Company Interview Excerpt IAN LINKINS - FUTURE NETWORK PLC (FNET.L) Full article published: 8/4/2000     For Subscribers Get this article online now! Order just this article Get Financial Filings and Annual Reports for Companies featured on TWST from EasyReports.net TWST: In terms of the last numbers for the company, profit before taxes was up 85% and sales were up 24%. Could you just talk a bit about what the current status is of the company? Mr. Linkins: We are relatively new to the London market in that we came to the market through an IPO in June 1999. The proposition was one of high growth, because we are operating in high growth markets of home computing and special-interest leisure titles. We have several factors, which work in our direction to fuel the growth. We have been very successful at launching new products quickly and cheaply. We have been able to grow internationally. We are growing because the sectors that we target, be they Internet or print media, are themselves growing very fast. The growth attributes, which are coming through in the numbers, are both of our own making and of the factor of the markets that we serve. TWST: You just mentioned international expansion. The ones that I had picked up on were in the US, Italy, Germany, and Holland. Could you talk a bit about what international expansion is bringing to the company? Mr. Linkins: Yes, we find that again the markets that we are in, which are principally related to computing and video games but stretch wider than that, are particularly international. We find that what works in one territory works in many others, either probably the lowest level through licensing our products to third party publishers in various markets but in the larger markets where we have often, through licensing, built up relationships with companies, we have subsequently acquired them and they have joined the group. We started off in the UK and then France, then Italy, then the US, then Germany and, subsequently, Poland. We find that what is successful in the UK works in those markets. The fastest area of growth at the moment is coming from our US subsidiary. Tickers included in this excerpt: FNET.L Have TWST notes emailed to you free: Email address: For more information call (212) 952 7400. The Wall Street Transcript does not endorse any of the comments made by interviewees, and does not make stock recommendations.

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