USA Networks and SportsLine.com Enter Multi-year E-Commerce Partnership

Friday, February 23, 2001

New York-based entertainment conglomerate USA Networks Inc. and Ft. Lauderdale-based SportsLine.com Inc., the Internet sports media company that has relationships with the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and others, have formed a multiyear e-commerce partnership. Under the agreement, USA’s Styleclick and Electronic Commerce Solutions (ECS) subsidiaries will build and service CBS’ SportsLine.com’s online store, Shop SportsLine. ECS will become the operator of Shop SportsLine, with a relaunch of the site planned for this spring, and it also will operate and maintain other, recently acquired Sportsline sites.

Styleclick, another USA company, will design and build the Shop SportsLine store and will work with ECS to implement technology platforms that enable e-commerce and online merchandising functionality.

In a separate transaction, SportsLine.com has acquired MVP.com’s domain names, trademarks and certain other assets associated with the Web sites mvp.com, PlanetOutdoors.com, igogolf.com, tennisdirect.com and golfclubtrader.com. Operations of those sites will fall within the USA/SportsLine partnership, and the former MVP sites are expected to remain open for business while their operations are transferred to ECS.

USA’s various media properties, which include both the USA Network and the Sci-Fi Channel, will promote Shop SportsLine as part of the overall partnership.