Thought the attached might be of interest. Regards,
-Mark
Mark S. Peterson
Director of Public Relations
Go2Net, Inc.
Go2Net hires Margo Day as vice president, managing director of HyperMart
To lead ecommerce initiatives for Internet's largest community of small and medium-sized businesses
SEATTLE, August 6, 1999 - Go2Net, Inc. (Nasdaq: GNET), a network of branded, technology- and community-driven Web sites (http://www.go2net.com/), has hired Margo Day as vice president and managing director of Go2Net's HyperMart (http://www.hypermart.net/), the Web's leading provider of free hosting services for small and medium-sized businesses. In addition to directing HyperMart's day-to-day operations, she will lead the continued development of Go2Net's end-to-end ecommerce capabilities for member businesses of HyperMart and Virtual Avenue (http://www.virtualave.net/), a similar business hosting service, which Go2Net acquired in April. Combined, HyperMart and Virtual Avenue host more than 430,000 small and medium-sized businesses and are growing at the rate of more than 1,000 new member businesses per day.
Day has more than 15 years of technology management, business development and marketing experience, with an emphasis on small and medium-sized business markets. As senior director of Lotus Development Corporation's North American sales and field marketing group, Day developed fully integrated sales, marketing and partner development organizations to successfully build revenues from small and medium business sectors throughout the continent. During her career with Lotus, she held related positions as director of enterprise sales and director of U.S. business partner sales, where she led year-to-year growth rates of 75% for Lotus' base of U.S. premium business partners. Day has also held positions as director of reseller sales, director of channel sales and director of headquarter sales for Microrim, Inc.
"Margo brings Go2Net an exceptional base of management expertise in developing enhanced commerce and revenue opportunities surrounding the small and medium-sized business sectors," said John Keister, Go2Net President. "As HyperMart and Virtual Avenue continue to extend their category leadership, and with the strategic elements now in place at Go2Net to establish one of the Internet's largest communities of commerce-enabled merchants, we're particularly pleased to be adding Margo's leadership capabilities."
As part of Go2Net's ecommerce solutions, Day will lead the extension of auction services provided by Haggle Online (http://www.haggle.com/), a site acquired by Go2Net in March, to HyperMart and Virtual Avenue member businesses. She will also play a key role in the integration of payment authorization capabilities provided by Authorize.Net (http://www.authorize.net/), the Internet's leading payment authorization service, which Go2Net acquired in July for $90.5 million. Authorize.Net currently enables online transactions for more than 38,000 merchants and will extend its services to HyperMart and Virtual Avenue member businesses.
Also in July, Go2Net reached a comprehensive licensing agreement with Intershop Communications, the leading supplier of sell-side electronic commerce solutions, to provide online storefronts and shopping cart technologies for HyperMart and Virtual Avenue members. Additionally, Go2Net and Vulcan Ventures Inc. in July announced a $20 million investment in CommTouch Software, a global provider of partner-branded, Web-based email services. Go2Net will offer private label versions of CommTouch's free email products to HyperMart and Virtual Avenue member businesses.
About Go2Net, Inc.
Go2Net is a network of branded, technology- and community-driven Web sites focused on the following categories: personal finance, search and directory, commerce and business services, and games. The company also develops Web-related software. The Go2Net Network's properties include: Go2Net Personal (http://www.go2net.com/), which provides users with a comprehensive Internet start page offering customizable news, discussion, and stock information, as well as direct access to Go2Net's own finance, search, free Web hosting, shopping and Java multiplayer game sites; Silicon Investor (http://www.siliconinvestor.com/), the Web's premier financial discussion site; StockSite (http://www.stocksite.com/), which offers proprietary articles, portfolio tracking tools, company research and news relating to business and finance; MetaCrawler (http://www.metacrawler.com/), a metasearch service that combines various existing search/index guides into one service; Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com/), a metasearch service and provider of proprietary search technologies; 100hot (http://www.100hot.com/), a leading directory of the Web's most popular sites; HyperMart (http://www.hypermart.net/), the Web's leading provider of free business hosting services; Authorize.Net (http://www.authorize.net/), the Internet's leading payment authorization service; Haggle Online (http://www.haggle.com/), one of the Web's premier person-to-person auction services; WebMarket (http://www.webmarket.com/), a one-stop comparison shopping service; and PlaySite (http://www.playsite.com/), the Web's premier Java-based multi-player games site. The company's Go2Net Labs division develops innovative technologies to enhance the features and functionality of the Go2Net sites and for licensing to other Internet companies.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including those relating to the company's ability to grow its user and advertiser base. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, the company's limited operating history, the competitive environment in which the company competes, the early stage of the Web as an advertising and electronic commerce medium, the company's dependence on advertising and sponsorship revenues, the company's dependence on strategic relationships to drive traffic to its Web sites, consumer acceptance of the company's new products and services, the company's ability to develop and integrate new technologies and services into its existing services, and the increased use of the Web for commerce. More information about the potential factors that could affect the company's business and financial results is included in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended September 30, 1998 and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended December 31, 1998 and March 31, 1999, which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
|
