WARWICK, Rhode Island, Feb. 9, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- ICOA, Inc., (OTCBB:ICOA), today announced it has signed a letter of intent to acquire Metaccord, Ltd. www.metaccord.com, the privately-held developer of "Wi-Fi partnership management" software for Wi-Fi providers. Founded in 2001, Metaccord is funded and backed by the Jerusalem College of Technology, one of Israel's leading schools of engineering, and Israel's Office of the Chief Scientist which invests in promising hi-tech companies.
ICOA is leveraging its growing relationships with Wi-Fi providers and its track record for installing superior Wi-Fi network solutions, to offer Metaccord's recently developed partnership management solution to the growing number of operators providing Public Wi-Fi access world-wide.
"We have become a major Wi-Fi service provider to North American airports, hotels, quick service restaurants, and marinas," stated George Strouthopoulos, CEO of ICOA. "By acquiring Metaccord, we are able to serve the growing number of Wi-Fi Hot Spot operators throughout the world with an innovative software solution enabling them to test and deploy, in cooperation with their partners, new services, applications, and content in a radically reduced time and cost framework as well as to reduce revenue leakage," he elaborated.
"This is a great opportunity for Metaccord," commented Yitzhak Weiss, CEO of Metaccord," by merging with ICOA, an important player in the Wi-Fi market, we will now have the resources and technical infrastructure to grow rapidly worldwide."
According to Weiss, "Beyond their current connectivity services which require the creation of roaming agreements, leading wireless operators such as ICOA are beginning to focus on new service and content offerings, to offer their customers the most robust user experience possible and drive revenues. These efforts create new and complex financial and control requirements concerning issues such as pricing models, revenue sharing, settlement and Service Level Agreement's. Until Metaccord, there has been no software platform which addresses these complexities.
Potential customers of Metaccord's software platform include Wi-Fi operators, Wi-Fi integrators, and major mobile telecom carriers around the world. As Wi-Fi and cellular industries converge, the need to create new revenue models and ease integration between Wi-Fi and telecom operators as well as with their third-party content and service providers becomes crucial.
The agreement is still subject to completion of due diligence and execution of a definitive agreement. Terms were not announced.
About ICOA
ICOA, Inc., www.icoacorp.com located in Warwick, RI, is a provider of Public Broadband Internet Access. The company operates private networks of high-speed Internet Terminals (WebCenter3000TM), and Wi-Fi Hot Spots, in 204 locations nationwide. ICOA operates in the most sought after public locations -- airports, hotels, marinas, transportation and conference centers. The Company provides fully managed broadband Internet access allowing services including: e-mail, e-fax and telephony; business services including printing; e-commerce; and 'venue specific' advertising. ICOA currently operates or manages installations at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO), the Greater Baton Rouge, Louisiana Airport (BTR), Sacramento International Airport (SMF), Rhode Island's Newport Harbor 'Hot Zone', several prestigious Hotels and 130+ Panera Bread (Nasdaq:PNRA) -- www.panerabread.com locations.
About Metaccord
Metaccord Systems Ltd. www.metaccord.com provides a partnership management software platform to wireless operators enabling them to create, implement and manage relationships with large numbers of partners. The platform automates key aspects of drafting, negotiating and implementing agreements such as pricing models, revenue sharing, settlement and SLA's between operators and the full range of their partners including third-party content providers, application providers, service providers, and other operators. The agreements produced by Metaccord's platform are smart electronic documents which automatically generate the code to configure the operator's systems, including billing, payment and settlement, according to the terms and conditions agreed upon. Founded in 2001, Metaccord is funded and backed by the Jerusalem College of Technology, one of Israel's leading schools of engineering, and Israel's Office of the Chief Scientist which invests in promising hi-tech companies.
'Safe Harbor'
The foregoing contains "forward-looking statements" which are based on management's beliefs as well as on a number of assumptions concerning future events and information currently available to management. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are not a guarantee of performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors, many of which are outside ICOA's control that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements. For a more detailed description of the factors that could cause such a difference, please see ICOA's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. ICOA disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. This information is presented solely to provide additional information to further understand the results of ICOA.