HandHeld Entertainment Executive Team Delivers Visibility and Valuation to the Portable Media Player Marketplace
(PRLEAP.COM) SAN FRANCISCO – March 8, 2006 –With its executive team composed of capital investment veterans and technology industry experts, HandHeld Entertainment™ (OTC BB: HNDH), which recently completed a reverse merger and $7.6 million private placement, has built a firm foundation for becoming a leading “pure play” digital media-to-go company with a family of mass-market-priced portable media players.
“HandHeld Entertainment’s executive team has grown this company from a mere idea to full-blown distribution in more than 1,800 retail locations as well as an entire family of mass-market priced ZVUE™ portable media players,” said Bill Keating, chairman of the board of directors of HandHeld Entertainment. “This success and continued growth comes because HandHeld Entertainment’s leadership has a unique blend of experience and moxie, as shown by the number of companies they’ve started and sold that have been collectively valued at more than $1.5 billion.”
Keating himself is a former executive with Microsoft, Sun, WebTV and Moxi Digital, and is a founding member of Nekei, an advisory service that helps companies get real solutions to funding and operational concerns. Keating’s 25 years of experience in turning new technologies into successful marketplace ventures is well documented, with seven business ventures going public or being acquired, including WebTV’s sale to Microsoft for $425 million.
“HandHeld Entertainment is a ‘pure play’ digital media-to-go company with purpose and focus: delivering affordable and portable entertainment for the masses,” Keating said. “Our CEO, Jeff Oscodar, has been instrumental in leading HandHeld Entertainment’s executive team as they have combined their talents and know-how to take the company to where it is today and establish it as a leader in portable media and entertainment.”
HandHeld Entertainment Executive Team
Jeff Oscodar has been director, president and chief executive officer of HandHeld Entertainment since November 2004. Prior to joining HandHeld Entertainment, Oscodar founded and ran Rule 168 Advisors from July 1999 to November 2004, a consulting firm focused on the commercialization of new technology. At Rule 168, he advised Raytheon on how to turn defense industry applications into valuable commercial operations. Previously, he co-founded InfoGear Technology Corporation, which produced the first Web-enabled telephone and was sold to Cisco Systems in March 2000 for $301 million. While at InfoGear, Oscodar developed content partnerships with companies such as Amazon.com, eToys, Time Inc., USA Today and Yahoo!, among others.
Tim Keating, chief operating officer of HandHeld Entertainment, is the former managing director of Intel Capital Europe where he spearheaded more than 70 equity investments between 2000 and 2003. He is a 21-year veteran of Intel, where he helped grow the Fortune 500 company’s core processor business into one of the strongest in the world by heading up the microprocessor business in Europe in the 1990s and launching the original Intel Pentium™ brand and chip.
Garrett Cecchini, executive vice president and co-founder, has more than 20 years of experience in the technology industry, first as a corporate lawyer principally advising technology companies and venture funds in licensing and reorganization matters, and then as an entrepreneur. In 1998, he founded Compression Science Corporation, a company that developed advanced broadcast video encoder technology and was sold to Philips Electronics in 2002.
Carl Page, chief technology officer and director, was a co-founder of eGroups, Inc., where he helped build a network of 14 million users who relied on eGroups to support Web-based collaborative work efforts. eGroups was eventually acquired by Yahoo! in 2000 for more than $425 million and is today known as Yahoo! Groups.
Bill Bush, acting chief financial officer, previously served as the chief financial officer and secretary for International Microcomputer Software, Inc. (OTC BB: IMSI), a developer and distributor of precision design software, content and online services. He brings more than 15 years of experience in finance and accounting.
Greg Sutyak, executive vice-president of finance and operations, has more than 25 years of business management and finance experience, including an instrumental role in taking audiohighway.com public on the Nasdaq Stock Market in 1998. Sutyak has spent his last 15 years focused on high-technology markets and spent 10 years as vice president over a $100 million portfolio for Tokai Bank.
Larry Gitlin, vice president of business development, is an industry-acknowledged expert in motion picture and broadcast television production, digital media delivery and content acquisition. He produced and line produced more than a dozen films and TV shows in Hollywood, and worked on projects including “The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” “Hell Hunters” and “Firearm.” During the past eight years, Gitlin has turned his attention to digital media, building revenue-generating businesses from streaming media, digital downloading and Telco-Video Carrier Services. Gitlin has been involved in many Internet firsts, including both directing and producing single- and multi-camera webcasts for the Emmy’s and Golden Globe Awards, and was among the first to use the Internet as a syndication model for broadcast TV shows.
Eric Hamilton has served as chief scientist at HandHeld Entertainment since April 2003. He is a leading compression scientist and past chair of the International JPEG Committee, which is responsible for developing the successful JPEG image-coding standard and JPEG 2000.
Geoff Mulligan, director, currently serves as the chief operating officer for Konami of America, the fast-growing, U.S.-based subsidiary of the $1 billion Japanese developer and publisher of entertainment software. He is also one of the founders of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the governing body of the $11 billion U.S. entertainment software industry.
Nathan Schulhof has been a member of the HandHeld Entertainment board of directors since 2004. Schulhof helped to develop the MP3 player, with four U.S. patents bearing his name, and Schulhof has been extensively quoted and featured in technology and consumer media, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, BusinessWeek, Inc. and Success, among others.
About Handheld Entertainment, Inc.
HandHeld Entertainment (OTC BB: HNDH) is a “pure play” digital-media-to-go company with a family of mass-market portable media players priced at mass-market prices as well as its own online video content store, Its ZVUE portable media players are available for purchase online and in more than 1,800 retail locations across the United States, while portable video lovers can visit ZTV™ (HandHeld Entertainment’s video content store at www.zvue.com) to buy pay-per-download videos or download thousands of free media titles. For more information, visit www.hheld.com or call 415-495-6470.
# # #
HandHeld Entertainment, ZVUE and ZTV are trademarks of HandHeld Entertainment. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
“Safe Harbor” Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
This release contains forward-looking statements. To the extent that any statements made in this release contain information that is not historical, these statements are forward-looking. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that cannot be predicted or quantified and, consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation: HandHeld Entertainment’s dependence on contract manufacturing of its products; its reliance on a single major mass-market retailer; its ability to develop and market successfully and in a timely manner new products and services; its ability to predict market demand for, and gain market acceptance of, its products and services; the impact of competitive products and services and of alternative technological advances; its ability to raise additional capital to finance its activities; its limited and unprofitable operating history; its ability to operate as a public company; its ability to reduce product return rates; the affect of inventory and price protections required by major retailers; the availability and affordability of digital media content; its ability to protect its proprietary information and to avoid infringement of others’ proprietary rights; its ability to attract and retain qualified senior management and research and development personnel; the reliability and security of its information systems and networks; and other factors described in HandHeld Entertainment’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Annual Reports on Form 10-KSB, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-QSB and Current Reports on Form 8-K. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof. HandHeld Entertainment does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements. As a result, investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.
“HandHeld Entertainment’s executive team has grown this company from a mere idea to full-blown distribution in more than 1,800 retail locations as well as an entire family of mass-market priced ZVUE™ portable media players,” said Bill Keating, chairman of the board of directors of HandHeld Entertainment. “This success and continued growth comes because HandHeld Entertainment’s leadership has a unique blend of experience and moxie, as shown by the number of companies they’ve started and sold that have been collectively valued at more than $1.5 billion.”
Keating himself is a former executive with Microsoft, Sun, WebTV and Moxi Digital, and is a founding member of Nekei, an advisory service that helps companies get real solutions to funding and operational concerns. Keating’s 25 years of experience in turning new technologies into successful marketplace ventures is well documented, with seven business ventures going public or being acquired, including WebTV’s sale to Microsoft for $425 million.
“HandHeld Entertainment is a ‘pure play’ digital media-to-go company with purpose and focus: delivering affordable and portable entertainment for the masses,” Keating said. “Our CEO, Jeff Oscodar, has been instrumental in leading HandHeld Entertainment’s executive team as they have combined their talents and know-how to take the company to where it is today and establish it as a leader in portable media and entertainment.”
HandHeld Entertainment Executive Team
Jeff Oscodar has been director, president and chief executive officer of HandHeld Entertainment since November 2004. Prior to joining HandHeld Entertainment, Oscodar founded and ran Rule 168 Advisors from July 1999 to November 2004, a consulting firm focused on the commercialization of new technology. At Rule 168, he advised Raytheon on how to turn defense industry applications into valuable commercial operations. Previously, he co-founded InfoGear Technology Corporation, which produced the first Web-enabled telephone and was sold to Cisco Systems in March 2000 for $301 million. While at InfoGear, Oscodar developed content partnerships with companies such as Amazon.com, eToys, Time Inc., USA Today and Yahoo!, among others.
Tim Keating, chief operating officer of HandHeld Entertainment, is the former managing director of Intel Capital Europe where he spearheaded more than 70 equity investments between 2000 and 2003. He is a 21-year veteran of Intel, where he helped grow the Fortune 500 company’s core processor business into one of the strongest in the world by heading up the microprocessor business in Europe in the 1990s and launching the original Intel Pentium™ brand and chip.
Garrett Cecchini, executive vice president and co-founder, has more than 20 years of experience in the technology industry, first as a corporate lawyer principally advising technology companies and venture funds in licensing and reorganization matters, and then as an entrepreneur. In 1998, he founded Compression Science Corporation, a company that developed advanced broadcast video encoder technology and was sold to Philips Electronics in 2002.
Carl Page, chief technology officer and director, was a co-founder of eGroups, Inc., where he helped build a network of 14 million users who relied on eGroups to support Web-based collaborative work efforts. eGroups was eventually acquired by Yahoo! in 2000 for more than $425 million and is today known as Yahoo! Groups.
Bill Bush, acting chief financial officer, previously served as the chief financial officer and secretary for International Microcomputer Software, Inc. (OTC BB: IMSI), a developer and distributor of precision design software, content and online services. He brings more than 15 years of experience in finance and accounting.
Greg Sutyak, executive vice-president of finance and operations, has more than 25 years of business management and finance experience, including an instrumental role in taking audiohighway.com public on the Nasdaq Stock Market in 1998. Sutyak has spent his last 15 years focused on high-technology markets and spent 10 years as vice president over a $100 million portfolio for Tokai Bank.
Larry Gitlin, vice president of business development, is an industry-acknowledged expert in motion picture and broadcast television production, digital media delivery and content acquisition. He produced and line produced more than a dozen films and TV shows in Hollywood, and worked on projects including “The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,” “Hell Hunters” and “Firearm.” During the past eight years, Gitlin has turned his attention to digital media, building revenue-generating businesses from streaming media, digital downloading and Telco-Video Carrier Services. Gitlin has been involved in many Internet firsts, including both directing and producing single- and multi-camera webcasts for the Emmy’s and Golden Globe Awards, and was among the first to use the Internet as a syndication model for broadcast TV shows.
Eric Hamilton has served as chief scientist at HandHeld Entertainment since April 2003. He is a leading compression scientist and past chair of the International JPEG Committee, which is responsible for developing the successful JPEG image-coding standard and JPEG 2000.
Geoff Mulligan, director, currently serves as the chief operating officer for Konami of America, the fast-growing, U.S.-based subsidiary of the $1 billion Japanese developer and publisher of entertainment software. He is also one of the founders of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the governing body of the $11 billion U.S. entertainment software industry.
Nathan Schulhof has been a member of the HandHeld Entertainment board of directors since 2004. Schulhof helped to develop the MP3 player, with four U.S. patents bearing his name, and Schulhof has been extensively quoted and featured in technology and consumer media, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, BusinessWeek, Inc. and Success, among others.
About Handheld Entertainment, Inc.
HandHeld Entertainment (OTC BB: HNDH) is a “pure play” digital-media-to-go company with a family of mass-market portable media players priced at mass-market prices as well as its own online video content store, Its ZVUE portable media players are available for purchase online and in more than 1,800 retail locations across the United States, while portable video lovers can visit ZTV™ (HandHeld Entertainment’s video content store at www.zvue.com) to buy pay-per-download videos or download thousands of free media titles. For more information, visit www.hheld.com or call 415-495-6470.
# # #
HandHeld Entertainment, ZVUE and ZTV are trademarks of HandHeld Entertainment. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.
“Safe Harbor” Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
This release contains forward-looking statements. To the extent that any statements made in this release contain information that is not historical, these statements are forward-looking. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that cannot be predicted or quantified and, consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation: HandHeld Entertainment’s dependence on contract manufacturing of its products; its reliance on a single major mass-market retailer; its ability to develop and market successfully and in a timely manner new products and services; its ability to predict market demand for, and gain market acceptance of, its products and services; the impact of competitive products and services and of alternative technological advances; its ability to raise additional capital to finance its activities; its limited and unprofitable operating history; its ability to operate as a public company; its ability to reduce product return rates; the affect of inventory and price protections required by major retailers; the availability and affordability of digital media content; its ability to protect its proprietary information and to avoid infringement of others’ proprietary rights; its ability to attract and retain qualified senior management and research and development personnel; the reliability and security of its information systems and networks; and other factors described in HandHeld Entertainment’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Annual Reports on Form 10-KSB, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-QSB and Current Reports on Form 8-K. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof. HandHeld Entertainment does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements. As a result, investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.
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Contact Information
Matt Hargreaves
HandHeld Entertainment
Email HandHeld Entertainment
801-523-3730