Jupitermedia Sells Divisions . . .

Stock Asylum Staff Report
August 2, 2005


Jupitermedia will sell two divisions in a move that strengthens the company's commitment to its growing stock photography operation.

The company announced that it will receive $43 million in cash from Incisive Media, of London, for the sale of Search Engine Strategies trade shows and the ClickZ.com Network of Web sites.

"As Jupitermedia increasingly focuses its efforts on its commercial images operations, we have looked for ways to redeploy assets to more rapidly grow our JupiterImages division," stated Alan M. Meckler, chairman and CEO of Jupitermedia Corporation.

"This sale is evidence of our intent to be even more aggressive in the licensing and distribution of commercial images," Meckler said in a prepared statement.

In a conference call shortly after the sale was announced, Meckler told industry analysts that the money would be used to pay down some of the company's debt. Jupitermedia owes $80 million. The vast majority of the debt is from the recent purchases of stock photography companies, including Comstock, PictureArts, Creatas and others.

Meckler indicated that Jupitermedia could purchase more stock photography distributors in the near future, but would not comment about which companies might be acquired. He also said the Darien, CT, company will launch a major campaign the fall to promote stock photo sales.

Jupitermedia reported second-quarter revenues of $33.8 million with net income of $7.0 million. Both figures were substantially higher than the same quarter last year.

The Jupitermedia web site is at: http://www.jupitermedia.com.

JupiterImages is at: http://www.jupiterimages.com.