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NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The Learning Company Launches Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia,
A Complete Multimedia Reference Library Designed
Especially for Children Ages 7 to 12

Children Can Turn Research and Homework into a Fun,
Fact-Finding Journey with This All-in-One Reference Collection

FREMONT, Calif. - July 15, 1996 - The Learning Company, a subsidiary of SoftKey International Inc. (Nasdaq: SKEY), today announced the release of Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia™, a complete multimedia reference library designed especially for children ages seven to twelve. Tens of thousands of articles specially tailored to match the reading level of children combined with a child-friendly interface helps make researching and writing reports easy and fun. Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia is available now on Windows CD-ROM for an estimated retail price of $50.00 with street prices ranging from $39.00 to $45.00.

Children embark on fact-finding journeys with Zak, their friendly on-screen guide. By simply clicking on different objects in Zak's bedroom, children can search for information across 17 topic areas in such subjects as science, animals, and countries and places. As children conduct searches, 35,000 cross-links easily direct them to related information where they can continue to explore relevant topics and unveil vivid illustrations, articles, photos, movies and sound clips. Throughout the adventure, Zak points out and offers ideas so children get the most out of all the information found in the program.

"In the seven-to-twelve age range, children strengthen their writing skills through doing research and writing reports. Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia is the perfect companion product to The Learning Company's Interactive Writing Tools series, a full line of age-appropriate word processors," said Diana James-Cairns, vice president of premium product marketing for SoftKey International. "With Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia, children are offered a powerful tool to help them be successful and have fun in the researching and writing process."

Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia comprises the popular Kingfisher series of children's books on one CD-ROM including Children's Encyclopedia, Illustrated Dictionary, Illustrated Thesaurus, Book of Words and Great Lives, as well as an atlas and historical timeline. The CD-ROM boasts more than 24,000 article entries from the Kingfisher works along with 3,000 photos and illustrations, 100 movies, 1,700 sound effects and includes poetry readings, music and word pronunciations. Kingfisher has long been recognized for its distinctive collection of children's books that combine easy-to-read articles with hand-painted illustrations, colorful photos and detailed drawings to encourage children to learn about and understand the world around them.

With Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia, children can:

• Conduct a search by idea, main topic or subtopic through all the multimedia entries or by going to any of the 17 main topic areas.
• Copy and paste to easily drop text and graphics into reports; footnotes are added and formatted automatically.
• Access the Compton's Living Encyclopedia through America Online for updated information.
• Zoom into the atlas to explore the world and print out maps that can be used in reports.
• Access the multimedia tools, such as the dictionary and thesaurus, at the click of the mouse.

Compton's first announced Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia in 1995 as a work in progress called Zak's Look-it-up!, but the product was never launched in the United States. Since the acquisition by SoftKey of The Learning Company and Compton's NewMedia, Zak's Look-it-up! has been integrated into The Learning Company's system of products and re-introduced as Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia.

System Requirements

Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia requires an IBM computer or compatible; 486DX/25 MHz or better; Windows 3.1 or higher (including Windows 95); 6 MB available hard disk space; 8 MB RAM; double-speed CD-ROM drive; 256-color SVGA; Windows-compatible sound card with general MIDI support (wave table recommended).

The Learning Company is located at 6493 Kaiser Drive, Fremont, Calif., 94555; telephone (800) 227-5609 (Customer Service), (800) 852-9952 (Technical Support), or (510) 792-2101. The Learning Company's web site is located at http://www.learningco.com.

SoftKey International Inc. develops, publishes and markets more than 500 consumer software titles in the education, productivity, reference and lifestyle categories, targeted at home and school users. According to the 1995 PC Data Annual Report, SoftKey is the number one publisher of consumer CD-ROM software by unit sales. SoftKey's products are sold in more than 22,000 stores across 40 countries through multiple distribution channels including retail, direct mail, OEM, school sales and more. The company's product offerings include The Learning System from The Learning Company (including the popular Reader Rabbit family of products) and Learn To Speak™ series, and such top-selling titles as Compton's® Interactive Encyclopedia, The Oregon Trail®, the Calendar Creator™ family, BodyWorks® 5.0, American Heritage® Dictionary series, KeyCad™ Complete, Mosby's Medical Encyclopedia™ and the Platinum™ and KeyKids™ jewel case lines. SoftKey is headquartered at One Athenaeum Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02142; telephone (617) 494-1200, fax (617) 494-1219.

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