SAN DIEGO, Calif., Aug. 15, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- IPEX, Inc. (OTCBB:IPEX) today announced that on August 9, 2005, it entered into a binding letter of intent to acquire San Diego-based Vinculum Communications, Inc., an international long distance carrier that provides termination services to over 150 carriers worldwide for $14.5 million in mainly IPEX shares. The transaction is expected to close by September 30, 2005. Scott Goodwin, Vinculum's President and CEO, will join IPEX as President of Telecommunications.
"The acquisition of Vinculum will be immediately accretive to earnings and is a natural fit for IPEX," stated Jerry Beckwith, IPEX' Chairman and CEO. "The addition of 150 new carriers strengthens our platform by providing more routing options to carrier customers and by adding to our historical call quality database for vendor rankings and quality assurance. Scott's experience and contacts in the field of international wholesale will be very useful."
Mr. Goodwin brings 21 years of telecom experience to IPEX, including the most recent ten in the wholesale international markets. Under his leadership, Vinculum has become one of the fastest growing VoIP carriers globally. During the eight years prior to founding the company in 2001, Goodwin served as Senior Vice President at WorldxChange Communications managing at various times their wholesale, prepaid card and operator services divisions. During this time, the international wholesale division revenues grew to $250 million, with the prepaid card division growing by $180 million in annual sales.
"I look forward to working with the IPEX team to build a 'best-of-breed' network that can lead the field in volume, quality and profitability," commented Scott Goodwin. "The combination of these two companies is a powerful one."
About IPEX, Inc.
IPEX, Inc. operates an electronic market for the exchange of international, IP-based telecom traffic and is developing a peering fabric with ENUM connectivity to terminate calls based on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). The exchange members, primarily consisting of communications service providers, exchange traffic according to route quality and pricing criteria through an interactive, software-based system. IPEX's automated VoIP platform updates, routes and executes its capacity using proprietary software that also invoices and processes payments for its members and provides them dynamic access to routes and related information worldwide. The company is also developing digital imaging technology for use in IP and wireless data transmission that enhances the quality of traditional RGB (red, green, blue) images, while reducing their file size. IPEX, Inc. is based in San Diego, California.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements can generally be identified as such because the context of the statement will include words such as IPEX, Inc. "expects," "should," "believes," "anticipates" or words of similar import. Stockholders, potential investors and other readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are predictions based only on current information and expectations that are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause future events or results to differ materially from those set forth or implied by the forward-looking statements. Certain of those risks and uncertainties are discussed in the IPEX filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including IPEX annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. These forward-looking statements are only made as of the date of this press release and IPEX does not undertake any obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.