September 2004 - AstroVision International gains an investment position in AstroVision Australia and Horizon Global Ltd.
AstroVision has been instrumental in the founding of AstroVision Australia (AVA). Interest in AVA began in early in 2003 when AstroVision was approached by an American consultant who was working with an Australian company and a group of Australian investors. They were interested in providing weather, environmental, coastal security and natural hazard warning services in Australia and throughout Asia. By mid 2003, AstroVision entered into an agreement with a newly formed entity, AstroVision Australia, to license intellectual property that would allow it to implement an enterprise based upon AstroVision's business model and proprietary concepts. AstroVision had no financial interests in AVA other than an agreed-upon fee for the use of AstroVision's intellectual property. This Agreement was suspended in early 2004 when the full financing of AVA failed to materialize.

During the spring and summer of 2004, AVA reorganized its operations and attracted a new investor, Horizon Global Ltd., an Australian public company traded on the Australian Stock Exchange. Upon agreement-in-principle among AVA's investors in September of 2004, and approval of AstroVision's Board, AstroVision renewed its intellectual property license agreement with AVA. At that time, Horizon Global, Ltd. stockholders approved the acquisition of 51% of AVA's stock in exchange for Global Horizon stock. As compensation for the use of its intellectual property, AstroVision has a minority ownership position with AVA and Horizon Global, Ltd. The Company has been granted stock options in Horizon Global as well. As of January 2005, AstroVision also receives quarterly royalty fees.

Implementation of this agreement allows AstroVision to pursue an international strategy with a minimal expenditure of resources, while leveraging the CompanyÕs intellectual property into new revenue streams. Additionally, the agreement provides AstroVision a means to refine its business model, deploy its technology and continue its intellectual property development wile pursuing its global market development strategy.

Did You Know?

The first HDTV network in the U.S. was launched by the NBC affiliate in Washington, DC. The network debut featured satellite imagery, including simulated AVSTAR data provided by NASA.

AstroVision technology was part of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's data visualization exhibit at the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society. Simulated AVSTAR data was included in the demonstration of state-of-the-art tools for use in broadcast weather reporting conducted by NASA scientist Fritz Hasler.

In previous years, AstroVision was selected by NASA to participate in its Scientific Data Buy program. The Scientific Data Buy was a demonstration program developed in response to the President's Space Policy, directing NASA to purchase remote sensing data from the private sector. Initiated in fiscal year 1997, the SDB was funded under the NASA Earth Science Enterprise Program to provide scientific data to the Earth science research community. AstroVision was one of ten companies selected to submit prototypical data sets and products for Data Buy Phase I evaluation.