picturephone.com - Speculation on Cellular Phone Giant Purchasing picturephone.com Domain Name May Indeed Pay Off!

picturephone.com - Speculation on Cellular Phone Giant Purchasing picturephone.com Domain Name May Indeed Pay Off!

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Dec. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- The "picturephone.com" domain name auction heats up faster than expected! The existing PicturePhone website has hundreds of domain name shoppers looking at the offering. Since the auction announcement the site has been inundated with visitors keying in on the domain name auction. Of the hundreds of visitors there have been better than one-half-dozen qualified prospects from the cellular phone industry who have expressed a serious interest in purchasing the domain name.

According to Dave Weber, Vice President of PicturePhone Direct, "The initial picturephone.com domain name auction was largely speculation on our part. We figured the best case would offer a moderate interest in purchasing the domain name and we would benefit largely through soft advertising of our videoconferencing products. I was pleasantly surprised to learn of serious interest by several qualified buyers. Looks like we may have a horse race here folks! I am confident we will have some serious bidders submit offers. Hopefully they will meet our reserve and we can move the name along to someone who can roll it into the cellular industry."

"We see the term 'picturephone' becoming more prevalent in describing cell phones with camera or video functionality. We believe that a leading consumer telecommunication company such as Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, Cingular, Nextel and others could leverage the picturephone.com domain name for significant competitive advantage and justify a million-plus-dollar investment. In addition there are numerous cellular picture phone manufacturers who would love to have a more meaningful and unique product identifier. The moniker 'PicturePhone' would be perfect for companies like Motorola, LG Telecom, Samsung, Kyocera, Nokia or Audiovox to incorporate into their marketing activities. Every cellular phone manufacturer makes a camera type 'picturephone' and these lines will continue to grow," said Weber.

According to Mr. Weber, PicturePhone Direct has already secured alternate Internet real estate at http://picturephonedirect.com/ to maintain their existing website. The domain name change will be transparent to existing PicturePhone Direct Customers and have no adverse effect on PicturePhone Direct's existing videoconferencing business.

For details on the picturephone.com domain name auction look here: http://picturephone.com/domain_name_auction.htm.

Terms of the Auction: We will be auctioning off our domain name picturephone.com ... the domain name only.

- The bidding will open at 1,000,000.00 US dollars.
- The bidding will begin on January 17, 2005 and will end on January
31st, 2005 at 5:00 pm EST.
- Bids are to be emailed to: auction@picturephone.com or faxed to
585-359-4999
- This is a sealed-bid auction. Both the identity of the bidder and
amount will remain confidential.
- The winning bidder will be notified on February 1, 2005.
- Full payment is expected within 7 business days via wire transfer. Bank
info for wire transfer will be provided to the winning bidder along
with winning bid notification.
- PicturePhone Direct relies on the integrity of the bidder to honor
their commitments.
- Upon successful completion of the auction and payment in full, the
"picturephone.com" domain name ownership will be transferred to the
winning bidder.

Notes & Conditions:

1. The winning bidder will be required to maintain a direct link to the
new PicturePhone Direct website at http://picturephonedirect.com/ for a
period of 8 months after the transfer of the domain name. This link
will be displayed as a text link on the bottom of the winning
bidder's home page on the "picturephone.com" domain name.

2. If you have specific questions about our domain name auction, please
contact us directly. Email: auction@picturephone.com, phone:
585-334-9040 x2214, or fax 585-359-4999.

About PicturePhone Direct, Inc.


Founded in 1993 PicturePhone Direct, Inc. of Rochester, NY is one of the industry's largest suppliers of videoconferencing products and accessories. Currently, one of only two Sony conferencing distributors in the United States, PicturePhone delivers videoconferencing solutions through a network of qualified dealers and integrators. PicturePhone Direct prides itself in being a one-stop shop for all business-to-business videoconferencing requirements. The company carries all the major videoconferencing brands and accessory items such as PTZ video cameras from all the major manufacturers, i.e., Sony, Polycom, VCON, Aethra, Bulldog, Canon, Extron, Elmo, Samsung and more! For more information about PicturePhone Direct, visit the company website at http://picturephone.com/, or call 1-800-521-5454 x2214 (outside the US 585-334-9040 x2214).

This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com/.


Source: PicturePhone Direct, Inc.

CONTACT: Dave Weber, PicturePhone Direct, +1-800-521-5454 x2214 (outside
the US, +1-585-334-9040 x2214)

Web site: http://picturephone.com/
http://picturephonedirect.com/
http://picturephone.com/domain_name_auction.htm


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