Internet Gold's Smile.Media Expanding Focus On Israel's Arab-Speaking Population
June 05 2006 - 2:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
Recent Activities: Acquisition of 70% of Hadaf Arab-language Sports
Portal & - Securing of BBC as Arab-language Content Feed PETACH
TIKVA, Israel, June 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Internet Gold,
(Nasdaq NMS: IGLD) today announced that its subsidiary Smile.Media
Ltd. (formerly GoldMind) has embarked on a program to expand the
traffic of yahala.co.il, the Arab-language portal in which it holds
a 51% ownership interest. Yahala yesterday acquired a 70% ownership
interest in hadaf.co.il, one of Israel's most popular Arab language
sports portals. Hadaf offers a broad variety of sports-related
content, including online coverage of sports events, teams and
personalities popular with the Arab population. As part of the
transaction, Hadaf's founder will become Yahala's Sports Editor and
its Community and Content Director. In addition, Yahala has
recently signed an agreement with the BBC under which
http://www.bbcarabic.com/, the BBC's Arab-language portal, will
feed a broad variety of content to the Yahala portal. Commenting on
the news, Doron Turgeman, Internet Gold's and Smile.Media's Deputy
CEO, said, "We are continuing to expand our focus on Israel's Arab
speaking sector,. an important segment accounting for 20% of the
population. Since acquiring a controlling interest in Yahala, we
have worked closely with its management to increase its traffic and
revenues, and are very pleased with the results so far. We believe
our recent initiatives, including this acquisition of the Hadaf
sports portal and the content-feeder agreement with the BBC, will
take Yahala to the next level, giving it an even larger market
share and a growing level of revenues." About Internet Gold
Internet Gold is Israel's leading IP Group with a major presence
across all Internet-related sectors. Its Smile.Communications Ltd.
subsidiary offers a variety of Internet access and related
value-added services, international telephony and enterprise/IT
integration services. Its Smile.Media Ltd. subsidiary manages a
growing portfolio of Internet portals and e-Commerce sites.
Internet Gold is part of the Eurocom Communications Group. Its
shares trade under the symbol IGLD on the Nasdaq National Market
and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. For additional information about
Internet Gold, please visit its investors' site at
http://www.igld.com/. Certain statements made herein that use the
words "estimate," "project," "intend," "expect," "believe" and
similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking
statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements involve known
and unknown risks and uncertainties which could cause the actual
results, performance or achievements of the Company to be
materially different from those which may be expressed or implied
by such statements, including, among others, changes in general
economic and business conditions and specifically, decline in
demand for the Company's services, inability to timely develop and
introduce new technologies, services and applications and loss of
market share and pressure on prices resulting from competition. For
additional information regarding these and other risks and
uncertainties associated with the Company's business, reference is
made to the Company's Annual Report filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission and its other reports as filed from time to
time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. For further
information, please contact: Marybeth Csaby KCSA Worldwide
+1-212-896-1236 In Israel: Meirav Be'eri Investor Relations
+972-3-516-7620 DATASOURCE: Internet Gold CONTACT: Marybeth Csaby,
KCSA Worldwide, +1-212-896-1236, In Israel: Meirav Be'eri, Investor
Relations, +972-3-516-7620
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