MBT International Enters Negotiations With Major Freight Transporter; Surpasses AgriMall.com Development Projections
Friday, January 8, 1999 12:33 PM Mail this article to a friend new!
CASTLE ROCK, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 1999--MBT International Inc. (OTC BB:MBTI), parent company of AgriMall.com ( www.agrimall.com ), announced today that the company has entered into negotiations with a leading North American freight transport company to develop a large storefront web presence on the AgriMall.com site. Although specific terms of the proposed transaction were not disclosed, the company believes that it will receive a substantial up front payment for site creation, a monthly hosting fee and a percentage of all transactions taking place on the site. It is anticipated that the deal will close during the month of January.
Andy McKinnon, chief executive officer of MBT International stated, "We have been aggressively marketing to new merchants for inclusion in our AgriMall.com. The acceptance level for our service over the past month has been tremendous, far surpassing all initial projections. Agricultural merchants continually tell us what a pleasure it is to offer goods and services in a virtual setting dedicated to their industry." Based on recent results, the company anticipates that by year end 1999, between 1000 to 1200 storefronts will be conducting business at AgriMall.com.
The company also announced that it is negotiating to acquire a full service Internet engineering and graphic design house. The target acquisition, a leader in the field of digital 3-D system applications, should greatly enhance the graphics capabilities of the company's web sites. Mr. McKinnon commented further, "With cutting edge Internet technology and thirteen extremely talented developer/programmers, this is a perfect fit for MBT International. We expect to close on this acquisition within the next month."
As previously announced, MBT International is in the final stages of acquiring HorseNet.com ( www.horsenet.com ), and launching an online auction service with nearly $100 million of inventory for sale. The combined value of present listings in AgriMall.com and its companion www.lifeathome.com portal exceeds $37 million, while the total value of listings since inception is over $60 million, with broker sales exceeding $16 million.
MBT International's strategy is to build very strong web portals such as AgriMall.com and become a leader in the $300 billion agriculture industry. To accelerate the process, MBT International is evaluating highly focused acquisitions that will further increase both the traffic and volume of E-commerce at its AgriMall.com site. MBT International applies technologies currently in use by online auction and marketing houses such as eBay (Nasdaq:EBAY), Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN) and uBid (Nasdaq:UBID).
Certain statements in this release are forward looking. Although MBT International Inc. believes its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions within the bounds of its knowledge of its business and operations, there can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from its expectations. For factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from expectations and underlying assumptions, see reports by MBT International filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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