Juniper Partners Takes Control of Hispanic Kids’ Net

NEW YORK, August 16: Juniper Partners Acquisition has signed a deal to acquire Firestone Communications, the Texas-based company that owns and operates ¡Sorpresa!, the Hispanic kids’ network, in an all-stock transaction.

Once the deal closes in the fourth quarter of this year, Firestone will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Juniper Partners Acquisition Corp., which will change its name to Juniper Content Corporation and seek a NASDAQ listing on closing. Juniper’s current stockholders will own approximately 55 percent and Firestone stockholders will own 45 percent of Juniper’s outstanding shares on closing.

The company has established subscriber targets of 3.5 million and 4.5 million in 2007 and 2008, respectively, with revenue targets of $20 million and $30 million in 2007 and 2008.

Sorpresa! has affiliation agreements with Time Warner, Cox, Comcast, Cablevision, Charter and the National Cable TV cooperative and has more than 600,000 subscribers in 21 of the top 25 Hispanic television markets and reaches 7.5 million Hispanic households through its relationship with Azteca America. Its programming is also available through Verizon and on a VOD basis through AOL TV, Google, MobiTV and Akimbo. It offers a digital community for 6- to 14-year-olds, and also targets a broader 2- to 17-year-old demographic with original educational, sports, live-action, animation and news programming.

"The acquisition of Firestone Communications will create significant value for Juniper by allowing us to benefit from the substantial impact of the growth of the Hispanic population on the media marketplace," stated Stuart B. Rekant, the chairman and CEO of Juniper. "It brings us Sorpresa!, a nationally recognized Hispanic children’s television network, and a talented management team experienced in broadcasting and cable, Spanish-language programming and creative services, together with its state-of-the-art equipment and facility. Sorpresa!’s affiliation agreements with all the major cable operators enable it to benefit from the accelerating rollout of digital cable. The growing importance of Hispanic digital tiers in attracting subscribers to their new, enhanced services should enable Sorpresa! to substantially increase its current subscriber base."

Rekant continued, "Firestone will serve as a platform for our multi-platform strategy and will support the creation and acquisition of other branded content services that will contribute to our growth in addition to the continued growth of the Sorpresa! digital community.”

Leonard Firestone, the chairman and CEO of Firestone, added, "Based upon the ongoing rollout of Hispanic tiers, we believe we will exit 2006 with over one million subscribers, putting us in a position to double our subscriber base by early next year. This subscriber level will allow us to gain the attention of large, national advertisers and their agencies to better access Hispanic advertising spending, which is growing twice as fast as any other segment of the U.S. media market. In addition, the Hispanic media ad share gap to traditional media is starting to close as dollars being spent on advertising to this demographic move closer to the Hispanic proportion of the population as advertisers allocate larger portions of their budgets to this audience. Juniper’s capital and media-experienced management are a powerful combination for us as we continue to move forward in this very exciting marketplace. These elements will allow us to enhance our programming line up, support increased marketing initiatives, and further our subscriber growth, taking advantage of Sorpresa!’s "first-mover" status and its understanding of the expanding Hispanic marketplace."

Upon completion of this transaction, Juniper will continue to be based in New York. Firestone will operate from its facilities in Fort Worth. Rekant will remain chairman and CEO of Juniper and will become CEO of Firestone. Leonard Firestone will serve as Firestone’s president and COO.

Juniper raised $17.4 million in July 2005 to target the media and entertainment sector. It currently has approximately $15 million in cash held in trust, up to $5 million of which is to be designated for Firestone’s business plan.