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INTERNET.COM ANNOUNCES THE ACQUISITION OF INTERMEDIA GROUP SEMINAR ORGANIZATION AND REVISES FINANCIAL GUIDANCE
(New York, NY - March 8, 2001) - internet.com Corporation (Nasdaq: INTM), the Internet & IT Network, today announced that it has acquired Intermedia Group, Inc. (http://www.imgevents.com), an integrated conference, consulting and event management firm specializing in emerging information technology markets. Terms of the all cash transaction were not disclosed. This acquisition will be accounted for under the purchase method."internet.com has created a variety of successful Internet related seminars over the past year as a new and vibrant line of business. We have come to understand that our over 5.0 million unique monthly users and over 5.6 million subscribers to our e-mail newsletters are natural buyers of services related to Internet and IT topics. Seminars are clearly one of those services. We realize we can leverage this professional readership into these events and we can do this efficiently and with minimal promotion worldwide as we now have operations in 20 countries" stated Alan M. Meckler, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of internet.com Corporation. We envision tremendous operational synergies between our existing and new properties, and are very excited that this strong team, led by industry veteran Eliot Weinman, is joining us. Intermedia Group, with a staff of 25 employees, has built a solid reputation in the IT and Internet space and when combined with internet.com's online assets, we have significantly enhanced value for our stockholders. We will be able to move more aggressively into the seminar, market research and consulting businesses using our existing operations and those already created by the Intermedia Group's team. We expect that this acquisition will be accretive to internet.com on a cash earnings basis by the second quarter of 2001," added Meckler.
"The acquisition, combined with internet.com's existing seminar and conference resources, solidifies its position as a leading provider of content and information serving the Internet and information technology industries," said Eliot Weinman, President of Intermedia Group. "We are excited to now be part of the internet.com network and we look forward to working with the internet.com team. We have always respected the world-class quality of internet.com's editorial content and informative seminars and believe that this is a perfect home for Intermedia Group," added Weinman. "We look forward to leveraging internet.com's professional IT and Internet audience to accelerate the growth of Intermedia Group."
Business Outlook
"There is hardly a day that goes by in which a large technology company does not announce that it has been harmed by the present economic malaise. The continued slowdown in the general economy and particularly in the Internet and IT related industries is now severe. Obviously, internet.com is not immune to these pervasive conditions. We have seen a continued slowdown in advertising revenues during the month of February and into early March as advertising decisions are being deferred. We believe that internet.com is prepared to handle this slowdown better than almost any other trade publisher because of the diversity of our other lines of business, including our seminar operations. We have a strong cash position and a sound business strategy. However, we cannot specifically predict when business will improve because of the continuing uncertainty demonstrated by our customers and clearly present throughout the whole of the United States economy," added Meckler.
The following forward looking-statements reflect internet.com's expectations as of March 8, 2001. Given the emerging nature of online advertising, potential changes in general economic conditions, and the various other risk factors discussed below and in internet.com's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, actual results may differ materially. internet.com intends to continue its practice of not updating forward-looking statements until its next quarterly results announcement, other than in publicly available statements.
Future
Expectations
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Q1 2001 |
Q2 2001 |
Q3 2001 |
Q4 2001 |
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Revenues ($M) |
$13.0-15.0 |
$17.0-19.0 |
$19.0-21.0 |
$21.0-23.0 |
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Cost of revenues |
56-58% |
45-47% |
40-42% |
36-38% |
|
Adv., promo. & selling |
45-47% |
34-36% |
31-33% |
28-30% |
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General & admin. |
23-25% |
19-21% |
17-19% |
16-18% |
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Depreciation ($M) |
$0.7 |
$0.8 |
$0.9 |
$1.0 |
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Amortization ($M) |
$9.9 |
$11.2 |
$11.5 |
$11.3 |
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Interest income ($M) |
$0.7 |
$0.5 |
$0.4 |
$0.4 |
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Share count (M) |
25.5 |
25.6 |
25.6 |
25.7 |
About Intermedia Group
Intermedia Group, Inc. (http://www.imgevents.com), is an integrated conference, consulting and event management firm specializing in emerging information technology markets. Intermedia Group produces several leading IT conferences and seminars that are leading forums in their respective market segments. Its founders and executives are senior industry analysts who together have a long track record of launching innovative new products in IT, including conferences and market intelligence studies. In addition to its leading series of conferences, Intermedia Group provides a wide range of services for information technology providers and end-users, including event management, consulting and market intelligence.
About internet.com
internet.com Corporation (http://www.internet.com/), the Internet & IT Network, is headquartered in Darien, CT. It is a leading provider of global real-time news and information resources for Internet industry and information technology professionals, Web developers and experienced Internet users. internet.com owns and operates a network of 170 Web sites, over 300 e-mail newsletters, over 400 online discussion forums and more than 100 moderated e-mail discussion lists that generate over 250 million page views monthly. Total "views", which include Web site page views, e-mail newsletter views and e-mail discussion list views, are now over 300 million per month. According to NetRatings, internet.com has 4.3 million unique users in the United States alone. Over 25% of internet.com's views are from outside of the U.S. internet.com's global presence includes editions for Arabia, Asia, Australia, Canada, China, Espanol, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey and the United Kingdom. internet.com also produces over 20 offline seminars on Internet and IT-specific topics that are aligned with our network of Web sites and e-mail newsletters.
Interested advertisers should contact the Ad Sales department at [email protected] or (203) 662-2962. For e-commerce and licensing opportunities, contact David Arganbright, Vice President, Commerce and Licensing, at [email protected] or (203) 662-2858. For more information on conferences and seminars, contact Frank Fazio, Jr. at [email protected] or (203) 662-2976.
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding internet.com Corporation's business which are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Prospectus dated June 25, 1999, Annual Report or Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year, when available.
For more information contact:
Mary Ann Boland
Marketing and Public Relations Associate
212-547-7939
[email protected]
All current INT Media Group, Inc. press releases can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.internet.com/corporate/press.html.