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Onstream Media Announces Agreement With Franchise Professionals Inc. to Create MarketPlace365(TM) for the Franchise Industry


Published on 2011-02-16 06:40:31 - Market Wire
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POMPANO BEACH, FL--(Marketwire - February 16, 2011) - Onstream Media Corporation (NASDAQ: [ ONSM ]), a leading online service provider of live and on-demand Internet broadcasting, corporate web communications and virtual marketplace technology, today announced that Franchise Professionals, Inc., has signed a MarketPlace365™ promoter agreement to develop a virtual marketplace and business community for the franchise industry. Franchise Professionals, also known as FranchiseProfs, is comprised of a comprehensive network of franchise experts, authors, speakers, consultants and related professionals, including legal and financial executives.

FranchiseProfs expects that its new MarketPlace365 online community will offer an extensive array of content relevant to existing and potential franchisees, franchisors, and industry suppliers. Some of the primary topics and information in the marketplace will include: choosing a franchise opportunity, resources for finding money, understanding the legal agreements as well as white papers, forums, blogs, professional services, webinars, franchise news, and other relevant franchise industry resources.

In addition, MarketPlace365's dynamic search capability will enable potential franchisees to identify available franchise options that are of interest and meet their financial requirements in their geographic region, providing a tremendous economic benefit to the franchisor by eliminating countless hours of inquires by unqualified candidates. Businesses that are interested in franchising their brand will also be able to source the important legal, marketing and operational services necessary to succeed though the extensive group of industry consultants participating in the marketplace.

"Our goal is to bring together many of the thousands of franchisors, and industry suppliers worldwide, as exhibitors," said Chris Nolan, CEO of FranchiseProfs. "By participating in our upcoming marketplace, they will now be able to showcase their business opportunities, products and services to potential entrepreneurs as well as other service providers and to identify qualified candidates at a fraction of the cost. Innovative technologies that offer interactive opportunities are rapidly becoming mainstream with every demographic."

According to the International Franchise Association (IFA) website, franchising generates nearly 18 million jobs and $2.1 trillion of economic activity annually. IFA members include franchise companies in over 100 different business format categories, individual franchisees and companies that support the industry in marketing, law and business development.

"Franchise industry leaders including Kentucky Fried Chicken (YUM Brands), PostNet, UPS Stores and a growing list of others see the value of this leveraged opportunity. Moreover a variety of America's top e-Learning companies including Leadership Clicks and New Light Learning Development, a boutique training and development leader, franchise legal advisors including Gray, Plant, Mooty, P.C., human resource experts HR Profile and top technology providers like Thumbspeak Technologies, a top mobile relationship marketing company, are all jumping on board," Nolan added.

"Small businesses, such as franchises, make up a large part our economy. It's important to support this entrepreneurial segment to continue to fuel innovation and growth," said Randy Selman, President & CEO of Onstream Media. "MarketPlace365 is essentially tailor-made for FranchiseProfs. It's the ideal platform for bringing together established networks, which in this case are franchise owners, suppliers and industry thought-leaders. What's more, franchisors who participate in the marketplace may elect to create their own company MarketPlace365, as in the case of Subway, further extending our growing promoter base."

With MarketPlace365, FranchiseProfs will also be able to create a persistent community of collaboration and engagement through the built-in capabilities of MarketPlace365, such as online chat, search, RSS feeds, file downloads, PR distribution and more.

About MarketPlace365:
MarketPlace365™ is a comprehensive, online lead-generation and communications virtual tradeshow platform that enables publishers, associations and tradeshow organizers to quickly, easily and affordably self-deploy and manage their own online multimedia "marketplace," while creating a compelling social-media experience for the attendee. MarketPlace365 brings communities with common interests together online for commerce and information exchange. MarketPlace365 features include: social networking, search engine optimization, advanced analytics, videos, webinars, presentations and a full suite of marketing and communications tools. For more information about MarketPlace365™, visit [ www.marketplace365.com ].

About FranchiseProfs:
FranchiseProfs provides unbiased information related to all aspects of the franchise industry. Comprised of experienced, talented, franchise professionals and business experts within their respective areas of expertise who have time-tested proven track records of success, FranchiseProfs helps new and existing franchisors, franchisees, entrepreneurs and existing small business owners who may be interested in converting their enterprises into a franchise system. For more information about FranchiseProfs, visit [ http://franchiseprofs.com ].

About Onstream Media:
Onstream Media Corporation (NASDAQ: [ ONSM ]) is a leading, online, service provider of live and on-demand Internet broadcasting, corporate web communications and virtual marketplace technology. Onstream Media's innovative Digital Media Services Platform (DMSP) provides customers with cost effective tools for encoding, managing, indexing, and publishing content via the Internet. The company's MarketPlace365™ solution enables publishers, associations, tradeshow promoters and entrepreneurs to rapidly and cost effectively self-deploy their own online virtual marketplaces. In addition, Onstream Media provides live and on-demand webcasting, webinars, web and audio conferencing services. To date, almost half of the Fortune 1000 companies and 78% of the Fortune 100 CEOs and CFOs have used Onstream Media's services. Select Onstream Media customers include: AAA, Dell, Disney, Georgetown University, National Press Club, PR Newswire, [ Shareholder.com ] (NASDAQ), Sony Pictures and the U.S. Government. Onstream Media's strategic relationships include Akamai, Adobe, BT Conferencing, Qwest and Trade Show News Network (TSNN). For more information, visit Onstream Media at [ www.onstreammedia.com ] or call 954-917-6655.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements in this document and elsewhere by Onstream Media are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such information includes, without limitation, the business outlook, assessment of market conditions, anticipated financial and operating results, strategies, future plans, contingencies and contemplated transactions of the company. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause or contribute to actual results of company operations, or the performance or achievements of the company or industry results, to differ materially from those expressed, or implied by the forward-looking statements. In addition to any such risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed elsewhere herein, risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause or contribute to actual results differing materially from those expressed or implied for the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to fluctuations in demand; changes to economic growth in the U.S. economy; government policies and regulations, including, but not limited to those affecting the Internet. Onstream Media undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including those set forth in Onstream Media Corporation's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.