WESTON, Fla. June 2, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Wall Street News Alert's "stocks to watch" this morning are: ROO Group, Inc. (OTCBB:ROOG), Ivanhoe Energy Inc. (Nasdaq:IVAN), Labor Ready Inc. (NYSE:LRW) and ACLARA Biosciences Inc. (Nasdaq:ACLA).
Aggressive investors and traders will want to keep a close eye on ROO Group, Inc. (OTCBB:ROOG) again this morning! Yesterday right before close, the company announced that it has completed the purchase of the business and business assets of Undercover Media Pty Ltd. (Undercover)!
This could be great news for investors! Undercover is a provider of music content, including photos, articles and interviews, to Web sites worldwide. Its clients include Telstra Corporation, AAP and Coca Cola, and its distribution partners include Google, VH1, Nova, Artist Direct and News Now. In addition, Undercover has a strategic online partnership with HMV for online music sales.
Included in the purchase is the www.undercover.com.au Web site, which currently serves approximately 500,000 visitors per month with 55% from the USA, 18% from Europe, 7% from Asia and 20% from other countries throughout the world. The Undercover Web site, through its relationship with HMV, clearly displays the link between music content and the sale of music; the user reads the article or interview and can then click through to purchase the artist's CD from HMV's Web site.
Keep your eyes on this company! The growth in digital downloaded music has created demand for online music content. According to emarketer reporting, $1.2 billion dollars of music will be downloaded legally, with 11 million households subscribing to a paid music service, by 2006. The technologies and services appear to have arrived, and music fans are eager to take advantage of them, particularly the youth market. According to comScore Media Metrix, 52% of 18 to 24-year-olds and 69% of U.S. college students have already downloaded music.
The stock closed yesterday at twenty-seven cents a share.
In case you are not familiar with the company: ROO Group Inc. ("RGI") (www.roogroupinc.com) is a global provider of digital media solutions and technology that enables the activation, marketing and distribution of digital media video content over the Internet and emerging broadcasting platforms such as set top boxes and wireless. RGI's products sold by subsidiary ROO Media Corporation (www.roomedia.com) include syndication, technology, integration, and management of topical video content such as news, entertainment and fashion to its clients' Web sites. The distribution, programming and integration of interactive advertising solutions includes 15 to 30 second television-style video commercials which can be played before and after selected topical video content over the Internet. In addition to the expansion and development of ROO TV's (www.rootv.com) network of country-based video-only web sites, RGI's strategy for 2004 is to expand its distribution of products and services and make strategic acquisitions similar to the Reality Group acquisition, which was announced on March 15, 2004 to the Asia Pacific, Europe and the United States markets, to accelerate RGI's growth. More information can be obtained from RGI's Web site located at www.roogroupinc.com
Established in February 1995, Undercover believes it is a pioneer brand for global online music. Featuring original music content ranging from raw interview footage to propriety editorial content combined with industry released footage, Undercover has served both the music industry and music community with daily music news, reviews and editorial bulletins. The loyal audience combined with direct music industry relationships has made Undercover media content a credible and reliable daily account of the music entertainment arena.
Stocks showing interesting activity yesterday were: Ivanhoe Energy Inc. (Nasdaq:IVAN) up 17.5% on 6.2 million shares traded, Labor Ready Inc. (NYSE:LRW) up 13.8% on 1.1 million shares traded and ACLARA Biosciences Inc. (Nasdaq:ACLA) up 7.5% on 2.3 million shares traded.
Commentary:
"Tuesday the new Medicare drug discount card goes into effect. Estimates are the cards offer around 11-17% off retail for brand names and 30-60% off generics. Price comparisons, as there are dozens of cards, can be found at www.medicare.gov," stated Sonja Rudd in Wall Street News Alert's daily commentary continued at: http://www.WallStreetNewsAlert.com.
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