CEC Extends Contract With Acxiom For Information Technology Management Services

Acxiom® Corporation (Nasdaq: ACXM) today announced Career Education Corporation (CEC) (Nasdaq: CECO) has extended its contract with the company for fully managed information technology services and solutions for an additional five years.

CEC offers high quality education to a diverse population of approximately 90,000 students across the world in a variety of career-oriented disciplines. The more than 75 campuses in its network include well known institutions such as Le Cordon Bleu Schools North America, Harrington College of Design, Brooks Institute, International Academy of Design & Technology, Sanford-Brown Institutes and Colleges, Colorado Technical University and American InterContinental University.

“This renewal strengthens the already strong foundation of our relationship,” said Marty Sunde, senior vice president of Acxiom’s IT Services division, “allowing us to provide greater value in the IT areas of CEC’s business, and helping CEC increase their operational effectiveness and strategic growth through the introduction of marketing-based services.”

Dave Czeszewski, CEC senior vice president, information technology, added that business and requirements had changed significantly in recent years and the company needed to craft a new agreement that reflected its current and future needs and expectations.

“We went through an exhaustive partner analysis and selection process and were very pleased that our current partner rose to the top of the list,” said CEC senior vice president and chief information officer, Manoj Kulkarni. “We look forward to the next generation of our relationship, which will be based on ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) best practices and world-class global delivery for key infrastructure services.”

In place since November 2001, the agreement represents a significant expansion of the scope of services Acxiom will provide, extending and broadening the relationship to include all aspects of corporate infrastructure management at CEC.

“Acxiom has been a key partner of CEC for a number of years,” said CEC executive vice president and chief financial officer, Mike Graham. “We asked Acxiom to adjust their approach to meet our current and future needs – and they delivered. We look forward to the next five years and the value they can deliver for our business.”

About Acxiom IT Services
Information intensive companies rely on Acxiom to provide business-critical IT infrastructure services and business intelligence solutions that enable our clients’ growth and profitability. Mission critical systems are delivered through Acxiom’s agile, highly secure and cost effective services ranging from fully managed solutions like mainframe, server and BI technology platforms to point solutions like online backup and e-mail archiving. Processing more consumer data than anyone in the world, companies depend on Acxiom’s comprehensive IT infrastructure, data management and marketing services competencies to provide true competitive advantage – particularly those companies who rely on information for their success.

About Acxiom
A global leader in interactive marketing services, Acxiom provides clients with the deep consumer insight they need for effective and profitable business decisions and direct-to-consumer marketing initiatives. Our consultative approach spans multiple industries and incorporates decades of experience in consumer data and analytics, information technology, data integration, and consulting solutions for marketing across digital, Internet, email, mobile and direct mail channels. Founded in 1969, Acxiom (Nasdaq: ACXM – News) is headquartered in Little Rock, Ark., and serves clients around the world from locations in the United States, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific. For more information about Acxiom, visit www.acxiom.com.

About Career Education Corporation
The colleges, schools, and universities that are part of the Career Education Corporation (CEC) family offer high quality education to a diverse population approximately 90,000 students across the world in a variety of career-oriented disciplines. The more than 75 campuses that serve these students are located throughout the U.S. and in France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, and offer doctoral, master’s, bachelor’s, and associate degrees and diploma and certificate programs. Approximately one-third of its students attend the web-based virtual campuses of American InterContinental University Online and Colorado Technical University Online.

CEC is an industry leader whose gold-standard brands are recognized globally. Those brands include, among others, the Le Cordon Bleu Schools North America; Harrington College of Design; Brooks Institute; International Academy of Design; American InterContinental University; Colorado Technical University and Sanford-Brown Institutes and Colleges. Through its schools, CEC is committed to providing quality education, enabling students to graduate and pursue rewarding careers.

For more information, see the company’s website at www.careered.com. The company’s website includes a detailed listing of individual campus locations and web links to its more than 75 colleges, schools, and universities.