Verizon Information Services and WynWyn Announce Strategic Data, Application and Sales Agreement

Alliance Provides Consumers with Enhanced Information and Tools to Locate Businesses and Services on the Web


DALLAS, TX (Jan. 18, 2001)-- DALLAS - Verizon Information Services, the world's largest directory company, today announced a long-term data and applications licensing and sales agreement with Chicago-based WynWyn.com Inc.

Under the agreement, WynWyn will provide its database of enhanced local merchant information for more than 2.5 million U.S. businesses listed on Verizon's SuperPages.comsm service, the first online directory to offer this content. WynWyn will also act as a sales agent for Verizon, selling Web marketing tools and preferred placement on SuperPages.com to merchants outside of Verizon's service area.

In addition to finding the address and phone number of a local business, SuperPages.com users now will have immediate online access to enhanced information about millions of businesses, including types of products and services offered, brands carried, hours of operation, methods of payment accepted, promotional offers, Web addresses and more. Users can access this information by simply selecting the "More Info" button located next to the business listing.

As part of this agreement, merchants can enhance their business listings through WynWyn's "Business Registration" tool that allows merchants access to interactive business listing guides.

"WynWyn is the local merchant database company of the 21st century and our agreement represents a major element of Verizon's ongoing strategy to provide consumers and businesses with comprehensive information, applications and services to connect buyers and sellers in their local area," said Patrick Marshall, group vice president - marketing of Verizon Information Services. "Using WynWyn's database of enriched U.S. business information, SuperPages.com users will be able to find very specific information that supports their shopping needs quickly and conveniently."

The information provided by WynWyn will be organized into more than 500 searchable business categories, delivering more meaningful searches and useable results to consumers. Under the agreement, SuperPages.com will receive regular updates from WynWyn to ensure that consumers have access to the most up to date information available.

"Verizon is passionate about improving the online local commerce experience for both their users and customers. Our alliance with them will integrate the power of their technology and the depth of our deep merchant data and take consumer-merchant online communication and transactions to a whole new level." said Fernando Leal, CEO of WynWyn.

About Verizon Information Services and SuperPages.com

Verizon Information Services is the world's leading print and online directory publisher and a content provider for communications products and services. The largest directory publisher in the world, Verizon has annual revenues of more than $4.1 billion and employs more than 11,000 people.

Verizon Information Services provides sales, publishing and other related services for nearly 2,500 directory titles in 48 states and the District of Columbia and 18 countries outside the U.S. This includes more than 1,600 Verizon directory titles with a total circulation of approximately 112 million copies in the U.S. and 41 million copies internationally.

Verizon Information Services also produces and markets SuperPages.com, the Internet's leading online directory and shopping resource. SuperPages.com has received up to 4.2 million visits and 2.3 million unique visitors per month, and is the exclusive yellow pages provider on AOL Service, AOL.com and Digital City. The site also provides Yellow Pages services to Lycos, HotBot, Digital City and BigFoot.

Based in the Dallas area, Verizon Information Services is a unit of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ), which was formed by the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE. Verizon is one of the world's leading providers of communications services. For more information on Verizon, visit www.verizon.com.

About WynWyn Network

WynWyn is an information services company that facilitates local commerce by efficiently bringing together local buyers and sellers of goods and services. WynWyn allows users to search for local merchants based on products and services offered and brands carried as well as geographical proximity, credit cards accepted, special offers, languages spoken - and much more. WynWyn is the industry leader in the development of application tools, processes and data repository solutions that deliver comprehensive, up-to-date local business information, driving local commerce through emerging interactive mediums.

At the center of the WynWyn solution are more than 500 WynWyn proprietary industry-specific thesauri, each containing thousands of indexed and cross referenced unique terms associated with a particular business category. These thesauri and proprietary automated data management tools allow WynWyn to create its unique business database, with normalized content for each industry. For the first time, millions of local businesses across the U.S. can be identified by a myriad user-defined criteria relating to targeted products and services. WynWyn provides consumers with, " What You Need, When You Need It - the first step in realizing the dream of effective, efficient and profitable local commerce over the Internet, wireless and telephony based interactive mediums. Please visit WynWyn at www.wynwyn.com.

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