A lot of questions can be answered by this release if you read it carefully.
Food.com Secures $80 Million Investment from Top Media, Entertainment and Food Industry Leaders, Including Clear Channel, Liberty Digital, TV Guide, McDonald's Corporation, Kraft Foods and Blockbuster
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 9, 2000--
Food.com Rolls Out Plans to Become the Number One Destination on the Web for Everything Related to Food; Expanded Strategy to Include New Content, Broadadband, Restaurant Industry Aggregation and Business-to-Business Initiatives
Food.com, the Internet's food and restaurant destination, announced today that the company has received $80 million in strategic investments from leaders in media, entertainment, interactive Internet services, food manufacturers and retailers, placing a current valuation on the company of just over $400 million.
The company said it will use the new capital to fuel its plans to become the nation's dining network, offering consumers a single destination for anything related to food -- and accessed from a variety of devices from personal computers to wireless handhelds and televisions.
Among others, the investors include Clear Channel, Liberty Digital, TV Guide, McDonald's Corporation, Kraft Foods, Blockbuster, and Red Coat, as well as original investors Accel Partners, Tribune Ventures, Charter Communications, Food.com Chairman and CEO Richard Frank and Chief Operating Officer John Laing.
"Our plan to be the number one destination on the Web for food is focused around five key initiatives: offer comprehensive content about food, allow users to conduct a variety of food-related transactions, be accessible through any Internet device from personal computers to televisions, control the delivery channel to customers, and aggregate the restaurant industry to provide business-to-business services," said Rich Frank, Food.com's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "This sizeable investment and our relationships with these investors give us huge leverage to be the first company to link food content, food retailers and restaurants together, tapping into the $376 billion restaurant food industry."
Food.com's initial proprietary service offered consumers the ability to view menus and order restaurant food online for takeout or delivery. Company officials explained the online takeout and delivery service will remain a core product offering while the company expands its content to include restaurant reviews by both professional reviewers and Food.com members, and a nationwide restaurant guide.
Food.com will also aggregate content and services from other sources such as online restaurant reservations, recipes, advice from celebrity experts, and regular columns on the latest food news and trends. The company has already begun this expansion, hiring a full-time editorial staff that launched the editorial area of the website in December of 1999.
In addition, the company launched the Food.com Marketplace in November of 1999 to offer consumers food-related products from select partners.
The company also plans to continue its aggressive strategy of positioning Food.com to integrate with existing and soon to be released wireless handheld and broadband devices. This began in December of 1999 when Food.com announced that AT&T's Interactive Offerings Group had chosen Food.com to design interactive content specifically for AT&T's interactive television offerings.
The content is expected to be available in the form of a permanent onscreen icon to all AT&T Interactive TV customers later this year, when DCT-5000 set-top boxes are expected to be deployed. In addition, Liberty Digital expects Food.com to be an important content contributor to its interactive TV-based commerce initiative.
Food.com is also expected to launch this year a restaurant industry business to business division that will leverage the company's relationships with restaurants through its continued aggregation of the restaurant industry. Currently, Food.com has nearly 16,000 restaurants on its network, each with its own unique interactive website, which Food.com creates for each individual restaurant.
"Our new media partners, such as Liberty Digital and Clear Channel will help us to bring Food.com's online takeout and delivery product, as well as the new content we are creating, to a massive audience. As the television and other devices become the preferred mediums for purchasing products and accessing information and entertainment from the Internet, these partnerships will be invaluable," said Frank.
Clear Channel owns over 800 radio stations nationwide and is the largest owner of outdoor billboards in the United States.
McDonald's Corporation
"McDonald's is interested in Internet commerce and its potential," said James R. Cantalupo, President and Vice Chairman of McDonald's Corporation. "We're excited about our new relationship with the innovative team at Food.com, and look forward to sharing and exchanging ideas with Food.com."
Kraft Foods
"Kraft Foods is exploring ways to better leverage the growing consumer interest in online food solutions, and our strategic partnership with Food.com offers us the ability to participate in the online food delivery and takeout category," said Todd Brown, President of Kraft Food Services Division, who will also join the Food.com board of directors. "We think there are terrific synergies between our two companies. Food.com is a leader in the online food category, while we see this as an opportunity to draw on the expertise of our Kraft Food Services Division in food away-from-home and our consumer insights to bring value to foodservice operators."
Liberty Digital
"We believe food delivery and restaurant information will be a killer application for our interactive TV-based commerce offering," said Lee Masters, president and CEO of Liberty Digital (Nasdaq:LDIG). "Our significant investment in Food.com demonstrates our commitment to partnering with businesses that will be winners in our core content categories, and marks another milestone in positioning Liberty Digital to be a leader in interactive television." Craig Enenstein, Liberty Digital's Vice President of Business Development and Strategy, will join the Food.com board.
About Food.com
Food.com was founded in December of 1996 and is the only service of its kind, offering home and business meals on the Internet. With nearly 16,000 restaurants on the service nationwide and nearly 1,000,000 registered members, Food.com is also the exclusive takeout and delivery partner of America Online.
Food.com has been a leader in aggregating the highly fragmented restaurant industry in order to provide consumers with a one-stop shopping site on the Web for food takeout and delivery ordering. Consumers can also search Food.com's Dining Guide for information on 150,000 restaurants across the United States, or shop at Food.com's Marketplace from select retailers of specialty food, items and gifts.
Food.com will continue to expand its offerings to include restaurant reservations, restaurant reviews, sending meals as gifts, and news related to food and dining. Food.com can be found on the World Wide Web at www.food.com. Located in San Francisco, Food.com can also be contacted at 415/403-5200.
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CONTACT:
Food.com
David Gilcreast, 415/403-5216
dgilcreast@food.com
or
Krause Taylor Associates
Barbara Krause, 408/918-9081
barbara@krause-taylor.com |
