Headsets.com Develops UK Web Sites

Headsets.com Inc., a business-to-business marketer of telephone headsets for office use, is expected to announce Jan. 28 its acquisition of five United Kingdom-based Internet domains as part of an expansion beyond the United States.

The domains are headsets.co.uk, headset.co.uk, conferencers.co.uk, conferencer.co.uk and headphones.co.uk. All will link to the company's U.S. sites: headsets.com, conferences.com and headphones.com. They eventually will link to partner sites that will be established.

The acquisitions have been in the works for nine months.

"We're in discussion with some partners to roll out our model, via our catalog and through the Web, in the UK and, eventually, other English-speaking countries," said Mike Faith, president/CEO of Headsets.com, San Francisco. "We believe the UK market can add $5 million to $10 million per year in revenue if we fully develop that market over the next four to five years."

The 6-year-old company expects to generate more than $16 million in revenue in 2004. The total in 2003 was $11 million.

The company also seeks a partner to help develop a catalog for the UK.

"Even though I was born and raised in Southampton [in the UK], it's been 13 years since I left the UK," Faith said. "I'm very sensitive to the British culture, and I know we need someone who has experience in current business-to-business marketing and who can use that in conjunction with what we've learned here in the U.S."

The company's next U.S. catalog will have a circulation of 1.5 million, use six covers and mail in February.