Market Wire CEO to Lead Earnings Guidance Panel at Second U.S. IR Magazine Think Tank

LOS ANGELES, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- February 28, 2006 -- Market Wire, a full-service distributor of company press releases and material news, announced today that President and CEO Jim McGovern will lead a distinguished panel of experts at IR magazine's second U.S. IR Think Tank.

On March 2, 2006 at the Garden Court Hotel, Palo Alto, California, representatives from more than 60 U.S. companies are gathering to discuss critical issues facing the investor relations community. In its second year in the United States, the Think Tank is being organized by IR magazine, the global monthly publication for the investor relations community. Supporting organizations for this year's event include: NASDAQ, Market Wire, The FT, and Bank of America. For more information about the event, please visit www.irmagazineusthinktank.com.

The agenda for the day has been set by the IR officers attending. They have indicated interest in new approaches to the following hot-button topics:

    
--  The changing research environment - managing your equity analyst
    coverage
--  Targeting the buy side
--  Earnings guidance
--  Facing off with activist investors
    
    

Market Wire's McGovern will discuss best practices for providing and communicating earnings guidance with a panel of industry leaders including Jerome Birn, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati; David Dropsey, research analyst, Thomson First Call; and Bret Schaefer, VP of IR, Sun Microsystems.

"Market Wire is pleased to participate for a second year in IR magazine's Think Tank series," said Jim McGovern, president and CEO of Market Wire. "This series brings together big thinkers in the IR community and provides a venue for two-way communication between financial analysts, corporate and agency IR professionals and companies like ours who provide critical services to busy IR professionals. Since distributing corporate and financial news is what we do, we are facilitating this critical dialogue in order to gain a deeper understanding of how we can better help our IR customers achieve their goals."

The goal of the Think Tank is to share ideas and distill best practices on these issues with the hope of recommending next steps to the broader community.

The Think Tank is a closed-door, invitation-only event. The results of the sessions will be published as a separate article in an upcoming issue of IR magazine. Where appropriate, the ideas of the Think Tank will also be shared with various organizations such as the SEC, the CFA Institute and others - to bring about positive change in the industry.

"Investor relations is right in the middle of corporate governance, disclosure, and stock research, and it's all about communicating," said IR magazine's editor for the Americas, Neil Stewart. "Yet the voice of IR itself is rarely heard. The Think Tank provides a platform for thought-leaders in this community to crank up the volume. No more PowerPoint talking around the issues. The Think Tank is about moving issues forward."

About IR magazine and IR Magazine Conferences

Published in New York and London by its parent company, Cross Border, IR magazine is the only global publication focused on the interface between companies and their investors. IR Magazine Conferences provide the worldwide IR audience with a forum for discussion, information and communication. They are an opportunity for IR professionals to educate themselves about new industry services, network with others in the industry, and get practical advice from a wide range of experts. For more information, please visit www.irmagazine.com.

About Market Wire

Market Wire is a full-service distributor of company press releases and financial news announcements. Market Wire offers the best value in the newswire industry, boasting the most secure, cost-effective, and comprehensive distribution of news with real-time news feeds to AP, Dow Jones, Bloomberg, Reuters, Yahoo!, MarketWatch, AOL, MSNBC, Motley Fool, Lexis-Nexis, Factiva and thousands of other leading websites, newswires, and databases. Market Wire's news is directly integrated into the editorial systems of hundreds of newspapers and broadcast outlets, and is also sent to more than 30,000 individual journalists. The Company has more than 3,000 clients. Incorporated in January 1999, the Company entered into an alliance with NASDAQ in April 2003, whereby Market Wire became the preferred provider of press release distribution services to NASDAQ-listed companies.

A full listing of the company's products and specific distribution points can be found at www.marketwire.com.