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EDT Learning Secures Contracts with Office Depot and ON Semiconductor

Posted on: Wednesday, 1 October 2003, 06:00 CDT

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 1, 2003--EDT Learning, Inc. (AMEX:EDT) announced today that the Company has signed new contracts with Office Depot and ON Semiconductor enabling the companies to deploy the iLinc(TM) Web collaboration suite to their respective organizations. As a result of EDT Learning's recent release of the iLinc software suite, the Company has experienced renewed interest among its user base and has been successful in renewing and/or upgrading several existing clients, in addition to these two organizations, to the new software.

Office Depot conducts business in 22 countries and employs nearly 50,000 people worldwide. In North America, Office Depot has more than 870 retail stores in addition to a national business-to-business delivery network supported by 22 delivery centers, more than 60 local sales offices, and 13 regional call centers. Office Depot has chosen iLinc for their online training initiatives. "We saved significantly in total expenses and long distance charges using iLinc's Voice-Over-IP technology in meetings we have held recently," said Doug Kendig, senior manager of learning technology for Office Depot. "We are very pleased with the telephone-like quality of the Voice-Over-IP audio."

ON Semiconductor also has partnered with EDT Learning and installed the iLinc Web Collaboration software globally. ON Semiconductor has already deployed the software to more than 150 employees to support its sales and marketing transformation program, to collaborate on new semiconductor development, and to replace some of their frequent global departmental conference calls and "in-person" meetings with enhanced online and asynchronous recording sessions. ON Semiconductor also is using the software for creating training lessons in the areas of new-product development, supply-chain management, and mainframe applications development.

"Immediately, we saw the value in working with EDT Learning and in rolling out a platform that enables us to record lessons and critical meetings," said George Stelling, ON Semiconductor vice president of sales and marketing operations. "The asynchronous playback of lessons, with audience participation, has improved the effectiveness and the speed of delivery in our training program. LearnLinc(R), a part of the iLinc software suite, provided us with a platform from which we could train our teams who were dispersed globally, capture lessons for future playback, and enable trainers and students alike to interact more effectively. More importantly, LearnLinc enables us to create lessons `on the fly' so that we are faster to market with our training materials. Our time is now spent demonstrating our new electronic platforms in LearnLinc and discussing how our new software integrates with our process improvement efforts rather than creating static and quickly outdated training manuals."

EDT acquired the LearnLinc Web conferencing software in December 2002 and has since released three new versions of the software. With increased investment in research and development, the Company has succeeded in the improvement of LearnLinc, including the addition of an ASP offering and the development of a suite of complementary online collaboration products re-branded as iLinc.

Commenting on the contract renewals and new business, James M. Powers, Jr., EDT Learning's president and chief executive officer, said, "iLinc's technology provides us with several competitive advantages, from our ability to offer high quality Voice-Over-IP to a pricing model that permits the purchase of our software. While our competitors focus on the Web conferencing markets in an ASP only context, we have broadened our reach beyond Web conferencing, penetrating the virtual classroom and online support markets. We are now beginning to see the results of our R&D investment in the form of increased usage and renewals from our existing customer base."

About EDT Learning, Inc.

Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, EDT Learning (AMEX:EDT) is a leading provider of software and services that help organizations communicate more effectively and efficiently.

About iLinc

EDT Learning's Web collaboration software, iLinc(TM), is a suite of software products that enables organizations to replace in-person meetings with online collaboration. The suite includes:

-- LearnLinc(R), an online training software designed to provide

live, instructor-led training and education over the Internet

to remote students replicating the instructor-led environment;

-- MeetingLinc(TM), an online meeting software designed to

facilitate the sharing of documents, PowerPoint(TM)

presentations, graphics, and applications between meeting

participants without leaving their desks;

-- ConferenceLinc(TM), a Web casting software designed to

communicate in a one-to-many format, providing professional

management of Web conferencing events; and

-- SupportLinc(TM), Web-based technical support software designed

to give customer service organizations the ability to provide

remote, hands-on support for products, systems, or software

applications.

iLinc is sold in 13 countries with versions available in six different languages including English, Chinese, German, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. LearnLinc, part of the iLinc suite, won first place at the Synchronous e-Learning Shootout held at Online Learning's Conference in the fall of 2002, winning over such other notable companies as WebEx, PlaceWare, and Interwise.

More information about all of EDT Learning's products and services is available at www.edtlearning.com.

This press release contains information that constitutes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any such forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results described within the forward-looking statements. Factors that could contribute to such differences are more fully disclosed in the Company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company specifically disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking information in the future and therefore, this forward-looking information should not be relied upon to judge future financial performance subsequent to the date of this press release.

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