United Online Announces Plan to Separate into Two Independent Publicly-Traded Companies

FTD to be Spun Off as a Standalone, Publicly-Traded Company United Online, Inc.

today announced that its Board of Directors has approved a preliminary plan to separate United Online into two independent, publicly-traded companies. One of the companies will be FTD, which will include the domestic and international operations of the company's FTD segment, which includes the highly recognized FTD® and Interflora® brands, both supported by the Mercury Man logo that is displayed in approximately 40,000 floral shops worldwide. The other company will be United Online, which will continue to operate the businesses of the company's Content & Media and Communications segments, supported by strong brands such as Memory Lane™, Classmates®, schoolFeed™, StayFriends™, MyPoints®, NetZero® and Juno®. In addition, the company announced that it also is reviewing strategic alternatives for its Content & Media and Communications businesses, including the potential spin-off of the Content & Media segment as an additional separate, publicly-traded company. “While the breadth and strength of our businesses has for many years served our stockholders well, we believe that it currently is in the best interests of United Online and its stockholders to separate these distinct businesses,” said Mark R. Goldston, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of United Online. “The separation is expected not only to unlock value for the benefit of our stockholders, but also to provide significant operational and strategic flexibility for these businesses, better position them to capitalize on their well-recognized brands, and enhance long-term stockholder value. This approach also is consistent with input received from various stockholders over the past year, many of which have expressed a view that the market price of our shares does not adequately reflect the inherent value of our businesses.”