Ashton Technology Group (fka ASTN)

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Monday July 16, 9:08 am Eastern Time
Press Release

Ashton Technology Group Revises Financing Agreement

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 16, 2001--The Ashton Technology Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTN - news) today announced it has amended its previously announced securities purchase agreement with Jameson Drive, LLC.

Ashton had previously entered into an equity line arrangement with Jameson Drive LLC on February 9, 2001. On March 31, 2001, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued its views replacing Interpretation No. 4S in the March 1999 Supplement to its Manual of Publicly Available Telephone Interpretations.

Based upon these views and Ashton's discussions with SEC staff, Ashton and Jameson amended the securities purchase agreement.

The financing arrangement provides for the purchase by Jameson of up to $15 million worth of Ashton's common stock over a 24-month period. During this period, Ashton may request a draw on the equity line by selling its common stock to Jameson. In addition, Jameson will be entitled to receive warrants to purchase shares of Ashton common stock.

Ashton has agreed to register, under the Securities Act of 1933, the resale of the common stock sold to Jameson and the common stock issuable upon exercise of the warrants.

Ashton's CEO, Fredric W. Rittereiser, said, ``The revised equity line provides us with the financing we need to continue to build on the momentum we have developed over the past several months with our intelligent matching systems. The reduced equity line should also serve to reduce the market's concern of a significant stock overhang.''

Ashton is an eCommerce company that develops and operates electronic trading and intelligent matching systems for the global financial securities industry. Our focus is to develop and operate alternative trading systems, serving the needs of exchanges, institutional investors and broker-dealers in the U.S. and internationally.

Our goal is to enable these market participants to trade in an electronic global trading environment that provides large order size, absolute anonymity, no market impact and lower transaction fees.

The forgoing press release contains forward-looking statements based on current management expectations. A variety of important factors could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements.

Factors that could cause actual results to differ from current expectations include Ashton's ability to achieve expected future levels of revenue, expected use of proceeds, projected costs of technology development, changes in business strategy and development plans, the performance of Ashton's common stock; industry trends; and competition.

These and other risks are described in greater detail in Ashton's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Websites: www.ashtontechgroup.com and www.evwap.com.


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Contact:

Ashton Technology Group, Philadelphia
Christine Geisser, 215/789-3300
Telefax: 215/789-3397
Shareholder email: [e-mail]

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010716/2302.html