Metromedia Fiber Network (MFN ICN BV) The Netherlands

New name to be announced on February 14th

Amsterdam, January 27, 2003 - Metromedia Fiber Network (MFN ICN BV) in the Netherlands has broken away from its American parent company. The management buy-out involves 100% of the Dutch MFN organization, which realized a 7 million Euro turnover in 2002. In the last couple of years MFN Netherlands reported a growth rate of around 100%. The same percentage is expected for 2003.

IP Transit
The management team considers the buy-out to be crucial for further growth in the Netherlands. First of all, it was essential to bid farewell to the general ‘telecom market sentiment’ under which the former American parent company is operating. The buyout now enables the company to focus on its present successes in IP Transit services and IT outsourcing. In the Benelux the new enterprise will be exclusively representing MFN in the wholesale of IP transit services known under the Tier 1 label MFN/AboveNet.
The MFN optic metro networks in the Netherlands have already been sold to a European network provider listed on the Singapore stock exchange.

IT outsourcing
Outsourcing of mission critical application infrastructures remains the core business of the new company (whose new name will be announced on February 14th). The state-of-the-art data center – a 30 million Euro investment which became operational in 2001 – forms part of the newly formed enterprise and guarantees customers a 100% uptime. Under the flag of ‘mission critical outsourcing’ the company will deliver its services to both current and new customers. Crucial in this respect are the flexibility and speed of the services offered, while taking full responsibility for the result.

Market developments
Businesses and (specialized) analysts agree on the fact that IT outsourcing is a promising market segment with consistent growth during the coming years. Especially the implementation and management of infrastructures for mission critical applications like ERP environments. The specialized knowledge this requires is an obstacle for many companies to keep the right know how and people. This also applies to generic outsourcers which often suffer from lack of specialization, flexibility and speed.
The new – to be named – company excels in this specific market segment compared to ‘can do all’ players. In addition to the very strong client focus of its employees its systems are configured in such a way that future alterations can easily be implemented. The proven concept and experience allows for solid, results oriented way of operating.

Customer satisfaction
The customer satisfaction of the Dutch organization is exceptional. For this reason all customers remained loyal to the company in spite of the chapter 11 classification of the parent company. Agreements with current and new customers have been further extended. For 2003 the new company also expects a revenue growth of 100%. The management team of the new organization is made up by Pim Berger (Managing Director), Gerwin Schuring (Sales Director) and Philip Dries (Director of Operations).