European Expansion Continues With The Addition of Company's Sixth International Territory

PASADENA, Calif.- Overture Services, Inc. (Nasdaq: OVER), a global leader in commercial search services on the Internet, today announced it has extended its European momentum with the official launch of its Pay-For-Performance search service in Italy.

Overture Italy builds on the company's growing global presence, which includes its non-U.S. business headquarters in Ireland and operations in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, and South Korea. Based in Milan, Overture's newest subsidiary allows businesses with product and service offerings relevant to the Italian marketplace to participate in the company's commercial search service. As previously announced, the company named Gianluca Carrera as managing director of Overture Italy.

As one of the fastest-growing advertising mediums in Europe, paid search is expected to contribute 363 million euros (approximately US$425 million) to ad spending in that market in 2005, up from 140 million euros (approximately US$160 million) in 2002, according to Jupiter Research. The company announced in April that it would expand into Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and Scandinavia before the end of 2003. Overture expects its international operations to be profitable by early 2004.

"Overture's launch into Italy is an important step in our European expansion and targets a market where advertisers are beginning to realize the importance and cost effectiveness of paid search," said Johannes Larcher, general manager, Overture International. "At launch, we have agreements with several key Italian partners and we look forward to expanding our distribution network with a broader range of search products and services in the coming months."

Overture's Italian Pay-For-Performance search listings are generated by advertisers who bid for placement on keywords relevant to their businesses. A multi-lingual editorial team based at Overture's search services and operations center in Dublin carefully screens these listings before they are distributed to the company's Italian partners, which include Internet Service Provider (ISP) Tiscali Italy, as well as Lycos Europe and Excite. In addition, through the recent acquisition of AltaVista, Overture will soon begin serving its Pay-For-Performance results to AltaVista's Italian Web site at www.altavista.it.

"Overture's sixth international operation will offer superior value to advertisers, consumers, and distribution partners," Carrera said. "Italian advertisers will benefit from customer service that's tailored to their unique business needs, while Web sites and their users will gain greater access to relevant search listings that are customized for the Italian market."