CAMPBELL, California, December 22 /PRNewswire/ --

- Festoon Unity Enables Users of Different Messaging Services to Talk to and See Each Other

Today Santa Cruz Networks launched Festoon Unity, a new feature to its wildly popular Festoon plug-in, uniting the world's 453 million IM users. With more than 3.7 million downloads and over 52 million video call user minutes, Festoon is the first plug-in bringing users of different messaging services together in group voice and video calls where they can talk to and see each other. Users can also share content and engage in personalized video experiences. Face-to-face communication in one-to-one calls or in large groups of hundreds is better and more fun with Festoon.

"People don't need to have the same email program or the same phone service to send each other emails or call each other," says Itzik Cohen, CEO of Santa Cruz Networks. "We believe it should be just as simple with voice and video communications. Festoon Unity connects different Instant Messaging services so that users can call each other across services as simply as sending an instant message or email."

IM users all over the world use Festoon each day to see each other while chatting, playing games, sharing pictures, or conducting business. All without having to install another messaging service.

"We are pleased to be the first to connect Skype and Google Talk users," said Cohen. "With ubiquitous voice and video calls as the goal, in early 2006 we'll be adding Festoon Unity support for AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger. In addition we'll be providing a series of web services that anyone can use to quickly and easily add video communication to their site."

With Festoon IM users can securely conduct voice and video calls in groups up to the hundreds while sharing photos, spreadsheets, presentations, or applications with others in the call. In future releases users will be able to download additional video effects and personalized experiences, access our library of camera personalities, wallpapers, and more. In addition to Festoon Unity other new features in this product upgrade include significantly improved video speed, voice and video synchronization, enhanced group audio, automatic proxy support, and a number of new EyeCandy personalizations to name a few.

Festoon is available at www.festooninc.com for free. Download it and join the Sweetest EyeCandy Contest where the top entries win iPods for the best EyeCandy pictures! A quick video showcasing Festoon's EyeCandy effects can be viewed at: http://www.festooninc.com/festoon_qt.asp . Festoon works on any Windows 2000/XP PC with an 800 Mhz processor or greater running Skype (www.skype.com) or Google Talk (www.google.com/talk).

About Santa Cruz Networks

Santa Cruz Networks is a California-based web application company focused on developing the best possible real-time, on demand communications services through its worldwide network. Its communication extensions have been embedded in award-winning products and are used worldwide, serving hundreds of thousands of users, and delivering billions of user minutes. Our Investors include Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), Geneva Venture Partners and a number of experienced Silicon Valley angel investors. For more information, visit www.santacruznetworks.com or www.festooninc.com.

Web site: http://www.festooninc.com Web site: http://www.santacruznetworks.com

Max Montgomery of Santa Cruz Networks, +1-831-239-9835, or tothemax@santacruznetworks.com