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Ideas International Completes Acquisition of D.H. Brown Associates; New Company Drives into Position as the Global Leader in Comparative IT Research

Posted on: Wednesday, 11 February 2004, 06:00 CST

D.H. Brown Associates, Inc. (DHBA), a privately held research firm specializing in hardware and applications research used for building enterprise-wide IT infrastructures and product lifecycle management technologies, announced today that it has been formally purchased by Australia-based Ideas International (ASX:IDE). Ideas International is a leader in comparative and pricing analysis for a wide range of server, storage, SAN, PC, and database products. The final sale agreement is a mix of cash and stock. ¶ The new company is positioned to offer technology vendors and enterprise technology managers the most comprehensive research, competitive product and performance comparisons, and pricing analysis available for IT infrastructure products and services. ¶ The newly combined company blends the technical analysis, advisory services and consulting capabilities of D.H. Brown Associates with the powerful analytic and decision-support facilities of Ideas International's Competitive Profiles on-line tactical intelligence database. ¶ The company's research and services coverage now spans a broad spectrum of computing platforms, storage technologies, servers, systems software, operating systems, middleware, database products, business continuity issues and related service/support offerings. ¶ Commenting on the completion of the acquisition, Ian Birks, Chief Executive Officer of Ideas International, said, "The addition of D.H. Brown to the Ideas International services portfolio significantly enhances our value proposition for our global customers. We have dramatically increased the depth and breadth of our collective capabilities to serve the research needs of these organizations. We believe that this added customer value effectively positions us with a platform to double our worldwide contract value in 2004."¶ To ensure that this new value proposition is realized, Mr. Birks articulated a three point plan to be followed over the next two years that includes,

¶ -- Leveraging and integrating the valued brands and competencies

of the two firms

¶ -- Implementing a business structure that ensures a strong local

presence to customers and facilitates long-term growth

¶ -- Providing the combined capabilities of the new company to a

global marketplace

¶ To begin executing on this plan, the company reiterated that D.H. Brown's IT research portfolio and analyst team will remain unchanged and will operate as the branded source of technology advisory services for the new firm. ¶ Furthermore, the company announced a new organizational structure consisting of three regional business units focused on the Americas, Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific respectively. These business units will be responsible for all customer relationships and market development within their geographies. The regional business units will immediately look to expand D.H. Brown's reach into new markets outside of its traditional North America base. ¶ The Americas business unit will be headed by Charles Bacharach, formerly the EVP and General Manager of D.H. Brown's IT research business and will be headquartered in Port Chester, NY. The EMEA business unit will be headed by Stephen Williams and will be located in the Ideas International facilities in Oxfordshire, UK. The Asia-Pacific business unit will function out of the Ideas International corporate headquarters in Sydney, Australia and will be headed by Peter Cullen. ¶"This regional business structure provides Ideas International and D.H. Brown's customer base with local teams poised to meet their unique needs," added Mr. Birks. Additionally, the new corporate structure positions the firm to evaluate and aggressively pursue further acquisition and partnering opportunities that are synergistic with achieving the goal of building Ideas International into a major global brand. ¶"Our ultimate vision is to change the dynamics of the value proposition of IT research for Global 2000 technology adopters and suppliers," commented Mr. Birks. "We believe that the marketplace is looking for research services that are actionable, flexible and relevant to today's decision-making process. By combining the capabilities of D.H. Brown and our Competitive Profiles services, we are at the forefront of providing our customers with the tools necessary to make IT investment decisions that are predicated on fact-based insight and analysis."¶ The business unit of D.H. Brown Associates that has traditionally focused on the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) research market segment is not included in the terms of the Ideas International acquisition. The DHBA PLM principals, with the founder Don Brown, formed a new firm, Collaborative Product Development Associates, LLC. CPDA takes over and fulfills all PLM related research.

¶ About Ideas International (www.ideasinternational.com)

¶ Ideas International is a publicly listed Australian company (ASX:IDE) positioned as the IT research company that has global leadership capabilities in the technical evaluation of computing infrastructure technologies. The company's research and services coverage spans systems software, computing platforms, operating systems, middleware, storage and database technologies. ¶ The company has three global business units operating from Sydney, New York (USA) and Oxfordshire (England).

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For further information about Ideas International, please contact: Mr. Ian Birks Chief Executive Officer Ideas International Limited Level 3, 20 George Street Hornsby NSW 2077 Australia

Phone: + 61 (0) 2 9472 7777 Mobile: + 61 (0) 408 64 11 22 Email: ianb@ideasinternational.com

For Further Information in the U.S., please contact: Charles Bacharach EVP & General Manager Information Technology Research D. H. Brown Associates Inc.

Office: 914-937-4302 ext. 222 e-mail: csbacharach@dhbrown.com

Or, visit the DHBA website at www.dhbrown.com

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