01/01/03
E-centives, Inc. Acquires ConsumerREVIEW.com
 
Company Plans to Run ConsumerREVIEW.com as a Separate Business Unit, with Each Company's Respective Technology Leveraged to Enhance the Other's Core Offering BETHESDA, MD, and FOSTER CITY, CA; January 6, 2003– E-centives, Inc. (SWX: ECEN), a leading provider of interactive direct marketing technologies and services, today announced that it has completed its acquisition of the assets of Consumer Review, Inc., the leading, trusted source for consumer product reviews and information on the Web. ConsumerREVIEW.com will be run as a separate business unit of E-centives, while both companies will leverage each other’s technologies and expertise to strengthen their own core competencies. Specifically, E-centives will make its interactive relationship marketing platform (IDBM) which includes data warehousing, personalized e-mail marketing and patented couponing technologies, available to ConsumerREVIEW.com to enhance overall services to its consumer visitors and advertisers. Similarly, E-centives plans to adapt ConsumerREVIEW.com’s product review and feedback technology to its IDBM platform, which will provide the new and valuable functionality to further enhance interactive dialogues between its business clients and their consumers. Financial details of the transaction can be found in E-centives’ recent SEC filings.

“ConsumerREVIEW.com has achieved a prominent position in the product review space and has built a loyal community of users and advertisers who rely upon its services”, said Kamran Amjadi, Chairman & CEO of E-centives, Inc. Amjadi further added, “The acquisition of ConsumerREVIEW.com is a strategic investment for us, and part of our ongoing quest for profitable, best-of-breed companies whose technologies, services, and personnel strengthen our competitive position in the industry. This business is projected to generate approximately $2.5 to $3.0 million in annualized revenues for E-centives this year, and achieve incremental EBITDA profitability based on these revenue projections.”

Currently, eleven Web sites encompass the ConsumerREVIEW.com network of vertical web communities, including MtbREVIEW.com (the leading mountain biking web site on the Internet), AudioREVIEW.com and PhotographyREVIEW.com. These sites post thousands of reviews written by and for consumers, as well as product ratings, price comparison services and information on where to get the best deals. Consumers can also conduct online discussions about mountain bikes, cars, photography, computers and a variety of other products. In addition to providing value to consumers, ConsumerREVIEW.com also enables marketers to gain a richer understanding of consumer needs.

"We are very proud of our accomplishments in becoming the leader in product review and product enthusiast web communities. E-centives’ vision for the future of technology in bringing consumers and marketers closer together is a perfect fit for our company." said Paul Wassem, Consumer Review’s former President & CEO and currently E-centives' Vice President and General Manager of the Company’s new business unit, ConsumerREVIEW.com. "Specifically, we look forward to utilizing E-centives’ Internet direct marketing and couponing technologies to enhance the values we provide to our consumers and expand the options we provide to our advertisers.”

The founder of Consumer Review, Francis Cebedo, as well as former Vice President of Operations, Mike La Rotonda, and Eric Newhouse, manager of Consumer Review’s consumer electronics sites, will join Paul Wassem in continuing to manage the operations of this business unit. Consumer Review’s other personnel have joined the E-centives staff in the Company's San Francisco Bay Area office.

About E-centives E-centives is a leading provider of interactive direct marketing technologies and services that enable companies to acquire and retain consumers and promote more profitable relationships with them. Clients include global players from the consumer packaged goods, retail and media industries. Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C., and with west coast offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, E-centives, Inc. is traded on the SWX Swiss Exchange under the symbol “ECEN.”