AUDIO BOOK CLUB EXPANDS MARKETING ALLIANCE WITH LEADING INTERNET PORTAL, GO2NET
MORRISTOWN, N.J., Oct 5, 1999 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Audio Book
Club, Inc. (Amex: KLB) announced today that it has expanded its online
marketing alliance with Go2Net, Inc. (Nasdaq: GNET), a network of
branded, technology- and community-driven Web sites
(http://www.go2net.com).
As a result of today's alliance, Audio Book Club will offer its
audiobooks and old-time radio products on the MetaCrawler search engine
and on the 100Hot, HyperMart, and Virtual Avenue sites, all of which
will feature frequent button and banner advertisements for the
Company's various websites.
"In recent years, Audio Book Club has emerged as the Internet's leading
provider of premium unique spoken word content. We are pleased to
further our relationship with the Audio Book Club team, and to be able
to offer visitors to our site easy access to the Company's tremendous
volume of content," said Dan Ballister, Go2Net national sales director.
Norton Herrick, Chairman and CEO of Audio Book Club, added, "To date,
we have been extremely pleased with the success of our online
advertising strategy and are excited to be working with Go2Net. Today's
agreement, we believe, should continue to enhance our already
prosperous online sales and marketing efforts by attracting potential
new customers through the Go2Net service."
About Go2Net, Inc. Go2Net is a network of branded, technology- and
community-driven Web sites focused on the following categories:
personal finance, search and directory, commerce and business services,
and games. The company also develops Web-related software. The Go2Net
Network's properties include: Go2Net Personal (http://www.go2net.com),
which provides users with a comprehensive Internet start page offering
customizable news, discussion, and stock information, as well as direct
access to Go2Net's own finance, search, free Web hosting, shopping and
Java multiplayer game sites; Silicon Investor
(http://www.siliconinvestor.com), the Web's premier financial
discussion site, which also offers proprietary articles, portfolio
tracking tools, company research and news relating to business and
finance; MetaCrawler (http://www.metacrawler.com), a metasearch service
that combines various existing search/index guides into one service;
Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com), a metasearch service and provider of
proprietary search technologies; 100hot (http://www.100hot.com), a
leading directory of the Web's most popular sites; HyperMart
(http://www.hypermart.net) and Virtual Avenue
(http://www.virtualave.net), the Web's leading providers of free
business hosting services; Authorize.Net (http://www.authorize.net),
the Internet's leading payment authorization service; Haggle Online
(http://www.haggle.com), a person-to-person auction service; WebMarket
(http://www.webmarket.com), a one-stop comparison shopping service; and
PlaySite (http://www.playsite.com), the Web's premier Java-based
multi-player games site. The company's Go2Net Labs division develops
innovative technologies to enhance the features and functionality of
the Go2Net sites and for licensing to other Internet companies.
About Audio Book Club Audio Book Club, Inc. is the world's largest
marketer of audiobooks and old-time radio shows through its membership
club which markets and sells audiobooks, old-time radio shows and music
via the Internet at audiobookclub.com and by mail order.
MediaBay.com, an affiliate of Audio Book Club, Inc., is the Company's
media portal and e-commerce site located at mediabay.com.
MediaBay.com offers visitors a single location for premium spoken word
content available in both hard goods and in secure digitally
downloadable formats. The MediaBay.com network of websites includes
audiobookclub.com, audiobook.com,
radiospirits.com, videoyesteryear.com, and
downloadbay.com. Audio Book Club, Inc. is also a publisher
of audio and video content including classic radio and video programs
and markets and sells that content on audio cassettes, CDs and video
cassettes via numerous distribution channels including the Internet at
radiospirits.com, catalogues, radio shows, retail and other
outlets. Since commencing operations in January 1994, Audio Book Club,
Inc. has engaged in an aggressive membership recruitment program to
establish a core Audio Book Club member base. Following its recent
acquisitions of Doubleday's Audiobooks Direct and Columbia House's
Audiobook Club, Audio Book Club, Inc. now has a combined membership and
customer database of more than 2 million names. The company's
shareholders include Time Warner, Sony, Harvard Management Company Inc.
on behalf of Harvard College and a fund advised by Soros Fund
Management LLC.
Safe Harbor Statement Under The Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995: The statements which are not historical facts contained in
this press release are forward-looking statements that involve a number
of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may
cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to
be materially different from any future results, performance or
achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.
Such factors include, but are not limited to, the ability of the
Company to successfully integrate the newly acquired businesses into
its operations and the uncertainty regarding the actual effect of the
acquisitions on the Company, risks relating to the Company's direct
mail campaigns and its ability to retain members to its book club,
risks relating to the Company's growth strategy, dependence on third
party service providers, uncertainty of the scope of future product
returns, collection and risks associated with selling products on
credit, competition and other risks detailed in the Company's
Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The words "believe" and
"should" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.
Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these
forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date the
statement was made. |
