The license covers various sporting goods including playground balls, basketballs, baseballs, footballs, and sports sets. Digimon: Digital Monsters is a children's animated episodic television series shown regularly on Fox Kids Network. The license agreement, which runs through June 2002, allows Fotoball to utilize all copyrights and trademarks of the licensed property for special product designs and marketing material. Furthermore, the agreement covers distribution of products to various retail channels in the United States, including mass merchants, specialty shops, sporting goods stores and the Internet. Fotoball expects product to ship during the third quarter of fiscal year 2000.

Michael Favish, president and chief executive officer of Fotoball stated, ``We are very excited to work with another successful brand. As is the case with our various portfolio licenses, our intent is to enhance the value of the Digimon brand by developing a unique array of high quality products for a variety of distribution channels. Over time, as we add exciting new licenses, we will continue to diversify our revenue stream.''

Elie Dekel, president, Saban Consumer Products stated, ``Interest in Digimon among licensees, promotional partners and retailers is white hot, proving that Digimon has carved out its own unique success in the anime and kids entertainment arenas.''

Fotoball is a leading provider of custom/specialty sports and non-sports related balls. These products are sold in the licensed product retail market through a nationwide network of over 3,000 retailers including Target, Toys R Us, Sears, Wal-Mart, and J.C. Penney. Additionally, the company provides custom sports and non-sports related products for corporate promotions and non-licensed specialty sports products to corporations for resale, including sales to amusement parks and entertainment related companies. The company currently holds licenses with Major League Baseball Properties and Major League Baseball Players Association, NHL Enterprises and National Hockey League Players Association, National Football League Properties and NFL Players Inc., over 300 NCAA colleges and certain entertainment properties including Warner Bros. Looney Tunes, Nickelodeon's ``Rugrats'' and ``Blue's Clues'' characters, United Media's ``Peanuts,'' Disney's ESPN, and Coca-Cola.

[Posted 6/07/2000]