Infonautics' Company Sleuth Doubles Membership in Last 90 Days
PR Newswire - June 21, 1999 15:10
Company Takes Minority Position in Co-Founder's E-Commerce Startup
WAYNE, Pa., June 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Infonautics, Inc. (Nasdaq: INFO), a rapidly growing Internet information company, today announced that more than 200,000 Internet users have registered with Company Sleuth(TM) (http://www.companysleuth.com), its free online business information service. The company had previously announced that it surpassed 100,000 registered users in March.
Recently selected by PC Magazine as one of the "Top 100 Web Sites," Company Sleuth is the Internet's leading source of free, legal, inside information about publicly traded companies. Company Sleuth searches the Internet and delivers current financial and business news and information on a particular user's competitors, investments, prospects and clients. With Company Sleuth, users receive a daily e-mail report detailing the business activities, financial moves and Internet dealings of selected companies -- often before they are officially announced or reported.
"We are very excited to reach this membership milestone," said Van Morris, President and Chief Executive Officer of Infonautics. "Our growth rate really took off thanks in part to the publicity we received when Company Sleuth broke the news on MCI Worldcom's registration of the "skytelworldcom.com" domain name three days prior to its announced acquisition of SkyTel Communications."
Infonautics also announced today that co-founder Josh Kopelman will be leaving Infonautics to create an Internet-based e-commerce company called Half.com, Inc. Still in the development stage, Half.com will reveal its business strategy in late 1999. Infonautics will own a minority stake in this new venture and will have a seat on its Board of Directors. Mr. Kopelman will direct the transition and will serve as a consultant to Infonautics through the end of the year.
"Josh has been a driving force in the development of Infonautics. For quite some time Josh has been interested in starting a company of his own, but has chosen to continue with Infonautics until the Sleuth product strategy, for which he provided the vision and leadership, was firmly established," said Van Morris. "Infonautics is excited to be the initial investor in Half.com and looks forward to the potential benefits it could represent for Infonautics shareholders."
"I leave knowing that Infonautics is well positioned and in strong hands," Mr. Kopelman said. "I've long wanted to start my own company and with our Sleuth rollout now well underway, this seemed to be the ideal opportunity to take that leap."
In addition, Infonautics today announced that it plans to launch a new service, Sports Sleuth(TM), in the third quarter of 1999. Like Job Sleuth and Company Sleuth, Sports Sleuth will search the Internet for timely, topical sport-related information and deliver a convenient daily e-mail update to its users.
ABOUT INFONAUTICS
Infonautics, Inc. (Nasdaq: INFO) is a leading Internet information company that provides online information services to schools, libraries, consumers and businesses. The Infonautics Network of web properties generates more than 20 million page views per month and reaches almost 2 million unique visitors each month. According to the February 1999 Media Metrix Web Report, the reach of the Infonautics Network placed it in the top 75 web properties on the Internet at that time. Its award-winning Electric Library service (http://www.elibrary.com) was the first reference service of its type on the Internet, and today is one of the fastest growing electronic reference products for schools and libraries, serving more than 15,000 institutions in all 50 states. Electric Library is also one of the largest paid subscription sites on the Web with more than 75,000 paying subscribers. The Company also provides e-commerce online archive services to major publishers and other content creators. Infonautics was founded in November 1992, and is headquartered in Wayne, PA.
INFONAUTICS and ELECTRIC LIBRARY are registered trademarks of Infonautics, Inc. or its subsidiaries. COMPANY SLEUTH, JOB SLEUTH and SPORTS SLEUTH are trademarks of Infonautics, Inc. or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks and service marks are the properties of their respective owners.
This news release contains, in addition to historical information, forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements include statements regarding the Company's growth and expansion plans, investments in other companies, new products and services, the number of unique visitors, subscribers and registered users of the Company's products and services, the number of page views for its products and services, and advertising, e-commerce and subscription business models and products. Such statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. More information about potential factors which could affect the Company's financial results is included in the Risk Factors sections of the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward- looking statements included in this document are based on information available to the company as of the date of this document, and the company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements.
Infonautics, Inc. press releases available through Company News On-Call: prnewswire.com or fax, 800-758-5804, ext. 115424/
For more information, contact: Bob Wright of Infonautics, 610-225-6356, or bwright@infonautics.com.
SOURCE Infonautics, Inc.
/CONTACT: Bob Wright of Infonautics, 610-225-6356, or
bwright@infonautics.com/
/Company News On-Call: prnewswire.com or fax,
800-758-5804, ext. 115424/
/Web site: elibrary.com
/Web site: infonautics.com
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