News re CLKS out today....
KLP
siliconinvestor.com
SOFTBANK and click2learn.com, inc. to Form New Company
Joint venture to bring e-Learning to Japanese market
BELLEVUE, Wash--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 13, 2000--click2learn.com, inc.
(Nasdaq: CLKS), a Wired World
Company(TM), Softbank Publishing Inc. and SOFTBANK Forums Japan, Inc. today
announced that the companies agreed to
form a joint venture to introduce the click2learn.com e-Learning portal to the Japanese
market.
The new company will build on the success and extend the distribution of the
click2learn.com e-Learning portal in the U.S.
market by providing leading e-courseware to the Japanese business professional. It will
offer off-the-shelf computer,
professional and managerial courseware, instructor-led training, books from Softbank
Publishing and other publishers, as well
as click2learn.com's popular browser-based, server side authoring and publishing
system, click2learn.publisher.
"As the business professionals in the U.S. rapidly adopt e-Learning to enhance their
professional skills, it is clear that business
professionals in other global markets are beginning to embrace web-based learning just
as rapidly," said Jim Billmaier, CEO of
click2learn.com, inc. "Based on the success SOFTBANK has had in bringing leading
U.S. web companies like Yahoo!,
E*Trade, GeoCities, WebMD and others to Japan in joint ventures, we are excited to
form this new company with
SOFTBANK to successfully bring e-Learning to the Japanese market through
click2learn.com."
"e-Learning is an exploding market, and one that we feel will be quickly adopted in
Japan. We have already seen a rapid
acceptance in Japan of technology and business models from leading U.S. Internet
companies, and there is a large opportunity
to provide e-Learning to Japanese businesses, and to the Japanese business
professional," said Masayoshi Son, President and
CEO of SOFTBANK CORP. "As the leading e-Learning solution company in the
U.S., click2learn.com is the perfect
company for us to create this joint venture with to leverage their expertise and
technology, and to duplicate their success in
Japan."
"I have always believed that the Internet is the perfect medium to enhance education by
providing ubiquitous access to a richer,
interactive learning experience," said Paul G. Allen, founder and largest shareholder of
click2learn.com, inc. "As a leading
Internet company in Japan, SOFTBANK is a premier company to partner with
click2learn.com to extend e-Learning to the
Japanese market."
About click2learn.com, the learning portal
click2learn.com is designed to be the lifelong learning partner to the business
professional by providing professional education
and training on a variety of topics. Using the Internet to remove economic and logistical
barriers to critical learning,
click2learn.com allows larger organizations to access the site using an Application
Service Provider (ASP) model, by integrating
a customer configurable version of click2learn.com with their organization's intranets,
complete with sophisticated learning
management features and functionality that allows organizations to assign courses and
track user's progress and test scores.
click2learn.com also allows individuals and small- to medium-sized businesses to
access formal training online directly through
www.click2learn.com in an engaging and highly interactive format with a standard web
browser.
One of the most unique features of click2learn.com is the self-publishing system found
in click2learn.publisher, the
"browser-based" authoring and publishing system available for free on the learning
portal. click2learn.publisher allows anyone to
create and publish online courseware, and receive royalties on courses sold through the
click2learn.com network that includes
the Go2Net and VerticalNet network of websites. Without installing any additional
software, authors, instructors and subject
matter experts can create courses using just their web browser, set a purchase price
for their course, and then publish it
automatically to click2learn.com. After an initial review, finished courseware is instantly
available to individual users of the site,
as well as to click2learn.com corporate and portal partners.
Thousands of professional learning courses on computer, business and professional
development skills are now accessible
directly through www.click2learn.com. Additionally, a number of free courses are
available currently through click2learn.com,
with more constantly being added. Titled 2MinuteTutors(TM), these short tutorials
cover a wide variety of topics focused on
improving the skills and knowledge requirements of busy business professionals.
About click2learn.com, inc.
click2learn.com, inc. (Nasdaq: CLKS) formerly known as Asymetrix Learning
Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASYM) is a leading
provider of online enterprise learning solutions that enable organizations to author,
deploy and manage Internet-based training
and education. click2learn.com offers a unique single source e-Learning solution that
allows for outsourced or in-house
enterprise training programs. Through www.click2learn.com, the company combines
thousands of leading off-the-shelf courses
with authoring, publishing and learning management functions, all available through a
customer configurable virtual university.
click2learn.com's "behind-the-firewall" enterprise e-Learning initiatives include learning
management products (spearheaded by
the market leading, skills-based Ingenium solution) and web-based authoring software
products (featuring the acclaimed
ToolBook II Instructor and Assistant authoring tools). Each solution is augmented by
professional services including award
winning custom content development, strategic consulting and integration services. For
more information on click2learn.com's
e-Learning solutions, call 800/448-6543 or 425/462-0501. click2learn.com, inc. is
located on the World Wide Web at
www.asymetrix.com and the click2learn.com learning portal is located at
www.click2learn.com.
About SOFTBANK CORP.
SOFTBANK CORP. (Tokyo Stock Exchange:9984) has emerged as one of the
world's leading Internet market forces.
Through its ownership positions in more than 120 Internet companies and its unique
Internet-zaibatsu management concept, it is
able to create market synergies for its family of companies on a global scale. In Japan
its activities encompass distribution,
publishing, Internet media platforms, a broad range of e-commerce businesses, and
joint ventures with companies including
Microsoft, Cisco, Yahoo!, the National Association of Security Dealers, and many
other market leaders. In the U.S.,
SOFTBANK is the largest shareholder in leading Internet companies including
Yahoo!, E*TRADE and ZDNet, and in Europe
has established Internet joint ventures with News Corp. and Vivendi.
(www.softbank.com)
About Softbank Publishing Inc.
Softbank Publishing Inc. is a leading Japanese publisher of PC- and internet-related
periodicals and books. As an integral part
of SOFTBANK's comprehensive Internet initiatives, which also include e-Commerce
and online financial services,
SOFTBANK Publishing is currently developing online media and marketing services.
About SOFTBANK Forums Japan, Inc.
SOFTBANK Forums Japan, Inc. has organized and managed technology forums in
Japan since 1994. These events include
conferences and exhibitions that focus on the latest IT trends and business. By
presenting the best possible forums on
state-of-the-art topics, SOFTBANK Forums will continue to contribute to the
development of the IT industry and offer
opportunities for interactive business and education to vendors and the public.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and
uncertainties, including information contained in
this document where statements are preceded by, followed by or include the words
"believes," "plans," "intends," "expects,"
"anticipates" or similar expressions. For such statements, click2learn.com, inc. claims
the protection of the safe harbor for
forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Actual results may differ
materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered as
an indication of future performance.
Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the
forward-looking statements include market
acceptance of the click2learn.com learning portal and the risk factors set forth in filings
click2learn.com, inc. has made with the
SEC.
click2learn.com, 2MinuteTutor, Ingenium, ToolBook II Instructor and ToolBook II
Assistant are trademarks of
click2learn.com, inc. All other company and/or product names are the property of their
respective owners.
Contact:
click2learn.com, inc.
Melissa Green, 617/747-7000 X 103
Melissa.Green@click2learn.com
or
FitzGerald Communications
Neil Booth, 617/494-9500
NBooth@fitzgerald.com
www.asymetrix.com
www.click2learn.com
or
SOFTBANK Inc.
Neil Katkov, 617/558-6708
neil_katkov@softbank.com |
