Mentor Media Group Acquired by Founder from PSINet Consulting Solutions Enterprise Group, Inc.

Streamlined Ownership Structure Opens New Marketing and Growth Opportunities

Norwalk, Connecticut, USA, 15 June 2001 -- Mentor Media Group founder Dan Gallo announced today that he has acquired Visual Services International, Inc., (d/b/a Mentor Media Group) from PSINet Consulting Solutions Enterprise Group, Inc., an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of PSINet Inc. (OTC BB: PSIXE) and will operate the business independently. This move follows an announced name change that re-brands the company from VSI Communications Group to Mentor Media Group, to reflect the success of its flagship e-learning and support solution, Mentor™. The new ownership structure positions the company to capitalize on a range of marketing opportunities in the U.S. and abroad and opens new avenues of financing the growth for the company. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Neither the company nor PSINet Consulting Solutions Enterprise Group, Inc., is part of PSINet's filing under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code.

"The acquisition and name change allow us to pursue our own destiny and leverage worldwide brand awareness of Mentor," says Gallo, who founded the company in 1985 and sold it in 1998 to a subsidiary of Metamor Worldwide, Inc. Metamor Worldwide, Inc. was acquired by PSINet Inc. in June, 2000.

Mentor has sold more than six million licenses to Fortune 100 and smaller companies worldwide, including IBM, GE Capital, DuPont, Verizon, and DaimlerChrysler. The industry-leading content developer in multimedia e-learning has grown over 400% during the past two years while maintaining strong profitability. "The e-learning corporate market is projected to exceed $11 billion by 2003, up from about $2 billion in 2000. Our new independence will allow us the flexibility to invest in additional opportunities and grow even faster," Gallo says.

"Mentor is a true innovation in end user Communication, Learning, and Support," he continues. "It actually makes people successful with software, e-Business systems, and new processes without taking training courses! This means huge savings in both training and support. In a single, integrated resource, Mentor communicates the rationale, functions, and benefits of the new system, teaches people what they need to use those functions fully, and supports them throughout the system's life.

Recent achievements include completing the Mentor suite for Microsoft Windows and Office with the release of Mentor™ for PowerPoint 2000. The company also recently won the Society for Technical Communications' Excellence Award for Tiny Trainer, a custom desktop support system now shipping on all PCs from Europe's third largest manufacturer, Tiny Computers.

"We're looking forward to again charting our own course as an independent company with the flexibility and nimbleness to meet a range of new market opportunities," says Gallo.

About Mentor Media Group

Mentor Media Group is a leading business communications company offering custom and off-the-shelf e-learning products. With over 6-million user licenses sold, its flagship solution, Mentor™ helps companies get more out of their new technology by making users successful as soon as the systems are deployed. A Mentor can be added to any software to motivate and instruct users and give them instant, multimedia demonstrations of how to perform its functions. Mentors are appropriate for a wide range of products and services offered by software developers, hardware manufactures, Internet Service Providers, device manufacturers, and developers of e-Business systems or exchanges.

Mentor delivers just-in-time, sight-and-sound multimedia Communication, Learning, and Support via local networks, CDs, local hard drives, or streamed over the Internet. Mentors are available in multiple languages for Lotus products such as Notes, Sametime, QuickPlace, and TeamRoom; for popular Microsoft products such as Windows 2000, Windows Me, Outlook 2000, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Internet Explorer; as well as for Netscape Navigator and custom applications. Mentor has become a learning standard at Fortune 500 companies like IBM, DuPont, Verizon, DaimlerChrysler, GE Capital, Duke Energy, Colgate-Palmolive, and many smaller companies. Mentor can be experienced online at http://www.trymentor.com.

###

Back to Press Releases