CONTACT: Jay S. Winuk
646-613-7720
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATA DOWNLINK TO LAUNCH PRIVATESUITE™
New Online Service for Researching Privately-held Companies is First Featuring Simultaneous Searches
New York, December 6, 1999 . . . Investment bankers, management consultants and others looking for profiles on privately-held companies will soon have easy on-line access to comprehensive information about more than 400,000 companies worldwide with the launch of Data Downlink Corporation�s new privatesuite™ service, announced today. The service, available as of December 15, 1999, at www.xls.com, is the first able to execute simultaneous searches across multiple databases of private company information based on user-defined criteria.
"Privatesuite™ is the fastest, easiest and most cost-effective way to identify and retrieve profiles on privately-held companies around the world," said Steve Goldstein, Data Downlink founder and CEO. "It provides a new benchmark for research previously available only for publicly-held companies, and will be an indispensable tool on the desktops of investment and commercial bankers, management consultants, business development executives and anyone needing information about private companies anywhere in the world."
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Data From Leading Databases Available
Privatesuite™ is an application of Data Downlink�s award-winning web-based business information service, .xls. Initially, privatesuite™ will search across three large premium databases, each with an area of specialization: CorpTech features a directory of 50,000 U.S. high-technology companies; Harris InfoSource features a directory of 300,000 U.S. manufacturing companies; and Graham & Whiteside�s database provides data on 80,000 major non-U.S. private companies.
Additional profiles from prestigious market research publisher Freedonia will be added to privatesuite™ soon, according to Mr. Goldstein, as will company profiles from Thomson Financial�s idEXEC database. Several more databases will be added to the service in early 2000. "Each of these databases looks at the market in a different and valuable way," said Mr. Goldstein. "Privatesuite™ is the only service available that instantly aggregates this critical data exactly as the user needs it."
Fast, Easy Cost-effective Searches
Searches with privatesuite™ are conducted based upon SIC codes, number of employees, estimated annual sales, geography and/or various keywords in a company�s business description. Search results contain company name and location and are segmented by databases. Users can then select the profiles they want and download them easily into a Microsoft Excel workbook. Each profile is presented to the user on a separate sheet in the Excel workbook.
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Customers can purchase company profiles through privatesuite™ on an a la carte
basis or can subscribe to one or more of the databases available through the service. Less expensive than other such services on the market, company profiles from privatesuite™ will range in price from $2.00 to $25.00 each, depending on the content provider. By aggregating and indexing multiple specialty databases, privatesuite™ will uncover more and different companies than searches of a single company directory, and will frequently offer more comprehensive information about the company and its executives than any other available on-line resource.
About Data Downlink Corporation
Data Downlink Corporation, based in New York City and founded in 1996, provides a fully indexed, comprehensive library of premium financial and business information through its web-based information services, .xls (http://www.xls.com), compbook™ (http://compbook.xls.com) and privatesuite™. Providing access to global company financial data and economic, demographic, industry, country and market-specific data, .xls allows users to automatically download information directly into a Microsoft Excel or Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet. Compbook™ facilitates the selection, collection, presentation and analysis of a wide range of comparative company-oriented business information.
For more information about Data Downlink and its 60+ different databases on .xls or its compbook™ and privatesuite™ services, visit the company�s website www.xls.com or call Customer Service at 212-363-9620 in the U.S. or in London at 44 (0)20 3059 5765.
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