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In 1993, in response to the significant advancements in
technology and to increased use by business entities of
electronic media, TPC began publishing and offering some of its
business-to-business buying directories on CD-ROM.
In 1994, in an internal TPC management publication, the
Thomas Register was described as “the undisputed leader * * * in
electronic publishing” relating to business-to-business buying
directories. Also, in that same internal publication, a TPC
management objective (relating to TPC’s continuing competitive
position with electronic publishing) was stated as follows:
Finding ourselves now at such a juncture, we seek an
approach to securing for * * * [TPC] a dominant
position in the electronic interchange of information
among industrial buyers and sellers comparable to that
which it has enjoyed in the hard copy realm.
In early 1995, although TPC’s management recognized that
TPC’s historical existence as a print publisher constituted a
certain liability in the new electronic environment, TPC’s
management also recognized that TPC brought “to the competitive
electronic information wars ahead” certain “great assets” which
were described as “the information that it traffics and the
methodologies, relationships and brand name recognition that
support that traffic”.
In 1995, TPC began publishing and making its directories
available for free on the Internet. The record does not indicate
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