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For: SierraCities.com Inc.
Contact: Sandy Ho, Chief Financial Officer
Alan L. Langus, EVP
(914) 286-6365
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Morgen-Walke Associates
Investors: Teresa Thuruthiyil
Media: Christopher Katis
(415) 296-7383
Wire Services: Eric Gonzales
(212) 850-5600
SIERRACITIES.COM COMPLETES SALE OF UK ASSETS
HOUSTON, TX, December 26, 2000--SierraCities.com Inc. (Nasdaq: BTOB), an
innovator of technology solutions for online B2B financing, announced that it
has successfully completed the sale of its two of its three wholly owned
UK-based leasing subsidiaries, and has closed the sale of the third UK
subsidiary in escrow as of December 22, 2000. The escrow on this third sale is
scheduled to close on December 27, 2000. The net result of these three sales is
an aggregate $10 million in net cash proceeds, after the repayment of bank debt
related to the UK subsidiaries and after closing expenses. Once the last of
these transactions is finalized, SierraCities will have exited its business in
the United Kingdom. SierraCities' merger agreement with VerticalNet, Inc.
(Nasdaq: VERT) obligated SierraCities to use reasonable best efforts to sell
these assets. The transaction will result in an approximate pre-tax loss of $21
million for SierraCities.com, $13 million of which relates to the write-off of
goodwill. These amounts are consistent with the amounts disclosed in
VerticalNet's Registration Statement on Form S-4 relating to the merger
agreement.
SierraCities.com is an innovator of technology solutions for B2B
financing. The Company's technology platform supports real time funding of
e-commerce transactions through one of the most comprehensive online business
financing fulfillment solutions available. SierraCities.com's credit
technologies enable B2B e-commerce by empowering businesses to complete
transactions more quickly, thereby gaining time and cost efficiencies.
SierraCities.com's infrastructure solution automates much of the process
involved in customer
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acquisition, application, data retrieval, data warehousing, underwriting,
documentation, servicing, collections, funding, auditing, and data mining. For
more information, please visit our Web site at www.SierraCities.com.
This release may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are
subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements,
including the risk that the Company may be unable to obtain regulatory approval
for the Internet bank in the future in the event that the Company decides to
pursue this course of action, the outcome of the exploration of the division of
the Company's operations and the state of the secondary market for sales of the
Company's financial assets. Readers should not place undue reliance on
forward-looking statements, which reflect SierraCities.com's management's view
only as of the date hereof. SierraCities.com undertakes no obligation to
publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or
circumstances. Readers should also carefully review the risk factors described
in documents SierraCities.com files from time to time with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, including Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1999.
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