Abacus and AZ direct announce the formation of Abacus Deutschland

Abacus, a division of DoubleClick Inc. (NASDAQ: DCLK), a leading data and research provider to the direct marketing industry, and AZ Direct, a subsidiary of arvato AG, the internationally networked media service provider of Bertelsmann AG, today announced the formation of Abacus Deutschland. Abacus Deutschland, which will be based in D|sseldorf, Germany, is a fifty-fifty joint venture between the two companies. The company plans to provide German catalog companies with modeling tools that can improve direct marketing initiatives.

Abacus Deutschland will offer German catalog companies two well-known Abacus products: Acquisition Modeling and Retention Modeling. Acquisition Modeling enables members to find qualified prospects beyond their own housefile list. Retention Modeling can help marketers to increase profits from their own housefile list. The data used in creating these models is anonymous. These models also benefits consumers as they helps marketers send more targeted offers to them.

DoubleClick’s Abacus division operates the Abacus Alliances for mail order companies in the U.S., the U.K. and Japan. The Abacus Alliances combine the power of shared transactions with proprietary modeling techniques to help marketers improve profits from their direct marketing campaigns.

We are very excited about bringing the Abacus business and its modeling techniques to the German market, said Michael Baumbach, CEO, AZ Direct. As Germany represents a very large mail order market, we are confident that this business will be of great value in helping catalog companies better target their customers.

According to the German Mail Order Association’s Mail Order in Germany - An Information Booklet - 2002, German mail order revenues in 2001 were _20.7 billion, approximately 60% larger than the next largest European market, the United Kingdom. In addition, this association reports that consumers in Germany buy more per capita by mail order than in any other country.

Our partnership with AZ Direct allows Abacus to partner with a premier German company with access to a relevant customer base and local market know-how, said Brian Rainey, president, Abacus. With German catalogers and direct marketers searching for ways to become more efficient and cost-effective, the timing is right for the introduction of a cooperative database business model in the German market. In addition, many of our Alliance members in other countries currently mail to German consumers, which could represent a large opportunity for the new business.