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November 18, 2004

Grant Heilman Acquires Photo Network Stock

Grant Heilman Photography, Inc. has acquired the 30,000 image file of Photo Network Stock, from Cathy Aron, owner and founder of the Southern California based stock photography agency. The official transition will occur on January 1, 2005.

Aron, recently accepted an offer from the Picture Archive Council of America to be its Executive Director. "The addition of Photo Network's library of outstanding images broadens Grant Heilman's general appeal in the market and allows it to be a more competitive agency," Mrs. Aron said.

"We are very excited about the acquisition," Sonia Wasco, President of Grant Heilman Photography, said. "Adding Photo Network's library of lifestyle images will allow us to further fulfill the needs of our existing clients and open up new markets to clients we have not been able to reach."

Approximately 13,000 images will be added to the existing total of 45,000 on www.heilmanphoto.com. For more than half a century, Grant Heilman has accumulated some of the finest archives available in agriculture, natural science, horticulture, wildlife, and special subjects. Throughout the past 56 years the library has grown to more than a half-million images, including a vintage collection of black and white photography that showcases farm life during the great depression and beyond. The library is perfectly situated in the beautiful farming country of Lancaster County Pennsylvania.

Grant Heilman will honor all Photo Network contracts with photographers for approximately six months, or until a new contract is signed, whichever comes first. All images will be shipped to Pennsylvania and no images will be kept in California. Heilman will edit the photographer's files in a timely fashion and return all images not retained.

Nonstock Partners With Photonica

Nonstock, a division of PictureArts, has partnered with Photonica to provide images from its RM collection for licensing by Photonica in the UK, France and Italy.

The Nonstock collection was acquired by PictureArts in April of this year. This agreement with Photonica represents one of several strategies PictureArts is pursuing to enhance Nonstock's visibility and growth.

"It makes perfect sense to team Nonstock with Photonica because the collections have similar customers, and there's great visual synergy between Photonica's and Nonstock's content. The two agencies really complement each other," said PictureArts President and CEO, Jeffrey Burke. "This partnership will give us a stronger presence in these key, major markets. It should also please our contributing photographers, because their work will have even more global exposure."

Photonica will handle the revision and translation of all keyword search terms and metadata for Nonstock images, transposing them into the local languages of the new non-English territories where applicable.

"The addition of the eclectic Nonstock collection to our channel in the UK, France and Italy perfectly complements the cutting edge photography Photonica's been renowned and revered for," added Photonica CEO David Neilson. "Our clients in these territories will be thrilled at the possibility of being able to access a broader range of alternative imagery."

Photonica To Use PicScout

Photonica has announced that it will use the PicScout Image Tracker monitoring service to detect unauthorized uses of its images on the Internet.

"Photonica has dual loyalties - to its artists and its customers. Copyright infringement of Photonica images on commercial web sites violates both of these loyalties and we remain determined to track down and eliminate it," said David Neilson, CEO Photonica/Iconica. "The Image Tracker service uses state of the art technology to extract and prioritize potential infringements enabling us to identify them immediately they occur."

a21 Third Quarter Results

a21, Inc. has reported gross revenue for third quarter ending September 30, 2004 at $2.1 million. This is down from the $2.5 million in the second quarter, the first full quarter after the company acquired SuperStock on February 29, 2004.

Prior to the acquisition, SuperStock generated gross revenue of $2.2 million for the third quarter of 2003. At the time of the acquisition Albert H. Pleus, Chairman of a21 indicated that SuperStock's annual sales were approximately $10 million.

Net loss for the third quarter of 2004 was $928,000 or $0.02 per share, versus net loss of $456,000 or $0.02 per share, for the same period in 2003. Earnings per share for the third quarter of 2004 is calculated on the basis of 38.1 million weighted average shares outstanding, compared to 18.3 million weighted average shares outstanding for the same period last year.

Gross revenue for the nine-months ended September 30, 2004 was $5.4 million, compared to $0 for the same period in 2003. (At that time a21 had no marketable products.) Had the acquisition of SuperStock occurred at the beginning of fiscal 2004, gross revenue for the nine-months ended September 30, 2004 would have been $6.9 million.

"During the third quarter, we focused on several key areas: 1) upgrading and launching our new customer portal, SuperStock.com; 2) expanding our base of over 900,000 images by adding new royalty-free and rights-managed providers and images; 3) pursuing copyright protection through our new affiliation with PicScout to track unauthorized uses of our property; and 4) re-purposing non-core assets, including subleasing our underutilized headquarter space for $3.5 million over six years," commented Albert H. Pleus, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of a21. "We look forward to the initiatives undertaken this quarter contributing to the company's future growth."

Alamy Adds U.S. & Canadian Providers To Collection

Alamy Images has announced the augmentation of its 1.7 million image collection with several high-profile US and Canadian contributors. The company, which already offers the largest number of specialist agencies in the world, takes over a third of its images from US and Canadian contributors and has recently seen a boost to this number with sales demand escalating.

New US providers include: