InfoRocket.com and LookSmart Team up in Multimillion-Dollar Deal; Agreement Gives InfoRocket.com Access to LookSmart's Extensive Distribution Network
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 19, 2000--LookSmart (Nasdaq:LOOK), the global leader in Internet search infrastructure, and InfoRocket.com, the world's first question-and-answer marketplace, today announced a year-long strategic agreement. Under this agreement, InfoRocket.com will be the online person-to-person question-and-answer marketplace featured throughout LookSmart's extensive distribution network of partner sites, which reaches 77 percent of all Internet users in the United States. As part of the deal, LookSmart will offer users direct links to InfoRocket.com from the keyword-results page throughout the LookSmart partner network.
"This new alliance with InfoRocket.com provides our partners and their users with access to an exciting new question-and-answer marketplace, which connects people with questions to people who have the answers," said Brian Cowley, senior vice president of global sales at LookSmart. "We're proud to bring on such a high-quality partner as InfoRocket.com, who will now have unparalleled access to LookSmart's huge distribution network, including Internet portals, media companies, Internet service providers and affiliates. This deal further demonstrates how LookSmart creates value for leading advertisers on the Web."
"We're excited to work with LookSmart and give its users another great opportunity to find the information they are looking for on the Internet. We will connect them directly to people who can give them a personalized answer to their questions," said Beth Haggerty, CEO of InfoRocket.com. "We think that LookSmart's extensive reach across the Web will significantly expand the already fast growing InfoRocket.com membership and introduce this exciting new concept to millions of Web users."
About LookSmart
LookSmart is the global leader in Internet search infrastructure, dedicated to helping the world find useful information quickly. LookSmart's search service reaches more than 58 million people a month through LookSmart's Web properties and partner sites. The company provides its search solutions to leading Internet portals, ISPs and Web sites including Microsoft's MSN, Netscape Netcenter, Time Warner, Excite@Home, Sony, BT, Road Runner, Prodigy, US West, AltaVista, NetZero, over 370 Internet service providers and thousands of Web sites. LookSmart's search solutions include a collection of over 1.8 million high-quality URLs organized into more than 170,000 categories. LookSmart has built Web directories for 30 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan, Korea, Mexico and Brazil. Through its partnership with Cox Interactive Media, LookSmart also offers one of the largest collections of quality local Web content in more than 70 U.S. markets. LookSmart is the official search infrastructure provider for www.Olympics.com, the official Web site of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and can be contacted at 415/348-7000.
About InfoRocket.com
InfoRocket.com is the fast way to the right answer. Based in New York, InfoRocket.com is the world's first question-and-answer marketplace powered by a person-to-person auction format that connects people with questions to people with answers. Questions asked on the site range from simple, factual inquiries, such as "What is the most effective day-trading software?" to opinions based on relevant knowledge, like "Which breed of dog is the smartest?" to more complicated, service-related questions, such as "Do I need a business license for my small business?" InfoRocket.com is a privately held company backed by venture funding from Carlyle Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Prospect Street Ventures and Garage.com. For more information about the company, visit www.inforocket.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements based on our current expectations and projections about our industry, our management's beliefs and assumptions made by us. Words such as "should," "expects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "may," "will" and variations of these words or similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ from those expressed in these forward-looking statements and include our potential inability to implement the InfoRocket agreement, the potential inability to generate clickthroughs for the InfoRocket ad links at projected rates, the potential failure to derive projected amounts of revenues from the agreement and the possibility that users of the LookSmart network of affiliate sites will not utilize the InfoRocket services. You should also refer generally to the risks outlined in our annual report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 30, 2000, as well as our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
CONTACT: LookSmart
Liz Connaghan, 415/348-7185
lconnaghan@looksmart.net
or
InfoRocket.com
Monica Sanchez de Brown, 212/905-0628
monica@inforocket.com