Image Life Co. To Distribute Corbis Digital Stock Royalty-Free Digital Images In Japan.

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 21, 1998--Corbis Digital Stock, a premiere provider of royalty-free digital images, today announced it has signed an agreement with Image Life Co. Ltd., one of Japan's leading stock photography companies, to distribute its images in Japan.

Operating as Corbis Digital Stock in Japan, Image Life will make Corbis Digital Stock's complete inventory of more than 13,000 high quality digital images available to Japanese creative professionals. This partnership represents the beginning of a rapid international expansion plan for Corbis Digital Stock, the royalty-free division of Corbis Images.

"We are delighted to announce this partnership with one of Japan's most progressive stock photography providers," said Charles Smith, Corbis Digital Stock executive director. "The Corbis Digital Stock presence in Japan is an example of Corbis' global commitment to provide its customers with a complete spectrum of products."

The partnership was unveiled today with a display of Corbis Digital Stock products in Image Life's booth (No. 701) at Seybold Seminars Tokyo. There, Tadashi Hayashi, president of Image Life Co., Ltd., commented on the exclusive licensing agreement:

"As sophisticated and discerning consumers of visual content, Image Life customers expect the very best in stock photography," said Hayashi. "We are proud to introduce them to Corbis Digital Stock royalty-free images, which are world-renowned for their artistic excellence, quality and value."

The product line, which currently includes 133 CD-ROM titles, features the Master, Professional and Objects collections, with new titles added monthly. Priced from U.S. $149 to U.S. $299, each disc contains 100 royalty-free images, ranging in size from 1 megabyte to 32 megabytes, presented in high and low resolution JPEG formats. As an added benefit to customers, a select group of Image Life's photographers will provide royalty-free visual content exclusively for Corbis Digital Stock to market in Japan, the U.S., Europe and other regions.

All Corbis Digital Stock CD-ROM products will be available through Image Life/Corbis Digital Stock, which will be headquartered at Image Life Co. Ltd., in the Sea Bird Building, 3-13 Yotsuya, Shinjuku-Ku, Tokyo 160 Japan, telephone [phone]. Office hours are from 9:40 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

About Image Life

Image Life Co., Ltd. has been licensing its collection of stock photography since 1980. Additionally, it has access to 11 affiliate stock photography agencies in Japan and six agencies abroad. Image Life also markets a successful line of prepaid phone cards and offers promotion services and materials for licensed name brand general merchandise, premiums, and incentive items.

About Corbis

Corbis is a company solely owned by Bill Gates that provides visual content and services to creative professionals and consumers through innovative digital technologies. The Corbis Collection -- 25 million images, with more than 1.4 million available online -- contains the world's most significant photography and art from more than 1,500 creative sources, including Ansel Adams, The Bettmann Archive, UPI, The National Gallery, The State Hermitage Museum, as well as leading celebrity, commercial and editorial photographers.

Corbis Images (www.corbisimages.com) -- Corbis' image licensing division targeting creative professionals -- provides its customers with leading visual solutions and customer service across a wide spectrum of imagery. To this end, Corbis recently added Corbis Digital Stock and CorbisWestlight, two leading providers of commercial photography worldwide, and Corbis Outline, the world's leading provider of celebrity portraiture, to its product line.

Corbis also creates innovative visual products for online consumers. The Corbis Picture Experience, the Corbis Print and Poster Store, Corbis features and other innovative online consumer products all showcase the Corbis Collection, making www.corbis.com the "Place for Pictures on the Internet."

Corbis is based in Seattle, with offices in New York, London, Los Angeles and San Diego. For more information about Corbis and its products and services, call 800/260-0444, 425/641-4505, fax [phone], or visit its Web site at http://www.corbis.com/.

(c) 1998 Corbis Corp. Digital Stock and Corbis are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corbis Corp. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks are the properties of their respective owners.