(BSNS WIRE) Greg Manning Auctions, Inc. and AT&T Labs Sign Joint Marketi
Greg Manning Auctions, Inc. and AT&T Labs Sign Joint Marketing Agreement; Greg
Manning to Promote Collectibles on AT&T WorldNet Service Home Page Using DjVu
Technology
Business Editors
WEST CALDWELL, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 6, 1999--Greg Manning
Auctions, Inc. (NASDAQ - GMAI) today announced that it has signed a
joint marketing agreement with AT&T Labs to promote GMAI's high-end
auction services and AT&T Labs' DjVu(tm) technology on AT&T WorldNet(R)
Service's Home Page. The campaign, scheduled to begin August 15, will
promote in prime space on the home page of the nation's largest direct
Internet service provider GMAI's Internet auctions of baseball cards,
coins, movie posters, comic books and others collectibles utilizing
high quality images in the DjVu format.
The promotion will feature images of such notable collectibles to
be sold by GMAI as a 1952 First Topps Baseball Card of Mickey Mantle,
a $4 gold Stella coin, the classic Superman No. 14 comic book
(considered by many to be the greatest of all Superman Covers), and
the rare 24 cent inverted Jenny airmail stamp. These items, along with
thousands of other GMAI offerings, will be presented to potential
bidders using the DjVu technology on GMAI's web site, which permits
Internet viewers to experience the visual quality of these
incomparable collectibles.
"GMAI was the first Internet consumer product licensee for DjVu,
and they've done a great job incorporating the DjVu technology into
their www.teletrade.com website," said Alan Schwartz, AT&T Labs' sales
director for DjVu. "As a result, GMAI has become a leading
state-of-the-art online auction house, enabling their customers to
view collectibles with greater speed, resolution, and the ability to
enlarge the image for close inspection."
Greg Manning, GMAI's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
commented: "This deal represents two significant milestones in our
comprehensive E-Commerce strategy. It stands as our first major home
page advertising venture, and will serve as a model for other
significant Internet marketing initiatives that we have under
development. It also stands as an example of the teaming efforts that
we are undertaking with other technological leaders."
Jim Reiman, GMAI's Ex. VP: E-Commerce Strategic Business
Development, stated: "Our goal is to establish our web sites as THE
ultimate destination sites for all collectors. As we have announced,
our strategy to achieve that goal includes forming strategic alliances
with the industry's other leaders. AT&T WorldNet(R) Service and AT&T
Labs are two of the best, and we're proud to be teamed with them."
About DjVu
AT&T DjVu image compression technology enables high resolution of
images of existing and electronic documents to be distributed on the
Internet. With DjVu content developers can scan high resolution color
pages of books, magazines, catalogs, manuals, historical or ancient
documents, financial reports, insurance claims, bills of lading,
digital libraries and make them available on the Web. The result is
content providers and consumers around the world can leverage the
incredible wealth of information and images that were previously
trapped in hard copy form.
The core of the DjVu technology is an innovative document imaging
compression technique that achieves compression ratios as high as a
1000:1 - which is 5 to 10 times better than existing methods commonly
used on the web. Scanned pages at 300 DPI in full color can be
compressed down to a mere 30 to 60 KB from 25 MB with excellent
quality. Black and white pages are typically 10 - 30BK. This puts the
size of high quality scanned pages within the realm of an average HTML
page. DjVu files are 5 to 10 times smaller than JPEG and 5 times
smaller than GIF & PDF files. In addition to scanned documents DjVu
can also be applied to documents produced electronically.
More information on DjVu can be found at djvu.att.com,
including a free copy of the DjVu plug-in, software development kits
for Windows, Unix and other platforms, and links to third party
technology providers who are using DjVu in their products.
About Greg Manning Auctions
Greg Manning Auctions, Inc. is a full service auctioneer of a
wide range of collectibles and diamonds, as well as the nation's
leading stamp auction house and one of the largest in the world. It is
the first publicly owned auction company to hold real-time auctions
simultaneously over the Internet and via telephone, while providing
confidential transmission of bidder and seller information. Greg
Manning Auctions, Inc. possesses more than 30 years of auction
experience, as well as a full staff of experts in each of the product
categories in which it operates. GMAI is also distinguished by its
long established and well-entrenched relationships with suppliers of
quality collectibles throughout the world, and by its aggressive
global strategy. In early 1999, GMAI formed GMAI-ASIA.COM, which
opened offices in Beijing, China and recently launched its web site
www.gmai-asia.com. In July, 1999, GMAI created GMAI-EUROPE.COM in
partnership with Afinsa Bienes Tangibles, S.A., one of the leading
collectibles companies in Europe specializing in stamps, fine art and
coins.
GMAI's websites are: www.gregmanning.com and www.teletrade.com.
Its common stock is traded on the NASDAQ SmallCap system under the
symbol GMAI, and on the Boston Stock Exchange under the symbol GGM.
Statements in this press release that relate to future plans,
objectives, expectations, performance, events and the like are
"forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934. Future events, risks and uncertainties, individually or
in the aggregate, could cause actual results to differ materially from
those expressed or implied in these statements. Those factors include
the parties' abilities to develop, implement, integrate, and launch
the services and offerings described herein, and other factors
discussed in the "forward-looking information" or "risk factors"
sections included in the companies' prospectuses, quarterly reports on
Form 10-Q, and annual reports on Form 10-K.
AT&T WorldNet and DjVu are service and trademarks of AT&T.
--30--es/ny*
CONTACT: GREG MANNING AUCTIONS, INC.
Greg Manning, Chief Executive Officer
Bill Tully, Chief Operating Officer
973/882-0004
or
KCSA
Jeff Corbin/Joseph A. Mansi
212/682-6300, ext 214/205
www.kcsa.com
KEYWORD: NEW JERSEY
INDUSTRY KEYWORD: RETAIL INTERACTIVE/MULTIMEDIA/INTERNET
COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS COMED TELECOMMUNICATIONS
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