IPrint To Acquire Wood AssociatesIPrint To Acquire Wood Associates

Online printing service iPrint Technologies Inc. said Monday it will merge with Wood Associates, a provider of custom imprinted promotional items and marketing programs. Wood will be issued securities that represent 49% of the combined company and will continue operating under the Wood Associates name as a unit of iPrint.

Royal Farros, iPrint CEO, says iPrint Web technology, combined with Wood's large customer base, which includes AOL Time Warner, BP, Charles Schwab, and Compaq, "creates an overnight powerhouse in the E-printing space." IPrint technology lets customers such as Intel, Microsoft, OfficeMax, Oracle, PeopleSoft, and 3M integrate printing services into their E-procurement systems.

Wood CEO Monte Wood will become CEO and president of the combined California companies. Farros will serve as chairman and oversee iPrint's technology development and corporate communications.

News of the merger propelled iPrint stock higher Monday, to 70 cents a share, before settling at day's end at 63 cents, up 8 cents or 14.55% for the day. That's still considerably lower than the $25-a-share range iPrint traded at shortly after its initial public offering in March 2000. Shares bottomed out at 28.13 cents in March. The sharp falloff has spurred a series of class-action lawsuits that claim iPrint misled investors at the time of the IPO, a charge the company denies.

Despite the lawsuits, iPrint sees a rosy future, saying revenue of the combined companies should reach $30 million this year and top $100 million next year. The company, which has yet to show a profit, predicts break-even results from operations before taking charges to cover the merger, which is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter. In the first three months of 2001, iPrint posted a net loss of $5.3 million, much lower than the net loss of $11.9 million recorded a year earlier.