SportsLine.com Celebrates Fifth Anniversary
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FORT LAUDERDALE, FL (August 16, 2000) - SportsLine.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLN), the leading global Internet sports media company, today is celebrating the fifth anniversary of the launch of its Web site in 1995. Now known as CBS SportsLine.com (cbs.sportsline.com), the original SportsLine USA Web site was introduced August 16, 1995 at a New York press conference by founder and CEO Michael Levy, along with sports superstars Joe Namath and Mike Schmidt.
Since that time, SportsLine.com has developed into the leading global Internet sports company with Web sites located in eight countries across three continents. While the online sports landscape has changed considerably since the launch of CBS SportsLine.com, the Company has maintained its industry-leading position by delivering news first and fast, presenting award-winning, proprietary content and deploying unique technological innovations.
Over the years, SportsLine.com has forged key strategic relationships with a premier group of media, Internet, technology and sports partners. Some of these partners include CBS, Westwood One, Media One and Reuters in media; AOL, Netscape and Excite@Home in the Internet world, Intel, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft and Exodus in the technology sector, and the NFL, Major League Baseball, PGA TOUR, IMG and Manchester United in the sports world.
SportsLine.com also led the sports Internet marketplace by signing long-term promotional and content agreements with such dominant sports superstars as Joe Namath, Shaquille O'Neal, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and more recently a promotional alliance with John Elway.
"Five years is a lifetime in the Internet business, and our success and longevity is a testament to the quality of our staff and our ability to deliver the world's best sports content," said Michael Levy, founder and CEO of SportsLine.com, Inc. "While a host of sports Internet startups have come and gone during this five year period, SportsLine.com has thrived in this 'survival of the fittest' environment, attracting record revenues, reach and page views."
SportsLine.com has grown into a multi-national company, generating $47 million in worldwide revenue in the first six months of 2000. Traffic to the Company's Web sites for the first half of the year totaled more than two billion page views, and the Company has reached between five and 10 million unique visitors monthly according to various sources.
Following are some of SportsLine.com's major milestones:
· Michael Levy forms the Company now known as SportsLine.com (February 1994).
· Joe Namath becomes a spokesperson for SportsLine.com (August 1994).
· Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers invests $3 million as the first venture capital investment in SportsLine.com (May 1995).
· Levy, Namath and Mike Schmidt unveil the original SportsLine USA Web site (August 1995).
· Shaquille O'Neal signs an exclusive multi-year promotional and content agreement with SportsLine.com (June 1996).
· SportsLine.com and CBS Sports execute a multi-year strategic marketing and promotional alliance and the SportsLine USA Web site becomes CBS SportsLine.com. It marks the first time CBS has taken an equity interest in an Internet company (March 1997).
· Michael Jordan signs an exclusive multi-year promotional and content agreement with SportsLine.com (June 1997).
· SportsLine.com and AOL form an online partnership making CBS SportsLine.com the first anchor tenant on the AOL sports channel (July 1997).
· Tiger Woods signs an exclusive multi-year promotional and content agreement with SportsLine.com (October 1997).
· SportsLine.com completes an initial public offering of 4.025 million shares of common stock at a price of $8.00 per share (November 1997).
· SportsLine.com expands golf coverage with the acquisition of GolfWeb (January 1998).
· CBS SportsLine.com receives the 1998 Webby Award as the outstanding sports Web site (March 1998).
· SportsLine.com completes a secondary public offering of 4 million shares of common stock at $37.625 per share (April 1998).
· SportsLine.com and AOL expand their online partnership to provide SportsLine.com-produced sports news and statistics, special features, major event coverage and merchandise on key AOL brands around the world, and to give AOL prominent CBS Sports on-air promotion (October 1998).
· SportsLine.com and Excite@Home form a strategic relationship making SportsLine.com the exclusive provider of sports content on the Excite Sports Channel (October 1998).
· Net Guide '99 names CBS SportsLine.com Best Sports site (December 1998).
· Netscape Communications Corporation selects SportsLine.com to be the premier sports content provider for the channel as well as the exclusive provider for news, information and merchandise for NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, golf, soccer, tennis and auto racing, as well as NCAA basketball and football (January 1999).
· SportsLine.com and CBS extend their original promotional and marketing alliance for an additional five years, through December 2006 (February 1999).
· SportsLine.com and the PGA TOUR enter a long-term exclusive agreement to align pgatour.com and golfweb.com, co-producing the largest, most comprehensive golf site on the Internet (April 1999).
· SportsLine.com and the NFL Europe League form a strategic relationship where SportsLine.com will publish the league's official Web site (April 1999).
· SportsLine.com forms a new European subsidiary, along with Intel Corporation, MediaOne Ventures, and Reuters to create a family of European sports Web sites with a local focus (May 1999).
· Major League Baseball selects SportsLine.com to develop and host its official sites in a multi-year agreement (May 1999).
· SportsLine.com acquires Golf Club Trader, a privately held Internet site specializing in the buying, selling and trading of used, pro-line golf equipment (June 1999).
· SportsLine.com's European subsidiary enters a multi-year promotional and consulting relationship with IMG, the largest independent producer and packager of sports programming in the world (July 1999).
· SportsLine.com's first European Web site, Sports.com, launches in the United Kingdom (August 1999).
· Sports.com becomes the exclusive Internet sports media partner for the official Web site of the world's most famous soccer club, Manchester United (August 1999).
· SportsLine.com and Westwood One, Inc., America's largest radio network enter a multi-year, promotional and programming agreement (August 1999).
· SportsLine.com acquires Tennis Direct, an online tennis equipment, apparel and accessories service (September 1999).
· As a result of the Company's established dominance in the sports e-commerce arena, with revenues of $16 million for 1999, SportsLine.com. enters into a 10-year strategic relationship under which SportsLine.com's domestic e-commerce business is acquired and operated by MVP.com (December 1999).
· Sports.com completes $52.5 million second round of funding with superstar athletes Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal and Tiger Woods joining the investor group. Sports Capital Partners, manager of the IMG/Chase Sports Capital funds, and affiliates of Soros Private Equity Partners LLC led the funding.
· SportsLine.com forms an Internet joint venture with Asiacontent.com, Ltd., a leading developer of Asian Internet content, advertising and e-commerce services to create, operate and market a family of sports Web sites targeted specifically to Asian audiences, in relevant local languages (March 2000).
· SportsLine.com, Sports.com and Asia.content.com launch the first Web site of the Asian joint venture in Singapore (June 2000).
· Sports.com enters into a strategic promotional alliance with The All England Lawn and Tennis Club to become the official Internet sports media partner of Wimbledon.org (June 2000).
· Sports.com is named official Internet sports partner of the British Open earning a
"hat trick" for Sports.com as an official partner with the three gems of British sports-Wimbledon, the Manchester United Football Club and now the Open (July 2000).
· SportsLine.com expands its relationship with the NFL for the 2000 season for SportsLine.com to produce Superbowl.com, and be the exclusive provider of the official fantasy football products for the NFL (July 2000).
· John Elway joins the SportsLine.com team to promote the award-winning suite of Commissioner.com fantasy football games for the Company's flagship site, CBS SportsLine.com (August 2000).
· SportsLine.com and PGA.com form a strategic relationship to jointly develop and host the official Web site of the 2000 PGA Championship (August 2000).
About SportsLine.com, Inc.
SportsLine.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLN) is at the leading edge of media companies providing Internet sports content, community and e-commerce on a global basis. SportsLine.com, Inc.'s content includes more than one million pages of multimedia sports information, entertainment and merchandise. The Company's flagship Internet sports service (http://cbs.sportsline.com) was renamed CBS SportsLine.com as part of an exclusive promotional and content agreement with CBS in March 1997. SportsLine.com, Inc. produces the official league Web sites for Major League Baseball, the PGA TOUR and NFL Europe League, and serves as the primary sports content provider for America Online, Netscape and Excite. In 1999, the Company commenced operations in Europe through its subsidiary, Sports.com Limited.
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