Group of Investors Take Minority Stake in Preview Media, Inc.; Group includes Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and America Online, Inc.; Kleiner Perkins' Douglas J. Mackenzie and William R. Hearst III will Join Preview Media Board of Directors

Business Wire, Feb 7, 1995

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 7, 1995--In a move designed to enhance the way Americans purchase leisure travel, Preview Media, Inc., a pioneer and market leader in presenting and selling travel over electronic media, announced today that it has received a combined investment of $6.75 million from a group of investors that includes Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a venture capital firm specializing in hi-tech companies, and America Online, Inc. With the new alliance, Kleiner Perkins general partners Douglas J. Mackenzie and William R. Hearst III will become members of Preview Media's Board of Directors.

The alliance will allow Preview Media, the leading seller of travel via television, to create new platforms for travel sales within emerging distribution channels, greatly broadening the audience for direct travel transactions. These include commercial online services and the Internet.

Kleiner Perkins general partner Douglas J. Mackenzie commented, "We see travel as a major component of the enormous transaction business to be developed in cyberspace. When you combine Preview Media's vast library of travel content with online services, the result is a very easy and efficient way for consumers to buy travel. We believe this combination will add an important new dimension to the travel industry."

Initially, this investment will help widen the broadcast audience for Preview Vacations, Preview Media's weekly transactional television program that offers brand-name vacation packages at discount prices, and will fund the development of similar travel services online. Preview Vacations Online, Preview Media's first venture with America Online, launched last week. The new service offers AOL members an interactive version of Preview Vacations, featuring the first online Travel Auction. With no minimum bids required, AOL subscribers will have the opportunity to purchase vacation packages at significant savings.

Preview Media introduced Preview Vacations, the country's first and only localized, day-and-date infomercial, in February, 1993. The program currently airs in ten major markets, mostly on network-affiliated stations. Each week, in each market, the program features new vacation offers tailored to local travel preferences, with local pricing from each city's airports. Preview Media plans to expand the program to the top 20 markets by the end of 1995.

Preview Vacations and Preview Vacations Online offer television viewers and online subscribers the guaranteed lowest prices on complete vacation packages and easy booking via a toll-free telephone number. Preview Vacations packages feature brand-name suppliers like Hyatt, Hilton, American Airlines, Northwest Airlines and Princess Cruise Lines.

Preview Media's core asset is its vast video library of over 8,000 hours of travel footage, shot on location around the world. As television's leading source of travel information worldwide, Preview Media's programs influence the travel decisions of over 5 million viewers every day. The privately-held company operates its own state-of-the-art production facility in San Francisco.

"We're pleased to be bringing Preview Media's extensive content and affordable vacation packages to our members," said Ted Leonsis, president, America Online Services Company, and a member of Preview Media's board of directors. "With the addition of Preview Vacations Online, AOL subscribers will have the opportunity to purchase vacation packages at significant savings."

James J. Hornthal, chairman and CEO of Preview Media, Inc., said, "We are building this company's future on the direct sales of travel via electronic media. This investment allows us to leverage the interactive medium of America Online and the resources of Kleiner Perkins to create exciting new platforms that combine the on-demand access to information and easy transactions that consumers are looking for when they purchase travel."

America Online, Inc., based in Vienna, VA, (NASDAQ, symbol: AMER) is the nation's fastest growing provider of online services with the most active subscriber base. AOL offers its more than 1.5 million subscribers a wide variety of services, including electronic mail, conferencing, software, computing support, interactive magazines and newspapers, and online classes, as well as easy and affordable access to services of the Internet. Founded in 1985, AOL has established strategic alliances with dozens of companies, including Time Warner, ABC, NBC, Knight-Ridder, Tribune, Hachette, IBM and Apple Computer.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers is America's premier venture capital firm.

Since the firm was founded in 1972, KPCB partners have helped in the creation of over 75 publicly traded companies, and another 80 privately held companies. They have raised over $1 billion in capital and invested in companies whose total market value exceeds $43 billion, including Compaq Computers, Sun Microsystems, Silicon Graphics, Intuit, Lotus, America Online and Electronic Arts.