[Vancouver, BRITISH COLUMBIA] GlobalMedia.com, an Internet broadcasting and e-services
company, announced today a major restructuring of its business, which includes the sale of its radio
contracts and related assets to SurferNETWORK.com.
SurferNETWORK will pay GlobalMedia.com a combination of cash and equity for its radio assets.
GlobalMedia.com will also get a seat on the Board of SurferNETWORK.com as well as interim funding.
Closing of the transaction is expected to be in late January, 2001, and is subject to completion of due
diligence and signing of the definitive agreements.
SurferNETWORK was founded by Geode Electronics, LLC, a technology-based incubator
headquartered in Mt. Olive, NJ. The principal inventor of SurferNETWORK technology is Harry E.
Emerson III, CEO of Geode.
In December of 1999, Geode announced the creation of SurferNETWORK and the hiring of its CEO,
Gordon Bridge, an IT executive formerly of AT&T.
In September 2000, the SurferNETWORK Alliance of large radio groups was announced, and in
November, SurferNETWORK made public its intention to acquire BroadcastAmerica.com, Inc. The new
entity will provide streaming traditional radio stations via the Internet, with 1000 stations under contract at
the time of the announcement.
SurferNETWORK.com will combine GlobalMedia.com’s radio contracts with the radio contracts it
previously has closed with a number of the major radio groups in the Internet broadcast industry.
SurferNETWORK.com had previously announced a potential combination of businesses with Broadcast
America, pending Broadcast America successfully completing and exiting their Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection proceedings. This combined portfolio, when joined with SurferNETWORK.com’s targeted ad
insertion technology, will allow SurferNETWORK.com to provide the largest network of radio stations,
online listening, and targeted multimedia ad technology to its customers.
GlobalMedia.com announced this month that 15 of the top 75 Arbitron September Webcast Ratings are
GlobalMedia.com clients and streaming audio channels. Arbitron Webcast Ratings measured over 1000
webcast stations and channels. The GlobalMedia properties logged 928,400 aggregate tuning hours during
the month of September.
At the heart of GlobalMedia’s technology is the GlobalMedia Player. Based on RealNetworks’
market-leading RealPlayer G2, it performs the basic G2 functions – decoding streaming media from the
Web for display on audiences’ screens. GlobalMedia can also customize the Player interface for clients,
creating a distinctive new “skin” which can feature company colors, logos, etc. The technology’s interfaces
allows for the creation of highly sophisticated interfaces for GlobalMedia’s Players.
In the future, GlobalMedia.com is expected to focus primarily on video delivery over the Internet. The
company already has contracts with the National Football League, 4Kids Entertainment,
WorldHockeyNetwork, AccuWeather and ClassicMovies.com. Additional focus will also be placed on its
broadband and wireless division.
