PR Newswire, Wednesday, September 02, 1998 at 15:40
NEW YORK, Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- LT Lawrence & Co. Inc., a New York
investment banking firm, today announced its updated report on AIM Smart
Corporation (BB: AIMS). The report can be viewed at
virtualir.com under the "Research Reports" heading.
Analyst, Tom Ronk, outlines the Company and its "Electronic Retailing via
Free Internet" business strategy. Fourth quarter ending July 31, 1998 is
projected to have revenues between $2.5 and $3.0 million with a loss just over
$1 million for the quarter. The Smart Shopper free Internet service is
profiled as having over 400,000 members this year with an expected 3,000,000
members by the end of 1999.
The Smart Shopper Explorer/Smart Pavilion service links shoppers at home
to stores in their local mall and provides unlimited free Internet. Local
mall stores sign up for the service and contribute a monthly fee to the mall's
co-op advertising budget. The mall owner matches this contribution and AIM
Smart generates current monthly advertising revenues of approximately $30,000
per month per mall. Store owners submit their advertising contribution for
co-op reimbursement from their suppliers and can leverage their advertising
budgets by as many as 15 times. Additional revenue streams include premium
advertising packages, e-commerce and research collection.
AIM Smart has contracts with over 350 malls through Simon DeBartolo Group
(NYSE:SPG), Rouse Company (NYSE:RSE) and Wells Park. Over 30,000 stores are
expected to be online in the next 18 months. Other strategic partners include
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), WPP and Research International, ((Ascend
Communications (NASDAQ:ASND))) and Klein Technologies. The free Internet
service will have approximately 500 points of presence (POPs) around the US
and provide nearly 25 million households the opportunity to sign up.
AIM Smart has 12 malls fully operational with an additional 48 Rouse malls
providing the Smart Shopper service by the end of November. An additional
30 Wells Park malls should be online by the end of December. By March of
1999, AIM Smart expects to have an additional 240 Simon DeBartolo malls online
which will bring the lion share of members to the Smart Shopper system.
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