News at BVG
Monday April 3, 8:55 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Bolivar Signs Letter Of Intent With Champion Computer
TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 3, 2000--Bolivar Goldfields Ltd. announced today that it has signed a letter of intent with the shareholders of Champion Computer Corporation (``Champion'') to purchase all of the issued and outstanding shares of Champion.
Champion is a Boca Raton-based, privately held company that specializes in providing the IT infrastructure for Web-based companies, as well as Fortune 1000 corporations and the midsize business market. Champion, which is also IBM's largest open system business partner, has formed a relationship with IBM to create a dedicated IBM storage solutions practice. This Champion trademarked solution, known as ``Time to Content(TM)'', is focused on helping Internet Service Providers (``ISPs''), Application Service Providers (``ASPs''), as well as mid-market and Fortune 1000 customers, meet their rapidly growing storage and content needs by providing IBM storage, servers and software that connect to other, nationally available, non-IBM servers. Champion feels that the ``Time to Content(TM)'' solution is poised for immense growth and Bolivar intends to dedicate its resources to building and developing a Storage Services Provider (``SSP'') practice around Champion's ``Time to Content(TM)'' methodologies, a major focus of Champion's ongoing business.
Champion was established in 1979. For the fiscal year ended August 31, 1999, it had revenue of US$118.0 million and net income of US$4.8 million. The Company's core business is marketing products and services from various leaders in the technology arena, such as IBM, Lotus, Microsoft, Brocade Communication Systems, Citrix Systems, Tivoli, Vicom Systems and NSI Software. These products are integrated into world class system solutions through Champion's Services Division, which provides consulting, design and implementation services. Major areas of focus include content management, storage area networking, ISP/ASP design integration services, ``thin'' client computing, storage and server consolidation, and high availability cluster multiprocessing.
Champion's current corporate customer base includes Goodyear, Michelin, Revlon, Inco Alloy, First USA, Hoffman Laroche, Jackson National Life, and Advanta Bank Corp. Champion's Internet Generation customers include Wingspan.com, MTVonline, Net2Phone, Kingsland Systems, NewAgeCities.com, and Phone.com.
Champion's ``Time to Content(TM)'' initiative is focused on providing organizations with content storage management guaranteeing highly available content, extremely fast access to stored content, lowered storage costs and improved manageability. This solution has been benchmarked by Champion's customers as the world's highest performance Open System Database I/O system, supporting multigigabytes per second. It uses automated storage management software for extremely fast access to archived data, regardless of storage medium, utilizing a fiber storage area network (``SAN'') with highly flexible, scalable and reliable components from nationally recognized manufacturers.
Bolivar, which had previously announced an intention to sell its Tomi mine in Venezuela and focus on identifying a technology-based investment, feels that Champion's prospects are outstanding. Not only does Champion have a proven track record of growth and profitability within its core business, it has developed a product in ``Time to Content(TM)'' that Bolivar feels is poised for growth as Web usage and storage needs increase dramatically. Bolivar feels that it can provide Champion with the necessary access to capital markets required for it to rapidly expand its ``Time to Content(TM)'' solution in the Internet Generation marketplace.
The transaction, which is subject to regulatory and shareholder approval, is scheduled to close on June 1, 2000. As part of the shareholder approval process, Bolivar expects to request a change of corporate name in order to maintain and build on the name and brand recognition established by Champion over the years.
Bolivar continues to hold 10,175,000 shares of Wavve Telecommunications, Inc., representing approximately 15% of Wavve's issued and outstanding capital, and is continuing to seek a purchaser for its Tomi mine in Venezuela. Considerable interest has been shown by potential purchasers and due diligence investigations are underway.
For further information, please visit Champion's website at www.championcc.com, or contact:
Peter Volk, Christopher Pyle,
Corporate Secretary President
Bolivar Goldfields Ltd. Champion Computer Corporation
1 Dundas Street West, Suite 2500 6421 Congress Ave.
Toronto, Ontario Boca Raton, Florida
M5G 1Z3 33487
Tel: (416) 955-4554 Tel: (800) 771-7000
Fax: (416) 955-1206 Fax: (561) 994-8601
NO STOCK EXCHANGE, SECURITIES COMMISSION OR OTHER REGULATORY AUTHORITY HAS APPROVED OR DISAPPROVED THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN.
BOLIVAR GOLDFIELDS LTD. 1 DUNDAS STREET WEST, SUITE 2500, TORONTO, ONTARIO M5G 1Z3 TELEPHONE: (416) 955-4554 FAX: (416) 955-1206
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Contact:
Bolivar Goldfields Ltd.
Peter Volk, 416/955-4554
Fax: 416/955-1206
or
Champion Computer Corporation
Christopher Pyle, 800/771-7000
Fax: 561/994-8601