-Informations GmbH (Frankfurt) announced a German language business and finance news agency to be called dpa-AFX Wirtschaftsnachrichten GmbH based in Frankfurt. Following approval of the boards of AFX News and Teledata, dpa's supervisory board approved the joint venture Tuesday, the announcement said. dpa will hold 50 per cent in dpa-AFX Wirtschaftsnachrichten, while AFX News will hold a 30 per cent stake and Teledata 20 per cent. The new company is based in Frankfurt, offering tailor-made news products for professional and private investors. dpa-AFX is already the market leader in German-language business news on the Internet. At the same time dpa-AFX aims to achieve a leading position in the German-language news market for professional investors and advisors, offering competitively- priced quality products. The three partners in the new venture include: -- Deutsche Presse-Agentur (www.dpa.de), the largest German news agency. dpa employs more than 500 staff journalists in 60 bureaus in Germany and more than 80 foreign locations. dpa has recently expanded its business and financial coverage, and cooperation with dpa-AFX should further strengthen its position in the media market. -- AFX News (www.afxnews.com) - a joint venture of Agence France- Presse (AFP) and the Financial Times Group - is one of the major international business and finance news agencies with 180 reporters in about 40 countries. -- Teledata (www.teledata.de), a young and fast growing provider of stock exchange information and information systems, is the market leader in Germany for stock exchange information on the Internet. The company's products enable the user to link news, share prices, charts and analytical tools. Teledata's editorial team will become part of the joint venture. AFX and Teledata already produce the most widely read business news in German on the internet under the brandname AFX-TD. In April alone, its news stories were viewed more than the million times on a number of major web sites of online banks and the media. dpa has been cooperating with AFX-TD editorially since April. After the successful pilot phase dpa-AFX will become an independent company by July. dpa-AFX will be launched with substantial resources spread across Germany and will profit from dpa's and AFX's global correspondent networks. AFX correspondents in Germany will also be part of the dpa- AFX editorial team, producing English- language business news. Managing director of dpa-AFX Wirtschaftsnachrichten GmbH will be Igor Reichlin, 49, who previously had been in charge of Germany and Eastern Europe at AFX News. Editor-in-chief will be Romanus Otte, 37, who previously had headed the economics-business desk at dpa's headquarters in Hamburg. ots Originaltext: news aktuell GmbH Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de Contact:: dpa-AFX Wirtschaftsnachrichten GmbH Börsenstrasse 2 - 4 60313 Frankfurt/Main Tel.: 069 - 92022373 o. 97123710 Fax: 069 - 92022390 e-mail: ireichlin@teledata.de
rotte@teledata.de Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH Mittelweg 38 20148 Hamburg Tel.: 040-4ll3-2300 AFX News Ltd. Fitzroy House, 13-17 Epworth Street London EC2A 4DL Tel.: (0171)253-2532 Fax: (0171)490-3007 Teledata Börseninformations GmbH Börsenstrasse 2 - 4 60313 Frankfurt/Main Ansprechpartner: Thomas Rebel Tel.: 069 - 92022347 Fax: 069 - 92022333 e-mail: trebel@teledata.de