Cerida Corporation joins the AnswerNet Network

Princeton, NJ January 16, 2002 – Princeton, NJ, based AnswerNet Network, the worlds largest telemessaging call center business (also known as telephone answering services) and a leading provider of outsourced customer relationship management, announced today that its principals had completed the acquisition of the operating assets of Andover, Massachusetts based Cerida Corp.  The Mirus Special Situations Group advised on the transaction, introducing Cerida to AnswerNet.

Cerida is one of the United States’ most advanced customer contact center companies. Cerida focuses on driving the entire sales cycle, from marketing to sales to customer development. CallCenter Magazine named Cerida the Web Enabled Call Center Of The Year in 1998 and in 1999 Cerida was named to the Inc. 500 as one of the fastest growing private companies in the United States.

With the addition of Cerida to the AnswerNet Network, AnswerNet now provides a premier sales cycle support solution for new and existing clients. Additionally, Cerida’s vast experience in providing outbound and inbound sales and CRM support for high technology product and service companies and organizations faced with complex sales processes furthers AnswerNet’s goal of providing solutions for all kinds of companies from startup to maturity.

“Adding Cerida’s suite of sales and marketing support services to our existing offerings is a natural progression in our plan to be a complete provider of outsourced contact center services,” said Gary A. Pudles, President of the AnswerNet Network and three of its four operating divisions. “We are now the most effective internet contact center solution for businesses of all sizes because we can handle basic web transactions and extremely complex internet communications for customers that need to interact with web but lack the people and technology to support such web initiatives.”

Princeton, N.J. based AnswerNet Network is America’s largest network of telemessaging call centers and a full service contact center and telemarketing supplier with 50+ centers in 22 states and Canada. Operating through its four divisions, AnswerNet, Robertshaw Communications, Signius, and Cerida, the AnswerNet Network provides all types of customer relationship management in English and Spanish including live operator telephone answering services, voicemail, inbound and outbound telemarketing, order entry (with credit card processing), telequalifying and list scrubbing, customer development, enhanced faxing, conference calling, live operator chat and voice support for Internet sites, and communications system disaster backup to all types of businesses. AnswerNet Network companies have over 30,000 clients and handle more than 60 million calls and Internet contacts per year.

About the Mirus Special Situations Group

Mirus  provides investment banking solutions to corporate clients in distress, including divestitures, restructurings, and bankruptcy sales.   Since 1987, Mirus has provided corporate finance advisory services  to clients in technology, business services, manufacturing, consumer products, health care and the resort & hospitality industry.  For additional information, visit www.merger.com.