Thank you Kimberly for another amazing pick!
Microsoft and Internet Gold Sign MOU to Form Portal Company andLaunch MSN Israel
TEL-AVIV, Israel, Dec. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Internet Gold (Nasdaq: IGLD), the leading internet service provider in Israel, today announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Microsoft Corp. to jointly establish a portal company to administer and operate "MSN Israel".
Internet Gold will hold 50.1 percent of the new company, and 49.9 percent will be held by Microsoft Corp. Microsoft Corp. will provide the technology and distribution right to the MSN brand. The parties are contemplating entering a definitive agreement with respect to this MOU.
"MSN Israel" is scheduled to be up and running by January 2000. It will offer all Hebrew reading internet users most state of the art MSN features such as: personalization services, "Hotmail," "Passport" and instant messaging, the widest variety of news, Internet search engine, business services, and e-Commerce services. This portal will integrate the existing Internet Gold portals and many other Israeli web portals. All services will be fully localized and in Hebrew.
Internet Gold's CEO, Eli Holtzman, commented, "This collaboration with Microsoft is a significant achievement in our strategy to bring Internet Gold global recognition as a leading Israeli Internet content Company. Working with a partner of Microsoft's caliber reinforces our prominence as a premier player in the industry. We have already established the frame for the new company. Based on MSN's leading position in the Global content market and our leading market position I expect that MSN Israel will be the most significant player in our content market."
Internet Gold is the leading Internet service provider in Israel in number of subscribers, based on recent surveys. The company provides a wide array of Internet services tailored to meet the needs of residential and business subscribers, including Internet access and related value-added services, as well as content through the Company's portals. The Company provides access through a nationwide network with 14 points of presence, allowing approximately 95% of the Israeli population to access the Internet with a local telephone call.
Certain statements made herein that use the words "estimate," "project," "intend," "expect," "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those which may be expressed or implied by such statements, including, among others, changes in general economic and business conditions and specifically, decline in demand for the Company's services, inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, services and applications and loss of market share and pressure on prices resulting from competition. For additional information regarding these and other risks and uncertainties associated with the Company's business, reference is made to the Company's Registration Statement on Form F-1 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and its reports filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
SOURCE Internet Gold
CO: Internet Gold; Microsoft Corp.
ST: Israel
IN: CPR MLM
SU: JVN
12/28/1999 12:17 EST prnewswire.com
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