GNET <News>
Go2Net Acquires Virtual Avenue and USA Online, Adding 85,000 Member Businesses And Business Directory to HyperMart
PR Newswire, Thursday, April 29, 1999 at 08:52
Go2Net Network Now Home to More Than 275,000 Small- and Medium-Sized
Businesses
SEATTLE, April 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Go2Net, Inc. (NASDAQ:GNET), a network
of branded, technology-and community-driven Web sites
( go2net.com ), today announced the acquisition of Virtual Avenue
( virtualave.net ), a leading provider of free Web hosting services
for small- and medium-sized businesses, for approximately $23 million in
Go2Net stock. The acquisition is effective immediately and adds more than
85,000 member businesses to HyperMart ( hypermart.net ), Go2Net's
free business hosting service, which had a base of more than 190,000
small- and medium-sized businesses prior to the acquisition. HyperMart and
Virtual Avenue are now growing at the combined rate of more than 1,000 new
member businesses per day.
As part of the transaction, Go2Net also acquired USA Online
( usaol.com ), a directory of business Web sites featuring more
than 200,000 listings organized geographically and by business category. USA
Online currently processes approximately 250,000 user requests per day for
businesses in all 50 states and in dozens of selected categories. Go2Net will
position both Virtual Avenue and USA Online under the HyperMart umbrella.
"The acquisition of Virtual Avenue extends HyperMart's position as the
Internet's largest aggregation of small- and medium-sized businesses," said
Russell C. Horowitz, Go2Net Chief Executive Officer. "Now with more than a
quarter million member businesses and accelerated membership growth, HyperMart
is exceptionally well-positioned for leadership in online commerce and
business services, both in business-to-business and business-to-consumer
environments. USA Online's directory will also be of particular value in
categorizing and providing improved access channels for our expanding base of
businesses."
This complements Go2Net's separate announcements last week surrounding the
relaunch of HyperMart and the acquisition of Haggle Online, an auction service
that will be extended to HyperMart, both for business-to-business and
business-to-consumer transactions. In the coming months, HyperMart will also
introduce shopping cart and turnkey commerce site-builder solutions, enabling
HyperMart businesses to sell goods and services in fully secured,
transaction-enabled environments. Unveiled April 21, HyperMart's redesign
includes a completely new user interface and a variety of features and
services, including the most comprehensive customer support program in the
free Web hosting sector: Technical support 24 hours a day, seven days a week
for all HyperMart businesses.
About Go2Net, Inc.
Go2Net is a network of branded, technology- and community-driven Web sites
focused on the following categories: personal finance, search, commerce and
games. The company also develops Web-related software. The Go2Net Network's
properties include: Go2Net Personal ( 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 ( siliconinvestor.com ), the Web's premier
financial discussion site; StockSite ( stocksite.com ), which
offers proprietary articles, portfolio tracking tools, company research and
news relating to business and finance; MetaCrawler
( metacrawler.com ), a metasearch service that combines various
existing search/index guides into one service; 100hot
( 100hot.com ), a leading directory of the Web's most popular
sites; HyperMart ( hypermart.net ), the Web's leading provider of
free business hosting services; Haggle Online ( haggle.com ), one
of the Web's premier person-to-person auction services; WebMarket
( webmarket.com ), a one-stop comparison shopping service; and
PlaySite ( 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.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks
and uncertainties, including those relating to the company's ability to grow
its user and advertiser base. Actual results may differ materially from the
results predicted and reported results should not be considered as an
indication of future performance. The potential risks and uncertainties
include, among others, the company's limited operating history, the
competitive environment in which the company competes, the early stage of the
Web as an advertising and electronic commerce medium, the company's dependence
on advertising and sponsorship revenues, the company's dependence on strategic
relationships to drive traffic to its Web sites, consumer acceptance of the
company's new products and services, the company's ability to develop and
integrate new technologies and services into its existing services, and the
increased use of the Web for commerce. More information about the potential
factors that could affect the company's business and financial results is
included in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended
September 30, 1998 and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended
December 31, 1998, which are on file with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.
CONTACT: Mark S. Peterson, Director of Public Relations of Go2Net, Inc.,
206-447-1595, or mark@go2net.com.
SOURCE Go2Net, Inc.
-0- 04/29/99
/CONTACT: Mark S. Peterson, Director of Public Relations of Go2Net, Inc.,
206-447-1595, or mark@go2net.com/
/Web site: virtualave.net
/Web site: hypermart.net
/Web site: usaol.com
/Web site: go2net.com
Companies or Securities discussed in this article:
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