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NEWSFLASH: Pantellic acquires PhotoPoint!
By Mike Tomkins
(Tuesday, July 17, 2001 - 16:49 EDT)

The story behind PhotoPoint's downtime is emerging as Pantellic announces its acquisition...

You read it here first - Pantellic Software Inc. has officially announced the acquisition of online photofinishing website PhotoPoint.com. The announcement states that Pantellic acquired the site from Sherwood Partners, a law firm which we'd heard rumored was liquidating PhotoPoint's assets. This suggests that the other detail we'd heard in these rumors is probably true - that PhotoPoint Corp. (USA) went into liquidation on June 26th, quite some time before the site went down, suggesting that Pantellic kept things running even after the site's parent company was pretty much dead.

Pantellic originally developed the PhotoPoint website before selling it to PhotoPoint Corp. in 1999; with today's announcement the site has come full circle and is back with its original creators. Pantellic plans to extend the site's features, and retain many of PhotoPoint Corp.'s partners. It will also retain some PhotoPoint Corp. employees, whilst now handling all business development, sales and marketing functions that PhotoPoint Corp. previously dealt with...

We believe that whilst Pantellic has now announced its acquisition of the PhotoPoint site, negotiations as to the terms of the acquisition may still be finishing up, so likely more news will be forthcoming on this story over time. Today's announcement does suggest that the company may have found its hands tied by negotiation processes whilst the site was down, preventing it from publically discussing the reasons for the downtime.

Source: Pantellic Software Inc.

Original Source Press Release:

PANTELLIC SOFTWARE ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION OF PHOTOPOINT.COM WEB SITE

Top Photo Sharing Website Continues Under New Ownership

Halifax, Nova Scotia – July 17, 2001 - Pantellic Software Inc., the original creator of PhotoPoint.com, the most popular photo sharing website in the world, has acquired the PhotoPoint.com web site from Sherwood Partners, Inc. (www.shrwood.com), the Assignee for PhotoPoint Corp (USA). The PhotoPoint.com site will continue under the new management, ensuring that members will have ongoing access to their personal photo albums.

“It’s very exciting for us to have the rights to PhotoPoint.com, but it’s pretty much business as usual since we’ve been operating the site on contract all along,” says Dale Gass, CEO of Pantellic. “Making PhotoPoint.com the best place in the world to store and share your photos continues to be our number one goal.”

PhotoPoint Corp. (USA) acquired the PhotoPoint.com web site in 1999. Since that time, Pantellic has performed the development and hosting of PhotoPoint.com, while PhotoPoint Corp was responsible for business development, sales and marketing. These functions will now be handled exclusively by Pantellic, who will be retaining the services of some of the former PhotoPoint Corp employees and maintaining many of its partners.

“Our plan is to build on the strong relationships that PhotoPoint Corp has established with companies like Sun MicroSystems and Epson America, while forging new partnerships and allegiances to continue the ongoing success of PhotoPoint.com,” says Gass.

Gass says the management team at Pantellic plans many new features and services that members have been requesting. “Pantellic is very member-oriented; our greatest asset is our members. We’ll be working diligently to make sure they’re happy in the months and years ahead.”

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About PhotoPoint.com

PhotoPoint.com is the leading photo site in the world. Its 1.6 million members have stored over 40 million photos, adding 100,000 more each day. The site provides secure online albums where members can store, arrange and enhance their photos, and easily share them with friends and family. PhotoPoint.com members can send their photos as online postcards, invite friends to view their albums online, or order prints, cards and other items in the secure MarketPlace. The site contains a fully searchable photo gallery, the PhotoPoint Magazine of photography tips and tricks, and public forums where members can share ideas on photography, digital imaging and photo sharing.

About Pantellic Software
Pantellic Software Inc. builds online photo services for businesses and also owns and operates PhotoPoint.com, the world's most popular photo site for consumers, according to PC Data, Media Metrix and Nielsen//NetRatings. A privately held company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Pantellic has a state of the art internet hosting facility and over 50 highly skilled employees.

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