Viewpoint Press Release: Technology Veteran Jay S. Amato Takes Helm at Viewpoint Corporation

Rich Media provider Viewpoint replaced long time CEO Bob Rice with Jay Amato, former COO of systems integration company Vanstar and head of the Technology Access Action Coalition/ACT, a pro-Microsoft lobbying group. The move was not a surprise to those who have been following Viewpoint’s stock price over the last year, which hit a low of 29 cents earlier this year and which currently has been languishing at around the mid-70 cent mark. Viewpoint announced a $6.3 million dollar loss for its quarter ending June 30th. Mr. Amato joins William Mitchell who came on board this month as the company’s new CFO.

Based on Mr. Amato's connections to Microsoft, it will be interesting to see if Viewpoint is able to forge similar relationships with MSN that it has enjoyed with AOL, which integrated the Viewpoint player into the AOL proprietary service more than two years ago.