Food and Video Games: Latest Online Service

March 17, 2000

Food.com and Blockbuster Inc. are cooperating on an Internet service that would provide consumers with delivered food and a movie. Food.com intends to acquire the Takeout Taxi and use the operation for restaurant deliveries.

Food.com said acquiring Takeout Taxi would help it meet a strategic goal: to control the channel that delivers take-out and delivery restaurant meals to consumers who order form the company's web site.

The acquisition "will enable us to control that crucial `last mile' to our customers, something we have not been able to do to date," said Food.com Chairman and CEO Richard Frank. "We will be better able to enhance and control customer experience with meals delivered by our own drivers, helping us meet consumers' increasing expectations fro e-commerce to be convenient and immediate."

Food.com's deal with Blockbuster, Inc., will be a pilot program to be conducted this summer. "Without leaving their homes, customers can enjoy restaurant-prepared meals and first rate movies, delivered to their doors on cue. We strongly believe Food.com and Blockbuster's respective customer bases will find the prospects of this partnership very appealing."

Founded in 1986, Food.com is the only service of its kind, offering home and business meals on the Internet. With nearly 16,000 restaurants on the service nationwide and nearly 1 million registered members, Food.com also is the exclusive takeout and delivery partner of America Online. The company is located in San Francisco.