MSN and CareerBuilder.com Enter Five-Year Deal

Valued at Up to $150 Million to Deliver Recruitment Services To Millions of Job Seekers

Consumers Will Have Easy Access to 400,000 Current Job Postings Via MSN Careers

REDMOND, Wash., and CHICAGO - Aug. 4, 2003 - MSN®, the world’s leading online destination, and CareerBuilder.com, the smarter recruitment resource for finding better candidates and jobs, today announced a five-year strategic business relationship. The alliance will connect millions of job seekers with more than 400,000 continuously updated job postings from 25,000 of the nation’s top employers.

The agreement, scheduled to start in January 2004 and valued at up to $150 million over a five-year term, will make CareerBuilder.com the exclusive content provider to the MSN Careers channel in the United States. Designed with a performance-based structure, the agreement will bring more high-quality job seekers to prospective employers by combining the vast consumer reach of MSN with CareerBuilder.com’s wide network of national, local, industry and niche audiences.

"MSN leads the industry by offering top services and content to consumers in popular areas such as news and sports through our strong relationships with industry leaders," said Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of the MSN Personal Services and Business division. "We’re pleased to be CareerBuilder.com’s most significant business partner and look forward to delivering a wonderful service to our consumers that is mutually beneficial to both companies."

"MSN has a huge audience and a proven ability to generate performance and revenue for its business partners," said Bob Montgomery, chief executive officer of CareerBuilder.com. "Looking ahead, we see our relationship with MSN as the best opportunity to significantly increase our traffic and our overall business through its distribution and online services. We’re thrilled to deliver our leading recruitment and job searching services to the millions of consumers who visit MSN every day."

"This is a critical alliance for our company," said Matt Ferguson, chief operating officer of CareerBuilder.com. "We are not only building a marketing relationship, we are integrating Microsoft® technology across all CareerBuilder.com platforms, including Microsoft .NET initiatives. Working together, we will bring more results-driven resources to the employment market."

Visitors to the MSN Careers channel will be able to take advantage of CareerBuilder.com’s industry-leading tools and services to effectively manage their careers and successfully market themselves to thousands of employers nationwide. By indicating their work preferences, education and experience, job seekers can take advantage of "smart" online products that help them target their job searches for salaried and hourly positions. Job seekers also will be able to search by job type and industry location, access resources for interviewing and salary negotiations, and receive online career assessments. Other services include a Personal Search Agent that locates job opportunities in areas of interest and automatically notifies job seekers via e-mail.

"CareerBuilder.com’s leading resources and targeted job search offerings will enable us to provide more than 400,000 current job postings to our consumers through rich and convenient services," said Richard Bray, vice president of MSN North America. "As the job market continues to evolve, our partnership with CareerBuilder.com will help good candidates find good companies anywhere in the United States."

This agreement bolsters the already extensive array of relationships MSN has forged with other providers, such as MSNBC, ESPN and Expedia Inc., to bring world-class content and services to consumers of MSN. MSNBC is the No. 1 online news site; ESPN has become the No. 1 sports Web site since partnering with MSN; and Expedia is the No. 1 online travel site. MSN recently announced that its worldwide traffic has grown to 350 million unique users each month.

The strategic relationship with MSN is the latest step in CareerBuilder.com’s strategy to expand its vast distribution network. In the past year, CareerBuilder.com has partnered with a wide variety of industry leaders, tripled its sales force, launched a national advertising campaign and tapped into the cross-promotional power of its partners Gannett Company Inc., Tribune Company and Knight Ridder Inc. Leveraging the power of online and print through its more than 130 newspaper partners, CareerBuilder.com posted the most jobs for the top 90 U.S. markets, according to the most recent report from recruitment tracking firm Corzen Inc.

About CareerBuilder.com
CareerBuilder.com is a leading online source for maximizing recruitment dollars and optimizing job searches with superior products, customer service and technology. With a unique combination of national, local and niche audiences, CareerBuilder.com makes it easy for recruiters to reach the most qualified candidates with industry-leading market research data and support. Job seekers can search for the right job from more than 400,000 continuously updated postings, representing more than 25,000 of the top employers in virtually every industry, field and location. Together with Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI), Tribune Company (NYSE: TRB) and Knight Ridder Inc. (NYSE: KRI), CareerBuilder.com includes the Web’s top newspaper sites - the most trusted employment sources in recruiting. For more information about CareerBuilder.com products and services, call (888) 670-TEAM or visit http://www.careerbuilder.com/.

About MSN
MSN attracts more than 350 million unique users worldwide per month. With localized versions available globally in 34 markets and 18 languages, MSN is a world leader in delivering Web services to consumers and digital marketing solutions to businesses worldwide. MSN 8 is the first Internet software product to have earned the trusted Good Housekeeping Seal. The most useful and innovative online service today, MSN brings consumers everything they need from the Web to make the most of their time online. MSN is located on the Web at http://www.msn.com/. MSN worldwide sites are located at http://www.msn.com/worldwide.ashx.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. The company offers a wide range of products and services designed to empower people through great software - any time, any place and on any device. Microsoft, MSN and the MSN logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.asp.

Waggener Edstrom for Microsoft Media Contacts
Amy Radich
(503) 443-7000
amyr@wagged.com

Rapid Response Team
(503) 443-7070
rrt@wagged.com

CareerBuilder Media Contact
For all media inquiries and interview requests, contact:

Jennifer Grasz
(P) 773-527-1164
(E) jennifer.grasz@careerbuilder.com