SOL - Merger between Tradera.com and Bid2Day

SOL - MERGER BETWEEN TRADERA.COM AND BID2DAY On September 21, 2000, the shareholders of Bid2Day Scandinavia AB ("Bid2Day") and Tradera AB ("Tradera.com") entered into a final agreement to merge the operations of the companies. Bid2Day is one of Scandinavia's leading business-to-consumer ("B2C") and consumer-to- consumer ("C2C") online auction companies with operations in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Tradera.com holds a strong position in the attractive C2C segment in Sweden. The operations will be significantly strengthened as the user bases of the two companies are merged. The former owners of Tradera.com will hold 51% of the merged company, former owners of Bid2Day will hold 49%. As a result of the merger, the ownership of Scandinavia Online AB ("SOL") decreases from 61% in Bid2Day to 25% in the merged company. Tradera.com and Bid2Day join forces in an offensive effort to create Scandinavia's leading online auction service. The merged company will operate under the trademark Tradera.com. The operations will be focused on transactions between consumers and sale of goods from independent partners. Proprietary sale of goods will be conducted only for marketing purposes. The merged company will have more than 120,000 registered members in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The merged company's principal shareholders, IT Provider AB ("IT Provider"), SOL, New Media Spark ("Spark") and Kaplans Auktioner AB ("Kaplans Auktioner"), will inject 15 MSEK in connection with the merger. The merger is implemented through Bid2Day acquiring Tradera.com with a share exchange offer. IT Provider will hold 33%, SOL will hold 25%, Spark will hold 25% and Kaplans Auktioner will hold 15% of the merged company. The remaining shares are owned by the employees of the merged company. Tradera.com is one of Sweden's leading C2C auction companies. Tradera.com offers a unique integrated online system for safe and secure transactions between sellers and buyers with client bank accounts and full integration with the financial and accounting system. Prior to the merger, Tradera.com was owned by Kaplans Auktioner, IT-Provider and the employees. Kaplans Auktioner is one of Sweden's leading auction companies with focus on jewelry and watches. Bid2Day is one of Scandinavia's leading B2C online auction companies with operations in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The operations started in 1997 as Sweden's first online auction site. For the first half year 2000, Bid2Day's revenues amounted to 6.8 MSEK and the operating loss amounted to 18.2 MSEK. Prior to the merger, BidDay's principal shareholders were SOL (61%) and Spark (38.5%). "We are convinced that auction sites are here to stay. The US auction company eBay is already profitable," says Anders Lindqvist, Senior Advisor at IT Provider. "An industry consolidation is the natural development since all market places are dependent on the volume and liquidity," adds Anders Lindqvist. "This deal gives us a fantastic opportunity to give the large international competitors a fight on the Scandinavian market, says Daniel Kaplan, CEO of Tradera.com and of the merged company. "This merger will be beneficial also to our customers and partners as we can offer improved services through the enlarged customer base," adds Daniel Kaplan "We are very pleased to be able to contribute to the consolidation of the Scandinavian e-commerce sector. The merged company will be significantly better positioned to compete in Sweden. We are now looking for more partners, both in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. We will seriously consider any player who would want to join forces", says Birger Steen, CEO of SOL. Bid2Day will be de-consolidated from SOL's financial statements as from July 1, 2000. For further information please contact: Daniel Kaplan, CEO, Tradera.com, +46 8 412 8310, +46 739 20 9400, www.tradera.com Anders Lindqvist, Senior Adisor, IT Provider, +46 8 614 0000, www.itprovider.com Pär-Jörgen Pärson, Partner, New Media Spark, +46 709 56 5221, pjp@newmediaspark.com Birger Steen, CEO SOL, +46 709 35 2818, birger.steen@scandinaviaonline.se Thomas Ranje, CFO SOL, +46 709 41 5494, thomas.ranje@scandinaviaonline.se Scandinavia Online is the leading Internet media company in the Nordic region. The online network has more than 4 million monthly unique users and consists of the portals passagen.se, sol.no, sol.dk and sirkus.com and the search engines evreka.com, evreka.fi, kvasir.no and kvasir.dk. For the period January-June, 2000, total revenues amounted to SEK 109 million and as of June 30, 2000, the group had 279 employees. Scandinavia Online's shares are listed on the OM Stockholm Exchange (SCOL) and on the Oslo Stock Exchange (SCO). Scandinavia Online AB Box 1388 111 93 Stockholm Sweden Tel: +46 8 587 810 00 Fax: +46 8 587 810 80 ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/12/13/20001213BIT00410/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/12/13/20001213BIT00410/bit0002.pdf