MaxMD To Offer Internet Domain Names With .md Designation to International Health Care Community

JERSEY CITY, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 25, 2004--MaxMD, a privately held company, announced today that it will begin selling internet domain names with the designation .md to the global health care community beginning March 1, 2004. By creating a new internet landscape for the global health care community, MaxMD increases the availability of relevant internet names and addresses. As a result, participants in the health care sector can acquire valuable names that correlate precisely with the marketing of their core businesses, established trademarks and new products.

Unlike .com, .org, or .info, the designation .md permits a corporation or individual to establish a unique internet presence that carries an automatic, intuitive association with health care and other medical services and applications. Companies that want to develop websites dedicated to specific disease states, treatment programs and medical specialties can now obtain such designations as diabetes.md, pharmacology.md and substanceabuse.md.

Scott Finlay, Chief Executive Officer of MaxMD said, "The scarcity of available dot com addresses has forced many pharmaceutical and other health care companies to adopt awkward and unrecognizable dot com domain names that complicate their marketing and communications activities. We expect them to act quickly to acquire the .md designations most appropriate to their marketing efforts. Availability will not be an immediate obstacle."

MaxMD's initial marketing efforts will focus on a 60-day "sunrise period" that begins Monday, March 1, 2004 at 2:00 PM GMT and ends on April 29, 2004 at 10:00 PM GMT. During that time, qualified owners of U.S. and international trademarks may purchase .md domain names that correspond to their trademarks for $200 per domain name. To facilitate this process, MaxMD will work with a select group of registrars, well known for their existing corporate relationships and superior market penetration. At the conclusion of this sunrise period, MaxMD will begin marketing .md domain names to physicians, medical institutions and other members of the global health care community.

Mr. Finlay added, "There are almost 900,000 physicians in the United States alone, thousands of medical and pharmaceutical trademarks and countless businesses related to health care. An accurate and intuitive internet designation is fundamental to integrating electronic communications into day-to-day and long-term business development. We expect .md to become one of the world's premier internet designations."

To support its sales and marketing efforts the company has engaged the New York-based marketing firm, Veritas Group Ltd., as well as other communications professionals. In the coming months, the domain will be enhanced by the development of joint marketing partnerships and affiliations, as well as by advertising and other marketing activities.

MaxMD acquired long-term exclusive rights to market .md domain names in over 90 countries in North and South America, as well as in Europe and Asia. These rights were acquired from a Moldovan company that acquired them from a state enterprise of the Republic of Moldova. MaxMD is not affiliated with any company previously involved in marketing the .md domain.

Moldova, a former republic of the USSR, was assigned the country code .md by ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), an internationally organized private-public partnership dedicated to preserving the operational stability and security of the Internet. Examples of other ICANN-assigned country code designations in use today include .uk (for the United Kingdom) and .au (for Australia).

MaxMD was established in 2003 and is controlled by its principals, Scott A. Finlay, Thomas H. Tucker and Paul D. Williams. The principals all worked together as senior sales, marketing and trading executives at Lehman Brothers, a New York-based investment bank. MaxMD is headquartered in New Jersey at Harborside Financial Center, Plaza Ten, Jersey City, NJ 07311. Telephone: [phone]. Website: www.max.md