NTOP has lotsa shorts, should be good for a lot more..
NBC's Snap.com, NBC.com and NBC Interactive Neighborhood to Distribute Net2Phone Inc. Internet Telephony Services
Strategic Partnerships Will Empower Millions of Internet Users to Instantly Place Low
Cost Net2Phone Telephone Calls Direct From Snap.com and NBC Web
Sites
NBC and Snap.com to Acquire Equity Stakes in Net2Phone Inc.
NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Snap.com, NBC.com and NBC
Interactive Neighborhood, today announced the completion of three strategic agreements
with Net2Phone Inc. (Nasdaq: NTOP) to distribute and market Internet telephony services
throughout these top NBC Web properties.
(Photo: newscom.com )
Under the multiple-year agreements, Net2Phone's PC-to-phone service will be
prominently positioned within Snap.com (www.snap.com), the Internet's fastest-growing
major portal service, allowing users to search Snap.com's white and yellow page phone
listings and instantly dial any listed telephone number with one click -- direct from
Snap.com. All that is needed is a multimedia PC and Net2Phone software, available through
a free download on the Net2Phone Web site (www.net2phone.com).
Net2Phone will receive a featured link on the NBC.com home page (www.nbc.com) and its
PC-to-phone services will be fully integrated throughout the NBC.com site and throughout
NBC Interactive Neighborhood (NBC-IN), allowing national and local NBC viewers and
Internet users to make one-click Internet phone calls worldwide. NBC-IN (www.nbcin.com)
is NBC's online network of owned and affiliated stations, featuring localized community
information and services on more than 100 television station Web pages, nationwide,
covering approximately 65% of the United States.
As part of the agreements, NBC, a unit of General Electric, and Snap.com, NBC and
CNET's Internet portal services company, will acquire equity stakes in Net2Phone Inc. NBC
also will retain the right to nominate a member to Net2Phone Inc.'s board of directors.
NBC's sister company, GE Capital (also a subsidiary of General Electric), will acquire an
equity stake in Net2Phone Inc. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.
Snap.com is slated to be merged with NBC.com, NBC Interactive Neighborhood and other
NBC Internet assets and XOOM.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: XMCM), one of the fastest-growing
community-based sites on the Web and a leading direct e-commerce services company, to
form one of the first publicly traded Internet companies combining these services in a
strategic relationship with a major broadcast television network. The new company, to be
called NBC Internet (NBCi), will use Snap.com as its umbrella consumer brand, integrating
broadcast, portal, and e-commerce services.
Martin J. Yudkovitz, President, NBC Interactive Media said: "This agreement with
Net2Phone will powerfully bridge NBC's Internet properties with the most ubiquitous
consumer technology in the history of the world -- the telephone. Interpersonal
communications has been at the heart of the Internet's phenomenal growth, and Internet
telephony is poised to explode as one of the next big applications that will
revolutionize the way we all interact and communicate."
"Net2Phone's Internet telephony services will further enable Snap.com users to find
exactly what they are looking for on the Internet, be it data, audio, video and now voice
communications," said Edmond Sanctis, Chief Operating Officer, Snap.com. "The worlds of
media, computing and communications are rapidly converging and Snap.com continues to
extend its leadership position at the forefront of this convergence."
About Snap.com
Snap.com, the Internet portal service company from NBC and CNET (Nasdaq: CNET),
operates the Snap.com flagship portal service ( snap.com ) and the newly
launched Snap.com For Higher-Speed Users ( speed.snap.com ), the first-ever
service of its kind. Snap.com's Internet portal services offer users powerful ways to
organize and find anything on the Internet. Snap.com's Internet portal services feature
content from over 100 leading Web publishers and are distributed by more than 70 leading
Internet Service Providers, telephone and communications companies, PC manufacturers and
third-party marketers. At the heart of Snap.com's portal services is a directory of Web
sites and over 500 resource centers, built by a team of editors and reviewers to ensure
quality, freshness and usefulness. Users may either search the Snap directory by using
keywords, or browse through the directory's 16 topic categories.
About NBC
NBC is a global media company with broadly diverse holdings. NBC owns and operates the
NBC Television Network as well as thirteen television stations. In the United States, NBC
owns CNBC, operates MSNBC in partnership with Microsoft, and maintains equity interests
in Arts & Entertainment and The History Channel. NBC also has an equity stake in Rainbow
Programming Holdings, a leading media company with a wide array of entertainment and
sports cable channels, including the Madison Square Garden network. Internationally, NBC
owns and operates CNBC: A Service of NBC and Dow Jones in partnership with Dow Jones &
Company in Europe and Asia. In partnership with National Geographic and Fox/BSkyB, the
network owns and operates the National Geographic Channel in Europe and Asia.
The leader among traditional media companies in Internet and new media businesses, NBC
holds equity stakes in CNET, Talk City, iVillage, Telescan, ValueVision International and
24/7 Media. Several of NBC's Internet assets are slated to be merged with Snap.com, the
fastest-growing major Internet portal, and XOOM.com, Inc., the fastest-growing
community-based site on the Web and a leading direct e-commerce services company, to form
one of the first publicly traded Internet companies combining these services in a
strategic relationship with a major broadcast television network. The new company, to be
called NBC Internet (NBCi), will use Snap.com as its umbrella consumer brand, integrating
broadcast, portal, and e-commerce services. With Microsoft, NBC owns and operates MSNBC,
a 24-hour cable news network and Internet news service at www.msnbc.com. Also, together
with Microsoft and Dow Jones, NBC operates CNBC/Dow Jones Business Video, offering video-
and audio-based financial news and information to financial professionals and
institutions. Other new media innovations from NBC include interactive television
initiatives with Microsoft WebTV for Windows and WebTV Plus, TiVo, Wink-enhanced
programming with Wink Communications, NBC Intercast with Intel, electronic program guides
with Gemstar and on-demand video services with Intertainer.
CONTACT: Robert Silverman
Snap.com
212-664-2756
robert.silverman@nbc.com
Jeff DeMarrais
NBC
212-664-3505
jeffrey.demarrais@nbc.com
/CONTACT: Robert Silverman of Snap.com, 212-664-2756, or robert.silverman@nbc.com;
or Jeff DeMarrais of NBC, 212-664-3505, or jeffrey.demarrais@nbc.com/
08:02 EDT |
