MIVA DIRECT ADDS LIVE COMMUNITY FEATURES TO ALOT FOLLOWING SIGNING OF MEEBO AGREEMENT

February 19, 2009

NEW YORK – February 19, 2009. MIVA Direct, Inc., the toolbar, homepage and content division of digital media and advertising company, MIVA, Inc. (NASDAQ:MIVA), today announced the roll out of live community features across its ALOT Toolbar and Homepage products following the signing of a new agreement with Meebo, one of the Web’s fastest growing social media companies.

Under the terms of the agreement, MIVA Direct is using Meebo’s technology to facilitate real-time social interactions between users via chat rooms that are promoted across ALOT Toolbar and ALOT Home. Meebo is serving social ads into the technology and MIVA Direct will earn a share of the revenue generated from these ad units.

In addition to the expected revenue it will generate, the functionality is also designed to extend ALOT’s mission of ‘Making the Internet Easy’ by delivering further value to the brand’s existing vertical audiences. Chris Dessi, MIVA Direct’s VP of Sales and Business Development, explains:

“Since launching ALOT we’ve been building up users across a broad range of different verticals – our ALOT Toolbar for Recipes, for example, currently has over 335,000 live users[1]. We believe there are significant potential benefits in offering vertically focused chat rooms that enable these like-minded users to communicate directly with each other, and believe that Meebo is a great application to help us kick-start this process.”

Added Stephanie Quay, Meebo’s Director of Business Development: “The scale and vertical focus of ALOT’s customer base makes them a great fit for Meebo. We look forward to working with them to roll out and monetize our solution.”

http://www.alot.com

http://www.miva.com

http://www.meebo.com

-ends-

About MIVA®, Inc.

MIVA, Inc. (NASDAQ:MIVA) is a global digital media company with a mission to deliver valuable digital audiences to advertisers. MIVA has two focuses to its business: owning and operating toolbar, homepage and desktop products, through its MIVA Direct division; and running a third-party contextual Pay-Per-Click ad network through its MIVA Media division. MIVA, Inc. operates across North America and Europe.

About Meebo, Inc.

With over 40 million people sharing over 5 billion messages and 75 million links every month, Meebo is one of the Web’s fastest growing social media companies. Founded in September 2005, Meebo enables real-time social interactions with instant messaging and group chat at meebo.com and on partner sites across the Web. Meebo is headquartered in Mountain View, CA. Visit meebo.com to connect with friends live on the Web.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations and involve certain risks and uncertainties within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words or expressions such as “anticipate” , “plan,” “will,” “intend,” “believe” or “expect'” or variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, some of which are beyond our control and difficult to predict and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements, including (1) our ability to successfully execute upon our corporate strategies, (2) our ability to develop and successfully market new products and services, and (3) the potential acceptance of new products in the market. Additional key risks are described in MIVA’s reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Form 10-K for fiscal 2007 and our most recently filed Form 10-Q.

®Registered trademark

MIVA Contact:

Alex Vlasto

(212) 736-9151

Alex.Vlasto@miva.com


[1] Source: Internal statistics: 2/8/09


Exciting!

December 11, 2008

MIVA Direct Appoints Chris Dessi as VP of Sales and Business Development
Tuesday December 9, 7:28 am ET
Appointment Follows the Launch of MIVA Direct’s Customizable ALOT Toolbar and Homepage Products

 

NEW YORK, NY–(MARKET WIRE)–Dec 9, 2008 — MIVA Direct, Inc., the toolbar, homepage and content division of digital media and advertising company, MIVA, Inc. (NasdaqGM:MIVANews), today announced the appointment of Chris Dessi as VP of Sales and Business Development.Chris’s appointment is intended to enable MIVA Direct to capitalize on opportunities presented through its recently launched customizable ALOT toolbar and homepage products. In his new role, Chris is responsible for negotiating co-branded toolbar agreements; selling sponsored homepage and toolbar widgets; and managing online ad sales across MIVA Direct’s portfolio of consumer destination sites.

Chris joins MIVA Direct from performance marketing firm, Zanox, where he worked as VP of Advertiser Sales. Prior to Zanox, Chris served as Director of National Advertiser Sales for AzoogleAds, Inc (now Epic Advertising, Inc). He has also held senior sales and business development roles for companies including Responsys, Inc. and Mediaplex, a division of ValueClick, Inc.

“We believe that the launch of our customizable ALOT toolbar and homepage products in October presents potentially significant opportunities for MIVA Direct and that Chris, with his depth of industry experience and proven track record, is the perfect candidate to help us leverage these opportunities,” commented Peter Corrao, MIVA’s President and CEO.

Added Chris Dessi: “This is an exciting time to be joining the MIVA Direct team. I believe that the ALOT brand is continuing to gain traction in the market and as its scale and reach increase, it opens up a wealth of opportunities for brand and direct response advertisers.”

http://www.alot.com

http://www.miva.com

About MIVA®, Inc.

MIVA, Inc. (NasdaqGM:MIVANews) is a global digital media company with a mission to deliver valuable digital audiences to advertisers. MIVA has two focuses to its business: owning and operating a growing portfolio of consumer destination sites and interest-specific toolbars, through its MIVA Direct division; and running a third-party contextual Pay-Per-Click ad network focused on key vertical sectors, through its MIVA Media division. MIVA, Inc. operates across North America and Europe.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that are based upon current expectations and involve certain risks and uncertainties within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words or expressions such as “anticipate,” “plan,” “will,” “intend,” “believe” or “expect'” or variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties, and other factors, some of which are beyond our control and difficult to predict and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements, including (1) our ability to successfully execute upon our corporate strategies, (2) our ability to attract and retain qualified key personnel, (3) our ability to develop and successfully market new products and services, and (4) the potential acceptance of new products in the market. Additional key risks are described in MIVA’s reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Form 10-K for fiscal 2007 and our most recently filed Form 10-Q.

®Registered trademark

 

Contact:

     MIVA Contact:
     Alex Vlasto
     (212) 736-9151
     Email Contact

Look Up Interactive

November 13, 2008

Yesterday I finalized my logo for Look Up Interactive.  

logo

For the past few months I’ve been trying to come up with a name for a consulting business that I’d love to start regarding online advertising.  So many people have come to me asking questions/advice I thought I’d try my hand at consulting.  I’m not certain if I’ll be able to get this up and running while starting a new job – but I thought I’d share the logo.  I used a great service called Elance. I described the project, look and feel that I was going for.  I received about 15 bids for the work. I reviewed each of the proposals – taking a look at their sites, previous work  , and reviews by individuals that had hired them in the past.  I ended up hiring WebDesignsGURU – I highly recommend their work.  They also designed a logo for my wife’s pilates business.  logo-_72I think both logos came out really great.  The service at Elance was really easy, and for someone with limited knowledge of logo design it’s a great resource to reach out experts that get it, and are highly accessible.

My wife Laura is my hero – she’s has been a 5th grade school teacher for the past 10 years.  She’s been home since the birth of our daughter Talia.  Before the baby came she also started her certification in Pilates.  After the baby was born she went back and completed her mat certification.  I think it’s going to be great for her to start building a client base here in Chappaqua.  I’m going to set her up with a URL, and Blog.  

Finally, I need to give credit to Gary Vaynerchuk for the tag line of my consulting business/logo “Legacy is Greater than Currency”.  This is something that Gary talked about during the Web2.0 Expo speech in New York.  This statement resounded with me so greatly that I thought it would be a great tag line for my business.  I think it’s a powerful statement in a world where it seems like everyone is focused solely on money.  I know that money is great to have and it’s certainly a necessity. I suppose since the birth of my daughter Talia I’ve started to look at the world a bit differently.


New Baby

April 21, 2008


2008 has been filled with changes for the Dessi family. On January 7th I started my new job as VP of Advertiser Sales at zanox, Inc. In May my wife Laura and I moved into our dream town (Chappaqua) after buying a lovely Townhome. On April 14th the biggest and best change happened for our family. Talia Dessi came into the world at 5:02pm. She was 6 lbs, 8 oz, and 19 and 1/2 inches long. She’s now home with us, and we’re loving being new parents to this little Angel.

Here is my favorite photo of the little “muffin” as my father in law calls her.