ONELIST AND EGROUPS ANNOUNCE
MERGER
Top two players combine to create world's largest Internet group communications company
November 9, 1999, San Francisco, Calif. -
ONElist (www.onelist.com) and eGroups, Inc. (www.eGroups.com), the two largest companies
in the Internet group communications space, jointly announced a definitive merger
agreement today. Upon closing of the transaction by the end of this month, the new
company, eGroups, Inc., will establish a wide lead in one of the Internet's fastest
growing categories with over ten times the traffic of its closest competitor. The combined
company will serve more than 13 million customers, comprised of 260,000 active email
groups, delivering over 1.3 billion email messages per month.
"Our mission is to revolutionize the way groups of people communicate using the
Internet," said Michael Klein, new CEO for the combined companies. "Merging the
two biggest players gives us undisputed leadership in the email community and group
communications category."
Virtually anyone with email access can use eGroups - anytime, anywhere. With email as the
core of its service, eGroups offers a range of Web-based applications to enable group
leaders to easily manage complex group interactions and provides individuals with freedom
to exchange thoughts, information and ideas with others that share common interests.
Growth of Group Communications
In spite of exponential viral growth effects in this emerging category, the Internet group
communications space has been flying
below the radar screen for some time.
Traditional measures of Internet reach-web page views-are inadequate to describe eGroups'
massive monthly customer contact. Since the new company's core focus is email list
hosting, only seven percent of its customer contact is captured through web-based
impressions. The vast majority of group interactions occur using email. By comparison, the
amount of email messages eGroups serves is equal to about two thirds of the email
generated by America Online users. Media Metrix figures, while they tell only fraction of
the story, are nonetheless significant for both companies. In September, Media Metrix
ranked ONElist and eGroups as the 24th and 37th largest Web service companies,
respectively. During their infancy, both pre-merger companies independently attracted
customers faster than HotMail or GeoCities. In less than a year, eGroups has established a
larger user base than either eBay or Amazon.
Word-of-mouth among membership and explosive viral growth have fueled the majority of
growth for both ONElist and eGroups. "Group email is truly the killer application of
the Internet," remarked Peter Mills, a ONElist lead investor from CMGI@Ventures
(NASDAQ: CMGI).
Forrester Research expects 50% of the U.S. population, or 135 million people, will
communicate using email by 2001. In fact, analysts predict that more than one billion
people will send nearly seven billion messages per day by 2002. With this merger
announcement, the Internet group communications space is now ready to emerge and register
on the radar screen along with other fast-growing Internet segments, such as online
auctions, search tools, and e-commerce.
Mike Moritz, a lead eGroups investor from Sequoia Capital, emphasized the importance of
being number one: "With 13 million members, eGroups has instantly become the
undisputed leader in an emerging category. The category leader is typically worth more
than the value of all other competitors combined."
"Bringing together the two category leaders will dramatically change the competitive
landscape. This merger marks an unprecedented shift in the emerging group communications
arena," said Jan Buettner, a ONElist board member from Bertelsmann Ventures.
"eGroups now has widened the gap in one of the fastest growing segments of the
Internet."
eGroups Management Team
The new company's management team will be comprised of executives from both ONElist and
eGroups. "This partnership brings together some of the sharpest minds in the
industry. With this combination of talent and resources from the two companies, eGroups is
positioned for incredible growth in the years to come," added Klein.
In the new company, the management team consists of the following: Michael Klein, recently
hired as ONElist's chief executive officer, will be the new CEO for eGroups; Marjorie
Sennett will be senior vice president and chief financial officer; Rikk Carey, will
be vice president and CTO; Steven Comfort will be vice president of sales; Jacqueline
Maartense will be vice president of marketing; Jeff Winner will be vice president of
engineering; Aki Oyama will lead international efforts in Japan; Marcus Riecke will be
general manager of Europe; Jade Dauser will be vice president of corporate services; Jill
Howes will be vice president of human resources; and Carolyn Patterson, will be vice
president of operations.
Klein further noted, "With this team on board, I'm confident that we can execute a
smooth and timely integration. Our plan is to continue managing separate operations and
web sites for the immediate future. We will strategically integrate our businesses during
the next few months so that we can assure a seamless transition for our customers."
eGroups and ONElist Background
eGroups, Inc., formerly ONElist, Inc. and eGroups, Inc., is revolutionizing the way groups
of people communicate, using email list hosting at the core of its service. The combined
company serves more than 13 million members and hosts more than 260,000 active community
groups that exchange more than 1.3 billion emails per month. The new company offers a
range of integrated communications tools including free email communities, photo storage,
file sharing, event coordination, group surveys, and chat.
Both launched in 1998, eGroups and ONElist are privately held companies based in San
Francisco and Redwood City, respectively, with backing from premier venture capital
investors. ONElist received venture funding from CMGI@Ventures
(Nasdaq: CMGI) and Bertelsmann Ventures. eGroups, Inc. was financed by Sequoia Capital and
Atlas Venture.
ONElist was founded by Mark Fletcher and Scott Shambarger. eGroups was founded by Scott
Hassan, Martin Roshcheisen, and Carl Page. For more information, please visit http://www.ONElist.com and http://www.eGroups.com
|
New Students Welcome
