HandHeld Entertainment to Add 1,500 More Feature-Length Films and TV Shows to ZTV: Its ZVUE Movie Download Library at www.ZVUE.com
HandHeld Entertainment's Expanding Video Download Store Continues to Give ZVUE Users More Titles to Choose From
HandHeld Entertainment(TM) (OTC BB: HNDH message board, news, quote, dd) announced today it has licensed more than 1,500 feature films and television programs from Worldvision Cinema for digital distribution and download through ZTV(TM), HandHeld Entertainment's digital download store at www.ZVUE.com for play on its ZVUE(TM) portable media players.
Out of the 1,500 Worldvision Cinema films and television shows that will be available for download at www.zvue.com/downloads in ZVUE-ready format, more than 50 are available for immediate download today, and HandHeld Entertainment plans to add more Worldvision Cinema titles to ZTV each week. Worldvision Cinema's movie library showcases early performances by many of today's Hollywood stars, including performances by Jackie Chan, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman, Demi Moore, John Wayne and W.C. Fields as well as classic films from Alfred Hitchcock.
"By adding 1,500 full-length films and television programs to the ZVUE.com download library, ZVUE users have a continually growing number of movie and video downloads to choose from for on-the-go viewing," said Jeff Oscodar, chief executive officer and president of HandHeld Entertainment. "The video and audio content available for download at ZVUE.com is expanding rapidly to continue to give ZVUE users more choices when it comes to their video viewing tastes."
The Worldvision Cinema partnership comes on the heels of recent HandHeld Entertainment announcements, including acquiring comedic movies from Fun Little Movies, extreme sports videos from TotalVid, independent films from StoryPIPE.com and classic TV programs and cartoons from LikeTelevision.
"It's a pleasure to supply our favorite portable video player with the means to satisfy both the insatiable appetite for entertainment and the demands of the ZVUE film buff," said Shelly Jacobs, representative for Worldvision Cinema Inc. "We have the classic and cult feature titles that film buffs are looking for, many of which were produced for a gone, yet still cherished, institution - the drive-in theater."
Available today in more than 1,800 Wal-Mart stores around the United States, the $99 ZVUE plays videos and MP3 files available from the ZVUE.com download store and also lets users view digital pictures from a digital camera or home video from a camcorder. The ZVUE offers full-color video and clear audio sound that gives users a robust, on-the-go digital experience when coupled with downloadable content from the ZVUE Web site.
About Worldvision Cinema Inc.
Worldvision Cinema Inc. is a diversified film library and content licensing company that provides classic and cult motion picture and television program entertainment to a worldwide selection of DVD publishers and satellite broadcasters. Worldvision Cinema's content spans from the 1930s classic black & white masters to the more current films of the 1990s, much of which were originally produced for the nationwide drive-in theater cult and mainstream market. Worldvision Cinema is located in The Lakes, Nevada. For more information call 212-744-3150 or visit www.worldvisioncinema.com.
Worldvision Cinema Inc. is not affiliated with relief and development organization World Vision Inc., or with Worldvision Enterprises Inc., a subsidiary of Spelling Entertainment Group Inc.
HandHeld Entertainment Executive Team Delivers Visibility and Valuation to the Portable Media Player Marketplace; Mobile Entertainment Company Sets Stage with Focus on Portable Media and Entertainment for the Masses
With its executive team composed of capital investment veterans and technology industry experts, HandHeld Entertainment(TM) (OTCBB:HNDH), which recently completed a reverse merger and $7.6 million private placement, has built a firm foundation for becoming a leading "pure play" digital media-to-go company with a family of mass-market-priced portable media players.
"HandHeld Entertainment's executive team has grown this company from a mere idea to full-blown distribution in more than 1,800 retail locations as well as an entire family of mass-market priced ZVUE(TM) portable media players," said Bill Keating, chairman of the board of directors of HandHeld Entertainment. "This success and continued growth comes because HandHeld Entertainment's leadership has a unique blend of experience and moxie, as shown by the number of companies they've started and sold that have been collectively valued at more than $1.5 billion."
Keating himself is a former executive with Microsoft, Sun, WebTV and Moxi Digital, and is a founding member of Nekei, an advisory service that helps companies get real solutions to funding and operational concerns. Keating's 25 years of experience in turning new technologies into successful marketplace ventures is well documented, with seven business ventures going public or being acquired, including WebTV's sale to Microsoft for $425 million.
"HandHeld Entertainment is a 'pure play' digital media-to-go company with purpose and focus: delivering affordable and portable entertainment for the masses," Keating said. "Our CEO, Jeff Oscodar, has been instrumental in leading HandHeld Entertainment's executive team as they have combined their talents and know-how to take the company to where it is today and establish it as a leader in portable media and entertainment."
HandHeld Entertainment Executive Team
Jeff Oscodar has been director, president and chief executive officer of HandHeld Entertainment since November 2004. Prior to joining HandHeld Entertainment, Oscodar founded and ran Rule 168 Advisors from July 1999 to November 2004, a consulting firm focused on the commercialization of new technology. At Rule 168, he advised Raytheon on how to turn defense industry applications into valuable commercial operations. Previously, he co-founded InfoGear Technology Corporation, which produced the first Web-enabled telephone and was sold to Cisco Systems in March 2000 for $301 million. While at InfoGear, Oscodar developed content partnerships with companies such as Amazon.com, eToys, Time Inc., USA Today and Yahoo!, among others.
Tim Keating, chief operating officer of HandHeld Entertainment, is the former managing director of Intel Capital Europe where he spearheaded more than 70 equity investments between 2000 and 2003. He is a 21-year veteran of Intel, where he helped grow the Fortune 500 company's core processor business into one of the strongest in the world by heading up the microprocessor business in Europe in the 1990s and launching the original Intel Pentium(TM) brand and chip.
Garrett Cecchini, executive vice president and co-founder, has more than 20 years of experience in the technology industry, first as a corporate lawyer principally advising technology companies and venture funds in licensing and reorganization matters, and then as an entrepreneur. In 1998, he founded Compression Science Corporation, a company that developed advanced broadcast video encoder technology and was sold to Philips Electronics in 2002.
Carl Page, chief technology officer and director, was a co-founder of eGroups, Inc., where he helped build a network of 14 million users who relied on eGroups to support Web-based collaborative work efforts. eGroups was eventually acquired by Yahoo! in 2000 for more than $425 million and is today known as Yahoo! Groups.
Bill Bush, acting chief financial officer, previously served as the chief financial officer and secretary for International Microcomputer Software, Inc. (OTCBB:IMSI), a developer and distributor of precision design software, content and online services. He brings more than 15 years of experience in finance and accounting.
Greg Sutyak, executive vice-president of finance and operations, has more than 25 years of business management and finance experience, including an instrumental role in taking audiohighway.com public on the Nasdaq Stock Market in 1998. Sutyak has spent his last 15 years focused on high-technology markets and spent 10 years as vice president over a $100 million portfolio for Tokai Bank.
Larry Gitlin, vice president of business development, is an industry-acknowledged expert in motion picture and broadcast television production, digital media delivery and content acquisition. He produced and line produced more than a dozen films and TV shows in Hollywood, and worked on projects including "The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers," "Hell Hunters" and "Firearm." During the past eight years, Gitlin has turned his attention to digital media, building revenue-generating businesses from streaming media, digital downloading and Telco-Video Carrier Services. Gitlin has been involved in many Internet firsts, including both directing and producing single- and multi-camera webcasts for the Emmy's and Golden Globe Awards, and was among the first to use the Internet as a syndication model for broadcast TV shows.
Eric Hamilton has served as chief scientist at HandHeld Entertainment since April 2003. He is a leading compression scientist and past chair of the International JPEG Committee, which is responsible for developing the successful JPEG image-coding standard and JPEG 2000.
Geoff Mulligan, director, currently serves as the chief operating officer for Konami of America, the fast-growing, U.S.-based subsidiary of the $1 billion Japanese developer and publisher of entertainment software. He is also one of the founders of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the governing body of the $11 billion U.S. entertainment software industry.
Nathan Schulhof has been a member of the HandHeld Entertainment board of directors since 2004. Schulhof helped to develop the MP3 player, with four U.S. patents bearing his name, and Schulhof has been extensively quoted and featured in technology and consumer media, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, BusinessWeek, Inc. and Success, among others.
HandHeld Entertainment Completes Reverse Merger and $7.6 Million Private Placement; Common Stock Begins Trading March 6, 2006 on the OTC Bulletin Board as ``HNDH''
HandHeld Entertainment, Inc. (OTCBB:HNDH) today announced the completion of a reverse merger and the closing of a $7.6 million private placement, details of which are described in current reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Form 8-K. Trading in the common stock of HandHeld Entertainment will begin on March 6, 2006 on the Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board under the symbol "HNDH."
HandHeld Entertainment, a "pure play" digital-media-to-go company with its ZVUE(TM) family of mass-market portable media players as well as its own online video content store, completed a reverse merger with Vika Corp. on February 10, 2006. Subsequently, HandHeld Entertainment completed the sale of 3,802,500 shares of its common stock at $2.00 per share through a private placement to institutional and accredited investors resulting in gross proceeds of $7,605,000 to the company. The proceeds will be used by the company for general working capital purposes. After taking effect of both the reverse merger and private placement, HandHeld Entertainment has approximately 13.9 million shares of common stock outstanding, of which approximately 2.4 million shares of common stock are in the public float.
HandHeld Entertainment introduced its entry level ZVUE (the Model 200) in 2003 at a price point of $99.95. Available today in more than 1,800 Wal-Mart stores around the United States, the mass-market-priced ZVUE is the perfect digital-media-to-go-solution because ZVUEs allow users to watch their favorite videos, listen to music or look at photos anywhere, anytime. HandHeld Entertainment has also announced three new ZVUE models, the first of which is slated for completion in the first quarter of 2006, and each of which is upgradeable and designed to take advantage of dropping storage pricing to further promote customer flexibility at reasonable price points.
Additionally, the company recently launched the beta version of ZTV(TM), its video download store, at www.zvue.com, a place where lovers of digital video on the go can find hundreds of free video selections in a dozen genres, as well as hundreds of Pay 'n' Play(TM) video selections available for online purchase from $0.99 to $1.99 per downloaded video. HandHeld Entertainment also announced plans in January to expand ZTV in mid-2006 with a video subscription service known as ZVISION(TM). Additional details on ZVISION will be revealed by the company at a future date.
Special Note: The common stock sold in the private placement has not been registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended or state securities laws and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. The common stock was offered and sold only to accredited investors in offerings exempt from the registration requirements of the Securities Act. This announcement is not an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy shares of common stock of HandHeld Entertainment.
About HandHeld Entertainment, Inc.
HandHeld Entertainment is a "pure play" digital-media-to-go company with a family of mass-market portable media players priced at mass-market prices as well as its own online video content store. Its ZVUE portable media players are available for purchase online and in more than 1,800 retail locations across the United States, while portable video lovers can visit ZTV (HandHeld Entertainment's video content store at www.zvue.com) to buy pay-per-download videos or download thousands of free media titles. For more information, visit www.hheld.com or call 415-495-6470.
HandHeld Entertainment, ZVUE, ZTV, Pay 'n' Play and ZVISION are trademarks of HandHeld Entertainment. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
"Safe Harbor" Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
This release contains forward-looking statements. To the extent that any statements made in this release contain information that is not historical, these statements are forward-looking. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that cannot be predicted or quantified and, consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation: HandHeld Entertainment's dependence on contract manufacturing of its products; its reliance on a single major mass-market retailer; its ability to develop and market successfully and in a timely manner new products and services; its ability to predict market demand for, and gain market acceptance of, its products and services; the impact of competitive products and services and of alternative technological advances; its ability to raise additional capital to finance its activities; its limited and unprofitable operating history; its ability to operate as a public company; its ability to reduce product return rates; the affect of inventory and price protections required by major retailers; the availability and affordability of digital media content; its ability to protect its proprietary information and to avoid infringement of others' proprietary rights; its ability to attract and retain qualified senior management and research and development personnel; the reliability and security of its information systems and networks; and other factors described in HandHeld Entertainment's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Annual Reports on Form 10-KSB, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-QSB and Current Reports on Form 8-K. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof. HandHeld Entertainment does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements. As a result, investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.
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