Edgewater Kisses Fayetteville Goodbye

Edgewater Technology Inc. of Wakefield, Mass., reelected its board of directors for 2002 at a shareholders meeting in May and officially severed its ties with Fayetteville, where the company had maintained an office until this spring.

StaffMark Inc. of Fayetteville purchased Edgewater, an e-solutions business, for $47 million in 1999, the same year StaffMark began spinning off its other five divisions. StaffMark Inc. has since changed its name to Edgewater Technology Inc.

The six re-elected board members are:

• Clete Brewer of Fayetteville, founder of StaffMark Inc. and former president and CEO of the company

• Michael Loeb, president, CEO and a director of the Synapse Group Inc.

• William Lynch, venture partner of Catterton Partners LLC

• Bob Martin, former president and CEO of the International Division of

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

• Charles Sanders, former chairman and CEO of Glaxo Inc.

• Shirley Singleton, president and CEO of the company

Lynch, who has years of venture capital and private equity experience and was a partner in a large multi-national law firm, was appointed by the board as the non-executive chairman. Lynch has been a director for the company since its initial public offering in 1996.

“This appointment completes the final step of the company’s corporate transition from Fayetteville, Ark., to Wakefield, Mass.,” Edgewater said in a press release.

Brewer, the company’s former non-executive chairman and CEO, “is focusing on other business interests in addition to his outside director position with the company,” Edgewater said.

Since 1996 through the completion of the corporate transition, Edgewater has:

• Completed a $76 million initial public offering along with a $100 million secondary offering in 1997;

• Acquired forty-three companies from 1996 to 1999, including its current operating subsidiary, Edgewater Technology Inc.;

• Repaid approximately $288 million in commercial bank debt;

• Accomplished five disposition transactions during 2000-2001 for aggregate consideration before fees and expenses of approximately $472 million, one of which was an initial public offering of Robert Walters Plc on the London Stock Exchange;

• Completed a $130 million issuer tender offer for 16.25 million shares of the company’s outstanding common stock in 2001;

• Received a $16 million federal income tax refund in 2001 related to the 5 disposition transactions in 2000-2001 resulting in the company having about $48.6 million in cash (as of March 31, 2002) and about 11.6 million outstanding common shares.