American Greetings Expands Product Offering Through Acquisition of an Online Photo Sharing Company

CLEVELAND, Oct. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- American Greetings Corporation today announced it has acquired the online assets of the Webshots brand from CNET Networks, Inc. . The purchase price was approximately $45 million and is subject to customary post closing adjustments.

Webshots is one of the largest online photo and video sharing sites on the Internet with more than 7 million unique monthly U.S. visitors as measured by The Nielsen Company, a leading global Internet information provider, and with more than 400 million digital photos stored. Webshots offers both free and premium memberships with a variety of features. Users of Webshots can easily manage their photos online, share their photos, order prints, and order custom photo gifts.

Zev Weiss, Chief Executive Officer said, "The acquisition of Webshots gives us the opportunity to expand our current product offering of online social expressions into the adjacent area of online photo sharing. The online photo market has grown dramatically over the past few years as consumers purchase and use digital cameras, share and print their photos through Internet sites, and look for ways to incorporate their photos on personalized products, including greeting cards."

Josef Mandelbaum, CEO of AG Intellectual Properties, one of American Greetings segments, stated, "This acquisition is a natural extension of our interactive business, which is already a leading provider of electronic social expression content. The combination of Webshots, along with our existing business, makes us a top 50 U.S. Web site."

Weiss added, "At this time, the transaction is anticipated to be mildly dilutive to fiscal 2008 earnings. However, we still expect to achieve our previously announced estimate of earnings per share from continuing operations for fiscal 2008 of $1.35 to $1.55 per share."

About American Greetings Corporation

American Greetings Corporation is one of the world's largest manufacturers of social expression products. Along with greeting cards, its product lines include gift wrap, party goods, stationery, calendars, ornaments and electronic greetings. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, American Greetings generates annual revenue of approximately $1.7 billion. For more information on the Company, visit http://corporate.americangreetings.com/.

Certain statements in this release may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Federal securities laws. These statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historic or current facts. They use such words as "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "project," "intend," "plan," "believe," and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with any discussion of future operating or financial performance. These forward-looking statements are based on currently available information, but are subject to a variety of uncertainties, unknown risks and other factors concerning the Company's operations and business environment, which are difficult to predict and may be beyond the control of the Company. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those suggested by these forward-looking statements, and that could adversely affect the Company's future financial performance, include, but are not limited to, the following:

-- retail consolidations, acquisitions and bankruptcies, including the possibility of resulting adverse changes to retail contract terms; -- the Company's ability to successfully implement its strategy to invest in its core greeting card business; -- the timing and impact of investments in new retail or product strategies as well as new product introductions and achieving the desired benefits from those investments; -- the timing and impact of converting customers to a scan-based trading model; -- the ability to execute share repurchase programs or the ability to achieve the desired accretive effect from such repurchases; -- the Company's ability to successfully complete, or achieve the desired benefits associated with, dispositions; -- a weak retail environment; -- consumer acceptance of products as priced and marketed; -- the impact of technology on core product sales; -- competitive terms of sale offered to customers; -- successful implementation of supply chain improvements and achievement of projected cost savings from those improvements; -- increases in the cost of material, energy, freight, and other production costs; -- the Company's ability to comply with its debt covenants; -- fluctuations in the value of currencies in major areas where the Company operates, including the U.S. Dollar, Euro, U.K. Pound Sterling, and Canadian Dollar; -- escalation in the cost of providing employee health care; -- successful integration of acquisitions; and -- the outcome of any legal claims known or unknown.

Risks pertaining specifically to AG Interactive include the viability of online advertising, subscriptions as revenue generators and the public's acceptance of online greetings and other social expression products.

In addition, this release contains time-sensitive information that reflects management's best analysis as of the date of this release. American Greetings does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect future events, information or circumstances that arise after the date of this release. Further information concerning issues that could materially affect financial performance related to forward-looking statements can be found in the Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended February 28, 2007.