Freeserve, the pioneering free Internet service provider, has announced that from next month the home site (www.freeserve.net) will feature a new financial channel. MicroCap Financial Services.com's (MFSI) UK-based investment website, UK-iNvest.com, will exclusively provide the new Freeserve channel with investor information and services. The Motley Fool and MFSI have signed a co-branding agreement whereby the Motley Fool UK will provide a broad range of content to MFSI's UK-iNvest.com site.
The Motley Fool UK will update UK-iNvest.com with a daily mix of articles, with the distinctive "Fool" branding, educating UK investors on selecting stocks and funds, managing portfolios and retirement accounts and understanding a range of tax and other investment issues.
Mark Danby, Freeserve's general manager, said, "Freeserve is constantly adding exciting new content and channels, and Motley Fool is a great example of the type of material we're looking for. It's informative, fun and completely free."
"We're excited about making our unique style of financial expertise available to a new group of UK investors through UK-iNvest.com and Freeserve," said Bernie Dietz, Business Development Czar of the Motley Fool. "We're confident their users will enjoy and benefit from reading the latest offerings from Tthe Motley Fool."
"The presence of the Motley Fool on both our UK and US sites adds content and name recognition of the highest calibre," said Stanley Hollander, co-CEO of MFSI. "The name Motley Fool is synonymous with substance and humour, a blend that will constitute one of the compelling features of our new UK site."
UK-iNvest.com is scheduled for launch at the end of April. The site will feature interviews with leading investment managers and analysts commenting on stocks, funds and market trends, as well as daily market news, up-to-the-minute quotes, historical performance charts and a complete database on the UK's publicly traded companies. UK-iNvest.com will be free to registered users and generate revenue through e-commerce, including an online brokerage, as well as through advertising and sponsored content. It is intended to have a complete e-trading system in place by the end of the second quarter of 1999.
About Freeserve Limited:
Freeserve, a part of the Dixons Group, was launched on 22nd September 1998. It was the first company to offer a fully featured free Internet service UK-wide and is the UK's fastest growing Internet service provider.
As at 22 February, more than 1,350,000 Freeserve accounts had been opened, of which 1,000,000 were active. Freeserve is available on a free CD in all Dixons, Currys, PC World, The Link and @jakarta stores in the UK and is primarily intended for home users and small office/home office business users.
Freeserve has won the 1998 Best Internet Product or Service Award presented by Future Publishing's PC Plus, Retail Week's new product launch of the year award and the Best consumer ISP at the 1999 ISPA awards. Mark Danby, Freeserve's general manager, also collected the Yahoo! new media marketeer of the year award on behalf of the Freeserve team at the Revolution awards ceremony.
About MicroCap Financial Services.com, Inc.:
MFSI is an international multimedia provider of online financial news and information services to the investment community through its wholly owned subsidiaries MicroCap1000.com and UK-iNvest.com. MicroCap1000.com, which was fully launched in early October 1998, provides comprehensive, Internet-based electronic publishing of unique content on the U.S. MicroCap sector. Currently with more than 140,000 free subscribers, MicroCap1000.com is recognised for its cutting-edge news and commentary and was rated by Barron's (11/23/98) as one of the top financial websites. MFSI has initiated its global Internet expansion through an alliance with the UK's largest and fastest growing Internet service provider, Freeserve Limited, a subsidiary of Dixons Group PLC, the UK's largest electronics retailer.
