AOL Europe and Overture Significantly Expand Search Distribution Relationship.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers LONDON & PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 5, 2003 AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. Europe Selects Overture overture, instrumental musical composition written as an introduction to an opera, ballet, oratorio, musical, or play. The earliest Italian opera overtures were simply pieces of orchestral music and were called sinfonie. as Commercial Search Provider for AOL Directory in the United Kingdom, Germany and France and for Netscape in Germany and France in Multi-Year Agreement Overture Services, Inc. (Nasdaq:OVER), the world's leading provider of Pay-For-Performance search to Web sites across the Internet Internet Publicly accessible computer network connecting many smaller networks from around the world. It grew out of a U.S. Defense Department program called ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), established in 1969 with connections between computers at the , and AOL Europe, a leading European European emanating from or pertaining to Europe. European bat lyssavirus see lyssavirus. European beech tree fagussylvaticus. European blastomycosis see cryptococcosis. Internet, online and e-commerce e-commerce, commerce conducted over the Internet, most often via the World Wide Web. E-commerce can apply to purchases made through the Web or to business-to-business activities such as inventory transfers. services business, today announced an expansion of their multi-year pan-European agreement. Under the terms of the expanded agreement, Overture's European operation will now provide its commercial search results to AOL Europe's search directories in the United Kingdom (UK), Germany and France on its AOL properties and to the popular Netscape Germany and Netscape France portals. As part of the new AOL directory agreement, Overture will enhance the search experience of AOL Europe's 6.4 million members, and the millions of additional visitors to its Web portals See portal. , by providing them with up to four listings in those portals' Directory sections. Specifically, Overture will display its listings under the heading "Sponsored Links" at the top of those pages used by AOL's British, German and French searchers who perform category searches. Netscape France and Netscape Germany will feature three Overture search listings under the heading "Sponsored Links by Overture" at www.netscape.fr and www.netscape.de, respectively. "Access to the wealth of information, products and services online is valued highly by AOL members, making effective search tools an important part of our member experience," said Philip Rowley, president and chief operating officer Chief Operating Officer (COO) The officer of a firm responsible for day-to-day management, usually the president or an executive vice-president. , AOL Europe. "We are pleased to extend and expand our relationship with Overture and continue providing their high-quality search products to our members across Europe." Overture's search listings are generated by its large and growing base of advertisers who bid for placement on keywords relevant to their business. The company's editorial team carefully screens these listings before they are distributed to its affiliate partner network. Overture currently operates Pay-For-Performance search networks in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , United Kingdom, Germany, France, as well as Japan, and will expand into South Korea in the first half of 2003. Overture began its European operations in the United Kingdom in November 2000 and currently reaches over 82 percent(a) of Internet users Internet user n → internauta m/f Internet user Internet n → internaute m/f in that market. Overture Germany, which was launched in February 2002, currently reaches 85 percent(a) of Internet users. Additionally, Overture France now reaches 89 percent(a) of French Internet users, up from 40 percent at launch in September 2002. Overture is the leading provider of Pay-For-Performance search results in each of these markets, as well as in Europe overall. "This agreement further solidifies our European market leadership," said Johannes Larcher, general manager, Overture International. "AOL Europe is an important European Internet, online and e-commerce services business and its decision to deepen deep·en tr. & intr.v. deep·ened, deep·en·ing, deep·ens To make or become deep or deeper. deepen Verb to make or become deeper or more intense Verb 1. and broaden our relationship demonstrates the success of our strategy of offering the most relevant search results to users while also generating significant revenue for our partners." The initial deal between the parties, originally announced on January 29, 2002, was a search distribution agreement for Overture to provide its listings for users performing queries through the search boxes on AOL Europe's properties in the UK, Germany and France. About Overture Overture (Nasdaq:OVER) is the world's leader in Pay-For-Performance search on the Internet. The company created the market for Pay-For-Performance search by redefining how businesses market online. In the third quarter 2002, Overture facilitated 500 million paid introductions on a worldwide basis between consumers and its 73,000 advertisers, who bid for placement on relevant search results and pay Overture only when a consumer clicks on their listing. Following a rigorous screening for user relevance by Overture's editorial team, the company distributes its search results to tens of thousands of sites across the Internet, including Yahoo!, MSN (1) (MicroSoft Network) A family of Internet-based services from Microsoft, which includes a search engine, e-mail (Hotmail), instant messaging (Windows Live Messaging) and a general-purpose portal with news, information and shopping (MSN Directory). and Lycos, making it the largest Pay-For-Performance search and advertising network on the Internet. Overture is based in Pasadena, California Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 133,936 and the 160th largest city in the United States. The California Finance Department estimates the Pasadena population to be 146,166 in 2005. , with subsidiary offices in the UK, Germany, Ireland, France, Japan and South Korea. For more information, visit www.overture.com. Overture and Pay-For-Performance are service marks of Overture Services, Inc. About AOL Europe AOL Europe is a business unit of America Online See AOL. , Inc., the world's leading interactive services company with more than 35 million members worldwide. AOL Europe reaches consumers in ten countries and five languages through its AOL and CompuServe subscription services, the AOL, CompuServe and Netscape portals and the AOL Instant Messenger See AIM. registered user service. The AOL-branded services in France, Germany and the UK alone reach nearly 6.4 million member households. AOL Europe consistently leads in time spent online(b), the key measure of the powerful subscriber relationships and member experience that have made AOL the world's #1 interactive service. This press release contains forward-looking statements forward-looking statement A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections. within the meaning of the United States federal securities laws. These forward-looking statements include without limitation statements that Overture will provide its Pay-For-Performance results to the users of AOL Europe's AOL search directories in the United Kingdom, Germany and France and to users of Netscape Germany and Netscape France, that advertisers will benefit from this transaction, that users in the United Kingdom, German and French markets will want Overture search results and the ability of this transaction to generate meaningful revenue. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include, among others: the risk that the implementation of Overture's search results on AOL Europe's AOL search directories in the United Kingdom, Germany and France and on Netscape Germany and Netscape France may be delayed or not occur, the risk that Overture's advertisers and businesses may not want traffic from AOL Europe's AOL search directories in the United Kingdom, Germany and France and on Netscape Germany and Netscape France, the risk that the users of AOL Europe's AOL search directories in the United Kingdom, Germany and France and of Netscape Germany and Netscape France may not click on Overture's search results and the risk that the transaction will not yield economic benefits to Overture. For a discussion of other risks that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from such forward-looking statements, see the discussion of "Risks That Could Affect Our Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in Overture's 10-Q filing with the SEC for the period ended September 30, 2002. Overture undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances CIRCUMSTANCES, evidence. The particulars which accompany a fact. 2. The facts proved are either possible or impossible, ordinary and probable, or extraordinary and improbable, recent or ancient; they may have happened near us, or afar off; they are public or occurring after the date of this press release. (a) Nielsen/Netratings July-September 2002 (b) Source Jupiter MMXI MMXI Media Metrix |
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