July 15, 1999 16:30
ValueVision to Form Subsidiary to Pursue and Manage
Internet Investments
ValueVision Announces First Two of Series of Investments in Internet Companies
MINNEAPOLIS, July 15 /PRNewswire/ -- ValueVision International, Inc. (Nasdaq:
VVTV) today announced that it expects to form a new wholly-owned subsidiary that
will be dedicated to aggressively pursuing and managing a series of new
investments and strategic alliances in Internet ventures. Working closely with NBC
and GE Equity, the subsidiary expects to take a series of strategic equity
positions in growing Internet enterprises that could substantially benefit from
ValueVision's e-commerce and entertainment programming initiatives, including
cross-promotions with the Company's rapidly growing home shopping network and
Internet shopping website. The subsidiary and its management team is expected to
be formed and announced within the next few weeks.
As part of this move, ValueVision announced it has taken a minority stake in
WhatsHotNow.com and VirtualVineyard.com, two rapidly growing and synergistic
Internet enterprises.
"The formation of a subsidiary that will focus on managing our Internet investments
mark the catalyst for a number of additional strategic investments and alliances
ValueVision, NBC and GE Equity expect to make during the next series of
months," said Gene McCaffery, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of
ValueVision International, Inc. "We believe that growing Internet companies which
offer distinctive products and services, such as WhatsHotNow.com and
VirtualVineyard.com, could benefit tremendously from ValueVision's rapidly
improving distribution and e-commerce and entertainment programming initiatives.
Through these investments and initiatives, we continue to build ValueVision into an
e-commerce powerhouse that is spearheading the convergence of the television
with the Internet.
"While convergence is one of those topical and overused terms, ValueVision's
partnership with GE and NBC will clearly illustrate the impact of cross-marketing
and programming between media. These initial investments are illustrative of the
kind of opportunities that we will build upon and look forward to an even more
integrated approach in the near future," concluded Mr. McCaffery.
"We look forward to pursuing the numerous prospects created by our partnership
with ValueVision. We believe ValueVision's rapidly expanding subscriber base and
exciting programming initiatives will help build the WhatsHotNow.com brand name
both online and offline," said Robert Fried, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of
WhatsHotNow.com.
"Our strategic alliance with ValueVision will leverage our offline branding campaign
in the Fall through these additional programming initiatives. We have aggressive
plans to build significant visibility for the VirtualVineyard.com brand in the next six
months. This partnership is an important element of those plans, said Bill
Newlands, Chief Executive Officer of VirtualVineyard.com.
About WhatsHotNow.com
WhatsHotNow.com is an Internet shopping Website that sells the most popular
licensed brands and "hot" products in the marketplace based on a real-time,
user-generated index. The site shares collective information about what people are
thinking and buying around the globe. Visitors nominate the people and things that
they think are hot, and the site's Web crawlers search the Internet to validate their
opinions. The site then matches this information with polling data collected from its
users, sales data collected from its stores and overall traffic data collected from the
site.
Based upon who or what is popular on the WhatsHotNow Index, the site procures
related merchandise and makes it available to its customers. WhatsHotNow is an
evolving network, consisting of hundreds of "consumer clubs" under one roof.
Consumer clubs allow fans of particular trends/ brands to interact with one another,
buy products smarter and cheaper, and ultimately influence what products get
placed in the marketplace.
About VirtualVineyard.com ( www.virtualvineyard.com )
Founded in 1994, VirtualVineyard.com, the first wine merchant on the Web, is the
Internet's leading wine retailer and a pioneer in electronic commerce.
VirtualVineyard.com offers an ever-growing assortment of domestic and
international wines and wine-related gifts and accessories to consumers and
corporations around the world. It makes wine buying easy and fun with detailed
wine information, its proprietary wine tasting chart and expert advice from its team
of master sommeliers. Each wine on the site is tasted and personally selected by
the company's team of sommeliers. The company ships to 80% of the United
States through a legally compliant network of wholesalers and retailers.
VirtualVineyard.com is privately held with offices in Palo Alto and Napa, Calif. The
company's investors include New Millennium Partners, GE Equity, MediaOne
Ventures, Inroads Capital Partners, Alpine Technology Ventures, and Applied
Technology.
About ValueVision
ValueVision International, Inc. is an integrated electronic and print media direct
marketing company, and operates a television home-shopping network and
multi-book catalog operation. The Company offers live programming 24 hours per
day, 7 days a week. As of July 31, 1999, approximately 29 million homes will be
able to receive ValueVision's programming. In addition, the Company operates
several direct mail operations and an Internet shopping Web site ( www.vvtv.com ).
The Company's shares are traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol
VVTV.
For additional information on ValueVision please visit the Company's web site at
vvtv.com or by fax, at no cost, dial 1-800-PRO-INFO, and enter code
VVTV.
(Note: The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor"
for forward-looking statements. Certain information included in this news release
contains statements that are forward-looking, such as statements relating to
increased distribution of the Company's programming, the Company's future
profitability, entrance into e-commerce, and the continuing success in developing
and implementing new strategic alliances (including the GE Equity and NBC
alliance.) There are certain important factors, such as consumer spending and debt
levels, interest rates, competitive pressure on sales and pricing, the maintenance
of distribution of the Company's programming, that could cause results to differ
materially from those forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that all
forward that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainty, including
the possibility that revenues and distribution will not continue to increase, that
e-commerce will not be successful, that other strategic alliances (including the GE
Equity and NBC alliance and the WhatsHotNow.com and VirtualVineyard.com
investments) may not result in increased revenues, earnings and subscribers. For
more information on the potential factors that could affect the Company's financial
results, investors should refer to the Company's filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
SOURCE ValueVision International, Inc.
/CONTACT: Gene McCaffery, Chairman, President and CEO of ValueVision
International, Inc., 612-947-5207; or general info., Haris Tajyar,
310-442-0599, investors, Tracy Gutwillig, 312-266-7800, or media, Marjorie
Ornston, 310-442-0599, all of the Financial Relations Board/
/Web site: virtualvineyard.com /
/Web site: vvtv.com / |
