PEERLESS ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT COMPANY CHOOSES HOWARD W. SAMS & COMPANY'S DATAHOST FOR NEXT CATALOG

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 26, 1996

PEERLESS ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT COMPANY CHOOSES
HOWARD W. SAMS & COMPANY'S DATAHOST FOR NEXT CATALOG

Regional Electronics Distributor Producing Print Catalog This Year in
Preparation for Electronic Catalogs of Next Year

INDIANAPOLIS, IND. - Peerless Electronic Equipment
Company, Inc.
(Peerless), a regional electronics distributor, will use the
Datahost^(tm) relational database system
to produce its next catalog.

Peerless has contracted with Howard W. Sams & Company (Sams), a
Bell Atlantic company, to use Datahost, a database system composed of
five million items formatted and standardized by Sams and 150,000
graphics.

"Datahost gives us the flexibility we need to get product
information
to our customers," said Larry Baines, president & CEO, Peerless.
"The
system's technology allows us to adapt to the changing demands of
those same customers with a minimum of effort."

Peerless is the first regional distributor in the electronics
market to utilize Datahost. Using Datahost, Peerless will publish a
full-line catalog featuring 13,234 items in the first quarter of 1997.

"The advantage of the Datahost system is that it allows businesses
to produce full-line, niche, CD-ROM and online catalogs, all from one
source," said Damon Davis, chief operating officer, Sams.
"Peerless is
proof that a smaller distributor with a vision of the future will be
more then able to compete in the coming years."

The Datahost database includes five million items produced by
manufacturers in seven wholesale/distributor markets: electrical,
electronic, HVAC/R, industrial, janitorial, paper and plumbing
supplies. In addition, there are 150,000 graphics that can be used to
illustrate a full range of products for each one of these markets.

Peerless, founded in 1932 in Louisville, Ky., is a leading regional
distributor of electronic parts. The company serves the industrial
electronic market, and carries such lines as Amp, Fluke, Stancor,
Amprobe, International Power, and Weidmuller. Peerless supplies a
variety of components and equipment to customers involved in
industrial, commercial, institutional, medical and educational
pursuits. Peerless can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.pelec.com.

Established in 1946 in Indianapolis, Ind., Howard W. Sams & Company
is
celebrating its 50th anniversary. Sams developed and markets Datahost,
a manufacturer's product relational database, Dataview^(tm), an online
Internet-accessible ordering system, and DataROM^(tm), a CD-ROM catalog with online ordering capability.
Dataview is the only online ordering
system currently available that allows end-users to place orders
directly with a distributor.

Sams publishes nearly 125 catalogs annually for its customers in
the electronic, electrical, HVAC/R, industrial, janitorial, paper and
plumbing supplies markets. Sams is the nation's largest provider of
after-market service data for the television/VCR repair industry in
the form of the PHOTOFACT® and VCRfact® subscription services. In
addition, the company owns Masters Press, which publishes sport
fitness and reference books. Sams was acquired by Bell Atlantic in the
fall of 1995.

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Media contact:

Young & Associates:
Rob Blumenthal (301-309-9404)