| To: REH who wrote (25) | 4/27/1999 9:01:00 PM | | From: Eric P | | | |
GETY had a great day today, after the Amazon news. It broke out to a new 52 week high on increased volume. I bought a few shares late in the day and expect it to show further strength tomorrow.
Go GETY!
-Eric |
| | GETY: GETTY IMAGES INC. Huge/Undiscovered Net Potential! | Stock Discussion ForumsShare | RecommendKeepReplyMark as Last ReadRead Replies (1) |
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| To: REH who wrote (25) | 5/5/1999 6:42:00 AM | | From: REH | | | |
Growing E-Commerce Sales Boost Getty Images' Strong First Quarter Results
PR Newswire, Wednesday, May 05, 1999 at 00:40
Increase in E-Commerce Sales Results in Significant Overall Revenue Growth
For Leading Global Visual Content Provider
SEATTLE, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Getty Images, Inc. (NASDAQ:GETY), a
leading global provider of visual content, today announced financial results
for the first quarter of 1999. Sales for the quarter increased by 38 percent
over the first quarter of 1998 to $52.2 million and reported EBITDA (earnings
before interest, taxes, exchange gains/(losses), depreciation, amortization,
non-recurring integration and restructuring costs, legal settlement and
extraordinary items) increased by 46 percent to $9.6 million.
Digital sales in the quarter, consisting of e-commerce and CD-ROM sales,
amounted to $20.1 million or 39 percent of sales, compared with 23 percent of
sales for the first quarter of 1998. E-commerce sales for the quarter
increased by more than 100 percent over the first quarter of 1998 to more than
$10.4 million. E-commerce sales as a percentage of total sales increased to
approximately 20 percent from approximately 10 percent in the first quarter of
1998.
Getty Images' first quarter success was fueled by its fully e-commerce
enabled web sites, which continue to drive sales and increase margins. The
www.photodisc.com site reported a nearly 80 percent increase in e-commerce
sales over the first quarter of 1998. Sales on the site represented
40 percent of total sales for the brand. E-commerce sales on the
www.tonystone.com site have increased approximately eightfold since the fourth
quarter of 1998 and accounted for 15 percent of total North American sales for
the brand in the first quarter of 1999. Registrations on the www.allsport.com
web site are up nearly 20 percent over the fourth quarter of 1998.
In April of this year, Getty Images made its imagery available to a
consumer audience for the first time as PhotoDisc became the premier provider
of contemporary royalty-free photography to Amazon.com's new electronic
greeting-card site. In a separate announcement today, the company announced
an agreement to acquire Art.com, a premier online destination for art. The
acquisition marks Getty Images' expansion into the growing online consumer
marketplace, a move that will significantly increase the company's potential
customer base.
The company's e-commerce achievements were recently recognized as it
ranked number 19 on the May issue of Business 2.0's "100 Hottest Companies on
the Net," joined in the top 20 by market leaders including Dell Computer,
America Online, Amazon.com, Yahoo!, Charles Schwab and eBay.
"With the expansion of our e-commerce business, we continue to strive to
create a more user-friendly experience for our customers and a more efficient
and cost-effective platform for getting our images to our customers," said
Mark Getty, co-founder and executive chairman. "As the next step in this
direction, we plan to launch a hub web site that will allow our customers to
search across all our creative collections in the second half of the year.
Furthermore, we intend to continue to build on our success in this area by
expanding and diversifying not only our e-commerce offerings, but also our
customer base."
"We are very pleased with the growth we have achieved in the first quarter
of this year, particularly the strong growth of our e-commerce sales," said
Jonathan Klein, co-founder and chief executive officer. "With our brands, we
continue to create solutions that increase our market share and broaden our
potential customer base. With our corporate headquarters moving to Seattle
later this year, we will be better able to focus on developing our technology
resources and we will continue to make the investments in technology and in
marketing necessary to support our growing e-commerce operations."
Highlights of the first quarter 1999
-- Digital sales in the quarter, consisting of e-commerce and CD-ROM
sales, amounted to $20.1 million or 39 percent of sales, compared with
23 percent of sales in the first quarter of 1998. E-commerce sales for
the quarter increased by more than 100 percent over the first quarter
of 1998 to more than $10.4 million. Registered web customers on all
Getty Images full e-commerce web sites grew to more than 93,000.
E-commerce sales for all Getty brands doubled to approximately 20
percent of sales in the first quarter of 1999 from approximately 10
percent in the first quarter of 1998.
-- Getty Images' leading contemporary stock photography brand, Tony Stone
Images, increased sales for the first quarter of 1999 by more than 10
percent over the first quarter of 1998. Approximately 25 percent of
the sales on the www.tonystone.com web site were to new customers.
E-commerce sales for the brand continue to exceed expectations in both
North America and Europe. E-commerce sales in North America accounted
for 15 percent of the total North American sales for the quarter, while
UK e-commerce sales accounted for 6 percent of the brand's total UK
sales for the month of March 1999.
-- The average license price on the www.tonystone.com web site is closely
in line with the brand's average price in the analog model, which
demonstrates that e-commerce is also having no adverse impact on
pricing for our products.
-- Getty Images' leading digital, royalty-free imagery brand, PhotoDisc,
reported sales growth of more than 30 percent over the first quarter of
1998. Following the launch of a redesigned e-commerce web site
featuring enhanced functionality, PhotoDisc achieved an increase in
e-commerce sales of nearly 80 percent over the first quarter of 1998.
E-commerce sales accounted for 40 percent of total PhotoDisc sales,
with more than half of total North American sales and nearly 20 percent
of European sales on the web.
-- Allsport, the company's leading sports photography brand, ended the
quarter with more than 1,000 subscribers for its www.allsport.com web
site, and in addition to renewing its existing contracts, signed a
number of new contracts. Allsport has contracts with a number of
leading online businesses, including CBS Sportsline, America Online and
Compuserve.
-- In March, Getty Images announced the relocation of its corporate
headquarters to Seattle from London, based on the company's increasing
emphasis on e-commerce. The move will bring the company closer to the
majority of its customers and shareholders in the U.S.
-- PhotoDisc executed a reseller agreement with amana, the parent company
of Photonica, which gives access and product endorsement to amana's
more than 60,000 licensed stock customers in Japan.
-- Energy Film Library's sales increased more than 20 percent over the
fourth quarter of 1998, largely as a result of increased marketing and
outreach programs by the Los Angeles office.
-- Liaison Agency's press division delivered solid growth in the first
quarter, assisted by extensive news coverage of the Clinton impeachment
trial and the war in Kosovo.
-- Hulton Getty sales grew more than 20 percent in the UK in the first
quarter, partly due to an excellent performance at the Hulton Getty
Gallery.
Financial results for the first quarter 1999
-- Getty Images' reported sales increased by 38 percent to $52.2 million
in the first quarter of 1999, compared with $37.9 million in the first
quarter of 1998.
-- Gross margin for the first quarter improved to 73.5 percent of sales
from 69.4 percent in the first quarter of 1998 and 72.5 percent in the
fourth quarter of 1998. The increase was due to the continuing shift
to web sales and an increase of sales of wholly-owned content. The
increases also demonstrate the effectiveness of the strategies the
company has put into place to increase gross margins.
-- Selling, general and administrative expenses were $28.7 million,
representing 55.1 percent of sales compared with 52.1 percent in the
first quarter of 1998. The increase in SG&A was largely due to
continued and accelerated investment in marketing associated with the
launch of new web sites and increased investment in management, new
sales offices and new business systems.
-- EBITDA for the first quarter increased by 46 percent to $9.6 million,
compared to $6.6 million in the first quarter of 1998. On a pro forma
basis, EBITDA increased by $6.5 million or 210 percent over the first
quarter of 1998. EBITDA as a percentage of sales increased from 17.3
percent in the first quarter of 1998 to 18.4 percent. |
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| To: REH who wrote (22) | 5/5/1999 6:44:00 AM | | From: REH | | | |
Photography House Getty Images To Buy Art.com For About $200 Million
Dow Jones Online News, Wednesday, May 05, 1999 at 01:26
(Published on Tuesday, May 04, 1999 at 22:23)
By William M. Bulkeley, Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Photography house Getty Images Inc. has agreed to buy Art.com for up
to $200 million, in a move aimed at creating a dominant online marketer
of artistic and photographic reproductions.
Getty, founded by the grandson of billionaire oil man J. Paul Getty,
has become one of the world's largest sellers of photographs through
purchases of photo repositories. It owns about 30 million images and
dispatches photographers around the world to take shots of current
events and images from professional baseball games to Kosovar refugees.
Closely held Art.com, based in Lake Forest, Ill., has been selling
prints of paintings and posters and framing them for online purchasers
for just a year. It typically doesn't own the rights to the works it
displays online, but acts as a sales intermediary.
Under the terms of an agreement expected to be announced today, Getty
Images will initially pay 4.5 million of its shares to Art.com, plus up
to $84 million in additional cash and stock, depending on operating
results and stock price over the next four months.
Getty founder Mark Getty said the company wants to build on the
"knowledge base" of Art.com to reach consumers and expand beyond its
traditional business buyers. Getty can print some of its photos to order
from its digital files, avoiding the expense of physical inventory. "We
have four million pictures of sports events and add 5,000 a week," Mr.
Getty says. "If I was 14, I'd have them all over my walls."
Mr. Getty, 37 years old, started Getty Images in 1995 and has since
bought a stock photo house, a historical archive, a photojournalism
company and PhotoDisc Inc., a provider of digitized royalty free photos.
Last year, Getty Images reported a net loss of $36.4 million on an 85%
sales increase to $185.1 million. Mr. Getty's family holds a 28% stake
in the company, which has been based in London but is moving to Seattle.
Started by William Lederer, a 37-year-old onetime money manager,
Art.com carries 100,000 prints that users can order online. It has sold
30,000 customers about $2 million worth of goods, and says it is now
growing more than 50% a month.
The deal with Getty provides a quick return for the three
venture-capital firms that invested $10 million for a 50% stake in
Art.com last November. They are Benchmark Capital, Palo Alto, Calif.;
Softbank Technology Ventures, San Jose; and Sandler Capital Management,
New York. Robert Kagle, a partner with Benchmark, said they contemplated
an initial public offering, but "we were all captured by the strategic
fit between Getty and the ability to print those images on demand and
offer a complete, framed work of art."
Getting the venture money was a key point in Art.com's development
because it allowed it to acquire its current Internet address for
$450,000 from its previous owner, Advanced Rotorcraft Technology, a
helicopter consulting firm. "Our order rate doubled," Mr. Lederer says.
A consumer visiting the Art.com site has the option of searching for
artworks by artist, key word or index. Offerings span the gamut from
Rembrandt to Rothko to H.A. Rey, the creator of "Curious George." Some
80% of sales are unframed art, but Mr. Lederer is looking to build
framed sales.
When buyers pick a print, they can choose a mat, using a palette of
50 choices, then a frame and glass or plexiglass. An 11-by-15-inch print
of Curious George goes for $10; adding a mat and metal frame brings the
total to $53.48. A larger, more elaborate, framed print of say, an
expressionist work can fetch $400 or more. Pamela Miller, a Southern
California writer, says she has started buying and sending unframed
Art.com prints to friends and relatives rather than greeting cards.
Mr. Lederer says the art-framing business is ripe for consolidation,
in part because "I'm a capitalist in a sea of communists. Very few
participants in the art industry are interested solely in making the
greatest amount of money, believe it or not."
Mark Getty's vision isn't unique. Microsoft Corp. Chairman William
Gates owns Corbis Corp., a Seattle company that has built a 25 million
photo collection that includes photos by Ansel Adams and of John F.
Kennedy Jr. saluting his father's casket. Corbis recently started
selling downloadable images to consumers. A small Cambridge, Mass.,
company, Barewalls.com competes with Art.com in the poster market,
although it doesn't provide framing.
Copyright (c) 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
|
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| To: REH who wrote (28) | 5/5/1999 7:04:00 AM | | From: REH | | | |
Growing E-Commerce Sales Boost Getty Images' Strong First Quarter Results
PR Newswire, Wednesday, May 05, 1999 at 00:40
Increase in E-Commerce Sales Results in Significant Overall Revenue Growth
For Leading Global Visual Content Provider
SEATTLE, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Getty Images, Inc. (NASDAQ:GETY), a
leading global provider of visual content, today announced financial results
for the first quarter of 1999. Sales for the quarter increased by 38 percent
over the first quarter of 1998 to $52.2 million and reported EBITDA (earnings
before interest, taxes, exchange gains/(losses), depreciation, amortization,
non-recurring integration and restructuring costs, legal settlement and
extraordinary items) increased by 46 percent to $9.6 million.
Digital sales in the quarter, consisting of e-commerce and CD-ROM sales,
amounted to $20.1 million or 39 percent of sales, compared with 23 percent of
sales for the first quarter of 1998. E-commerce sales for the quarter
increased by more than 100 percent over the first quarter of 1998 to more than
$10.4 million. E-commerce sales as a percentage of total sales increased to
approximately 20 percent from approximately 10 percent in the first quarter of
1998.
Getty Images' first quarter success was fueled by its fully e-commerce
enabled web sites, which continue to drive sales and increase margins. The
www.photodisc.com site reported a nearly 80 percent increase in e-commerce
sales over the first quarter of 1998. Sales on the site represented
40 percent of total sales for the brand. E-commerce sales on the
www.tonystone.com site have increased approximately eightfold since the fourth
quarter of 1998 and accounted for 15 percent of total North American sales for
the brand in the first quarter of 1999. Registrations on the www.allsport.com
web site are up nearly 20 percent over the fourth quarter of 1998.
In April of this year, Getty Images made its imagery available to a
consumer audience for the first time as PhotoDisc became the premier provider
of contemporary royalty-free photography to Amazon.com's new electronic
greeting-card site. In a separate announcement today, the company announced
an agreement to acquire Art.com, a premier online destination for art. The
acquisition marks Getty Images' expansion into the growing online consumer
marketplace, a move that will significantly increase the company's potential
customer base.
The company's e-commerce achievements were recently recognized as it
ranked number 19 on the May issue of Business 2.0's "100 Hottest Companies on
the Net," joined in the top 20 by market leaders including Dell Computer,
America Online, Amazon.com, Yahoo!, Charles Schwab and eBay.
"With the expansion of our e-commerce business, we continue to strive to
create a more user-friendly experience for our customers and a more efficient
and cost-effective platform for getting our images to our customers," said
Mark Getty, co-founder and executive chairman. "As the next step in this
direction, we plan to launch a hub web site that will allow our customers to
search across all our creative collections in the second half of the year.
Furthermore, we intend to continue to build on our success in this area by
expanding and diversifying not only our e-commerce offerings, but also our
customer base."
"We are very pleased with the growth we have achieved in the first quarter
of this year, particularly the strong growth of our e-commerce sales," said
Jonathan Klein, co-founder and chief executive officer. "With our brands, we
continue to create solutions that increase our market share and broaden our
potential customer base. With our corporate headquarters moving to Seattle
later this year, we will be better able to focus on developing our technology
resources and we will continue to make the investments in technology and in
marketing necessary to support our growing e-commerce operations."
Highlights of the first quarter 1999
-- Digital sales in the quarter, consisting of e-commerce and CD-ROM
sales, amounted to $20.1 million or 39 percent of sales, compared with
23 percent of sales in the first quarter of 1998. E-commerce sales for
the quarter increased by more than 100 percent over the first quarter
of 1998 to more than $10.4 million. Registered web customers on all
Getty Images full e-commerce web sites grew to more than 93,000.
E-commerce sales for all Getty brands doubled to approximately 20
percent of sales in the first quarter of 1999 from approximately 10
percent in the first quarter of 1998.
-- Getty Images' leading contemporary stock photography brand, Tony Stone
Images, increased sales for the first quarter of 1999 by more than 10
percent over the first quarter of 1998. Approximately 25 percent of
the sales on the www.tonystone.com web site were to new customers.
E-commerce sales for the brand continue to exceed expectations in both
North America and Europe. E-commerce sales in North America accounted
for 15 percent of the total North American sales for the quarter, while
UK e-commerce sales accounted for 6 percent of the brand's total UK
sales for the month of March 1999.
-- The average license price on the www.tonystone.com web site is closely
in line with the brand's average price in the analog model, which
demonstrates that e-commerce is also having no adverse impact on
pricing for our products.
-- Getty Images' leading digital, royalty-free imagery brand, PhotoDisc,
reported sales growth of more than 30 percent over the first quarter of
1998. Following the launch of a redesigned e-commerce web site
featuring enhanced functionality, PhotoDisc achieved an increase in
e-commerce sales of nearly 80 percent over the first quarter of 1998.
E-commerce sales accounted for 40 percent of total PhotoDisc sales,
with more than half of total North American sales and nearly 20 percent
of European sales on the web.
-- Allsport, the company's leading sports photography brand, ended the
quarter with more than 1,000 subscribers for its www.allsport.com web
site, and in addition to renewing its existing contracts, signed a
number of new contracts. Allsport has contracts with a number of
leading online businesses, including CBS Sportsline, America Online and
Compuserve.
-- In March, Getty Images announced the relocation of its corporate
headquarters to Seattle from London, based on the company's increasing
emphasis on e-commerce. The move will bring the company closer to the
majority of its customers and shareholders in the U.S.
-- PhotoDisc executed a reseller agreement with amana, the parent company
of Photonica, which gives access and product endorsement to amana's
more than 60,000 licensed stock customers in Japan.
-- Energy Film Library's sales increased more than 20 percent over the
fourth quarter of 1998, largely as a result of increased marketing and
outreach programs by the Los Angeles office.
-- Liaison Agency's press division delivered solid growth in the first
quarter, assisted by extensive news coverage of the Clinton impeachment
trial and the war in Kosovo.
-- Hulton Getty sales grew more than 20 percent in the UK in the first
quarter, partly due to an excellent performance at the Hulton Getty
Gallery.
Financial results for the first quarter 1999
-- Getty Images' reported sales increased by 38 percent to $52.2 million
in the first quarter of 1999, compared with $37.9 million in the first
quarter of 1998.
-- Gross margin for the first quarter improved to 73.5 percent of sales
from 69.4 percent in the first quarter of 1998 and 72.5 percent in the
fourth quarter of 1998. The increase was due to the continuing shift
to web sales and an increase of sales of wholly-owned content. The
increases also demonstrate the effectiveness of the strategies the
company has put into place to increase gross margins.
-- Selling, general and administrative expenses were $28.7 million,
representing 55.1 percent of sales compared with 52.1 percent in the
first quarter of 1998. The increase in SG&A was largely due to
continued and accelerated investment in marketing associated with the
launch of new web sites and increased investment in management, new
sales offices and new business systems.
-- EBITDA for the first quarter increased by 46 percent to $9.6 million,
compared to $6.6 million in the first quarter of 1998. On a pro forma
basis, EBITDA increased by $6.5 million or 210 percent over the first
quarter of 1998. EBITDA as a percentage of sales increased from 17.3
percent in the first quarter of 1998 to 18.4 percent.
About Getty Images, Inc.
Getty Images, Inc., with 30 million photographs and more than 13,000 hours
of film, is a leading international provider of visual content to a diverse
range of professionals in advertising and graphic design, magazine, book and
newspaper publishing, broadcasting, production and new media publishing.
Getty Images markets rights to images and footage through its web sites, its
international network of wholly owned offices in 17 countries and agents in
more than 50 counties. The company has approximately 1,350 employees
worldwide and reported revenues of approximately $185 million in 1998.
Getty Images' strategy is to use electronic commerce to enhance its
services and extend its market and this effort is well underway with three
successful business-to-business web sites already available:
tonystone.com, photodisc.com, allsport.com.
The company plans to launch a hub web site for all its content brands as a
first step towards a complete desktop working environment for the global
creative market.
Art.com, Getty Images' newly acquired consumer content brand, is the
number one online destination for art. The web site features the world's
largest collection of framed and unframed art, discounted at 20 to 50 percent
below traditional costs. Art.com's galleries feature works by famous artists,
such as Monet, van Gogh and Matisse, as well as original artists, including
Ronnie Wood. Prints can be purchased unframed or framed, using Art.com's
proprietary software. Art.com also offers Art Print Index
(http://www.artprintindex.com), the art industry standard for sourcing and
buying art.
The company's market leading business-to-business visual content brands
include: Tony Stone Images, the world's leading contemporary stock photography
brand; PhotoDisc, the world leader in digital, royalty-free stock photography;
Allsport, the world leading sports photography brand; Hulton Getty
(http://www.hulton-getty.com), one of the largest privately owned collections
of archival photography in the world; Liaison Agency
(http://www.liaisonphoto.com), a leading North American news and reportage
brand; and Energy Film Library (http:/www.digital-energy.com), one of the
world's leading stock footage brands. Further information is available from
Getty Images' web site at (http://www.getty-images.com).
CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT HIGHLIGHTS
(Unaudited, in thousands)
First quarter
Getty Images Inc. Getty Images Inc.
Three Months Ended Three Months Ended
March 1998 March 1999
$'000 $'000
Sales $37,931 $52,150
Cost of sales 11,607 13,841
Gross profit 26,324 38,309
Selling, general and
administrative expenses 19,748 28,724
Amortization 6,897 10,224
Depreciation 2,897 4,606
Operating loss (3,218) (5,245)
Net interest expensed (551) (811)
Exchange losses (356) (391)
Loss before tax (4,125) (6,447)
Income taxes (1,080) (1,435)
Net loss (5,205) (7,882)
EBITDA (a) $6,576 $9,585
Notes: (a) EBITDA is defined as earnings before interest, taxes,
exchange losses, depreciation and amortization.
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEET
(In thousands)
Audited Unaudited
Getty Images Inc. Getty Images Inc.
At December 31, At March 31,
1998 1999
$'000 $'000
Cash and cash equivalents $16,150 $8,249
Other current assets 53,059 62,886
Total current assets 69,209 71,135
Fixed assets, net 62,757 63,669
Intangible assets 325,861 315,637
Deferred assets 5,036 4,969
TOTAL ASSETS $462,863 $455,410
Short term borrowings $202 $108
Other current liabilities 46,380 47,675
Total current liabilities 46,582 47,783
Long term debt 72,354 72,532
Shareholders' equity 343,927 335,095
TOTAL LIABILITIES & SHAREHOLDERS
EQUITY $462,863 $455,410
|
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| To: Billy Barooo who wrote () | 5/19/1999 10:59:00 AM | | From: REH | | | |
Getty Images' Art.com Increases Commitment to Online Partners Including AOL, Netscape, Excite, DoubleClick and Yahoo!
PR Newswire, Wednesday, May 19, 1999 at 09:29
Web's Leading Source of Framed and Unframed Art Increases Targeted Advertising
on Leading Portal Sites
SEATTLE, May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Art.com, the leading online sites for art
and art-related products, announced today that it has increased its
advertising commitment on websites including AOL and its subsidiary Netscape
(NYSE:AOL), Excite (NASDAQ:XCIT), DoubleClick (NASDAQ:DCLK) and Yahoo!
(NASDAQ:YHOO). Art.com, the consumer brand of Getty Images, Inc.
(NASDAQ:GETY), plans to use increased visibility on these leading portal
sites to extend its reach into existing and new markets for the more than
100,000 images available on its e-commerce site www.art.com. Art.com's 1999
online advertising expenditures are anticipated to increase at least seven-
fold over 1998.
With one of the web's largest collections of framed and unframed art,
Art.com makes art more accessible, affordable, and easier to select and
purchase. Through increased use of targeted advertising and sponsorships on
key web portal sites, Art.com's aim is to increase its exposure to audiences
interested in purchasing decorative art for homes, offices, college
dormitories or as gifts, thus continuing to strengthen its presence in the
estimated $9 billion consumer market for art and art related products. In the
very near future, selected content from Getty Images' other branded
collections will be added to the Art.com site, increasing the number and
variety of images available on the site.
"Our success with online advertising, on AOL, Yahoo! and other sites, is
illustrated by the more than 400 percent increase in user sessions on the site
during the first four months of 1999. This increase demonstrates the value of
advertising on the most popular and trusted brand-name portals on the web,
said Bill Lederer, Chief Executive Officer of Art.com. "We remain fully
committed to building on our lead in the consumer art marketplace and our
increased advertising expenditures reflect this commitment."
Art.com also intends to strengthen its presence on web sites that appeal
specifically to women, its largest customer segment. Sites such as iVillage
(NASDAQ:IVIL), HomeArts and the Women.com network will also see increased
sponsorship this year. |
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| To: REH who wrote (31) | 6/3/1999 5:46:00 PM | | From: REH | | | |
Getty Images' Art.com Partners with Key Women's Web Sites
PR Newswire, Thursday, June 03, 1999 at 16:39
Alliances with iVillage and Women.com Provides Web Shoppers
Direct Access to Great Art
SEATTLE, June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Getty Images' Art.com(SM) subsidiary, one
of the world's most inviting places to discover and buy art, today announced
it has formed strategic partnerships with two of the top women's sites on the
Internet: iVillage and Women.com. These partnerships will provide iVillage
and Women.com audiences with direct access to Art.com through its placement in
shopping areas on the respective web sites, as well as through showcased
Art.com prints, keyword listings in home and gift categories, and banner ads
throughout the network of sites. iVillage (http://www.ivillage.com) is one of
the most demographically targeted communities on the World Wide Web.
Women.com, which includes Women.com (http://www.women.com), HomeArts
(http://www.homearts.com) and Astronet (http://www.astronet.com), provides the
largest breadth of resources of any online women's offering. Art.com is a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Getty Images, Inc. (NASDAQ:GETY), the leading,
global provider of visual content.
"Women make 90 percent of all home decorating decisions, and 35 percent of
women buy home furnishings online," said Bill Lederer, Chief Executive Officer
of Art.com. "Art.com sees iVillage and Women.com as ideal partners for these
very reasons. By combining forces, we can give a large, female target audience
direct, convenient access to an art e-commerce source that will meet their
decorating and gift needs wonderfully."
Crafting Artistic Partnerships
Through the two alliances, key female audiences will be able to connect
easily and directly to the Art.com e-commerce web site from various spots on
the iVillage and Women.com sites. At Art.com, customers can discover and
purchase more than 100,000 works of art, framed or unframed, at prices
discounted 20 to 50 percent off traditional costs.
The placement of Art.com on these targeted sites provides a broad online
shopping audience with a venue that sparks decorating and gift ideas while
offering a tremendous selection that is easy to access. The IVILLAGE/WOMEN.COM
shopping environment has been validated by a recent BizRate study that
indicates gift shopping sections attract nearly 13 percent of online buyers.
iVillage
Art.com will be a featured sponsor of the iVillage Home & Garden, Art &
Collectibles, Gifts and Wedding shopping categories on the iVillage site.
iVillage audiences also will be able to connect directly to the Art.com web
site through banners posted throughout the iVillage web site and learn more
about Art.com in the iVillage newsletter.
iVillage is a leading online women's community, where an average of five
million visitors per month come to learn, shop and communicate. Audiences can
join the nearly 1.6 million others who have registered on the web site to
receive coupons, articles, messages, to participate in chat sessions, and to
receive personalized advice about topics ranging from menu planning to
pregnancy. Now, this partnership with Art.com means that this audience also
has direct access to one of the most engaging and comprehensive sources for
great art, home decorating ideas and gifts.
Women.com
Art.com will showcase art prints in the home and gift categories of the
new shopping area on the Women.com web site and will participate in three
upcoming Women.com network sweepstakes. Women.com audiences also will be able
to connect directly to the Art.com web site through Art.com banners posted
throughout the network and learn more about Art.com in the Women.com
newsletter.
The Women.com network is an online content, community and e-commerce web
site where more than four million people visit monthly to discover everything
home decor and diet to weddings. Audiences can even register on the web site
to receive exclusive offers, personalized services and interactive tools to
make their experience unique and fulfilling. This extended partnership with
Art.com means that audiences can also discover and decorate their homes with
many of the world's great art works.
About Getty Images, Inc.
Getty Images, Inc., with 30 million photographs and more than 13,000 hours
of film, is a leading international provider of visual content to both the
professional and the consumer markets. The company's business-to-business
image brands provide imagery to a diverse range of creative professionals in
advertising and graphic design, magazine, book and newspaper publishing,
broadcasting, production, and web and new media publishing. The company's
consumer brand, Art.com, offers framed and unframed art and art related items
to the $9 billion consumer art marketplace.
Getty Images markets rights to images and footage through its web sites,
its international network of wholly owned offices in 17 countries, and agents
in more than 50 countries. Headquartered in Seattle, the company has
approximately 1,450 employees worldwide, and had revenues of $52.2 million in
the first quarter of 1999. The company's 1998 revenues were approximately $185
million.
Getty Images' market leading visual content brands are:
Business-to-business
Tony Stone Images tonystone.com
Energy Film Library digital-energy.com
PhotoDisc photodisc.com
Hulton Getty hultongetty.com
Allsport htpp://www.allsport.com
Liaison Agency liaisonphoto.com
Consumer
Art.com art.com
For more information on Getty Images and its product brands please visit
the company's web site at getty-images.com.
About Women.com Networks
Women.com is the number one women's network on the Web serving the needs
of women within a range of life stages and diverse interests. Since the 1995
launch of flagship web site Women's Wire, the company has grown into a network
of women's oriented communities, now featuring Women.com, HomeArts.com, and
Astronet. To the over 4 million women visiting each month, the Women.com
Networks deliver interactive content and services, supportive communities, and
online shopping. Women.com offers advertisers and direct marketers access to
the most important market on the Web, with advertising products, programming,
and placement ideally suited to their advertising objectives. The company
enjoys strategic alliances with major communication companies such as The
Hearst Corporation, Rodale Press, MediaOne, Hallmark and Bloomberg, LP, as
well as with the leading Web portals. Women.com Networks can be found at
women.com, homearts.com, and astronet.com and
through AOL Keywords "Women.com," "HomeArts," and "Astronet."
About iVillage
iVillage is the leading online women's network and one of the most
demographically targeted online communities on the World Wide Web. iVillage's
network, "iVillage.com," is an easy-to-use, comprehensive online network of
sites tailored to fit the interests and needs of women aged 25 through 49, and
provides advertisers and merchants with targeted access to women using the
Web. The network consists of 14 channels covering the leading topics of
interest to women online, such as family, health, work, money, food,
relationships, shopping, travel, pets and astrology.
SOURCE Getty Images, Inc.
-0- 06/03/99
/CONTACT: Emily Swiatek of Alexander Ogilvy Public Relations,
404-897-2300, eswiatek@alexanderogilvy.com, for Art.com; Laurie McEachron,
206-269-1769, laurie.mceachron@seattle.getty-images.com or Mary Waters Sayer,
011-44-171-544-2973, mary.waters.sayer@getty-images.com, both of Getty Images,
Inc.; Mark Fox of Hill & Knowlton 212-885-0642, mfox@hillandknowlton.com, for
Getty Images, Inc./
/Web site: getty-images.com
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| To: REH who wrote (32) | 6/11/1999 9:03:00 AM | | From: REH | | | |
InterNAP Signs Deal With Art.com to Provide High-Speed Internet Connection
BusinessWire, Friday, June 11, 1999 at 08:23
CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 11, 1999--
Agreement Gives Consumers Faster Access to
the Web's Largest Art Collection
Continuing to help e-commerce retailers reach their customers
faster and increase online sales, InterNAP Network Services today
announced the signing of Art.com in conjunction with the launch of its
Chicago Private Network Access Point.
Art.com, a wholly owned subsidiary of Getty Images, Inc.
(NASDAQ:GETY), has more than 100,000 images on display and for sale in
its Art Gallery, the largest art collection online, according to the
company. Linked to InterNAP's Chicago Private Network Access Point
(P-NAP SM), Art.com will benefit from InterNAP's proprietary
Assimilator(TM) routing technology that allows data to bypass public
exchange "choke points" on the Internet.
"With the variety of images and colors displayed on Art.com,
speed of connection and consistent download times are a challenge and
a necessity," said Don Fosen, chief information officer for Art.com.
"InterNAP's technology dramatically improves our connection, allowing
the visuals on our Web site to download rapidly. In addition, our
customers can be confident that when they make a purchase, their
confidential information is transferred in the quickest, most secure
manner available."
Under terms of the agreement, Seattle-based InterNAP has linked
Art.com to its Private Network Access Point in Chicago. InterNAP's
P-NAP and proprietary Assimilator(TM) software together orchestrate
the routing and security of mission-critical data in a faster, more
reliable manner than conventional routing technology. P-NAP service
routes the data traffic of InterNAP's customers--including online
retailers, enterprise corporations and Internet service providers--in
a way that bypasses conventional modes of traffic exchange between the
many networks that comprise the Internet.
"Art.com is a leader in a $9 billion industry that will continue
to expand as the Internet continues to evolve as both an entertainment
tool and a budding retail environment," said Tony Naughtin, CEO of
Seattle-based InterNAP. "Establishing its Internet connection with
InterNAP enables Art.com to deliver a consistent user experience to
their customers, attracting more visitors to the site and retaining
their attention longer through faster download times."
InterNAP services are currently available in New York, San Jose,
San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles and Washington D.C and Chicago.
InterNAP plans to continue to deploy P-NAPs in other major U.S. cities
through 1999. Other customers include Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN),
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Datek Online, The Street.Com (NASDAQ:TSCM).
Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Seattle, InterNAP is a
privately held company that provides Internet service that is faster
and more reliable than conventional Internet technology. InterNAP has
developed a breakthrough routing and route management technology
specifically designed to deliver data directly to and from
destinations across the Internet, eliminating the packet loss and
latency caused by increased over-capacity. For more information, visit
www.internap.com.
Art.com is the world's most inviting destination for discovering
and buying art. Featuring the Web's largest collection of art, more
than 100,000 of the world's greatest images, Art.com offers discounts
of 20 percent to 50 percent below traditional costs every day. Prints
can be purchased unframed or framed using Art.com's proprietary
visualization software that offers custom matting and framing that
match tastes and price ranges. Art.com was founded in 1997 by a
dedicated team that possesses more than 300 years combined experience
in professional art, framing and interior design and is committed to
providing an engaging e-commerce art solution. Art.com also offers Art
Print Index(TM), the art trade industry standard for sourcing and
buying art. Art.com is a wholly owned subsidiary of Getty Images, Inc. |
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| To: REH who wrote (33) | 6/23/1999 10:23:00 AM | | From: REH | | | |
Getty Images' Art.com Joins Amazon.com Auctions
PR Newswire, Wednesday, June 23, 1999 at 10:14
Online Buyers Can Now Place Bids & Buy Framed Art
in Web's Leading Online Auction
SEATTLE, June 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Getty Images' consumer art brand,
Art.com(SM), one of the world's most inviting places to discover and buy art,
today announced it has joined Amazon.com's Auctions. Amazon.com
(NASDAQ:AMZN), the leading online retailer, offers almost 1,000 categories on
its customer-friendly, secure, innovative auction site. Now, the more than 10
million customers who are pre-registered on the Amazon.com Auction(s) site can
bid on top quality framed and matted art from Art.com, a subsidiary of Getty
Images, Inc. (NASDAQ:GETY), a leading, global provider of visual content.
"Teaming up with Amazon.com Auctions will allow us to bring our high
quality art prints to millions of experienced online buyers, at great bidding
prices," said Bill Lederer, Chief Executive Officer of Art.com. "Participants
in this dynamic online auction marketplace will be able to affordably enrich
their lives with the great works of master artists."
Staking a Claim with Art
Amazon.com Auctions is helping consumers find, discover, buy and sell
virtually anything online. Participants can find Art.com merchandise easily,
by searching for "Collectables" and then "Art & Photography" in the auction
environment or by typing Art.com in the seller search box.
"We are excited to add Art.com's top quality art prints to our
professional retail auctioneers," said Jeff Blackburn of Amazon.com. "Art.com
provides exactly the kind of product that our consumer audience wants and will
place bids to acquire. We fully expect Art.com to contribute to the bidding
volume on the site."
A few of the art pieces currently placed on auction by Art.com include
matted and framed art prints such as:
-- Michelangelo's Ignudo
-- Paul Klee's Arab Song
-- Norman Rockwell's The Gift
-- Kandinsky's Bright Lucidity
-- Ansel Adams' Mount McKinley Range
-- Hal Morey's Grand Central Light
About Art.com
Art.com(SM) (http://www.art.com), the consumer brand of Getty Images,
Inc., is an inviting and engaging e-commerce destination that makes buying art
accessible, personal and fun by offering valuable information consumers need
to learn about and purchase art. The site is an enriching and convenient
source for art, offering many of the world's great prints in one place.
Art.com's expansive galleries feature master works by world-famous artists, as
well as original pop culture artists. In addition to everyday discounts,
personalized product choices and a 100 percent satisfaction guarantee, Art.com
offers three distinguishing features -- framing visualization software,
seasonal and featured galleries, and the ArtClique(SM) Saver's Club. Art.com
is the recipient of the respected Pinnacle Award for Overall Excellence and
the eMarketer Web recognition Award. Art.com is the consumer brand of Getty
Images, Inc. (NASDAQ:GETY), the leading, global provider of visual content.
More information about Getty Images and its visual content brands can be found
on the company's Web site at getty-images.com.
About Getty Images, Inc.
Getty Images, Inc., with 30 million photographs and more than 13,000 hours
of film, is a leading international provider of visual content to both the
professional and the consumer markets. The company's business-to-business
image brands provide imagery to a diverse range of creative professionals in
advertising and graphic design, magazine, book and newspaper publishing,
broadcasting, production, and web and new media publishing. The company's
consumer brand, Art.com, offers framed and unframed art and art related items
to the $9 billion consumer art marketplace.
Getty Images markets rights to images and footage through its websites,
its international network of wholly owned offices in 17 countries, and agents
in more than 50 countries. Headquartered in Seattle, the company has
approximately 1,450 employees worldwide, and had revenues of $52.2 million in
the first quarter of 1999. The company's 1998 revenues were approximately $185
million.
Getty Images' market leading visual content brands are:
Business-to-business
Tony Stone Images tonystone.com
Energy Film Library digital-energy.com
PhotoDisc photodisc.com
Hulton Getty hultongetty.com
Allsport allsport.com
Liaison Agency liaisonphoto.com
Consumer
Art.com art.com
For more information on Getty Images and its product brands please visit
the company's website at getty-images.com.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements that involve risks
and uncertainties that include, among others, Amazon.com's limited operating
history, anticipated losses, unpredictability of future revenues, potential
fluctuations in quarterly operating results, seasonality, intense competition,
risks associated with system interruption, management of potential growth,
high leverage, and risks of new business areas, international expansion,
business combinations, and strategic alliances. More information about
factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is
included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1998.
NOTE: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Internet Movie Database, PlanetAll,
Earth's Biggest Bookstore, and 1-Click are either registered trademarks or
trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. All other names mentioned
herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
SOURCE Art.com
-0- 06/23/99
/CONTACT: Coleman Smith of Alexander Ogilvy Public Relations,
404-897-2300, csmith@alexanderogilvy.com, for Art.com; Laurie McEachron,
206-269-1769, laurie.mceachron@seattle.getty-images.com, or Mary Waters Sayer,
011-44-171-544-2973, mary.waters.sayer@getty-images.com, both of Getty Images;
or Mark Fox of Hill & Knowlton, 212-885-0642, mfox@hillandknowlton.com, for
Art.com/
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| To: REH who wrote (34) | 6/24/1999 8:50:00 AM | | From: REH | | | |
Getty Images Signs Deal With Amazon.com To Auction Off Art
Dow Jones Online News, Wednesday, June 23, 1999 at 14:06
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- A unit of photo archiving company Getty Images
Inc. Wednesday said it will list products on Amazon.com Inc.'s auction
Web site.
Financial terms weren't disclosed.
Getty Images (GETY), based in Chicago, said under the agreement,
customers who are pre-registered at Amazon.com's site can bid on framed
and matted art from its Art.com unit.
Amazon.com, (AMZN) the Seattle online bookseller, lately has been
making forays into the Web auction realm in order to compete with
succesful online auctioneers such as Ebay Inc. Last week Amazon.com paid
$45 million for a 1.7% stake in the Sotheby's auction house. The two
companies plan to create an online auction for art and antiques.
Copyright (c) 1999 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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