Alliance
365 Corporation PLC
23 May 2000
365 announces another significant revenue deal to monetise user base
365 Corporation plc, the leading provider of destination content, community
and communication services, announces that it has entered into a commercial
partnership with Wideyes, the fastest growing international online recruitment
agency. The deal, which is worth several hundred thousands pounds in revenue
to 365, underlines the real value to be generated from the 365 user network
and is one of a number of such deals that the company is planning.
Under the terms of the deal, which is for an initial period of one year,
Wideyes will pay 365 a monthly fee in return for access to 365's large
international user base, all of whom could be potential users of Wideyes'
services, and its expertise in delivering high quality content and community.
365 will provide Wideyes with tailor-made content to support Wideyes' branding
in selected areas of the 365 network, in addition to a range of more
traditional tools such as banners, links and sponsorship areas.
The deal means that 365's consumer and business audiences and the Wideyes
client database can be linked together directly to provide a class-leading
recruitment service. Reflecting 365's multi-platform approach, these services
will initially be available over the internet from June and it is envisaged
that they will be rolled out over WAP mobile phones, PDAs and eventually
broadband solutions.
Commenting on the deal Simon Morris, Director of 365 Corporation said:
'This win-win deal for 365 and Wideyes underpins the huge value to be gained
from generating loyal online communities. 365 now has an incredibly strong
user base, with well in excess of one and a half million unique users per
month, and we are now successfully deriving more and more revenue from this
base. This is the first of a number of similar deals we are looking at in
different vertical markets.'
Chris Clarke, Wideyes UK Web Site Director said:
'The opportunity of working in partnership with the 365 Corporation is very
exciting. They clearly have one of the most significant online user bases in
the market, together with great brands.'
For Further Information Please Contact:
Simon Morris, Marketing Director
365 Corporation plc 0207 505 7800
Giles Sanderson, Ben Atwell
Financial Dynamics 0207 831 3113
NOTES FOR EDITORS
365 Corporation plc
CURRENT SERVICE AND CONTENT OFFERINGS
365 Corporation operates two divisions:
Consumer
Lifestyle
Companionship - www.personals365.com (an on-line companionship product),
www.theswitch.co.uk (a multi-platform product using the web and telephone for
chat).
Gardening - www.gardening365.com
Advisory services - telephone-based services to users. 365 provides
telephone lines and systems and Infogenie procures the advisory services,
currently for legal services and veterinary services.
Sport
Football - www.football365.com (English), www.futbol365.com (Spanish),
www.football365.fr (French), www.talkfootball365.com (Football content on a
cross platform basis via TalkFootball365, a telephone and Internet service).
www.eurofinals365.com (a dedicated service, in five languages, covering the
European Championships 2000).
Cricket - www.cricinfo365.com (daily e-mail publication in joint venture with
CricInfo), www.cricketline.com (a leading site for International cricket)
Rugby - www.rugby365.com (produced in four language versions - English,
French, Spanish, Afrikaans), www.rugbyrugby.com (North American rugby
website), www.planet-rugby.com (a market leading online rugby resource
including breaking news, unique statistics).
Racetips: www.racetips.com (a site dedicated to Horse Racing giving the inside
track on news, form and the horses to follow).
Formula 1: www.planet-f1.com (website featuring news, features and a
searchable archive of every race in F1 history).
Sports Overview: www.sportszine.co.uk (complete guide to sport on the Internet
through a searchable database of over 40,000 individually reviewed websites),
www.sportonair.com (UK's first dedicated sports audio website with hourly
news, features and interviews).
Entertainment
Music - www.music365.com (reviews of albums and singles, interviews with
artists and personalities and topical stories, on-line chat forum, on-line
shopping facilities for concert tickets, CDs and videos).
Competitions - www.win365.co.uk (a cross-platform competition based product).
Games - www.planet-trivia.com (a network of live, multiplayer trivia games
where users can compete in real time against anyone else in the world on a
variety of topics including television, education, history, entertainment and
sport and win prizes).
365Television - The first production, a documentary on boxer Mike Tyson's UK
fight, was commissioned by BBC Choice and recently aired on BBC Choice and
BBC2.
Business
The Business Division provides a 'one stop shop' of telecommunication services
and Internet applications to small and medium sized enterprises in the UK,
France and Ireland. 365 currently provides fixed line voice and data access,
telephone systems, mobiles, Internet access and related services.
In order to work towards national coverage, 365 has formed equity joint
ventures with 12 telecom systems dealers across the UK. Under these
arrangements, 365 contributes its expertise and access to its customer service
and billing infrastructure, while the dealer contributes local sales and
marketing expertise. The existing customer base of the joint venture partners
provides the initial target for 365's marketing efforts.
In February 2000, 365 acquired the entire issued capital of Fenfones
Communications Limited, an established telephone systems supplier located in
Newmarket serving the SME market. Total consideration paid was £4,520,000.
On the same day, 365 acquired the 50% shareholding in Datacom Networks Limited
(a joint venture) owned by Fenfones for £500,000.
The formation of equity joint ventures with telecom system dealers, and
acquisition of Fenfones, underlines 365's strategy of securing distribution
and long-term customer retention though partnership with, or ownership of, the
telephone system supply channel. The telephone system represents the key
product around which value-added telecommunication and internet services can
be developed and sold to SME customers.
More about Wideyes
Wideyes is a 3rd generation, innovative, career-focused on-line and off-line
recruitment company founded in Sweden and launching across European countries
including the UK and France in Q1, 2000. Wideyes understands candidate's
talents and provides the opportunity for professionals to identify companies
that truly match their aspirations. While companies, with global recruitment
requirements can gain access to the superior talent to maintain their
competitive advantage. Through a host of services including psychometric
testing, a global database of jobs and off and on-line support, Wideyes is
setting the new standard in Internet recruitment.
Wideyes has an international outlook, implementing 18 languages covering more
than 40 markets in the same global scalable database. Locally established with
offices in 15 western European countries by the end of the year 2000, Wideyes
has the intention to penetrate US, and Asian markets in 2001.