American Greetings Interactive Announces New CTO, Rajiv Jain, Telecommunications Industry Veteran

CLEVELAND, Oct. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- AG Interactive (AGI), the new media subsidiary of American Greetings Corporation , announced today the appointment of Rajiv Jain, as its new CTO. He will be responsible for overseeing AGI's global technology activities across all businesses, leading new product development efforts and expanding the company's robust technology infrastructure.

"We are committed to using technology to create the most customer-centric solutions and infrastructure," said Josef Mandelbaum, president and CEO, AG Interactive. "The strong technical and management expertise that Rajiv Jain brings to our team will help us explore new growth opportunities and enhance our work creating the industry's most advanced self and social expression products."

Mr. Jain comes to AGI from Cingular/AT&T Wireless, where he was instrumental in founding the company's B2B eCommerce unit. As general manager of this unit, he managed a team of engineers, project managers, marketing managers and user interface designers. Under his direction, Cingular/AT&T Wireless became a wireless eCommerce sales and customer service leader in less than two years. Previously, he was vice president of core products at Portal Software. He also held several positions at IBM, including director of strategy for their Pervasive Computing division where he led a major partnership with Nokia and Sun Microsystems. He was also director of IBM's Java Technology Center in Silicon Valley and Taligent's director of Media and Distributed Computing. Mr. Jain has 10 patents registered under his name.

AGI's mobile business creates original content and publishes a vast portfolio of branded personalization, entertainment, information and messaging products through more than 25 carriers globally as well as online sites defjammobile.com, univisionmovil.com, MIDIringtones, KIWEE, Blue Mountain, and American Greetings.

About AG Interactive

AG Interactive (AGI) is a global leader in licensing and creating original self and social expression products for online, instant messaging and mobile platforms. To create its premier content, the company leverages one of the world's largest digital libraries of award-winning expressive content and an extensive international distribution capability.

AGI attracts more than 30 million unique visitors per month in 18 countries to its popular websites AmericanGreetings.com, BlueMountain.com, and Egreetings.com as well as through Instant Messaging or online partnerships with AOL, MSN, and Yahoo!. The company has one of the largest online subscription services with over 2.3 million paying subscribers. AGI reaches over 200 million subscribers per month globally through major wireless carriers including Verizon Wireless.

AGI also maintains significant global content partnerships with Def Jam Enterprises, Nickelodeon, Sports Illustrated, Univision Online, Inc., and Warner Bros. Online.

AG Interactive is a subsidiary of American Greetings Corporation , one of the world's leading manufacturers of social expression products generating annual net sales of approximately $2 billion. American Greetings Corporation is the creator and owner of many celebrated character properties, including Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, Holly Hobbie, Bubblegum and Twisted Whiskers. For more information, please visit http://www.interactive.ag.com/.

Media Contacts: Breakaway Communications for AG Interactive Pamela Preston Alicia Mickelsen 212.590.2554 (o) 212.590.2557 (o) 917.575.5830 (m) 973.229.9972 (m) ppreston@breakawaycom.com amick@breakawaycom.com All trademarks are the property of their respective companies.