New Company TUCOWS.com to be formed
TORONTO, CANADA — May 27, 1999 — TUCOWS Interactive Limited announced today that the majority of the company has been acquired by B. Steinmetz Technology Holding International (STHI), a private financial investment company. Under the agreement, STHI, through TUCOWS.com Inc., has acquired all of the TUCOWS assets and businesses. Additional investors in the acquisition include representatives from the Arison Group, including Bank Hapoalim, Eurocom, F.I.B.I. Investments, and XDL, a Toronto-based venture capital fund.
TUCOWS (The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software), a leader in the downloading and distribution of software and online content, will be operated through the new entity, TUCOWS.com Inc., beginning immediately. Terms of the deal, which was signed earlier this month, were not disclosed. STHI will maintain control and chairmanship of TUCOWS.com. TUCOWS founders and managers, Scott Swedorski and Elliot Noss, will retain an interest in the company. Noss will remain as president of TUCOWS.com, and Swedorski will remain as editor-in-chief of the site. A list of the TUCOWS.com board of directors will be announced at a later date.
“TUCOWS is poised to become the leading online software delivery company," said Beny Steinmetz, chairman, Tucows.com. We expect to leverage TUCOWS' unique online distribution avenues to grow our reach of audience.”
“The strength of Beny Steinmetz’s group will open up exciting opportunities for growth at TUCOWS," said Elliot Noss, president of TUCOWS. "We are looking forward to this new phase in the development of our business. Expect to see a host of new services with Tucows.com.”
Investment in Internet technology is an important focal point of STHI. The company has invested in more than 35 hi-tech companies worldwide, including comparative shopping on the Internet; text analyzing and automatic E-mail answering; distance learning; security; e-commerce; web-based e-mail; high speed communication modems; digital images; authentication and signatures; net exchanges; Online retail sales companies; and more.
About TUCOWS.com Inc.
With offices in New York City, Flint, Michigan and Toronto, Canada, TUCOWS (The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software) is one of the largest Internet distribution sites featuring Windows®, Macintosh®, Linux® and PDA software. TUCOWS was founded in 1994 as a public service to new Internet users. Today the privately owned and operated TUCOWS offers an array of electronic downloaded software programs that can be accessed at over 900 mirror sites on six continents, in over 75 countries world-wide. The site serves more than 70 million pages per month, making TUCOWS one of the busiest sites on the Internet.
Contact Info:
Charmaine D'Silva
Public Relations Manager
TUCOWS.com Inc.
(work) 416-239-9095 X240
(cell) 416-824-8374
charm@tucows.com