Back to press releasesNEWARK, N.J. – November 5, 2002 — IDT Media’s Digital Production Solutions (D.P.S.) today announced that it has signed an agreement with Jim Jinkins and David Campbell, founders of Cartoon Pizza, to develop an animated children’s series. IDT Media is a division of IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT.B, IDT), a multinational carrier and telephone company. Cartoon Pizza is a leading developer and producer of entertainment for children.
Under the terms of the deal, D.P.S. and Cartoon Pizza will co-produce and jointly own the new animated property. D.P.S. will be utilizing its proprietary Global Animation Studio for production.
“Working with the creative folks at Cartoon Pizza is a great opportunity for D.P.S.,” said Jim Courter, IDT’s CEO. “Jim Jinkins and David Campbell have a track record for producing high-quality children’s programming. They are known for creating entertainment content with mass-appeal that respects the intelligence, experience and feelings of kids.”
“It’s both a pleasure and a challenge to work with Jim and Dave,” says Yehuda Wurtzel, CEO of D.P.S. “They are wonderful storytellers who understand the hopes and fears and delights of children, but they never let their target audience be an excuse for production values that are anything less than the best.”
Cartoon Pizza is the creator of the hugely successful Doug, Stanley and PB&J Otter, and the executive producers of such hits as the animated series 101 Dalmatians for Disney, Allegra’s Window for Nick Jr., The Busy World of Richard Scarry for Random House, and The Beginner’s Bible for Sony Wonder.
D.P.S. is currently producing 26 episodes of the popular children’s animated series Monster by Mistake under an agreement with CCI Entertainment, Ltd that will be broadcast on television on a worldwide basis.
IDT Corporation through its IDT Telecom subsidiary, is a facilities-based, multinational carrier that provides a broad range of telecommunications services to its retail and wholesale customers worldwide. Through its own national telecommunications backbone and fiber optic network infrastructure, IDT Telecom provides its customers with integrated and competitively priced international and domestic long distance telephony and prepaid calling cards. IDT and Liberty Media own 95% and 5 % of IDT Telecom, respectively. IDT Media is the IDT subsidiary principally responsible for the Company’s initiatives in media, new video technologies and print media.
Through its various subsidiaries, IDT has interests in several telecom, Internet-related and media companies. IDT acquired Winstar Communications in December, 2001. IDT Corporation common shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols IDT.B and IDT. As of October 18, 2002, there were about 54.1 million shares of Class B common stock (IDT.B) outstanding, and about 25.0 million shares of common stock (IDT). Of these, approximately 4.0 million shares of Class B common stock and approximately 5.4 million shares of common stock were held by units of IDT Corporation.
Except for historical information, all of the expectations and assumptions contained in the foregoing are forward-looking statements, within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, involving risks and uncertainties. These statements refer to our plans to implement our growth strategy, improve our financial performance, expand our infrastructure, develop new products and services, expand our customer base and enter international markets. The forward looking statements also include our expectations concerning factors affecting the markets for our products, including the demand for long distance telecommunications, and Internet access services. These forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results that we anticipate. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those risks discussed in this release. In addition to the factors specifically noted in the forward looking statements, other important factors that could result in those differences include (a) general economic conditions in the telecommunications and Internet markets, including inflation, recession, interest rates, and other economic factors; (b) casualty to or other disruption of our facilities and operations; (c) those discussed in our Annual Report on Form 10K for the period ended July 31, 2001 and (d) other factors that generally affect the business of telecommunications, Internet and other communications companies. We assume no obligation to update these forward looking statements or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from the results anticipated in the forward looking statements.
