GeoCities to Acquire WebRing

Posted on November 11, 1998

GeoCities, a community of personal websites, has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Starseed, Inc., known as WebRing, a leading provider of ring technology on the Internet, based in Ashland, Oregon. Web Ring contains 66,000 separate affinity-based rings (member groups) and over 900,000 members. WebRing technology allows the creation of affinity-based communities by linking Web sites of common interests.

"This acquisition makes great sense from every angle," said Thomas R. Evans, president and CEO of GeoCities. "By combining our core competency with exceptional consumer ease-of-use, we believe we are setting the new standard for online interest groups and personal affinity navigation. The addition of WebRing allows us to deliver significant benefits to our members, visitors and advertisers through increased traffic and enhanced services to our members' sites." Mr. Evans added.

WebRing will continue to be based in Ashland, Oregon as a free Web-based service with its own brand identity. The company will be operated by its current management team and will continue to develop and improve the WebRing technology and establish additional revenue-providing capabilities.