America Online and Homestore.com, Inc. Reach Broad Multi-year Strategic Marketing Alliance.Business Editors DULLES, Va. & THOUSAND OAKS Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. , Ca.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 1, 2000 Homestore.com, the no. 1 Source for Home and Real Estate Information on the Internet, To Become Exclusive Provider of Aggregated Real Estate Listings, Home Services and Moving Services Across Key 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. Brands, Including in a New Home-Related Channel America Online See AOL. , Inc. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : AOL), the world's leading interactive services company, and Homestore.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: HOMS), the world's leading home and real estate network on the Internet, today reached a new five-year multifaceted content, e-commerce and distribution alliance valued in excess of $200 million, to provide the most comprehensive source of home and real estate content to several key AOL brands. One highlight of the AOL/Homestore.com alliance will be the establishment of a new home-related channel on AOL that will provide its more than 22 million members with a more convenient and content-rich online area to find home-related information, tools and services. The channel will address all aspects of the home life cycle, from locating an existing or new home or apartment, to accessing information and services to help with moving, relocating, remodeling remodeling /re·mod·el·ing/ (re-mod´el-ing) reorganization or renovation of an old structure. bone remodeling and furnishing. The residential real estate industry and related products and services represent a $1.5 trillion segment of the U.S. economy, the single largest market sector. Under terms of the new alliance, Homestore.com will become the exclusive national provider of professional home and moving services in home-related areas across AOL, AOL.COM, CompuServe, Netscape Netcenter and Digital City. Homestore.com will also be the exclusive national provider of aggregated apartment inventory and will continue to be the exclusive national provider of aggregated residential real estate listings across these AOL properties. Homestore.com also will be a premier content provider in the Home Decorating, Home Security, Hardware, and Lawn & Garden areas, and will be a prominent content provider in the Commercial Real Estate, Home Finance, Home Technology, Home Office, Senior Housing and Home Appliances areas. AOL and CompuServe have more than 24 million combined members worldwide and AOL's Web-based brands receive tens of millions of additional visitors. With already well over 3 million unique users at its sites each month, Homestore.com is the #1 visited home and real estate-related network on the Internet, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the March 2000 Media Metrix report. Homestore.com's content and interactive properties will roll out on AOL during the next few months. The properties include over 1.3 million home listings from its Realtor.com(R) site; the 45,000 apartment properties in over 6,000 cities on SpringStreet.com(TM); over 130,000 new home listings on its HomeBuilder.com(TM) site; home improvement information from Remodel re·mod·el tr.v. re·mod·eled also re·mod·elled, re·mod·el·ing also re·mod·el·ling, re·mod·els also re·mod·els To make over in structure or style; reconstruct. .com(TM); and the content and moving and relocation services Relocation services or "employee relocation" includes a range of internal business processes that are engaged to transfer employees (and often their families) or entire departments of a business to a new work location. of Homefair.com(TM), the most popular site of its kind on the Internet. Under the terms of the agreement, America Online, Inc. will receive approximately 3.9 million shares of Homestore.com common stock, which Homestore.com is required to guarantee meet certain performance targets throughout the term of the agreement. As part of the guarantee, Homestore.com will issue a $90 million letter of credit, which will be drawn upon only if Homestore.com's common stock does not meet the performance targets. AOL will also receive $20 million in cash as part of the agreement. The new alliance is a major expansion of a 1998 agreement between the companies, under which Homestore.com provided AOL brands with a variety of real estate-related content. "Homestore.com is the leading company in the online home and real estate industry, and having easy access to its property listings, services and content will be a real benefit to our members and users of our Web-based brands," said Bob Pittman, 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. , America Online, Inc. "Looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a place to live and moving can be complicated and stressful, and we hope that by bringing Homestore.com's selection of tools and resources to AOL we can make the process easier and more convenient." "America Online has done an incredible job of building customer loyalty. Bringing together their tens of millions of users with our nearly 1 million service providers and almost 8 million home and rent properties on our network, will offer an unprecedented selection of service and content to create the best online consumer experience," said Stuart Wolff, chairman and chief executive officer, Homestore.com, Inc. "This agreement we've reached with AOL is a huge testament to the strength of our three-year relationship and is a sign of the mutual respect our companies have for one another. We believe that combining our already existing #1-rated traffic with the tremendous number of AOL users will be the traffic equivalent to drinking water drinking water supply of water available to animals for drinking supplied via nipples, in troughs, dams, ponds and larger natural water sources; an insufficient supply leads to dehydration; it can be the source of infection, e.g. leptospirosis, salmonellosis, or of poisoning, e.g. out of a fire hose." About America Online, Inc. Founded in 1985, America Online, Inc., based in Dulles, Virginia Dulles, Virginia is an unincorporated census-designated place located in Loudoun County, Virginia, part of the Washington Metropolitan Area. The headquarters of AOL, Orbital Sciences Corporation and ODIN technologies and the former headquarters of MCI Inc. are located in Dulles. , is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies, and e-commerce services. America Online, Inc. operates: two worldwide Internet services, America Online, with more than 22 million members, and CompuServe, with more than 2.7 million members; several leading Internet brands including ICQ ("I Seek You") A conferencing program for the Internet from Mirabilis, Tel Aviv, Israel (www.icq.com). It provides interactive chat, e-mail and file transfer and can alert you when someone on your predefined list has also come online. , AOL Instant Messenger See AIM. and Digital City, Inc.; the Netscape Netcenter and AOL.COM portals; the Netscape Navigator and Communicator browsers; AOL Moviefone, the nation's #1 movie listing guide and ticketing service; and Spinner.com and NullSoft's Winamp, leaders in Internet music. Through its strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems, the company develops and offers easy-to-deploy, end-to-end e-commerce and enterprise solutions for companies operating in the Net Economy. About Homestore.com, Inc. Homestore.com, Inc. is the leading network of sites on the Internet for home and real estate-related information. Homestore.com, Inc.'s family of web sites include the Homestore.com(TM), Realtor.com(R), HomeBuilder.com(TM), SpringStreet.com(TM), Remodel.com(TM) and HomeFair.com(TM) web sites. Consumers can view over 1.3 million new and existing homes for sale and find broker and agent services on Realtor.com(R), the official Internet site of the National Association of Realtors The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is made up of residential and commercial realtors who are brokers, salespeople, property managers, appraisers, and counselors, and others working in the real estate industry. (R). Consumers searching for new homes can find more than 130,000 models, new homes and built to suit plans on HomeBuilder.com(TM), the official new homes site of the National Association of Home Builders The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is one of the largest trade associations in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, DC, the association organizes one of the largest conventions in North America, The International Builders' Show, which draws more than . Consumers interested in renting an apartment will find listing information from more than 45,000 properties in more than 6,000 cities on SpringStreet.com(TM). Homestore.com's(TM) remodeling area covers home improvement needs for both consumers and remodeling professionals. Comprehensive moving and relocation information on the Internet is available from HomeFair.com(TM). Homestore.com(TM) also has content distribution relationships with America Online, and others. This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Exchange Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the safe harbors created by those sections. Actual results may differ materially. The matters discussed in this press release also involve risks and uncertainties described from time to time in Homestore.com, Inc.'s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In particular, see "Risk Factors" in the Final Prospectus Final Prospectus A legal document stating the price of a newly issued security, the delivery date, and other facts that are important for investors. Notes: The final prospectus must be given to every investor who purchases a new issue of registered securities. included in the Company's Registration Statement on Form S-1 declared effective by the SEC on January 26, 2000 and also see the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K Form 10-K A report required by the SEC from exchange-listed companies that provides for annual disclosure of certain financial information. Form 10-K See 10-K. for the year ended December 31, 1999 filed with the SEC (www.sec.gov http://www.sec.gov ). We assume no duty to update this information in this press release if any forward-looking statement 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. later turns out to be inaccurate. |
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