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By Mark Watson The Commercial Appeal Local software to get world launch Germantown, TN (August 24, 2001) -- Internet surfers across the Western Hemisphere, Europe and Asia may soon use software from Germantown's uMonitor Inc., as that company has made a deal with Terra Lycos, one of the world's largest Internet service providers. uMonitor has developed a software platform that enables users to employ just one password to have secure access to their personal financial, E-mail, travel and package account information. The deal allows Terra Lycos to offer uMonitor's "account aggregation" services through Terra Lycos' networks, reaching millions of users. Terra Lycos was formed by the October 2000 merger of Terra Networks, of Barcelona, Spain, with Lycos, based in Waltham, MA. Terra Lycos operates in 43 countries and 20 languages, and about 103 million individuals visit the Terra Lycos networks monthly worldwide. The company claims to be the world's third-largest Internet access provider. Terra Lycos sites include Lycos.com, Terra.com, Angelfire.com, Gamesville.com, HotBot.com, Quote.com, RagingBull.com and Wired.com. "Alliances with Internet giants such as Terra Lycos enable uMonitor to extend this sophisticated technology platform to an increasing number of end-users worldwide," said Dinesh Sheth, uMonitor founder, president and chief executive officer, in a prepared statement. In an E-mail interview, Terra.com spokesman Ana Sanchez said her company plans to launch uMonitor Monday on Terra.com, which focuses on the U.S. Hispanic market. She declined to say when uMonitor's service would be available on other services. In an interview Thursday, Sheth noted that the more people use his service, the more revenue it generates. Thus, the Terra Lycos deal "eventually has the potential to put us in the black," he said. "It's one of the biggest, if not the biggest, deals we've had so far," he said. "We will have software on servers around the world." One of the reasons Terra Lycos chose uMonitor's system is that it can be used in more than one language, which is unique among "account aggregation" services, Sheth said. "That's important for the globalization of any service," he said. "We have launched it in English and Spanish, and within a very short period of time, we will be launching it in more European languages. French, German and Italian will probably be next. ... For us to add another language, literally, is not a big deal." uMonitor now employs about 30 people, including five in a London office, which opened in July. uMonitor is preparing to seek another round of investment capital, Sheth said. If this is received in suitable amounts, the company might employ more than 60 people by August 2002, he said. In a prepared statement, Manuel Bellod, Terra.com general manager, said: "After researching the competition, the uMonitor platform was the most customizable and flexible interface on the market today, meeting the needs of our end-users worldwide." Terra Lycos' preceding company, Terra Networks, was spun off from Telefonica, a Spanish telephone company with extensive systems across Latin America. Therefore, although Terra Lycos's stock price has lost more than 70 percent of its value in the past year, the company is well-capitalized, said David Joyce, an analyst who follows Terra Lycos from his Guzman & Co. office in Miami. "Lycos has a lot of electronic commerce activity and revenue, and that's something the Terra side of the equation didn't have," Joyce said. An account aggregation system that enables people to transact business and monitor their accounts without using credit cards might be popular in Latin America, where few people use credit cards, he said. It might also prove popular because in Latin America, people usually must pay for local calls as well as long-distance, which tends to reduce time online, he said. The time saved by having one Web site to visit for all of a person's account information might prove attractive, Joyce said. Contact: Cindy Hofmeister Thomas uMonitor.com, Inc. 901-757-1212 x113 email: cthomas@umonitor.com Don Mundie Delta Capital Management LLC 901-755-0949