BIRMINGHAM, Ala., U.S.A. - EBSCO Industries, Inc., (EBSCO) the global leader for the delivery of integrated information systems and services, has executed a definitive agreement to acquire the Australian operations of RoweCom, Inc. (RoweCom).

In late February, letters were sent to all of the publishers with whom RoweCom has a business relationship to solicit their support (participation). When a publisher agrees to participate, they agree to fulfill subscriptions to their publications for which a RoweCom customer paid RoweCom, but for which the publisher did not receive payment. In exchange for agreeing to send issues, publishers are to receive the equivalent of the RoweCom customer's claim on the bankrupt (liquidated) RoweCom estate to the extent of the value of the subscriptions they have agreed to fulfill.

EBSCO will proceed to send letters to all customers of RoweCom Australia. The purpose of these letters is to ascertain if a RoweCom customer who currently has a claim against the bankrupt (liquidated) RoweCom estate (i.e., had paid RoweCom for journal orders for which payment was never forwarded to publishers) would agree to participate by assigning their bankruptcy (liquidation) claims to publishers agreeing to participate. RoweCom customers would only be agreeing to exchange their claims to the extent publishers agree to fulfill issues. See the following example:

Example:
Assume a customer ordered and paid for 10 titles each costing $100.00 for a total payment of $1,000.00 previously made to RoweCom. Assume a different publisher publishes each title so there are 10 publishers. Assume RoweCom paid none of the publishers. Finally, assume seven of the 10 publishers agree to participate.

The customer initially has a claim on the RoweCom estate equal to $1,000.00. Should the customer decide to sign the letter and assign their claim in exchange for issues, they would receive issues for seven of their 10 journals (the journals of the seven participating publishers). They would not receive graced issues for the journals of the three non-participating publishers but would retain their bankruptcy claim related to the value of the three journals ($300.00).

Please note: All a customer has to do to take advantage of the publisher offer, and all a publisher has to do to indicate they would like to become a participating publisher is the following:

1. Customers sign the 'RoweCom Prepaid Order Agreement' letter, where indicated "Customer Agreement", and return the signed letter to the following address:
   RoweCom Prepaid Order Return
   c/o RoweCom Australia Pty Ltd
   Level 2, 501 Ann Street
   Brisbane, Queensland
2. Publishers sign the 'RoweCom Prepaid Order Agreement' letter, where indicated "Publisher Agreement," and return the signed letter to the following address:
   RoweCom Prepaid Order Return
   c/o Kurtzman Carson Consultants LLC
   5301 Beethoven Street, Suite 102
   Los Angeles, CA 90066

The letters have a requested return date of March 15, 2003. It is critical that customers and publishers reply promptly, in order to expedite closure to the situation and confirm the journal orders that will be fulfilled by participating publishers. Return of the letters via a traceable method is encouraged, as is expedited courier delivery of returned letters from publishers located outside the U.S.

The publisher communication process is being managed by Kurtzman Carson Consultants, LLC. (Kurtzman). As publishers sign on to participate, Kurtzman will be posting the names of the participating publishers to their Web site www.kccllc.net/rowecom. The customer communication process will be managed by EBSCO, and additional information will be posted to RoweCom Australia's Web site - www.rowecom.com.au.

Once publishers and customers have responded, the responses will be cross-matched to determine the exact publications publishers have agreed to deliver to each participating customer. These details will be supplied to participating customers. Likewise, publishers will be supplied details of the journal orders they have agreed to fulfill and the associated customers to receive these journals. Customers, who did not prepay RoweCom, will immediately be contacted by EBSCO to facilitate the 2003 order process. Prepay customers will be notified as to their claim status once the cross-matching process has been concluded.

About EBSCO Industries, Inc.
EBSCO Industries, Inc. is a global corporation with sales, service and manufacturing subsidiaries at work in 19 countries around the world. EBSCO's business interests include information management services, online and print journal subscription services, online research databases, real estate development, commercial printing and more. EBSCO, an acronym for Elton B. Stephens Company, is based in Birmingham, Alabama and employs 4,000 people around the world. Additional information on EBSCO Industries is available from www.ebscoind.com.

Release Date: March 6, 2003