Press Releases

August 28, 2000

Former Standard & Poor's DRI President Alton Adams Becomes CEO of PRG, Inc. As Company Changes its Name to MindBranch, Inc.
Bo Peabody Joins Board of MindBranch as Village Ventures Acquires Majority Interest.

NORTH ADAMS, MA (August 28, 2000) — Publications Resource Group (PRG, Inc.), the world's largest aggregator of market intelligence, has changed its name to MindBranch, Inc. (www.mindbranch.com) and has hired former Standard & Poor's DRI President Alton L. Adams to lead the company as it accelerates and expands its efforts to connect targeted insight from leading market-research publishers to business leaders striving to make better decisions faster.

Additionally, MindBranch announces it has received $18.5 million in financing from a group of investors led by Village Ventures, Inc. (www.villageventures.com). Bo Peabody, Chairman of Village Ventures, has assumed a seat on the MindBranch board. MindBranch was seeded in 1998 by The Berkshires Capital Investors, which is now part of the Village Ventures network.

"Our investment in MindBranch helps to prove the Village Ventures model," said Peabody. "MindBranch is the first of many great companies seeded by our network of funds that has broken out to become an industry leader. We are here to provide the resources to lock in that leadership position."

Adams, 43, brings an extensive background in the information industry to MindBranch. He left Data Resources Inc. earlier this year after running the division of Standard & Poor's since 1998. DRI supplies econometric modeling and macro-economic information to a global client base of 1,200 companies. Before heading up DRI, Adams was Chief Operating Officer of The Faneuil Group in Boston, an international provider of database, telemarketing, and analytical services to companies in the U.S., Canada, and Australia.

Before joining The Faneuil Group, Adams held senior management positions at Atlanta-based Equifax and TRW Information Services Group in Orange County, California. A graduate of Georgetown University and The Wharton School, Adams serves on numerous boards.

"I&apo;m excited to join MindBranch," said Adams. "The company is leading a large and dynamic industry. MindBranch is on the cusp of transforming how market research is created, sold, and used. I look forward to doing my part to strengthen our leadership position." Osmin Alvarez, founder of PRG, Inc., added, "Alton has the managerial talent to keep MindBranch on the top of its industry as it moves into 'hypergrowth mode.'" In the transition, Alvarez assumes a seat on the MindBranch board.

MindBranch serves as a critical infomediary in matching the research demands of knowledge workers with high-value providers of technology-oriented research. MindBranch aggregates business-to-business market intelligence from top-tier market-research publishers and delivers reports, newsletters, directories, and databases in digital and print.

Contact:

Alton Adams, MindBranch, 413-664-6185

Toni Lee, TL Communications, 203-761-1292