November 3rd, 1997: Seattle, WA -- World leading technology PR specialist Text 100 Group plc, today announced the opening of two new offices in San Francisco and Boston to meet the growing demand for its services from US and international clients. The two new offices compliment the company's existing Seattle office which opened two years ago and which today has 8 clients and a staff of 15. Together the three Text 100 offices intend to offer US-based clients an integrated agency approach with national account coverage.

Text 100 is the first independent technology PR specialist and one of very few European PR firms to move into the US market on this scale. Its continued expansion into the US comes at a time when large PR groups are acquiring agencies on both sides of the Atlantic to develop a global technology PR resource. Text 100 is going against the current trend of acquisition through its focus on organic growth and is rapidly becoming a player in the global technology market with 15 wholly owned offices on 4 continents and in 11 countries.

"We bring a new perspective to the US PR market," asserts Text 100 Group plc CEO, Tim Dyson. "Our Seattle office has provided a sound base for this expansion on the East and West coasts and we are now ready to take on the established US PR players on their home turf. Our work to date here in the US has shown we can compete on this ground and we intend to build a top class agency structure, not just in the US but across the world within 5 years."

Text 100's new Boston office is focused on providing PR counsel to the growing number of entrepreneurial technology companies along the East Coast, with a particular emphasis on the burgeoning Internet software community located in the Massachusetts area. The office will also actively support Text 100's international capabilities by providing a bridge to companies wishing to do PR in Europe and AIME for the first time.

The office employs four staff, headed up by Andy West, Senior VP & General Manager. Initial clients include Xerox Corporation, Harlequin, Inc., Chumbo, Fenestrae, PackageNet and Milia.

As the established leader in technology PR, Text 100 is responding to strong client demand by opening an office in the San Francisco Bay Area. Text 100 San Francisco will focus on providing both national and international counsel to the Silicon Valley technology community. The office will become the hub for Xerox Corporation's West Coast PR activity as well as providing PR support for the Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC). It will also provide a base for coordinating all global PR activity undertaken by Text 100 on behalf of Xerox Corporation. With an initial staff of three people, the office is headed by Aedhmar Hynes, Senior VP & General Manager.

Both offices will work together with the existing Seattle office to form part of what Text 100 describes as its global virtual agency approach. "It is our goal to integrate all three offices to such an extent that the client need not worry about the physical location of the office," explains Tim Dyson, CEO of the Text 100 Group. "We believe the regional or local expertise of the PR competition is rarely extended nationally, let alone internationally. Our intention is to work as one agency and to extend the client's relationship beyond local territories and into any office that may have the relevant expertise or geographic presence. This way Text 100 will be ideally placed to meet the needs of technology clients across the nation and ultimately across the world."

Text 100 now has 15 offices spanning the globe, all of which are wholly owned subsidiaries specializing in the technology industry. Each office aims to be the premier provider of technology PR in its market and is linked through technology and methodology to every other office. In this way, Text 100 shares its strong PR methodology across geographic boundaries while recognizing and retaining the cultural needs of the local media and its clients.

Text 100 is Europe's leading technology PR consultancy. Established in 1981, it is retained by many of the world's leading companies to provide business to business, consumer, corporate, trade and technology PR on a national and international basis. Clients include BT Global Satellite Services, EDS, Cisco Systems, Gateway 2000, Microsoft, Softbank Forums, Swatch Telecom and The Document Company Xerox. Text 100 currently has subsidiaries in New Delhi, Bangalore, Stockholm, London, Paris, Munich, Amsterdam, Madrid, Milan, Dublin, Seattle, Boston, San Francisco, Johannesburg, Cape Town and operates specialist pan-European business units in Digital TV, Consumer Technology, Telecommunications and Public Affairs. The company has associated agencies in Eastern Europe, Belgium, Austria, Taiwan, Japan, Australia and Canada. Text 100 is a member of the Public Relations Consultants Association and its shares are quoted on London's OFEX stock market.