From the history books -
WAVO - note the explosive volume and close on 12/01/1998 and the
rapid decline.
DATE CLOSING PRICE OPEN HIGH LOW VOLUME
-------- ------------- -------- -------- -------- -----------
12/08/1998 8 1/2 8 3/4 8 3/4 7 7/8 837,700
12/07/1998 8 5/8 8 23/32 8 13/16 7 7/8 1,159,700
12/04/1998 8 5/16 9 5/32 9 1/4 8 5/16 2,187,100
12/03/1998 7 15/16 10 1/16 10 1/16 7 15/16 4,285,100
12/02/1998 9 1/2 12 13 23/32 9 14,813,700
12/01/1998 15 1/4 8 3/4 15 1/2 8 32,236,300
11/30/1998 7 3/4 8 9/16 8 7/8 7 2,141,000
11/27/1998 7 5/8 6 13/16 7 5/8 6 3/4 1,622,300
11/25/1998 6 11/16 5 7/16 6 7/8 5 7/16 1,271,000
11/24/1998 5 17/32 5 15/16 5 15/16 5 13/32 348,100
11/23/1998 5 19/32 5 7/16 5 3/4 5 1/8 432,300
Press release (Nov 30, 1998)
( BW)(WAVEPHORE-1)(WAVO) WavePhore Announces Launch of Online Mall
and New Electronic Commerce Channel
Business Editors/Computer Writers
PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 30, 1998--
WaveTop Store Offers Vendors Merchandising Capabilities
Beyond Those Of The Standard E-Commerce Web Site
WavePhore, Inc. (NASDAQ:WAVO), the leading new media content
integrator and architect of digital delivery systems, today announced
the launch of the WaveTop Store electronic commerce channel, and
establishment of 9 initial merchants in this new "broadcast mall".
Consumers will now be able to take advantage of WaveTop's unique
broadcast delivery of multimedia content to receive exciting offers
and place orders for useful merchandise and services. Vendor's
product offerings and catalog-like content will be delivered
seamlessly to their desktop, without the hassle of going on line, and
for free. Clearance of the actual transactions will be completed
using the consumer's existing Web connection and the secure methods
implemented by each of the respective vendors.
"The launch of the WaveTop Store extends our successful content
offerings, which have been primarily information and entertainment
content, to include services which enhance and ease our customer's
day-to-day lives," said Thom Kozik, WavePhore WaveTop's Executive
Vice-President and General Manager. "The primary benefit is an
improved online shopping experience," added Kozik. "For our vendors,
this channel represents a new way to merchandise their products
without the limitations of slow connections or the costs of
additional infrastructure."
While catalog and retail vendors spend tens of millions annually to
display their products effectively and make the presentation
attractive and enticing to prospective buyers, much of this
traditional merchandising discipline is tossed aside in the rush
towards web-based retailing. Due to typically slow connection speeds
and infrastructure limitations, merchants are often forced to present
only limited thumbnail images of their products, and generally cannot
take advantage of the multimedia capabilities of the average home PC.
With WaveTop's broadcast capability, vendors can now distribute rich,
multimedia presentations of their product offerings directly to the
consumer's PC with no limitations due to slow connections, servers or
Internet traffic. As they develop these new media rich product
presentations, merchants in the WaveTop Store will begin offering the
consumer a better way to be introduced to their products and make
more informed buying decisions.
"WaveTop's broadcast architecture provides us with a unique branding
tool," said Diana Madrigal, Marketing Director at Fry Multimedia, a
leading e-commerce interactive agency. "Our clients, such as Godiva
Chocolatier, will be able to reach "early adopter" consumers of rich
media technology. With WaveTop, they can view an exciting multimedia
message with video and sound elements that can help leverage Godiva's
world-class brand and promote e-commerce on the web.
In addition to Godiva Chocolatier, other vendors involved in the
launch of the WaveTop Store include the Wall Street Journal, Barnes
and Noble, Audio Book Club, CompUSA, The Fragrance Counter, NextCard,
Shop-at-Home, and VideoMaker magazine.
WaveTop's unique electronic commerce and advertising-supported
service also provides multi-media programming, including news,
investment advice and information, children's programming, weather,
free software downloads and much more, all supplied by the Web's
leading content providers. Distributed nationally via the unused
portion of television signals from 264 PBS member stations around the
country, WaveTop currently reaches more than 99 percent of U.S.
households.
WavePhore is a leader in the industry bringing new programming and
content to home viewers through the television medium. The company is
a member of the IP Multicast Initiative (IPMI), an industry committee
that drafts the specifications for IP Multicast, the data
broadcasting standard adopted by the recently formed Advanced
Television Enhancement Forum (ATVEF) for enhanced television
programming. Enhanced television enables a variety of new
information, entertainment and commerce opportunities using data
broadcasting alone or in conjunction with video programming and set-
top boxes.
HOW WAVETOP WORKS
WaveTop's PC data broadcast service works by embedding data streams
into the unseen portion of existing broadcast television signals
using the Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI). WaveTop has partnered
with PBS National Datacast to broadcast data over the television
signals of its 264 PBS member stations. Using a simple browser
interface and a broadcast ready PC (a standard PC with a built-in TV
tuner or equipped with an add-on TV tuner card), users will interact
with automatically downloaded information, entertainment and
software. Computers equipped with TV tuners and WaveTop software
transparently receive, decode and cache content without the
bottleneck of the Internet or tying up a phone line. WaveTop is
compatible with Microsoft Windows 95 and is part of the Microsoft
Windows 98 operating system.
RICH CONTENT
WaveTop content providers are among the world's leading media
companies, including Time Inc. New Media, which includes the on-line
versions of People, Time, Entertainment Weekly, Money, Fortune and
Sports Illustrated for Kids and ZDNet News, on-line versions of
ComputerLife, Family PC and Yahoo Internet Life. Also providing
content are USA TODAY, The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition,
CBS SportsLine, PBS ONLINE, Warner Bros. Online, Bloomberg L.P., The
Weather Channel, N2K's Music Boulevard, BarnesandNoble.com, Universal
Press Syndicate - Comics, Women's Wire and Prevention's Healthy
Ideas, NECX, Astrology.Net, Dummies Daily and UltimateTV.
ADVERTISER-SUPPORTED
WaveTop is supported by leading consumer-brand charter
advertisers. They include companies such as Atlanta Bank, EMI
Records, Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp., Kellogg Co., Lincoln-
Mercury Inc., Mobil Corp., Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., Salomon Smith
Barney Holdings and Spiegel Inc. WaveTop's ability to deliver high-
bandwidth applications to the home without the download delays
associated with modems allows advertisers to send more creative
multimedia advertisements such as movie and video clips, games,
software downloads and micro sites. |
