Snowball.com, Inc. Acquires High School Alumni.com

Business Wire, Oct 18, 1999

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 18, 1999--

Leading Online Media Company for the Internet Generation

Fortifies Reach with Extensive Alumni Audience and Continues Growth

Through Strategic Web Acquisitions

Snowball.com, a leading online media company for the Internet Generation, announced today that it has acquired High School Alumni.com for a combination of cash and stock.

The acquisition of High School Alumni.com, a leading online resource for keeping in touch with high school classmates, strengthens Snowball.com's prominent position among the 12-29 year old demographic that grew up on the Internet, particularly among the higher end of this web-savvy audience.

High School Alumni.com has registered over 937,000 users nationwide. The popular Web destination is a former affiliate of PowerStudents.com, Snowball.com's high school and college student focused network.

"Acquisitions like this represent an important component of our growth strategy. High School Alumni.com has shown tremendous growth in registrations since becoming an affiliate of PowerStudents.com in June. The logical next-step is to more fully integrate its complementary content into our network," said Mark Jung, President and CEO of Snowball.com.

"Our unique affiliate model offers us the opportunity to evaluate deeper relationships with the sites even as we are actively exchanging content and sharing revenue."

High School Alumni.com is also a significant part of PowerStudent.com's strategy to capture the full spectrum of student life. PowerStudents.com plans to enhance High School Alumni.com's editorial content and database capabilities, and expects to integrate the content into its network by year-end.

"PowerStudents.com is designed to enhance a student's educational experience through high school, into college, and beyond. High School Alumni.com allows us to enrich the `beyond' experience by giving alumni the ability to re-unite with long-lost friends," said Kelly Tanabe, Director of PowerStudents.com.

In January 1999, James N. Haltiwanger, a 19-year-old college freshman, launched High School Alumni.com when he and a group of friends wanted an easy way to keep track of each other after high school graduation. The idea was so effective that Haltiwanger and his friends, George Baker and Melissa Hubbard, formed a company to expand the program to include 28,000 high schools across the United States.

High School Alumni.com joined Snowball.com's affiliate program in June and quickly became one of the largest affiliates of Snowball.com's PowerStudents.com network.

High School Alumni.com has experienced explosive growth since becoming a PowerStudents.com affiliate. Just since the end of August, the site has registered more than 400,000 users.

"Our affiliation with Snowball.com and the PowerStudents.com network has significantly helped expand our reach to high school alums, and we look forward to being an integral piece of PowerStudents.com," said James N. Haltiwanger, Jr., founder of High School Alumni.com.

About Snowball.com

Snowball.com is the leading online media company for Generation i -- the 12-29 year old demographic who has grown up using the Internet. Snowball.com's networks include:ChickClick (www.chickclick.com), IGN.com (www.ign.com), InsideGuide.com (www.insideguide.com) and PowerStudents.com (www.powerstudents.com).

Snowball.com also provides advertisers with valuable, timely research on this Web-savvy demographic. Snowball.com is a private company headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., with locations in New York and Los Angeles and can be found at www.snowball.com. For more information about current Snowball.com networks, or to learn how to become an affiliate, visit www.snowball.com.

About PowerStudents.com

PowerStudents.com, a Snowball.com network, is the No. 1 destination for anyone who wants to maximize their student experience. The site provides vital information and enriching communities to high school, college and career-seeking students. Updated daily, PowerStudents.com combines original content with an unprecedented alliance of over 25 leading independent Web sites.