January 21, 2000 / Tuesday
THE MERIDIAN GROUP, WEBMARKETEER MERGE
Marketing Communications Agency's Interactive Division to Trade as tmg3.com - IPO Strongly Considered for 2001

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - The Meridian Group-Marketing Communications has announced that it has merged with Virginia Beach-based WebMarketeer Inc., effective Jan. 4, 2000. The merger has resulted in tmg3.com, an interactive communications division of The Meridian Group.

The Meridian Group is one of the state's fastest growing advertising, public relations and interactive communications agencies, and WebMarketeer is considered one of the area's most prominent Internet marketing and web site development firms. Rick Richter, founder of WebMarketeer, will serve as president of TMG3.com and will act as director of The Meridian Group's interactive department. The Meridian Group will operate out of its existing location at 448 Viking Drive in Virginia Beach, and tmg3.com will be located in WebMarketeer's existing offices at 629 Phoenix Drive, also in Virginia Beach.

Although The Meridian Group has provided its clients with a wide range of "new media" products since 1997, the merger with WebMarketeer will better position the company to take advantage of new opportunities in the e-commerce and interactive/marketing communications arena for its clients.

"Combining our talents with WebMarketeer will provide our clients with strong, marketing-based interactive communications strategies and implementation," said Joseph Takach, chief executive officer of The Meridian Group. "It also strengthens our position as a fully integrated marketing communications firm with the talent and know-how that today's ever-changing Internet age demands."

According to Richter, WebMarketeer brings to the announced merger "the understanding of the dynamics and interactivity of the web and the knowledge to prepare for the overwhelming possibilities of this Internet and e-commerce revolution."

Richter, Takach, and Eric Lackey, president of The Meridian Group, believe that the merger will position TMG3.com as one of the strongest interactive communications companies in the state and are thereby exploring the possibility of spinning tmg3.com off as an initial public offering sometime in 2001.

Established in 1980 by Joseph Takach and Eric Lackey, Ad-Ventures Advertising, as it was then called, served a long list of local and regional clients in the retail business-to-business, communications, healthcare, industrial and hospitality industries. The company merged with the advertising agency of Gross and Frye in 1987, and then with The Polizos Agency, a 30-year-old, Norfolk, Va.-based advertising and public relations firm, in 1997.

The resulting combination of that merger was The Meridian Group, a full-service advertising, public relations and interactive communications agency providing targeted solutions to a diverse group of local, regional, national, and international clientele including Kingsmill Resort, Canon Virginia Inc., S&K Menswear, Schewel Furniture, PGA National Resort & Club, Chartway Federal Credit Union, and the Norfolk Airport Authority.

The Meridian Group has been honored twice in the last four years by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP as one of the "Fantastic 50" fastest growing companies in Virginia. The agency has experienced a three-year compounded revenue growth rate of 155% with $25 million in billings in 1999. In addition, agency employment rolls have quadrupled since 1997 to approximately 50 personnel in three offices on the East Coast - Virginia Beach, Va., Charleston, S.C. and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

WebMarketeer Inc., founded in 1996 by Richter, is an Internet marketing and web site development firm whose sole focus is to identify, develop and market strategic, results-oriented web sites. WebMarketeer specializes in web site design and development, electronic commerce, search engine submissions, web promotion, and database programming for local, national and international clientele in the healthcare, government, financial, retail and manufacturing industries. WebMarketeer's current client list includes such high-profile companies as Stihl, Hermes Abrasives, Media General - Virginia Business, The Jones Institute of Eastern Virginia Medical School, The Penrod Company, Olympia Development, SUSTAIN Technologies, Harvey Lindsay Commercial Real Estate, Virginia Marine Science Museum, and the Hampton Roads Technology Council.

tmg3.com will be comprised of seven employees with $1,500,000 to $2,000,000 in revenue projected in 2000. Based on recent new business development activities, company principals already expect to significantly exceed these projected revenues as well as current employment rolls in the coming year.