FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
YP
CORP. ACQUIRES LIVEDEAL AND GOES HYPER-LOCAL
Creates
Revolutionary Integrated Online Local Yellow Pages/Classifieds Marketplaces
MESA,
Ariz., June X, 2007 - YP
Corp.
(OTCBB:YPNT), a leading provider of nationwide Internet Yellow Pages and related
services with more than 16 million business listings, today
announced it has acquired LiveDeal, Inc., which operates through its website
www.livedeal.com and
is
one
of
the nation’s leading online local classifieds and Yellow Pages marketplaces.
Under the terms of the acquisition, LiveDeal shareholders received 15,968,514
shares of YP common stock. LiveDeal
will remain an independent entity and a wholly owned subsidiary of YP
and
the
two companies will leverage one another’s content, sales teams and technology to
strengthen their individual product offerings.
YP
plans
to use LiveDeal’s innovative technology platform to converge its four principal
marketing channels - directories, mobile services, classifieds and
advertising/distribution networks into a first-of-its-kind, hyper-local
marketing solution for businesses and consumers.
The
acquisition also enables YP to enrich its products with LiveDeal’s robust online
local classifieds marketplace, which has more than a million goods and services
listed for sale, in every city and zip code across the U.S. LiveDeal offers
such
industry-leading classifieds functionality as fraud protection, identity
protection, e-commerce, listing enhancements, photos, community-building,
package pricing, premium stores, featured Yellow Page business listings and
advanced local search capabilities. Additionally, the LiveDeal technology lets
consumers search or browse for items in a particular city, state or zip code.
Rajesh
Navar, the founder & CEO of LiveDeal, will serve as president and chief
architect of YP Corp. and will also join the YP board, effective immediately.
Mr.
Navar
brings more than 16 years experience in building high technology and Internet
companies. As an original member of the engineering and management team at
eBay,
Navar is one of the pioneers in e-commerce. Prior to founding LiveDeal, Navar
joined eBay in 1998, a start-up at that time, as a senior member of the
engineering team. Navar founded and built eBay’s search technology, helping
build eBay into one of the world’s most successful and profitable e-commerce
companies.
In
September, 2005, Navar was honored among Silicon Valley Business Journal’s
chronicle of “40 under 40” people to watch.
“LiveDeal’s
best-of-breed technology, online classifieds market leadership and Rajesh’s
industry experience made it a natural choice for us to welcome LiveDeal into
the
YP family,” said Daniel L. Coury, Sr., YP’s CEO. “We are looking forward to
creating the most comprehensive online local classifieds and Yellow Pages
marketplaces available. Our vision is to create the most powerful solution
in
the market to find and advertise available goods and services in local
communities throughout the U.S.”
“We
couldn’t be more pleased to join YP,” said Navar. “We expect to become the first
company to fuse relevant Yellow Pages and classifieds listings into a powerful,
fast growing online local search marketplace helping buyers and sellers in
local
communities connect with one another quickly and effortlessly. For me
personally, it is an eBay opportunity all over again. This combination has
created a company that has strong management, profitability and a fast growing
$30 billion local advertisement market opportunity.”
Roth
Capital and Portico Securities acted as financial advisors to YP Corp. and
LiveDeal respectively and Roth Capital provided a fairness opinion in relation
to the transaction.
About
LiveDeal®
LiveDeal’s
marketplace (http://www.livedeal.com) includes over a million goods and services
listed for sale, in every city and zip code across the U.S. Buyers and sellers
come together through the vast LiveDeal.com marketplace, which is ideal for
finding and listing business services as well as such items as automobiles,
furniture, appliances, real estate and more. LiveDeal partners with online
and
offline media to quickly and cost effectively power their classifieds and Yellow
Pages via its dynamic LiveDeal classifieds platform. LiveDeal was founded in
2003 by Rajesh Navar, an early member of eBay’s engineering team.
About
YP Corp.
YP
Corp.
is America's Local Online Yellow Pages(TM) and offers businesses a simple and
affordable way of creating a web presence and marketing their products and
services to local audiences online. The Company offers an Internet Advertising
Package which provides advertisers preferred placement in yellow page search
results and their own Mini Webpage(TM) where they can provide potential
customers with details about their products and services.
Forward-Looking
and Cautionary Statements
This
press release may contain statements that constitute "forward-looking
statements," which are often characterized by the terms "may," "believes,"
"projects,", "expects," or "anticipates," and do not reflect historical facts.
Forward-looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that
may cause actual results, performance or achievements of YP Corp. and its
subsidiary to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements. Specific forward-looking statements contained in
this press release include, but are not limited to, the Company's (i)
belief that it can create the most comprehensive online local
classifieds and Yellow Pages marketplaces available and the most powerful
solution on the market to find and advertise available goods and services in
local communities throughout the U.S. and
(ii) expectation that it will become the first company to fuse relevant
Yellow Pages and classifieds listings into a powerful, fast growing online
local
search marketplace helping buyers and sellers in local communities connect
with
one another quickly and effortlessly.
Factors
that may affect forward-looking statements and the Company's business generally
include but are not limited to (i) the risk factors and cautionary statements
described in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended
September 30, 2006; (ii) other factors or statements described in the Company's
other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its
most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q; and (iii) other factors that YP
Corp.
is currently unable to identify or quantify, but that may exist in the
future.
Forward-looking
statements speak only as of the date on which the statement was made. YP Corp.
does not undertake and specifically declines any obligation to update any
forward-looking statements.
Note
to Shareholders and Analysts:
YP
Corp
will discuss its acquisition of LiveDeal.com on Thursday, June 7, 2007 at 12:00
p.m. (EDT) during a live Webcast. If you wish to listen to the conference call,
dial 800-599-9795, if calling from the United States or Canada, or dial
617-786-2905 if calling from outside North America. Reference the Passcode,
86418261.
A
telephone replay will be available through June 14, 2007, and can be accessed
by
calling 888-286-8010, or dial 617-801-6888 if calling from outside North
America, Passcode 27768867.
The
webcast is also being distributed through the Thomson StreetEvents Network.
Individual investors can listen to the call at www.earnings.com, Thomson's
individual investor portal, powered by StreetEvents. Institutional investors
can
access the call via Thomson StreetEvents (www.streetevents.com), a
password-protected event management site.
Media
Contacts::
Marian
Hughes
Tier
One
Partners,
On
Behalf
of YP and LiveDeal.com
708-246-0083
mhughes@tieronepr.com