OAK RIDGE,
Tenn. and WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. – October 5, 2004 – IPIX InfoMedia, the
world leader for the creation of full 360-degree panoramic photography and
movies content, and Homestore, Inc., the leading provider of real estate media
and technology solutions, today announced that they have reached an agreement
to restructure their joint efforts to market and sell virtual tours to the real
estate industry.
Beginning today,
IPIX InfoMedia will market and sell its virtual tour photography solution, the
IPIX Interactive Studio, directly to the US real estate market and Homestore
will expand its hometour360 program to support in addition to IPIX, a wider
range of imaging technologies. As a result, real estate agents and
photographers will benefit from a broader choice of panoramic imaging solutions
and enhanced marketing capabilities. The companies will continue to work
together to grow the adoption of virtual tours in the US real estate industry.
“We have been working with IPIX for many
years to help real estate professionals market their properties online with
360-degree images,” said Allan Dalton, president of Realtor.com, operated by Homestore. “We believe that
virtual tours are one of the most effective online marketing solutions and look
forward to the next phase of our relationship with IPIX refocusing on the real
estate marketplace and introducing new virtual tour creation features tailored
to the real estate professional.”
“We are pleased
to be directly servicing the US real estate market with our full 360-degree
photography products and services, including our recently introduced IPIX
Interactive Studio,” said Clara Conti, President and CEO, IPIX Corporation.
“The IPIX Interactive Studio includes features tailored to meet the needs of
real estate professionals and their service providers to efficiently produce
high quality virtual tour photography that can be directly integrated into
marketing programs such as hometour360.”
The 2001
License Agreement, where IPIX had granted Homestore exclusive rights to sell
IPIX virtual tour technology to the US residential real estate market, is no
longer in effect. In its place, IPIX
has granted Homestore a license to sell the IPIX Wizard software and IPIX image
viewer software to support IPIX real estate Keys sold by Homestore.
About IPIX
InfoMedia
IPIX InfoMedia
is the world leading provider of solutions for the creation of full-360 degree
panoramic photography. IPIX InfoMedia products offer superior image capture and
an open, flexible data format that can easily be integrated into a wide range
of business systems. IPIX InfoMedia solutions serve the Visual Media and Visual
Documentation markets. IPIX InfoMedia is a business unit of IPIX Corporation
(NASDAQ: IPIX). IPIX Corporation offers mission critical imaging where visual
content is required for eCommerce and the protection of life and property.
Learn more about IPIX's three business units (IPIX AdMission, IPIX Security and
IPIX InfoMedia) at www.ipix.com.
IPIX, the IPIX
logo and IPIX Interactive Studio are trademarks or registered trademarks of
IPIX Corporation.
About Homestore
Homestore, Inc.
(Nasdaq: HOMS) is the leading provider of real estate media and technology
solutions. The Company operates the number one network of home and real estate
Web sites including its flagship site REALTOR.com(R), the official Web site of
the National Association of REALTORS(R) and HomeBuilder.com(TM), the official
new homes site of the National Association of Home Builders. Homestore also
operates RENTNET(R), an apartments, corporate housing and self-storage resource
and Senior Housing Net(R), a comprehensive resource for seniors, as well as
Homestore.com(R), a home information resource. Homestore's print businesses are
Homestore(R) Plans and Publications and Welcome Wagon(R). Homestore's
professional software divisions include Computers for Tracts(TM), Top
Producer(R) Systems and WyldFyre(TM) Technologies. For more information:
http://ir.homestore.com
REALTOR.com®,
hometour360°™ and the Virtual Tour Distribution Network™ are trademarks of
Homestore, Inc. REALTOR® is a federally registered collective
membership mark which identifies a real estate professional who is a Member of
the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® and subscribes to its strict
Code of Ethics.
WESTLAKE
VILLAGE, Calif. – October 5, 2004 – Realtor.com, the
official Web site of the National Association of Realtors, today announced that
it will be expanding its virtual tour offerings to support nearly all virtual
image creation technologies. Beginning November 30, 2004, real estate
professionals will be able to enhance their listings on Realtor.com in one of
two ways: An expanded, full service hometour360º program or a new, more
flexible PicturePath program. Both will enable participating virtual tour
companies to better service real estate professionals by marketing their
customers’ homes with virtual tours, the online listing enhancement consumers
prefer.
“We are very excited about the changes being made to Realtor.com’s
virtual tour solutions,” said Allan Dalton, president of Realtor.com.
“Consumers repeatedly stress their attraction to listings with enhancements
like multiple photos and virtual tours.
The decision to transition our virtual tour strategy is based on our
commitment to providing the industry with increased flexibility, which we
believe will result in a better experience for consumers and our customers. Flexible technology options, multiple images,
agent and property branding features, reliable hosting and the Virtual Tour
Distribution Network make the new hometour360º virtual tour an extremely
attractive product for the today’s savvy real estate professional.”
Homestore
will convert its comprehensive hometour360º product into a hosting and
distribution solution powered by a choice of virtual image creation
technologies. Homestore will continue to support IPIX’s virtual image
solutions, but will now enable alternative imaging technologies to be used. At
the same time, the current PicturePath product will transition to a link
submission solution. Homestore intends to begin offering these solutions
November 30.
Historically, access to
Homestore’s hometour360º program was only available to virtual tour service
providers that agreed to acquire the hometour360º Wizard software and keys
needed to create IPIX 360-degree images. Under the new solution, hometour360º
service providers will be able to purchase virtual image creation software from
a variety of technology providers, including, but not limited to, IPIX.
Participating hometour360º service providers will be able to upload these
images along with property information, flat photos and agent information to
create the industry-leading hometour360º virtual tour. These tours will be
hosted by Homestore, operator of Realtor.com, and disseminated across the
Internet through the Virtual Tour Distribution Network (VTDN). Unprecedented in
its breadth, the VTDN includes more
than 600 national, regional, broker, office and branded real estate Web sites
that accept virtual tours from Realtor.com.1
All other virtual tour service providers will be invited to join the PicturePath program. These providers will have increased flexibility to deliver their virtual tours, created with any technology and hosted themselves, to Realtor.com for listing enhancement for a nominal fee.
For more information about changes to hometour360º and PicturePath, visit http://imaging.homestore.com or call (866) 483-4749.
ABOUT REALTOR.COM
Realtor.com
is the official Web site of the National Association of Realtors. Ranked as the
No. 1 homes-for-sale site, Realtor.com currently offers potential homebuyers
more than 2.1 million Realtor-listed homes for sale as well as the most brokers
and agents to contact. The site also provides home sellers with the Internet's
largest marketplace to reach more than 6.1 million consumers per month.2 By
using Realtor.com, agents and companies have the power to customize the
resources of the Realtor.com Web site to maximize their brand and productivity.
The Realtor.com Web site is operated by Homestore, Inc.
REALTOR.com®,
hometour360°™ and the Virtual Tour Distribution Network™ are trademarks of
Homestore, Inc. REALTOR® is a federally registered
collective membership mark which identifies a real estate professional who is a
Member of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® and subscribes to its strict
Code of Ethics. All other registered trademarks, or service marks are the
property of their respective holders.
1Listings must be active on these
sites in order for virtual tours to appear.
2comScore Media Metrix, June 2004
|
Contact: |
|
Homestore, Inc. |
|
Erin K. Campbell |
|
Director, Corporate
Communications |
|
805-557-2303 |