Marlin & Associates Acted as Exclusive Strategic and Financial Advisor to Hugin ASA

NEW YORK, NY(May 10th 2007) Euronext’s acquisition of Hugin ASA was recently recognized by Inside Market Data as a finalist for “Acquisition of the Year.” 

Inside Market Data, a weekly newsletter that helps market data and financial technology executives at financial services firms understand the changing landscape of their industry, named the Hugin transaction as an awards finalist in the “Acquisition of the Year” category.  The Inside Market Data awards recognize industry excellence within market data, reference data and enterprise data management.

Hugin ASA is one of Europe’s leading distributors of investor and customer related communications.  From its offices in nine European countries (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK), the Company distributes press releases, e-mails, faxes, video and other forms of corporate communications on behalf of more than 1,200 client companies located in 20 European countries.

On December 19th, 2006, Hugin ASA was acquired by Euronext N.V., the pan-European exchange (Amsterdam: NXTA; Paris: ENX).  Euronext had previously entered the corporate news distribution market through its acquisition of Companynews, a company that had built its own strong positions in France, Italy, Portugal and Spain - locations that were highly complimentary to those of Hugin.  As part of the transaction, Euronext announced plans to merge and integrate Hugin and Companynews and also announced that the Hugin CEO would lead the combined entity.

Marlin & Associates New York LLC (“M&A”) initiated this transaction, managed the process, assisted in negotiations and acted as exclusive strategic and financial advisor to Hugin ASA.

“Hugin is an excellent company and it has found a great home with Euronext.  We were pleased to have played a role in bringing these two firms together,” said Ken Marlin, M&A’s founder and managing partner.  “It is also a reflection of our growing international reach in the information technology sector.  Hugin is our 10th information technology client in the past year and the 5th non-US client in the past year, which we have helped enter into a successful transaction,” continued Marlin.  Our industry is not defined by geographic borders, and neither are we.

About Marlin & Associates
Founded in 2002, Marlin & Associates is a boutique investment banking and strategic consulting firm focused on providing highly strategic and specialized, transaction-related services to U.S. and international middle-market firms engaged in technology, information, on-line media and business-services.  The firm is based in New York City with a Washington, DC office.

Marlin & Associates' professionals have advised on over 200 successfully completed transactions in the technology and information services sector.

Recently, the firm was recognized by the The M&A Advisor for leading the “Financial Technology Deal of the Year.”  Marlin received the award for its role as the exclusive strategic and financial advisor to Brainpower N.V., in its sale to Bloomberg L.P.  The M&A Advisor award winners were chosen based on the importance of the transaction, unique deal characteristics, transaction difficulty, and overall impact on the industry.  Marlin & Associates was nominated (and a finalist) for awards in three different categories.

In addition to advising on the Hugin and Brainpower transactions, Marlin & Associates was the exclusive advisor to numerous information-technology-related firms that recently made strategic moves including:

• Xcitek LLC of New York, New York, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to Interactive Data Corp. (NYSE:IDC) of Bedford, Massachusetts.
• Triple Point Technology of Westport, Connecticut, which Marlin & Associates advised on the sale of a majority interest to ABRY Partners, one of the most experienced and successful private equity firms in North America.
• Cameron Systems (Vic) of Sydney, Australia, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to Orc Software of Stockholm, Sweden (STKM: ORC).
• Derivative Solutions, of Chicago, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to FactSet Research Systems (NYSE: FDS).
• Beauchamp Financial Technology Ltd. of London, England, which Marlin and Associates advised on its sale to Linedata Services of Paris, France (PARIS: LIN).
• Global Securities Information, of Washington D.C., which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to the Thomson Corporation (NYSE: TOC).
• Interactive Technologies, Inc. of Summit, NJ, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to Fiserv (NASDAQ: FISV).
• europrospectus.com, of East Sussex, UK, which Marlin & Associates advised on its sale to FactSet Research Systems (NYSE: FDS).

For more information go to www.MarlinLLC.com   
Contact: Michael Maxworthy at +1 646 495-5141
Or Contact@MarlinLLC.com