Balderton News Rss Feed

Online music has MOG and Spotify in race for supporters

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Competition between Spotify and MOG is intensifying as the new digital music services race to win support from investors, record labels and listeners. The transatlantic rivals - aided by two veterans of the online music industry - are both raising new funds to build a service which they hope will lure music fans away from piracy and provide a new revenue stream for the music industry as CD sales fall. MOG on Friday announced $9.5m in new funds from Balderton Capital, a prominent London venture fund, and Menlo Ventures. Based in California, MOG is led by David Hyman, who sold previous digital music ventures Gracenote and SonicNet to Sony and MTV respectively. It counts Universal Music, Sony Music and Rick Rubin, the record producer, among its investors. Its $5-per-month "all you can eat" music service launched in December has proven a hit with prominent technology blogs such as Techcrunch. The new funds, on top of more than $10m in prior investments, will help it expand into the UK, where it has yet to secure rights from the main labels. Dharmash Mistry, partner at Balderton, said that MOG was the first subscription music service to offer a combination of radio-like "passive" listening, playlist creation and community capabilities. But MOG will face entrenched competition from Spotify, which has attracted 7m European users of its free advertising-supported music streaming service since launching in October 2008. More than 250,000 people pay a £9.99 ($15) monthly subscription to access its millions of tracks from their mobiles and without ads. In spite of raising $50m from last year from Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong billionaire, Wellington Partners and Northzone Ventures, its plans for a launch in the United States have stumbled as record labels cool on the idea of ad-supported music services. Edgar Bronfman Jr, Warner Music's chairman, said last month that the label would not license any more free music services because they generated insufficient revenues. So Spotify has turned to the business brains behind the original Napster music-sharing service for help in winning the labels over in the world's largest music market. Founders Fund, a California firm, had invested a small amount in Spotify, with fund principal Sean Parker taking a board seat, people familiar with the deal said. Mr Parker co-founded Napster in 1999. After the record industry's piracy lawsuit forced the Silicon Valley company into bankruptcy, he went on to found Plaxo and serve as president at Facebook but maintained good relations with label executives. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cc84103a-24d2-11df-8be0-00144feab49a.html

Mog closes $9.5m funding led by Balderton Capital and Menlo Ventures

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

MOG, the digital music and music blogging network, today announced that it has closed a round of funding totalling $9.5 million, led by Balderton Capital and Menlo Ventures.MOG is an innovative digital music site that provides a music discovery service through a community of 13 million hard core music fans, across hundreds of blogs in the MOG network along with the best active and passive listening experience. The passive aspect takes the form of a personalised radio over which the user has total control, unlike non-subscription services; the active music management service allows users to listen to any tracks they wish through playlisting tools and a library of four million tracks from all the majors and a range of independent labels. No other service combines all three elements of music discovery alongside a music listening experience which is both passive and active. MOG launched a $5-per-month MOG All Access subscription service in the US in December 2009.Dharmash Mistry, partner at Balderton Capital, will join MOG’s board. The funding will support the further development of marketing programs, partnerships with consumer electronics companies and international expansion, starting with the UK later this year.David Hyman, founder and CEO of MOG, said: “MOG’s goal is to give people the best listening experience possible by delivering the best on-demand experience, the best radio and the best tools to discover new music. This latest investment will enable us to begin rolling out the service internationally, starting with the UK, and we are delighted to welcome Dharmash to the board.”Dharmash Mistry said: “MOG is the only digital music site with a range of services that appeal to listeners of all types - personalised radio, active music management through playlisting tools and a massive community of music enthusiasts and bloggers to assist the discovery of new music through recommendations from influential music opinion formers on the blogs. Licensing deals with all the key music labels mean MOG is unique in the range of music it offers music lovers from the ardent fan to the casual listener We are excited to be working with MOG and have full confidence in David’s ability to guide the company through the next phase of international growth.”MOG was set up in 2006 and has 13 million users – it is adding a further half million a month. It has music licensing deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Music and many key independents including Beggars Group, INgrooves, IODA and The Orchard.In the US, MOG launched its All Access subscription service in December 2009. This is a $5 per month “all-you-can-eat” service. MOG users can access their accounts from any browser without needing to download any software. Monthly subscription offers unlimited music listening and playlist creation, with no restrictions on what subscribers can hear and when. Since the December launch of MOG All Access in the US, the company has seen an impressive 17 percent user conversion from the free trial. A video tour of the service can be viewed at: http://mog.com/promos/overviewENDSFor more information, please contact:Balderton CapitalPowerscourt Kay Larsen/Victoria Palmer-Moore 44 207 250 1446kay.larsen@powerscourtmedia.comvictoria.palmer-moore@powerscourtmedia.comAbout MOGHeadquartered in Berkeley, CA., MOG was founded in June 2005 by David Hyman, former CEO of Gracenote, former SVP-Marketing at MTV Interactive, co-founder of Addicted to Noise, and self-proclaimed music junkie. Grammy-winning record producer, Rick Rubin, named by Time Magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World," is a member of MOG's Board of Directors. Investors include Menlo Ventures, Simon Equity Group, Universal Music Group and Sony Music. For more information go to http://mog.com. About Balderton CapitalBalderton Capital is one of the largest venture capital firms in Europe, committed to finding and helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies. Based in London, it manages $1.9 billion in committed venture capital. Since 2000, Balderton has invested in over 80 companies, principally in numerous European countries but also in the US and Asia. Balderton’s investments span a wide variety of sectors including communications, consumer services, enterprise software and services, e-commerce, mobile, semiconductors, media and financial services.Balderton invests in innovative businesses and approaches investment using the principles of teamwork and an intense dedication to building companies of lasting value. The investment partners combine international and Silicon Valley operational experience with company-building expertise. Notable investments include Bebo (sold to AOL for $850m), Betfair (the online betting exchange), ScanSafe (sold to Cisco for $183m), LOVEFiLM (the home entertainment subscription service) and MySQL (sold to Sun for $1 billion). In December 2009, Balderton portfolio company Yoox Group floated on the Milan stock exchange with a valuation of EUR260 million.Dharmash Mistry is a partner at Balderton Capital. Prior to joining Balderton, Dharmash spent 15 years acquiring and developing businesses globally in the media, retail and consumer goods sectors. He was part of the management team that successfully sold Emap’s consumer magazine business to H. Bauer for £1.1bn. He spent eight years at Emap, where he held a range of executive roles, including Managing Director of Emap Consumer Media and Emap Performance, the company’s music-focused division.For more information visit www.balderton.com

Al Gore Joins Richard Branson in Backing GreenRoad

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

What do a trucker, an Israeli entrepreneur, Al Gore and Richard Branson all have in common? Proof that the real goldmines are old, neglected industries. The name of that proof is GreenRoad. While so many entrepreneurs bang their heads against a Web and social media advertising brick wall, GreenRoad has applied common technology to an industry technology has largely passed by and—voilà—they’ve got a business that’s growing and saving lives, money and the environment. Driving is the third most deadly profession after deep sea fishing and working in a coal mine. Not only does driving more safely save lives but research shows it can also save 10% on annual fuel costs, and alleviate a good chunk of the $230 billion professional fleets spend on crashes each year. Enter GreenRoad: a system that helps professional drivers drive more safely and as a result save their company a lot of money. The GreenRoad system looks simple from the outside: There’s a two-inch device on the dashboard that starts the day with a green light. If a driver brakes hard, swerves or turns recklessly, the light turns yellow. If the driver continues to drive erratically the light stays yellow. If it gets worse the light turns red. That’s it. But like a lot of apparently simple ideas, there’s a lot more going on under the hood. GreenRoad was the brain-child of an Israeli entrepreneur who was run off the road one night by some wild kids. “If only their parents knew how they were driving…” he muttered to himself – and the work on the company began. It morphed over the years from a consumer product to one aimed at commercial fleets. While the device is made up from mostly off-the-shelf products like a GPS chip, accelerometer, a CPU, mashed up with Google maps and a dashboard-like management portal, it took a good three years of hardcore R&D to build. While you want the system to work well enough that aggressive driving tactics are caught, avoiding false positives are a must if drivers are to trust GreenRoad and accept its results. The algorithms can crunch more than 120 different driving maneuvers and the map on the dashboard helps provide context, both for the driver, and for a supervisor looking at the results later. For instance, a lot of harsh right turns could be the result of a hairpin turn in the road, not carelessness on the part of the driver. There’s also a good deal of psychology worked into the device. Drivers don’t want to feel spied on, so video and audio surveillance products haven’t been popular. It’s also not a good idea to have something distracting, which is why early models that had icons to describe the offending aggressive move were nixed for the three simple lights. The dashboard, too, helps pull natural competitive levers by showing your performance, relative to your peers. And don’t underestimate things as simple as starting each day with a green light: The key is holding drivers to a high enough standard, while letting them know they can succeed if they work at it and concentrate as well. GreenRoad has raised less than $40 million to date from Richard Branson’s Virgin Green Fund, Balderton Capital in London, Benchmark and DAG Ventures. On Monday the company will be announcing another $10 million from Generation, a fund started by Al Gore and Goldman Sachs. Sound like a lot of money? Consider how much the company saves. Fuel savings just from driving less aggressively can save a company some $300 per vehicle per year, and the costs saved from accidents are double that amount. That makes it a very easy ROI sale for a company’s CFO, environmental officer or safety officer. Now consider how much GreenRoad makes. It has 80 customers so far, and more than one of those customers have installed the technology in 20,000 of their cars. The three-year license goes for $1,000 per car, which the fuel savings alone cover. That’s right: We’re talking about $20 million contracts. And there’s more where that came from. CEO Eric Weiss says there are 80 million professionally driven cars in the US and the EU. That puts GreenRoad in the middle of a $80 billion market. I haven’t seen many companies like these since the good old days of enterprise software. And GreenRoad doesn’t have a lot of competition. Weiss himself came from the enterprise software and mobile space. At first he wasn’t sure about a tech company in such a weird, forgotten market, but pretty soon he got excited. “There are very few problems left of this size to solve,” he says. “Besides, the world doesn’t need another gadget for my phone or another ERP company. And he’s right. GreenRoad proves what a lot of smart investors have been saying for a while now—the best tech deals are no longer in a much picked over “tech sector” per se; they’re in applying technology to old-world industries. http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/22/al-gore-joins-richard-branson-in-backing-greenroad/

Tech shorts - Intune to design cloud computing network

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Intune Networks, the Irish maker of telecoms equipment for high bandwidth transmission, has won a major EU-funded research contract to design a telecoms network for cloud computing. Intune is part of a consortium that includes telecoms operators Telefónica in Spain and PrimeTel in Cyprus. The consortium also includes Italian software company Nextworks, and the University of Essex and University Autonoma Madrid. It will design and demonstrate a network that will allow the next generation of technology and communications services to be rolled out. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2010/0219/1224264787291.html

NewBay is in the eye of a mobile social media storm

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Paddy Houlihan’s mobile software company NewBay has secured a major deal with Deutsche Telekom to drive the Germany telecoms giant’s next generation of cloud-computing services.Under the deal, NewBay’s LifeCache Social Networking Gateway (SNG) and LifeCache Media Upload Client have been deployed to power the upload of photos, videos and audio filed to Deutsche Telekom’s Media Centre, where they can be immediately accessed and shared anytime via PC, mobile or TV. In related news, the company has introduce LifeCache Android Service, a runtime service for Android devices that accelerates development of mobile applications and services that connect to the LifeCache platform. The LifeCache platform powers a range of user content services for more than 80 million subscribers through Tier-1 operator and OEM customers.Abi Onifade of NewBay told Siliconrepublic.com that the technology allows operators who sell Android devices to pre-embed services and applications within the operating system. “Most European operators are seeking to create a signature look and feel within Android. Our technology allows users to share pictures with third-party destinations, like Facebook and Twitter. “LifeCache helps operators to better manage the interaction between the user and the social networks.”Onifade said the company is closely watching opportunities in emerging markets where it is envisaged the next 1 billion internet users will come online via their mobile devices. “Sharing user-generated content is going to be a key activity in emerging markets,” Onifade said. Amanda Campbell of NewBay explained that the company’s technology is also used by T-Mobile in the US, for example, for its My Album service.http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/article/15282/business/newbay-deutsche-telekom-deal

TechCrunch Paris

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Interactive session featuring some of the most innovative and interesting web / mobile startups and investors in France TechCrunch Paris

TechCrunch Nordic

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Search Engine Strategies

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

SES London is the leading search marketing conference in Europe and continues to get bigger and better year-on- year. www.searchenginestrategies.com/london

2010 Montgomery Technology Conference

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

2010 Montgomery Technology Conference

South by South West Interactive

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

South by South West Interactive features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leadersSXSW Interactive

Dragons Lair IV - Tech Investments Series

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The Dragon's Lair format was first introduced a year ago in Dec 08. Started as an experiment, Dragons Lair is now a regular feature of Northern StartUp 2.0 Calendar. Dragons Lair IV - Tech Investments Series

The London Technology Summit 2010

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The London Technology Summit 2010

New platform solution promises domain agnostic data integration, data quality, workflow and stewardship

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

January 25, 2010 -- Open source data integration specialist Talend today released what it calls the first comprehensive enterprise master data management solution on an open source platform supported by a large community of users. Citing "typical" MDM deployment costs of $500 thousand to $1.2 million, Talend executives predict the new platform will have a disruptive effect on the market with enterprise pricing between $50,000 and $100,000. A community version is also available at no cost under GPL license. Talend executives say the product represents the first comprehensive solution for data integration, data quality, master data and data stewardship. The platform includes data model-driven components for active data integration, data quality and lifecycle; domain integration with visualization; master data quality with profiling and standardization; stewardship and collaboration; and management/workflow tools. The most commonly approached master domains -- customer and product -- helped drive the platform to market, but Jim Walker, head of MDM product marketing at Talend, says that users of the platform don't have to stick to a rigid model. "We aren't MDM for customer or product, we're MDM for business." David Loshin, president of consultancy Knowledge Integrity Inc., says Talend's approach makes sense for users that want to assemble architectural components of data integration, data quality, master data etc. into a MDM model based on business requirements. "That's a different approach than the hub vendor that is going to deliver a deep working model with services layered on top," Loschin says. "Talend's approach is to let the internal users devise their own model based on their business uses." Business driven MDM domains resulted in 100 native and 300 community-built components that now ship with Talend's core integration product to address different databases and routines. "Along with our own work, we've built the best community components into the product and added support around them," Walker says. Walker also cited an early adopter, global shipper Bolloré Logistics Africa, that chose Talend's platform to model a domain for logistics that allows agents to provide shipping and capacity quotes for vessels, routes and locations. In December, Information Management interviewed Bolloré CIO Thomas Darbois, who affirmed his company's use of the product to coordinate logistic domain knowledge in a single environment. Talend claims 300,000 users and 1,000 enterprise customers. The new MDM product is available in a free community edition for projects of modest scope under GPL license. The enterprise version is available by subscription and brings more features, technical support and warranties to protect customers from legal challenges. Jim Ericson is editorial director of Information Management (formerly DM Review), a SourceMedia publication. You can reach him at Jim.Ericson@sourcemedia.com. For more information on related topics, visit the following channels: Data Integration Data Quality Master Data Management (MDM) Open Source

Mobile Games Forum

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:00:00 GMT

MGF: The leading European mobile games eventWith the industry attracting new interest and creativity and a whole new generation of technology before us, MGF 2010 is the best place to discuss the crucial issues of the future.

TOMORROW FOCUS AG acquires a majority shareholding in online advertising exchange AdJug

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Media release TOMORROW FOCUS AG acquires a majority shareholding in online advertising exchange AdJug, further consolidating its position as a leading digital marketing companyMunich, Germany, 08 December 2009 – TOMORROW FOCUS AG has acquired a further 37.8 percent to its previous 18 percent of the shares of AdJug Ltd. from shareholders. Balderton Capital, the founders and some business angels have sold shares totalling 37.4 percent.This acquisition gives TOMORROW FOCUS AG a 55.8 percent stake in AdJug Ltd. The majority of the remaining shares are held by founders Michael Stephanblome and Satish Jayakumar who will stay in the business and continue the aggressive growth the business has seen over the last two years. AdJug currently operates two ad exchanges for online performance advertising in the UK and Germany. AdJug has built a proprietary ad server and multiple currency exchange technology which enables online publishers to clear their unsold inventory and agencies and advertisers to efficiently buy online campaigns on real time basis on such unsold inventory. AdJug has also developed its own real time conversion tracking, auto optimisation, remarketing and behavioural targeting systems. Using this technology, AdJug gives agencies and advertisers complete data transparency and control by allowing them to measure the campaign performance on site or ad space level and optimise accordingly. Launching in November 2007, the AdJug ad exchange currently trades over three billion ad impressions per month in more than 5000 remnant publisher placements in the United Kingdom and Germany. The company has grown to 54 people in 3 countries with offices in London, Munich and Bangalore.The majority acquisition of AdJug adds another cornerstone to TOMORROW FOCUS AG’s digital marketing unit in Germany in the area of performance marketing, in addition to the established premium marketing business of TOMORROW FOCUS Sales. The German units will remain legally independent because of their different marketing approaches, but will work even more closely together. AdJug will focus exclusively on marketing remnant display advertising space for the majority of TOMORROW FOCUS AG’s advertising inventory.Members of the Board will be Christoph Schuh (Chairman), Dr. Klaus Hommels, Stefan Winners, Michael Stephanblome, Satish Jayakumar, Dr. Philipp Goos and René Rechtman.Christoph Schuh, CMO of TOMORROW FOCUS AG, commented: “The majority acquisition of AdJug is an important strategic step in the expansion of our performance marketing. It will strengthen our position as one of the most important online marketing companies in Germany, while giving us a stake in a proprietary ad serving and exchange technology and also international access to the strongly growing business segment of performance marketing. AdJug has developed very rapidly since its establishment about two years ago – for the coming year we already see potential for sales revenues of an eight-digit euro figure. Our next step is to expand our German business significantly, and to invest further in increasing our staff numbers.”Michael Stephanblome, CEO and Co-Founder of AdJug Ltd said: “With the help of TOMORROW FOCUS, we will be able to fulfill our vision of a European online exchange for display advertising. This strategic partnership will accelerate our strong growth and enable us to aggressively expand AdJug further internationally. We also see a big potential for AdJug to collaborate on advertising technology and to help the e-commerce businesses of TOMORROW FOCUS with regards to user acquisition and retention.”Dharmash Mistry, partner of Balderton Capital, commented: “Michael and Satish have built an innovative and market leading online advertising exchange in the UK. As the model further scales, especially in Germany, TOMORROW FOCUS AG will significantly advantage the business: They bring synergy and scale in their local German market. This is an obvious next step for the company.”About AdJug:AdJug Ltd., based in London, Munich and Bangalore, operates an automated internet advertising exchange. AdJug helps advertisers and owners of websites to link up more easily and to buy and sell advertising space and advertisements transparently at www.adjug.com and www.adjug.de.AdJug currently trades over 3 billion ad impressions in the UK and Germany, making it one of the biggest ad exchanges. AdJug was launched in Germany in January 2009, and already has an advertising inventory of more than a billion ad impressions. AdJug was founded in 2007 by Satish Jayakumar and Michael Stephanblome to optimise the trade in online advertising carried out on advertising networks, and to create an exchange platform for direct contact between advertisers/agencies and publishers.AdJug’s objective is to become Europe’s leading exchange for digital advertising.About TOMORROW FOCUS AG:TOMORROW FOCUS AG (ISIN DE0005495329) is based in Munich, Germany, and is an independent and broadly based internet media group. The company’s shares are publicly traded on the stock exchange. The main shareholder is Hubert Burda Media GmbH & Co KG.The Group’s business operations are divided into the three divisions E-Commerce, Digital Marketing and Technologies:The E-Commerce division includes HOLIDAYCHECK, the Group’s hotel rating and holiday/travel booking portal; ELITEPARTNER, a premium online dating portal; and PLAYBOY, the leading men’s lifestyle magazine in Germany.The Digital Marketing division includes TOMORROW FOCUS SALES, which has established itself as one of the leading German online marketing providers, marketing not only partner portals such as CHIP Online, FAZ.NET and MEINESTADT.DE but also the Group’s own internet portals such as FOCUS Online, FINANZEN100, JAMEDA and NACHRICHTEN.DE.Within the Technologies division, TOMORROW FOCUS TECHNOLOGIES GmbH and CELLULAR GmbH provide comprehensive services for the stationary and mobile internet.Media contact: TOMORROW FOCUS AG Katharina KirschSteinhauser Str. 1-381677 MunichGermanyphone: 49 (0)89 9250-1208fax: 49(0) 89 9250-2403email: k.kirsch@tomorrow-focus.de www.tomorrow-focus.de

Balderton Capital congratulates YOOX on its successful IPO

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Leading Italian fashion e-tailer’s shares leap on first day of trading LONDON - BALDERTON CAPITAL, the leading European venture capital firm, congratulates YOOX Group, Italy’s leading online fashion retailer, on its successful listing on the Milan stock exchange.Trading in YOOX shares commenced on December 3, 2009 at EUR4.3 valuing the company at EUR260m. The share price ended the day up 8.37% at EUR4.66.Balderton Capital invested in YOOX Group in 2002 and was the largest institutional shareholder. Post the offering and new fund-raising, Balderton still remains the largest shareholder - this continued commitment underscores the confidence in the YOOX Group’s growth prospects and in the ability of Federico Marchetti, the founder and CEO, to guide the company successfully through the next phase of its global development.YOOX Group launched in 2000 and sells brands such as Marni, Diesel and Armani to customers in 57 countries. It also manages proprietary multi-brand and mono-brand online stores on behalf of fashion houses looking to offer their collections online. The company reported 2008 net revenues of EUR101.8 m.For more information, please contact:Powerscourt (PR to Balderton)Victoria Palmer-Moore/Kay Larsen Phone: 44 207 250 1446victoria.palmermoore@powerscourtmedia.comAbout Balderton Capital Balderton Capital is one of the largest venture capital firms in Europe, committed to finding and helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies. Based in London, it manages $1.9 billion in committed venture capital.Since 2000, Balderton has invested in over 80 companies, principally in numerous European countries but also in the US and Asia. Balderton’s investments span a wide variety of sectors including communications, consumer services, enterprise software and services, e-commerce, mobile, semiconductors, media and financial services.Balderton invests in innovative businesses and approaches investment using the principles of teamwork and an intense dedication to building companies of lasting value. The investment partners combine international and Silicon Valley operational experience with company-building expertise.Notable investments include Bebo (sold to AOL for $850m), Betfair (the online betting exchange), ScanSafe (sold to Cisco for $183m), LOVEFiLM (the home entertainment subscription service) and MySQL (sold to Sun for $1 billion).

Brothers mix family with business

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Eldar Tuvey insists several times that “this is not the Eldar and Roy Show” during a conversation at the London headquarters of their virus-busting cloud computing business ScanSafe. Really? Mr Tuvey and his brother Roy set up ScanSafe in 2004. They recently agreed to sell it to Cisco Systems for $183m (£110m, €122m), a transaction estimated to make them each about £18m better off. Given the patchy record of London technology businesses in achieving lucrative exits, they have done extra¬ordinarily well. So how, exactly, is this not the Eldar and Roy Show?Eldar, a sardonic, purposeful man in an open-necked shirt, is worried that ScanSafe’s story might be simplified into a tale of two ex-City boys making shedloads of dosh. In fact, he argues, the business story is more interesting, but more demanding to follow.“We’re all about business, unfortunately,” says Eldar, ScanSafe’s chief executive, when asked where the company keeps the pool table that is a feature of wackier Web 2.0 workplaces. Perhaps Eldar and Roy, the company president, were always more serious than that – they tut-tut over another technology company they know where staff expect a supply of free smoothies. Perhaps they have had any wackiness knocked out of them by an entrepreneurial career more gruelling than an outline of the Cisco deal suggests.The brothers, who were born in Israel but grew up in London, set up Mailround, an e-mail marketing business, in 1999. Eldar, then 29, had been a corporate financier at Goldman Sachs. Roy, then 24, had worked at Merrill Lynch and Compass Partners, a private equity firm. “I was very young,” says Roy, “but if you see an opportunity, you’ve got to go for it.” But the business struggled. The demand, as so many late-1990s technology start-ups found, was simply not there.Chase Capital, which had put $5m into Mailround, asked for its money back. Unusually for the time, the Tuveys had not blown the start-up capital on over-specified systems development and travel by private jet. But a bruising dispute followed. It was resolved when the brothers bought Chase out for a percentage of its original outlay.Eldar compares the subsequent situation to that of the mythical frog in a pan of water that is slowly heating up. The frog does not sense slow temperature changes, so it boils to death. But the Tuvey brothers knew they were cooking and wanted to hop back into investment banking.“We were boiling, roasting, very slowly – while all the hedge fund guys were flashing their yachts around,” Eldar says. They were working long hours for £24,000 each a year in a rented office on the roof of a building in Farringdon, at the western edge of the City of London. The office did not have planning permission. Or a lift.Their father, Isaac, also an entrepreneur, was the one who stopped them jumping. “He is what I would call ‘old school’,” Roy says. “He appreciates people who give it some elbow grease.” In 2004, the brothers had the brainwave of converting Mailround in¬to an internet security company. Then, as now, most business customers bought anti-virus protection as software downloaded from the web or installed from a disc. Their insight was to see a big future for cloud computing, in which applications and data are run and stored on remote servers. They would offer security in the same way, under the banner “software as a service” (SaaS). Support has come from the expertise of John Edwards, chief technology officer, and advice and start-up capital came from Balderton, the venture capital firm. Balderton has made a 10-fold return on its initial investment and has contributed to subsequent financings that have taken the total raised to $43.5m, winding up with a 35 per cent stake.“We have been riding two big waves,” Eldar says. “One was the web security wave, where the threat was mov¬ing from the inbox to the brow¬ser. The other, which we are still riding, is the move to cloud computing.” In the early days, customers were sometimes reluctant to switch to an online security service. What typically convinced them was the low cost and high convenience of SaaS. Growth in customer numbers created “a virtuous circle”, according to Roy, where “the more traffic that we saw, the better we got at stopping threats before anyone else”.The Tuveys are cagey about figures. They say ScanSafe, now occupying smart of¬fices in central London, breaks even on sales to “a few thousand customers”. This is not very revealing since customer licences can cover anything from 25 to several thousand “seats” or individual users. Data company IDC estimates Scan¬safe’s revenues at $23m in 2008, compared with $17m in 2007. IDC believes that the business has about 30 per cent of the nascent market for SaaS web security. The total market for IT security has been valued at $54bn, so there is plenty to play for.Cisco’s acquisition of ScanSafe is intended to allow it to offer customers a better pack¬age when they move from workplace-based computing to the cloud, a shift that paranoia about data security can impede. Intriguingly, the Tuveys plan to stay at Scan¬safe after it becomes a business unit of the US networking giant, which they say has a strong record in integrating acquisitions. Bernard Liautaud, founder of Business Objects, the enterprise software group, and general partner at Balderton, says: “They feel that they have an opportunity to see their business grow very rapidly. The deal increases their market reach 10 times, if not 100 times.” He characterises the brothers as “funny, smart and very driven”.They plainly enjoy working together. Perhaps the tensions of mixing business and a family relationship are eased by geographical distance. Roy runs Scan¬safe’s Silicon Valley office, credited with the company’s breakthrough into the US market. His self-mocking persona is that of the put-upon kid brother. He implies, for ex¬am¬ple, that he was co-opted into leading the US push because Eldar could not be bothered to commission a headhunter to recruit externally.Asked how they complement one another, Roy dutifully replies: “Eldar is more creative and visionary.” Eldar thinks for a moment, and responds solemnly: “Roy is less creative and visionary.” Then he adds that his brother is “delivery-focused”. “He means that I have good Excel skills,” Roy deadpans. Eldar heads off the record during one anecdote, saying: “Don’t repeat me, but ...” Roy decides to butt in: “He’s a journalist Eldar. It’s his job.” Brothers wind each other up. But they also watch each other’s backs

MBA Polymers voted Most Unique Offering at Cleantech

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

MBA Polymers voted Most Unique Offering at CleantechConnect Awards CeremonyRichmond, CA USA – November 24, 2009: MBA Polymers, the world leader at recycling plastics from end of life durable goods such as computers, electronics, appliances and automobiles, today announced it has been identified as one of the fastest growing clean tech company in Europe and awarded the Most Unique Offering at the first Cleantech Connect awards ceremony in London.The Cleantech Connect awards are presented to the fastest growing cleantech companies in Europe. Judges for this award include seventeen leading venture capital investors and bankers supporting the clean technology industry.“The award for the Most Unique Offering recognizes MBA’s breakthrough technology for recycling plastic from durable goods. I am pleased to accept it on behalf of MBA Polymers and all of our employees, partners and investors. MBA has been steadily showing the world that the plastics from electronics, appliances and automobiles can be successfully recycled back into their original products” said Dr. Mike Biddle, President and Founder of MBA Polymers.MBA Polymers received the award on the basis of its innovative technology and business model. Not only does MBA’s technology use waste as feedstock instead of petrochemicals, it also reduces the amount of energy required to manufacture the plastics by over 90% compared to a typical virgin plastics plant. MBA also saves between one and three tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere per ton of virgin plastics it replaces.Dr. Biddle explains: “We recover the energy intensive and difficult work that was used to create these polymers in the first place by rescuing these plastics from the waste stream. We merely clean, separate and purify them from existing waste streams using a much simpler and more energy efficient “above ground mining” approach to clean, separate and purify the plastics compared to the complicated and expensive chemical synthesis and polymerization processes used to make virgin plastics.”Not only has the company developed breakthrough separation and upgrading technology, MBA has rolled out the technology commercially on a global scale with plants operating in the US, China and Austria and is building in the UK its largest plant, which will open in 2010. About Cleantech Connect 2009 AwardsCleantech Connect brings together Europe’s leaders in the clean and green technology space. Recognising growth and innovation in the sector, GP Bullhound is a keen supporter of this growing area. Cleantech Connect 2009 Awards are sponsored by: Schroders Private Banking, law firm Choate, European Leadership Foundation, Nexec, and the charity for the night, The Prince's Trust.About GP BullhoundGP Bullhound, Europe’s leading Investment Bank in Technology and Digital Media, has during the period 2006-2008 successfully raised in excess of 250MUSD for growth companies. With offices in San Francisco and London, GP Bullhound takes an active part in the local entrepreneurial community, venture market and corporate environment, thus giving expert advice within mergers & acquisition and institutional capital funding. In 2008 GP Bullhound demonstrated growth for the 5th consecutive financial year.About MBA Polymers, Inc.MBA Polymers, the first global company to deliver high performance plastic resin from waste plastic recovered from end-of-life durable goods, is enabling manufacturers to replace petrochemical-based plastic with resins made from recycled material. Innovative technology from MBA Polymers delivers high-performance resins by extracting plastics from end-of-life consumer electronics, appliances and automobiles.The MBA Polymers patented processes utilize a fraction of the energy required to produce resin from petrochemicals and diverts tens of thousands of tons of plastic waste annually from landfills and incineration. MBA Polymers currently operates plants in the US, China and Europe and supplies automotive, appliance and electronics OEMs with the raw materials they need to deliver more environmentally responsible products worldwide. Its latest facility is being built in the UK and will have an initial processing capacity of more than 130 million pounds of plastics waste per year, expandable to about 175 million pounds. Once the UK plant is at full design capacity, MBA Polymers will have the production capacity to process over 350 million pounds per year of plastics-rich waste.For more information visit www.mbapolymers.com. You can also learn more about MBA Polymers via a 5-minute video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13mogO4lv6YCONTACTS:Dr. Michael BiddlePresident and FounderMBA Polymers, Inc.Richmond, CA510-701-7516mbiddle@mbapolymers.com

Wooga secures EUR5m in funding led by Balderton

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Berlin-based social games developer wooga today announced that it has secured a further EUR5 million ($7.5m) in its latest round of funding led by Balderton Capital, one of Europe’s largest venture capital firms. Holtzbrinck Ventures, which provided funding earlier this year, has also participated in this round.This latest investment will allow wooga to hire new talent, continue to develop top quality games and grow the company further. Roberto Bonanzinga, Partner at Balderton Capital, will also join the board of wooga.Founded in January 2009, wooga (a contraction of “world of gaming”) develops games for social networks. Its first game, Brain Buddies, was released on Facebook in July 2009 and is currently one of the top 20 games on the Facebook platform with 6 million monthly users.Roberto Bonanzinga, Partner at Balderton Capital, said: “wooga is a great early stage company, the kind of company Balderton loves to invest in. wooga has a dynamic and experienced management team, led by founder Jens Begemann, and it is based in Berlin, one of Europe’s most creative cities. Social gaming on sites such as Facebook is a key growth sector right now. We have full confidence in Jens’ ability to build a world-class team and look forward to working with wooga to expand its market further and build a global business.”Dr. Lars Langusch, Partner at Holtzbrinck Ventures, said: “Since our initial investment in wooga a few months ago, the company has established itself as one of the top games developers for the Facebook platform. We are confident that wooga will continue to exceed our expectations.”Jens Begemann, founder and CEO of wooga, said: “We are proud to have Balderton, one of the world's leading investors in social media and gaming, as our new partner. We also welcome further funding from Holtzbrinck, which provides a vote of confidence in wooga and its future growth prospects. wooga focuses on offering a quality user experience that provides a safe, rewarding gaming experience. By providing true value in social gaming, we believe wooga can achieve sustained long-term growth. This investment will allow us to hire more talented people in the coming weeks and months.”wooga currently has a staff of 25 from 9 countries.Job opportunities at wooga can be found at wooga.net/jobs.About woogawooga (world of gaming) was founded in January 2009. wooga develops games for social networks like Facebook. Its first game Brain Buddies was released on Facebook in July 2009 and is currently one of the top 20 games on the Facebook platform with 6 million monthly users. wooga has two new games in late stage development that are due for release in the coming weeks. wooga has 25 employees from 9 countries and has been nominated for a German "Start-up of the year" award in 2009.The company is currently hiring. Please visit www.wooga.net for more information.About Balderton CapitalBalderton Capital is one of the largest venture capital firms in Europe, committed to finding and helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies. Based in London, it manages $1.9 billion in committed venture capital. Since 2000, Balderton has invested in over 80 companies, principally in numerous European countries but also in the US and Asia. Balderton’s investments span a wide variety of sectors including communications, consumer services, enterprise software and services, e-commerce, mobile, semiconductors, media and financial services.Balderton invests in innovative businesses and approaches investment using the principles of teamwork and an intense dedication to building companies of lasting value. The investment partners combine international and Silicon Valley operational experience with company-building expertise.Notable investments include Bebo (sold to AOL for $850m), Betfair (the online betting exchange), ScanSafe (sold to Cisco Systems for $183m), LOVEFiLM (the home entertainment subscription service) and MySQL (sold to Sun for $1 billion). For more information, visit: www.balderton.com.About Holtzbrink VenturesHoltzbrink Ventures was founded in 2000 and specializes on early stage investments in companies working in the internet, mobile and new media industry. Their portfolio includes companies like Parship, GameDuell, MyHammer, and StudiVZ.

Bling Nation Secures $20 Million in Series B Funding

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Bling Nation Secures $20 Million in Series B Funding- Mobile payments provider closes second round of funding, adds board member PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 2, 2009 – Bling Nation®, a mobile payments provider, announced today it has secured $20 million in Series B funding. The round was led by new investor Balderton Capital, with additional funds raised primarily from existing investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, who led the company’s Series A financing round. In connection with the transaction, Bling Nation has also added Roberto Bonanzinga, partner at Balderton Capital, to the company’s board of directors. Founded in 2007, Bling Nation enables consumers to pay merchants with the tap of a mobile phone instead of using a costly credit card or cash. In addition to consumer convenience, merchants reduce interchange fees, and banks increase income. “Bling Nation’s technology will accelerate the adoption of mobile payments in the US,” said Roberto Bonanzinga, partner at Balderton Capital. "Bling Nation has the potential to revolutionize the payment industry, a sector that historically has been dominated by established players with little appetite for innovation. The scale of this market and the disruptive nature of Bling Nation’s business model combined with the company’s experienced management team are what attracted Balderton Capital to Bling Nation, and I am honored to join the company’s board.” “Community banks and credit unions historically have struggled to gain a profit from their debit and credit card portfolios,” said Wences Casares, co-CEO of Bling Nation. “As a smaller financial institution, they wind up subsidizing larger financial institutions and are lucky to break even. The opportunity exists for community banks and credit unions to recapture lost profits by enabling local mobile payments communities, as 85-95 percent of their debit transactions happen locally.” With Bling Nation, the tap to pay at the merchant point-of-sale is followed by an instant text message with the transaction information, an updated account balance and rewards balance. If the rewards balance meets preset thresholds, a customer can pay for their purchase using those rewards. Bling Nation is currently active in two communities in Colorado. The first, La Junta, Colo.-based The State Bank, began Blinging June 22. Since then, The State Bank has seen more than 80 percent of the bank’s active debit card customers in the target market activate a BlingTag. It took almost a decade for the bank to see similar adoption of standard credit and debit card networks among its customers. The second is Woodland Park, Colo.-based Park State Bank & Trust, which began offering mobile payments to its customers Oct. 15. About Balderton Capital Balderton Capital is one of the largest venture capital firms in Europe, committed to finding and helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies. Based in London, it manages $1.9 billion in committed venture capital. Since 2000, Balderton has invested in over 80 companies, principally in numerous European countries but also in the US and Asia. Balderton’s investments span a wide variety of sectors including communications, consumer services, enterprise software and services, e-commerce, mobile, semiconductors, media and financial services. Balderton invests in innovative businesses and approaches investment using the principles of teamwork and an intense dedication to building companies of lasting value. The investment partners combine international and Silicon Valley operational experience with company-building expertise. Notable investments include Bebo (sold to AOL for $850m), Betfair (the online betting exchange), 7digital (the online music download service sold to HMV), LOVEFiLM (the home entertainment subscription service) and MySQL (sold to Sun for $1 billion). For more information, visit: www.balderton.com. About Bling NationBling Nation brings mobile payments to consumers and merchant points of sale, offering lower costs, increased efficiency and improved security compared to credit cards, debit cards, checks and cash. The Bling Nation service also enables financial institutions and merchants to offer consumers robust rewards programs and real-time redemptions, promoting loyalty and convenience and supporting “shop local” initiatives. For additional information, visit www.blingnation.com. CONTACT: Joy Harper For Bling Nation 678.781.7208 press@blingnation.com Elizabeth S. McMillan, APRFor Bling Nation678.781.7224press@blingnation.com Victoria Palmer-Moore For Balderton 44 (0)20 7250 1446victoria.palmer-moore@powerscourtmedia.com

Big Fish Games Further Strengthens Leadership Team

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Big Fish Games Further Strengthens Leadership Team SEATTLE--(Business Wire)-- Big Fish Games today announced that Michael Vernon and Ian Hurlock-Jones havejoined the company as chief financial officer and chief technology officer,respectively. Mr. Vernon brings to Big Fish Games proven financial leadershipspanning a career that includes five years with NASDAQ-traded aQuantive, whileMr. Hurlock-Jones brings his experience of providing technology leadership asCIO of Fox Interactive Media and Buy.com. Mssrs. Vernon and Hurlock-Jones willreport to Jeremy Lewis, Big Fish Games president and chief executive officer. "Michael and Ian are both high-performance, proven leaders who fit superblywithin our values-driven culture," said Lewis. "I am delighted that we have thebenefit of their stewardship in finance and technology, two areas critical to usas we build toward our vision. Ian`s experience in managing technology strategyand teams in a dynamic Internet media company will be invaluable as we adapt andscale. Similarly, Michael`s experience in corporate finance, acquisitions,investor communications and strategic development at rapid-growth companies willbe tremendously helpful as we expand globally." During Mr. Vernon's five years (2000-2006) with global digital-marketing companyaQuantive, he helped guide the company to profitability and a multi-billiondollar market cap before the company was acquired by Microsoft in 2007 for $6billion. More recently, Mr. Vernon served as CFO of Zumobi, Inc., a mobile phonetechnology startup. Mr. Vernon also served as CFO within the hotel industry,including NYSE-traded Red Lion Hotels and Park Plaza International. He holds aBachelor of Science degree in mathematics and a master`s degree in businessadministration from Stanford University. "I`m excited to have the opportunity to join Big Fish Games," said Vernon. "Theenergy and strong entrepreneurial spirit I`ve observed among employees here isreally wonderful. This is clearly a terrific global company that is carving outa strong position in a rapidly-growing industry. I`m thrilled to be part of theteam that will pave the way for even greater successes in the future." Mr. Hurlock-Jones served as chief information officer at Fox Interactive Media,where he was responsible for IT operations relating to social media, gaming andimage-hosting platforms, including IGN, Fox Sports, Photobucket and DPG. Duringhis tenure at Buy.com, he scaled the infrastructure and technology to help growthe business from $126 million to $692 million, in two years. Mr. Hurlock-Jonesholds an advanced diploma in management and economics from Guilford TechnicalCollege, Surrey. "I am thrilled to be joining such a cutting-edge company," said Hurlock-Jones."I was attracted to Big Fish Games because of the balance of unfetteredcreativity and thoughtful business leadership. I`m looking forward to being apart of a leadership team that understands and values technology. Thecamaraderie of the employees, the culture and solid reputation were key factorsin my joining Big Fish Games." About Big Fish Games Founded in 2002, Big Fish Games is a multi-platform developer and distributor ofcasual games, including downloadable, social, MMO, console and mobile games.Renowned for offering A New Game Every Day!, Big Fish Games distributes 1.5million games per day worldwide. With headquarters in Seattle, Wash., andoffices in Vancouver, B.C., and Cork, Ireland, Big Fish Games partners with 500 game developers and develops and publishes some of the industry's leadingbrands, including Mystery Case Files, Hidden Expedition, DRAWN, FairwaySolitaire, MY TRIBE and FAUNASPHERE. For more information, visitwww.bigfishgames.com. Big Fish GamesKate Brinks, 206-213-5753 ext. 266kate.brinks@bigfishgames.com

Balderton Capital congratulates ScanSafe on its upcoming acquisition by Cisco Systems

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Market leader of SaaS Web security combines with Cisco to provide unparalleled Internet protection BALDERTON CAPITAL, the leading European venture capital firm, congratulates ScanSafe, the pioneer and market leader of SaaS Web security, on the sale of the business to Cisco Systems, Inc (“Cisco”), the leading supplier of networking equipment and network management for the Internet. Cisco has agreed to pay a total consideration of $183m for ScanSafe, which will strengthen the group’s existing Web security business. Balderton Capital invested in ScanSafe when the UK business was founded by brothers Eldar and Roy Tuvey in 2004. Balderton supported two further funding rounds as the company grew internationally, and it is the largest institutional shareholder. ScanSafe was recently named the worldwide market leader in SaaS Web security by influential market research firm IDC, with more than four times the market share of all other named vendors. The company’s innovative technology keeps malware off corporate networks and allows businesses to control and secure the use of the Web. ScanSafe powers the Web security solutions offered by leading partners, including AT&T, Sprint and Orange. With headquarters in London and California, ScanSafe now employs over 150 people and protects customers in over 100 countries. ScanSafe disrupted the Web security market in 2004 when it was the first company in the world to offer comprehensive Web security without the need for premise-based hardware or software. ScanSafe’s innovative Web security solution scans billions of Web requests a day, in real-time, stopping millions of malware instances and protecting thousands of the most demanding organisations around the world. Bernard Liautaud, board member of ScanSafe and one of the partners in Balderton Capital, said: “Balderton Capital backs great entrepreneurs and ScanSafe is a fine example of the type of business Balderton loves to invest in. By forming a strategic partnership with ScanSafe, and by investing through the life of the business, we have contributed strongly to the development of the company.” “We wish the company continued success under its new ownership, and would like to congratulate the founders Eldar and Roy Tuvey for building a global leader in an exciting space.” For more information, please contactUK and international mediaPowerscourt Victoria Palmer-Moore/Paul Durman Phone: 44 207 250 1446 About Balderton Capital Balderton Capital is one of the largest venture capital firms in Europe, committed to finding and helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies. Based in London, it manages $1.9 billion in committed venture capital. Since 2000, Balderton has invested in over 80 companies, principally in numerous European countries but also in the US and Asia. Balderton’s investments span a wide variety of sectors including communications, consumer services, enterprise software and services, e-commerce, mobile, semiconductors, media and financial services. Balderton invests in innovative businesses and approaches investment using the principles of teamwork and an intense dedication to building companies of lasting value. The investment partners combine international and Silicon Valley operational experience with company-building expertise. Notable investments include Bebo (sold to AOL for $850m), Betfair (the online betting exchange), 7digital (the online music download service sold to HMV), LOVEFiLM (the home entertainment subscription service) and MySQL (sold to Sun for $1 billion). About ScanSafeScanSafe (www.scansafe.com) is the pioneer and largest global provider of SaaS Web Security, ensuring a safe and productive Internet environment for businesses. ScanSafe solutions keep malware off corporate networks and allow businesses to control and secure the use of the Web. As a SaaS solution, ScanSafe eliminates the burden of purchasing and maintaining infrastructure in-house, significantly lowering the total cost of ownership. Powered by its proactive, multilayered Outbreak Intelligence™ threat detection technology, ScanSafe processes more than 20 billion Web requests and 200 million blocks each month for customers in over 100 countries. In 2009, the company was awarded “Best Content Security” solution by SC Magazine Europe for the third consecutive year.

Cisco Announces Intent to Acquire ScanSafe, Leading SaaS Web Security Provider

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

SAN JOSE, CA -- 10/27/09 -- Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced its intent to acquire privately held ScanSafe, Inc. Based in London and San Francisco, ScanSafe is a market leader of software-as-a-service (SaaS) Web security solutions for organizations ranging from global enterprises to small businesses. "With the acquisition of ScanSafe, Cisco is executing on our vision to build a borderless network security architecture that combines network and cloud-based services for advanced security enforcement," said Tom Gillis, vice president and general manager of Cisco's Security Technology Business Unit (STBU). "Cisco will provide customers the flexibility to choose the deployment model that best suits their organization and deliver anytime, anywhere protection against Web-based threats." Web security is a large and expanding market expected to grow to $2.3 billion by 2012. By acquiring ScanSafe, Cisco is building on its successful acquisition of leading on-premise content security provider IronPort. The acquisition brings together the Cisco IronPort(TM) high-performance Web security appliance and ScanSafe's leading SaaS Web security service. This combination will expand Cisco's security portfolio to offer superior on-premise, hosted, and hybrid-hosted Web security solutions. "ScanSafe pioneered the market for SaaS Web security and continues as a leader in this rapidly growing market," said ScanSafe CEO Eldar Tuvey. "At a time when enterprises are increasingly focused on a flexible and mobile workplace, the need for hybrid-hosted Web security solutions is greater than ever. By joining the Cisco team we will be able to offer even better and more flexible protection to our customers." ScanSafe's service will be integrated with Cisco® AnyConnect VPN Client, the newest virtual private network (VPN) product from Cisco, to provide the industry's leading secure mobility solution. In addition, ScanSafe's global network of carrier-grade data centers and multi-tenant architecture will further enhance Cisco's ability to provide new cloud-security services for customers anywhere in the world. Upon the close of the acquisition, the ScanSafe team will become part of Cisco's STBU, reporting to Gillis. The ScanSafe acquisition demonstrates Cisco's commitment to security and its ability to use its financial strength to quickly capture key market transitions through its build, buy, and partner strategy. Under the terms of the agreement, Cisco will pay approximately $183 million in cash and retention-based incentives. The acquisition is subject to various standard closing conditions and is expected to close in the second quarter of Cisco's fiscal year 2010. About Cisco SystemsCisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco, the Cisco logo, Cisco IronPort, Cisco Systems, IronPort, and Linksys are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the U.S. and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. This document is Cisco Public Information

CUTEC

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

“Silicon Valley comes to Cambridge, with speakers including Marc Pincus, Reid Hoffman and our very own Bernard Liautaud”

OECD Innovation conference

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Bernard will be speaking at the prestigious “Paris club” innovation event

SIME

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

SIME brings world class speakers from the Internet, media, telecom and entertainment industries with the cream of Scandinavian entrepreneurs

ETT (European Tech Tour)

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

ETT (European Tech Tour) Web & Mobility The latest European Tech Tour event brings together the 25 best upcoming Web & Mobility companies with people like us

Cabinet Forum: Digital Britain Summit

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Dharmash will be speaking at this government summit on Digital Britain

Le Web 09

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The annual Paris start-up fest with, gulp, 1800 participants

CES

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The world's largest consumer technology tradeshow. It could only be Vegas.

World Economic Forum

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The annual media-hogging gathering of world leaders, business grandees and anti-globalisation protesters.

DLD (Digital, Life, Design)

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

DLD, or Digital, Life, Design brings inventors, designers and thinkers together in trendy Bavaria.

3GSM

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The budget-blowing hyper-conference for the mobile phone universe

Desmond among backers as Intune raises €22m in funds

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Technology firm Intune Networks has closed a €22 million round of funding, which has been led by financier Dermot Desmond and venture capital firm Kernel Capital. Existing investors Balderton Capital, Amadeus Capital, Spark Capital, as well as unnamed private investors who backed the company during its start-up phase, also participated. State development agencies Enterprise Ireland and Invest NI, which provided support for Intune’s establishment of a £9.27 million research and development centre in Belfast earlier this year, also provided funds. The funding will support Intune through to the commercial launch of its products and a financial break-even position, chief executive Tim Fritzley told The Irish Times yesterday. The company has focused on the European market to date – it has three telecommunications companies trialling its technology – but the funding will see it move into North America and Asia. Intune has developed a laser-based technology called Optical Packet Switch and Transport, which allows significantly more traffic to be sent over existing fibre-optic networks using different coloured lights. It was founded in Dublin in 1999 by UCD graduates John Dunne and Tom Farrell. Following the latest round of investment, Niall Olden, chief executive of Kernel Capital, will join the board of Intune Networks. Mr Fritzley said Mr Desmond has the right to appoint a director. Mr Fritzley said the current fundraising environment was the worst he had seen in 30 years working in the technology sector. “We were getting great feedback from investors but getting them to sign on the dotted line was another matter,” he said. Intune employs 120 staff in Dublin and Belfast. Mr Fritzley, a former senior executive with Microsoft in the US, said another 20 staff were likely to be hired in the coming months. “The speed of our expansion will depend on how quickly carriers deploy the technology,” he said. Earlier this year, the Government entered into a partnership with Intune to create an “examplar network” to showcase and test broadband technologies.

Boosting Restaurants' Profitability

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Boosting Restaurants' Profitability

Livebookings Secures New Funding with Wellington Partners

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Pan-European VC leads $16 million funding round Livebookings, with customers, partners and employees in 19 countries is Europe’s largest online marketing and reservations service for the restaurant industry. Today the company announces the closure of a financing round of $16 million led by pan-European venture capital firm Wellington Partners and backed by existing investors. The investment will lead to Livebookings strengthening and expanding its position as Europe’s largest online marketing network for restaurants and continue the development of the Livebookings Network, offering extensive reach through its affiliate partner websites. Wellington Partners’ investment follows some $12 million from Balderton Capital and other investors during 2008 - 2009. Currently one of the fastest growing media companies in Europe, and selected as one of the Guardian’s Media Tech Top 100 companies in the UK, Livebookings provides restaurateurs access to customers that would otherwise be difficult to reach through leading global network properties such as Bookatable.com, lastminute.com and Yell.com. The company also works with restaurants such as Gordon Ramsay Holdings, The Ivy and its other Caprice Holdings Restaurants, Tantris, East, Grill, Mathias Dahlgren Matbaren, Mavrommatis and Pedro Larumbe to enable them to secure table reservations online. Niklas Eklund, Chief Executive Officer for Livebookings says: “Livebookings has grown aggressively since day one and we’re now at a point where we see a fantastic opportunity for further managed but rapid growth supported with further investment. Despite the recession, recent figures show the number of new restaurants now using online reservations to fill their tables has risen by 91% this summer compared to last. However we estimate only 7% of restaurants currently use online reservations, showing us the enormous growth potential in our chosen market.” Daniel Waterhouse, Partner for Wellington Partners, comments: “Livebookings is already the largest European player in their market and we are excited to back the experienced management team as they look to further accelerate its tremendous growth in Europe and beyond. As consumers increasingly search online for places to eat, restaurants all over the continent are starting to take advantage of the unique marketing channel the internet provides. Thanks to its technology edge and restaurant-friendly approach Livebookings is well positioned to bring its services to many more restaurants in a short time.” Wellington Partners is one of the most successful pan-European venture capital firms. Currently working with digital media companies such as Adconion, Enqii, Qype, and Xing, its speciality is supporting young and developing companies to grow internationally and maximise their potential. EOC Partners LLP (EOCP) acted as the investment banking advisor (Financial) in the transaction and Lewis Silkin, (Legal) for Livebookings. Thies Eggers (Financial) and Mark A. Dorff, Brown Rudnick LLP (Legal) were advisors to Wellington Partners.

MBA Polymers named a Global Cleantech 100 clean technology company

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Recognized by the Guardian and Cleantech Group for potential and likelihood to achieve high growth and high market impact Richmond, CA USA – September 15, 2009: MBA Polymers, the world leader at recycling plastics from end of life durable goods such as computers, electronics, appliances and automobiles, today announced it has been named a Global Cleantech 100 company by Guardian News and Media and Cleantech Group™, LLC, providers of leading research, events and advisory services for the cleantech ecosystem. The Global Cleantech 100 is the first ever list highlighting the most promising private clean technology companies around the world. Supported by the Carbon Trust, the Global Cleantech 100 recognises companies at the forefront of cleantech innovation offering solutions to some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges. The final list represents the collective opinion of hundreds of leading experts from cleantech innovation and venture capital companies in EMEA, North America, India and China, combined with the specific input of an expert panel of 35, drawn from well-respected organisations such as Altira Group, Crossover Advisors, Deloitte, Emerald Technology Ventures, Google, Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, New York Stock Exchange, NGEN Partners, Nth Power, New Enterprise Associates, Sterling Communications, Tsing Capital and Vantage Point Venture Partners. The panel’s views were combined with insights from the Cleantech Network™, the de facto industry association of international clean technology investors, entrepreneurs, large corporations and other industry insiders. Some 3,500 companies were nominated/considered. “The first ever Global Cleantech 100 shines a spotlight on which companies and which technology areas the global innovation community is most excited about from a commercial standpoint,” said Richard Youngman, managing partner at Cleantech Group. “This award is a great tribute and I’m pleased to accept it on behalf of MBA Polymers and all of our employees, partners and investors. It’s nice to get recognition for the significant advancements we have made through our team’s innovation and for the resulting contribution to humanity. We are also proud to demonstrate that environmental and economic benefits can and should coincide said Dr. Mike Biddle, President and Founder of MBA Polymers. MBA Polymers and other winners were honoured today at Cleantech Forum XXIII in Boston, 8-10 September 2009 (www.cleantech.com/bostonforum) and will be celebrated at Cleantech Forum XXIV in Delhi, 15-16 October 2009 (www.cleantech.com/delhiforum) and at the Guardian’s UK Cleantech Summit in London on 23 November 2009 (guardian.co.uk/cleantechsummit). MBA Polymers received the award on the basis of its innovative technology and business model. Not only does MBA’s technology use waste as feedstock instead of petrochemicals, it also reduces the amount of energy required to manufacture the plastics by over 90% compared to a typical virgin plastics plant. MBA also saves between one and three tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere per ton of virgin plastics it replaces. Dr. Biddle explains: “We recover the energy intensive and difficult work that was used to create these polymers in the first place by rescuing these plastics from the waste stream. We merely clean, separate and purify them from existing waste streams using a much simpler and more energy efficient “above ground mining” approach to clean, separate and purify the plastics compared to the complicated and expensive chemical synthesis and polymerization processes used to make virgin plastics.” Not only has the company developed breakthrough separation and upgrading technology, MBA has rolled out the technology commercially on a global scale with plants operating in the US, China and Austria and is building in the UK its largest plant, which will open in 2010. More than half (56) of the companies listed on the Global Cleantech 100 are headquartered in North America, while European firms make up 36 percent. Five firms are based in Israel and three in India. The full list of Global Cleantech 100 firms is available on the Guardian (guardian.co.uk/globalcleantech100) and Cleantech Group (cleantech.com/news/awards/globalcleantech100) websites.

GreenRoad CEO Named 2009 Risk Innovator

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. – September 15, 2009 – GreenRoad, a global pioneer in improving driving behavior, announced that Risk and Insurance magazine has selected Dan Steere, CEO of GreenRoad, as a winner of the 2009 Risk Innovator Award in the transportation category. “I am honored to receive this award from Risk and Insurance, as it acknowledges the tremendous work of the entire GreenRoad team and our shared commitment to improving driving behavior and reducing risk for insurers and commercial fleets,” said Steere. “Dan Steere was one of three winners in the transportation category of the Risk Innovator Award, out of more than 200 nominations in 15 categories,” said Jack Roberts, editor-in-chief, Risk and Insurance. “Dan’s extensive work on behalf of GreenRoad illustrates an original solution that diminishes risk and works to improve the safety of the transportation space.” Innovative insurance carriers and brokers such as Marsh, Admiral and AAA work with GreenRoad to design new product offerings that attract and retain clients while increasing margins and decreasing insurance costs. GreenRoad partners with insurers and brokers to implement innovative new business models. Well beyond improved risk prediction, GreenRoad enables and supports behavior change programs that leverage our insurance partners’ brands and unique value propositions. In partnerships with a wide range of insurance and brokerage partners, GreenRoad is changing the entire life cycle value proposition of vehicle insurance programs. GreenRoad enables insurers to increase their visibility into risk in real time, before a crash occurs. Insurers therefore improve predictability in their loss ratios as well as the profitability of their pricing models. GreenRoad insurance partners have reduced the frequency and severity of claims and have created marketing programs that attract and retain those customers most concerned with safe driving behavior. GreenRoad continuously measures and analyzes those maneuvers which most impact safe driving, fuel efficiency and emissions; and focuses driver-specific feedback accordingly. GreenRoad combines automated in-vehicle driver coaching with integrated Web-based applications that continuously rate driving skills and behavior. Sensors analyze up to 120 risky driving maneuvers, and drivers receive real-time feedback in the form of a red-yellow-green LED display. The Risk Innovator Award recognizes winners in 13 different industries who have demonstrated innovation and excellence in risk management in the past year. Winners were chosen based on their ability to identify emerging risks in their industry, their application of strategic risk utilization and the development of creative, out-of-the ordinary solutions for risk mitigation. Since Dan Steere joined GreenRoad in September 2007, he has transformed the entire focus of the company and showed the fleet and insurance industries how to more effectively use risk management to achieve a compelling array of economic, environmental and human benefits. While the industry is filled with single-purpose devices, particularly ones focused on vehicle diagnostics, Dan Steere recognizes that addressing the monumental problem of driving behavior – which contributes to 95 percent of crashes and up to 33 percent of fuel consumption – requires a more holistic human-centered approach. Before embarking on this transformation, Dan knew that taking this holistic, multi-dimensional approach would correspondingly require more than a high-tech hardware device for the vehicle and sophisticated software. Dan challenged the team to build a comprehensive service to address driving behavior, with an in-vehicle system connected to a suite of Web-based applications. He also oversaw the development of a program that provides customers with a step-by-step road map for success and the creation of an open multi-vendor platform for partners, enabling them to create complete best-of-breed solutions and protect their investment. The team was driven by the understanding that human behavior is more than a computer algorithm: behavior change requires incentives, rewards and positive coaching, and there are psychological needs and concerns that need to be taken into consideration as well.

7digital to power HMV Group’s digital entertainment and book stores

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

7digital to power HMV Group’s digital entertainment and book stores • HMV Group to acquire 50% stake in 7digital for £7.7m • 7digital will power HMV music and video download stores in the UK and Canada and e-books store for Waterstone’s • HMV customers will have access to a six million strong MP3 catalogue. London, 3rd September 09 – 7digital, leading digital media company, today announces HMV Group is investing £7.7m in cash to acquire a 50 per cent equity stake in the company. 7digital will become HMV Group’s exclusive supplier of digital media content, comprising music and entertainment stores for HMV customers in the UK and Canada and ebooks from Waterstone’s. HMV’s online customers in the UK and Canada will have access to a catalogue of over six million high-quality MP3 tracks, with content from all four major labels, and a selection of video content via 7digital branded stores. 7digital will also power an enhanced e-books store for Waterstone’s customers, building on the book retailer’s leading position in the fast growing e-book market. 7digital will continue to service its existing and future international customer base, whilst working closely with HMV to develop new digital entertainment services. The investment is the latest in a string of high profile partnerships for 7digital. The company currently provides download services for hundreds of clients, including Spotify, Last.fm, and will soon launch a MP3 download application for RIM’s BlackBerry devices. In addition to the enhanced download stores, HMV customers will also have access to the 7digital Locker, allowing them to download previously purchased digital media to any computer or device with an Internet connection. Mobile apps will allow users to purchase and download media on the move and sync with their home computer. Ben Drury, CEO of 7digital, comments “HMV is the largest entertainment retailer in the UK and Canada, and combining our digital expertise with the respected brand will create a compelling download offering for the consumer. The widespread adoption of the MP3 format has raised the profile of legal downloading amongst consumers and the market is continuing to grow. We already provide a number of high profile clients with successful download services and are confident we will see similar success with this venture.” Simon Fox, Chief Executive of HMV Group, comments “This is an exciting new step for HMV which transforms our position in the fast-growing digital market. We believe 7digital is the best partner to help us accelerate our growth in digital entertainment and to become a major player in the market for legally downloaded entertainment. Along with other recent initiatives, it demonstrates the Group’s continuing focus on transformation in structurally changing markets.”

Web 2.0 Summit

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Web 2.0 Summit (formerly named Web 2.0 Conference) is an exclusive annual event that connects the business leaders, big thinkers, and innovative technologists who are shaping the future of the Web.Web 2.0 Summit 2009

Red Herring ETRE

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

ETRE, now in its 20th year, assembles an exclusive, invitation only, group of leading CEOs, entrepreneurs and financiers from the information technology and communications industries worldwide. ETRE 09 provides an invaluable forum for business leaders to discover innovative technologies, secure funding, establish new alliances, solidify existing partnerships and exchange insights. Over 600 leaders from 40 countries are expected at ETRE 09.Red Herring ETRE

Future Of Web Apps (FOWA)

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The annual Future Of Web Apps (FOWA) conference by Carsonified. Future Of Web Apps (FOWA)

PICNIC

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

PICNIC is a cross-discipline platform for creative conversation and collaboration. It's a unique festival featuring a strategic conference, complimented by hands-on workshops and matchmaking sessions. PICNIC attracts a wide audience, from heads of business, government leaders, marketers, artists, designers, producers, investors, scientists and innovators. PICNIC

ad:tech London 2009

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

ad:tech is an interactive advertising and technology conference and exhibition. Worldwide shows blend keynote speakers, topic driven panels and workshops to provide attendees with the tools and techniques they need to compete in a changing world. ad:tech London 2009

TechCrunch50 2009

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

TechCrunch50 2009

Seedcamp Week 2009

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Seedcamp is a programme created to jumpstart the entrepreneurial community in Europe by connecting next generation developers and entrepreneurs with over 400 mentors from a top-tier network of company builders; including seed investors, serial entrepreneurs, product experts, HR and PR specialists, marketers, lawyers, recruiters, journalists and venture capitalists. Seedcamp Week 2009

Snow Patrol enter publishing business

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Snow Patrol have formed their own publishing company and made their first signing in a move to create a company “run by artists for artists”. Polar Music will operate entirely independently of the Ulster band’s own deal with Universal Music Publishing and will be administered by Kobalt Music in London.“As a band we know how difficult it can be to get a break in this business,” says drummer Jonny Quinn, who will perform A&R functions alongside fellow members Nathan Connolly and Gary Lightbody. “We get given CDs by new artists and writers all the time and have talked about how we could help the best of them move up. Forming a publishing company seemed the obvious way to go.”Polar Music’s debut signing is multi-instrumentalist Johnny McDaid from Northern Ireland who is currently writing with top German trance DJ Paul Van Dyke for an album due next year.Kobalt’s executive vice president Sas Metcalfe believes the Snow Patrol venture will mean “signing some very talented songwriters”.* Contrary to the report in last week’s issue of Music Week, Kobalt was the top-ranking UK-based publisher in the US Top 10 airplay charts during Q2.

Web Firms Find Paths To Profits: Free Vs. Fees

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Consumers love a price of zero — but it can be tough on the bottom line. That has led some companies to provide a lot of free stuff and only charge for certain things. Other companies are resisting the pressure to give their products and services away. Two web-based firms illustrate the dichotomy. A Gaming Company With Many Rules Seattle-based Big Fish Games is indeed a big fish in its industry. It distributes more online games than anyone else, at about 1 million a day. Company founder Paul Thelen says the company's approach to customers is based on a simple idea. "We call it 'try before you buy,' " he says. You can try almost any Big Fish game for free; many remain free indefinitely. Thelen says that with games like Bubblez — in which players shoot paint bubbles, trying to match colors — users can open an Internet browser and play as often as they like. "This game probably cost the developer somewhere between $5,000 and $20,000 to build," Thelen says. "It can be supported by ads, and it is." Having a large online audience brings in advertisers, and those ad dollars cover the costs. But ads alone won't pay for Big Fish's cinematic and highly produced games, like Drawn: The Painted Tower. The game cost more than $1 million to create. And since the audience is smaller, all players need to pay to support the cost. Another game, Faunasphere, can be played for free, but there are add-ons — things like extra animals to make the game more fun — that players have to pay for. This approach to pricing is called "freemium" — some content is free, while premium content is not. At some companies, a small number of paying customers essentially subsidize the free riders. At Big Fish, the model is more complicated, but it works: The company has grown from one employee to 400 in the past seven years. Note To Customers: Pay Up In New York City, Squarespace CEO Dane Atkinson favors a more old-school approach. As Atkinson says of his company, "It's a publishing platform on the Internet that thankfully charges all of its customers." That's right. Squarespace is proud to charge businesses, bloggers and others for its publishing tools that can create Web sites — even though there are companies providing similar services for free. "We began with a free model," Atkinson says. "Anthony, who's the founder, was under a lot of pressure from the community at the time that said that everything has to be free. And he quickly realized that it just seemed like the wrong equation, so we started charging — and we've charged ever since. "What it's allowed us to do is really build a model that caters to those customers, and not feel any of the pressures the free business model puts against you," Atkinson says. For instance, Squarespace doesn't have to worry about appeasing advertisers who are footing the bill. And because customers pay a monthly fee for hosting and other services, the company can provide customer support 24 hours a day. Free sites supported by ad revenue can't afford to do that. Succeeding, Fee Or No-Fee Atkinson says that the privately held Squarespace is very successful. But, he adds, some so-called experts still prod them to offer a free service. "And we know the reason we are succeeding is because we don't," Atkinson says. "So every time a book comes out or people expound on how free is the only way to go, it gets our hair standing up. There is another alternative; there is another way to run your business." If these two companies illustrate anything, it's that running a digital business is tricky — and that finding the sweet spot between free, freemium and paid may be the difference between success and failure.

Betfair posts another record year of results

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The world’s leading online betting company sees revenues double in three years; active customers up 150% in same periodHighlights for year to 30 April 2009:• Strong revenue growth of 27% over the last 12 months; revenues have doubled in 3 years following a plan to expand internationally and into new products • Strong profit and cash generation leaves Betfair with £133m in cash and no debt • Core betting exchange continues to deliver a sustainable competitive advantage • Adjusted ebitda of £72m, up 29% from 2008, despite significant investment • Acquisition of TVG Network gives Betfair a market-leading position in legal US online wagering • International customers now account for 49% of total revenues (2008: 44%) • Continued investment in technology enables on average 6.4m transactions to be matched every dayBetfair enjoyed another year of strong growth. Group revenues rose by 27% to £303m as Betfair reaped the benefit of a three-year plan of investment in its product range and international operations.A full calendar of sporting events and the confidence customers have in the security of Betfair’s ringfenced funds attracted record numbers of users to the Company’s site. The number of active users increased to 652,000, an increase of 25% on the previous year. Betfair now holds £240m of customer monies on deposit in ringfenced accounts.The Group performed well across all its operationsRevenue from its sports business grew by 20%, making Betfair the biggest online sports operator in Europe. The Company also saw 31% revenue growth in its games division, driven by the launch of Arcade and other new products. Much of Betfair’s growth has come from customers outside the UK, who contributed 49% of total revenues last year, up from 44% in 2008. In Australia, the lifting of an advertising ban led to a 40% growth in revenue.In the US, Betfair’s $50m acquisition of TVG Network, the largest legal wagering business in America, positions the company to take advantage of any legislative change. The company now holds licences in the UK, Italy, Malta, Germany, Austria, the US and Australia, and continues to work with governments worldwide to push for a regulated approach to the further liberalisation of gambling markets.David Yu, Chief Executive Officer of Betfair, said:“This has been a phenomenally successful year for Betfair. We have stayed on the path of sustainable long-term growth, even in recession. Our relentless focus on value for the customer, our substantial investments in technology and the importance we place on regulatory affairs means that the business is well positioned for a leading role globally. We will continue to push into international markets and to innovate with popular new products, and I look forward to another exciting year ahead.”Stephen Morana, Chief Financial officer, said:“We are delighted that our three-year investment plan has been so successful. In that period, the business has doubled in size. We believe our strong balance sheet, with no debt, makes us very well positioned to take advantage of further opportunities as they arise, in particular our US venture and planning towards World Cup 2010.”

Top Up TV signs deal with ESPN to broadcast Premier League football

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

TOP UP TV, the media group that offers premium content to Freeview, yesterday signed a carriage deal with ESPN to show top football this season and signalled that it hoped to offer subscribers Sky Sports 1 & 2 by the end of the first half of next year. Top Up founder and former BSkyB stalwart David Chance said he hoped to be offering subscribers Sky Sports 1 for “under £20” following the implementation of a deal being worked on between Ofcom, the industry regulator, and pay television providers. Top Up TV, BT Vision and Virgin Media have long argued that BSkyB is reluctant to offer its premium sports channels and if it does, only at rates which make it difficult to pass on to customers at a profit.Ofcom recently agreed with this and proposed imposing deals in which BSkyB will be forced to offer the channels, known as the ‘battering rams of pay tv’, on more attractive terms. Top Up is offering the ESPN channel that will show 46 Premier League matches this season for £10 a month, with the first month being available for free. But key to the growth of Top Up TV and rival BT?Vision is the provision of BSkyB’s main sports channels, Sky Sports 1 & 2, which show the majoirty of live football, cricket and rugby action. Top Up TV was in discussions with BSkyB in December 2005 over the provision of the satellite group’s sports channels but gave up after not being offered a wholesale deal. It then sought the intervention of Ofcom.

Betfair Profit Jumps as Users Deposit More Than $1.7 Billion

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Betfair Ltd., which enables bettors in 140 countries to bet with each other over the Internet, reported a 29 percent increase in profit and said user deposits in the last year exceeded 1 billion pounds ($1.7 billion). Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization climbed to 72 million pounds, the closely held betting exchange said today in a statement. Revenue, or the commission charged on customer winnings, rose 27 percent to 303 million pounds, the company said.Founded 10 years ago by Andrew Black and Edward Wray, Betfair says it now processes more than 6.4 million transactions a day, more than all Europe’s stock exchanges combined. Chief Executive Officer David Yu said that the debt-free company has 133 million pounds of cash to fund expansion, and ruled out the prospect of an imminent initial public offering. “The business has never been in better shape, despite the biggest recession the world has seen,” Yu said by telephone. Betfair provides a medium for bettors to wager between themselves on line, rather than with a bookmaker. The London-based company receives commissions on all winning bets, usually of between 2 percent and 5 percent. As of the end of April, Betfair held about 240 million pounds of customer money in ring-fenced accounts. About 3,000 pounds a minute is deposited onto the site by users to provide funds for betting, Chief Financial Officer Stephen Morana said. The year’s most-traded event was the men’s Wimbledon tennis final between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, Morana said. More than 50 million pounds of bets were matched on the five-set marathon, he said, about twice as much as was wagered on soccer’s European Champions League final. Yu said there are “no plans at the moment” for an IPO. Betfair hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley as financial advisers in 2005 and said it was considering selling shares to the public. Softbank Corp., a Japanese high-speed Internet service, bought a 23 percent stake in 2006.

New tech will assess bus drivers' performance

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The UK's largest bus operator, First UK Bus, is to install new technology to monitor how well its 9,000 buses are being driven. The system, from telematics company GreenRoad, will assess drivers' performance by analysing how well they perform manoeuvres such as cornering and breaking. Over 120 manoeuvres can be assessed by the system, using its onboard motion detector, GPS receiver and computer, with the logged driving patterns able to be accessed by managers at First's offices. Drivers are also expected to learn from the system, which provides them with instantaneous feedback on how well they are performing, using an LED display on the dashboard that flashes red, yellow or green. The idea is that drivers will be motivated to keep the light green and in the process will learn to improve their driving skills. As well as keeping an eye on drivers' day-to-day performance, the system will be used as a teaching aid with up to 20,000 bus drivers set to be trained using the system under the five-year contract with GreenRoad. Computers that monitor or even control our driving are growing in popularity, with the Ministry of Defence already installing the GreenRoad system in 120 vehicles and Transport for London trialling a technology that can stop a driver from breaking the speed limit. First claims that drivers are enthusiastic about the project, and has said it will reward the best drivers with money from a £2m pot. The system will both improve passenger safety and help the company reduce its CO2 emissions by 132,000 tonnes over the next three years, according to the company, by travelling at a more constant speed and cutting breaking and accelerating. First started to trial GreenRoad's service in March this year on 1,000 buses, and the company says it has already seen a significant decrease in the amount of CO2 emissions from its buses. The company's remaining 8,000 buses will be fitted with the system over the course of the next year.

7Digital and Warner sign pan-European deal

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT

7Digital and Warner Music have agreed an extended partnership deal that will see high-quality MP3 downloads from Warner acts available across Europe. Warner Music is the first major company to sign a pan-European MP3 deal with 7Digital, which claims to sell to a higher number of countries in Europe than any other service. Under terms of the deal, a further five 7Digital stores will join those in the UK, Ireland, Spain, France, Austria and Germany that are currently stocked with Warner Music’s roster of local and international artists. Since 7Digital switched to a 100% MP3 catalogue in the UK last September, it has seen a dramatic rise in digital album sales. 7Digital CEO Ben Drury explains, “The completion of this deal gives us the broadest European reach of any MP3 download store.” Warner Music Europe SVP of digital business Eric Daugan adds, “Music fans are now enjoying a whole spectrum of ways to engage with artists online but often they still want to own the music they discover and love as well as play it on their portable device.”

People.com Hooks Up With Big Fish Games

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Web Firms Find Paths To Profits: Free Vs. Fees NEW YORK People.com has entered an exclusive partnership with casual online games publisher Big Fish Games. As part of the deal, People.com will roll out a new feature called “A New Game Every Day!" -- which will highlight a different Big Fish-produced title on a daily basis. In addition, People’s 10 million unique monthly user-base (per Nielsen Online’s June report) will have access to Big Fish’s catalog of 2,000-plus free or paid casual games. Seattle-based Big Fish is one of the larger purveyors of online based games, many of which fall into the puzzle, brain-teaser or word game category. These types of games have demonstrated a considerable appeal to women, who have emerged as avid players of Web-based games over the past several years. As a result, the celebrity-news-centric People.com launched its own games channel in mid 2008.

The Aggregator That Newspapers Like

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

At Daylife, a digital media services start-up, founder and chief executive Upendra Shardanand and his team of young engineers have a name for a new breed of journalists: RoboCop editors. These are the folks who have the skills of both a top-notch software developer and a tested newspaper editor. They can create Web pages within minutes, combining original content with links to breaking news from around the world, streaming videos and slideshows. They can drop in Twitter tweets, customized widgets and Google Gadgets with just a few point-and-clicks. Crazier is that when they walk away from their computers, those newly built pages will refresh themselves. Talk about cyberpunks taking over the news! Started in 2005 with a slate of top-notch investors—including The New York Times, Huffington Post co-founder Ken Lerer, Meetup’s Scott Heiferman and Craigslist’s Craig Newmark—Daylife began as an aggregator similar to Google News and Inform.com, but with some extra bells and whistles. News, photos, video and other content are gathered together with the latest technology, then tagged with detailed information like location and proper names. Even the tone of content is noted, i.e., something might be “snarky” or “positive.” Last October, the company rolled out Daylife Select, a publishing product that Mr. Shardanand, 37, calls “the Huffington Post in a box.” With a paid subscription to Daylife’s aggregated database, one or two “RoboCop editors” can use the online software to create information portals with fresh content that would normally take teams of writers to scribe and developers to design. Daylife’s clients include The Washington Post, NPR and the Huffington Post. Some publishers, like Newsweek, use their database for small projects, like their Threat Meter, which allows users to rate issues (such as terrorism, or real estate) on a colored scale and view articles with a negative slant on the subjects. USA Today’s Cruise Log section uses Daylife information to plump up hundreds of pages on different cruise lines, ports, styles and deals. Currently, Daylife charges a flat, annual service fee—ranging from $3,000 to $30,000—for access to their database of content and technology. This fall, Daylife will release a new product that will make creating these kind of next-generation sites easier and even more customizable, Mr. Shardanand told The Observer. But Daylife is also transitioning its focus from traditional media companies to brands and advertisers. Every organization seems to need an online presence that keeps up with the real-time Web. Hiring a blogger to write a few posts isn’t enough anymore (or perhaps not in the budget). Whether a sports brand is looking for bios on baseball players or a pet store needs the latest articles on puppy nutrition, Daylife plans to be the go-to data aggregator for hire. “IF YOU NEED more ads, there are places to go. But where do you go if you need more content?” said Mr. Shardanand, sitting in his office on Broadway near Canal, explaining the concept of Daylife. Mr. Shardanand has dark features, with wavy black hair that hangs in soft curls to his neck. He talks so fast that his words run into each other, as if his mouth can’t keep up with his brain. “If you see a story about something happening in the Gaza Strip, wouldn’t it be great for people to say, ‘Who is that guy?’” added Mr. Shardanand. “What happened a week ago, a month ago, a year ago? How did we get there? It was taking that six degrees of separation and applying it to this concept of the news being Webified instead of these hermetically sealed packages. “It’s not all about breaking news,” Mr. Shardanand continued, explaining Daylife’s name. “It’s about the day scale and the life scale—so you can have the long view and the short view.” It’s a metaphor for how media companies need to be looking at their technology strategy so they can survive in the new-media landscape, he said. Daylife currently has a team of 26, mostly product engineers and computer developers, and has survived on $15 million in venture funding from The New York Times, two European venture capital firms, as well as angel investors (one of whom is Andrew Rasiej, co-founder of Personal Democracy Forum and partner with The Observer in the NYFI project). “Until the end of ’08, it was really a slog trying to get people to—well, you know how it is,” Mr. Shardanand said, interrupting himself. “Publishers are stingy; they fear new things, and don’t work with start-ups.” But more publishers are willing to experiment. The new NPR Web site launched this week is partially powered by Daylife content, for example. (The New York Times, for the record, doesn’t use Daylife’s services. It’s just an investor whose representatives contribute to “brainstorming” sessions, according to Mr. Shardanand.) He said Daylife’s profitability is “imminent.” In Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 movie RoboCop (stay with us, here), the government created cyborgs to end crime in Old Detroit so they could build a new utopia. Perhaps RoboCop “writers” building information aggregators will be all that’s left in media’s post-apocalyptic future. Or maybe they just need to be armed with the latest technology artillery to fight for a better future.

Wonga: How the Net Should Kill the Finance Industry

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

What’s awesome about the Internet is how it breaks up monopolistic markets where middlemen unfairly gobble up outsized fees, leaving us little choice but to keep paying them. It happened with software, it happened with music, and it’s happening now with media. But there are a few sectors of our economy that have stayed mostly undisrupted—one of them is banking. Sure there are companies like eTrade that opened up the market for buying and selling stocks. But it didn’t fundamentally change the market that much, it just moved part of it online. The thought for a long time was that banks needed to be too controlled, too regulated to be turned over to the Wild West of the Net. Then the credit meltdown hit and we saw just how reckless these so-called safe and regulated institutions were. The time is right for the Web to unleash its full market-destroying power on the finance world and while I was in the UK I found a company making a promising start: Wonga. Now, Wonga would hardly say its role is to upend the world’s financial institutions. But it’s one of the most dramatic examples I’ve seen of a Web company using what the Web does well to remake lending. Wonga gives people a way to borrow small amounts of money quickly, between £50 and £200 for first time borrowers to be repaid between five days and 30 days. (Returning customers with a good repayment record can borrow up to £750.) A would be borrower gives Wonga just eight pieces of personal data online, and its algorithms find 1800 data points based on that within 2 seconds, making a rapid decision about whether that person is a good or bad short term credit risk. If approved, the money is wired into the borrower’s account within the hour. And, the borrower gets to decide when to repay the money, with no penalty for early repayment. One of the most notable things about the UI is a sliding scale, which shows exactly what fees someone would owe Wonga for every dollar borrowed and extra day before its repaid. No fine print and formulas to calculate; the cost of every dollar you borrow is calculated for you. Wonga was founded by Errol Damelin, a serial entrepreneur who previously started a supply chain software company named Supply Chain Connect. He sold that company in 2005 and decided he didn’t want to build another enterprise software business. (Smart move.) So he traveled around the world looking for ideas. In the U.S. he became captivated with payday lending companies—an industry of strip mall storefronts that generates a whopping $12 billion in fees. There was a clear demand for short-term loans to tide people over or take care of emergencies. But it was a polarizing industry, seen as predatory and exploitative. Damelin spent more than a year digging into it, and brainstorming with well-known UK angel investor Robin Klein on how to rethink it and make it better. Two things excite me most about Wonga. The first is that it isn’t peer-to-peer lending. Peer-to-peer lending in a social sense, like Kiva, is one thing, but I’m not convinced peer-to-peer lending for profit works or scales. It feels a bit like trying to apply Web 2.0 ethos of wisdom of the crowds and social networking somewhere that it just doesn’t fit. Instead, Wonga has raised $28 million from Balderton Capital, Greylock Ventures, Accel Partners and Dawn Capital and is loaning out its own cash. In its first year of business it did more than 100,000 loans, for an average of £250 each, and it’s already profitable. “This is the best business I’ve ever been in,” Damelin says. Second, it’s the first time I’m aware of that a bank that has actually aligned its incentives with what’s right for the customer. Put another way: Wonga makes its money when you repay the loan, not by keeping you in debt longer. Think about it: Credit card companies make the most of their money from people just able to make their minimum payments every month. And payday advance chains make most of their money by rolling over your debt to the next payday. Critics have said that Wonga is usurious by charging a 1% interest fee per day. But that’s a knee-jerk response. Wonga is simply charging a premium because it allows borrowers quicker access to cash than any other service, the same way a town car is going to charge you more than a cab off the street. And because it only makes money when a borrower repays the amount, there are no tricks to keep you in debt longer. Wonga’s ideal customer is someone who uses the service two to three times a year and always repays on time, Damelin says. If more financial institutions had this basic orientation to doing business, we wouldn’t have had the credit meltdown because people would have known exactly the risks of agreeing to ARMs and zero-down mortgages. Sure, you can say Wonga is dangerous because it’s giving people an easier way to live outside their means. But that’s a bit like arguing giving kids condoms encourages teenage sex. You can’t change human behavior, but you can help make people safer. Now here’s the downside on Wonga: It’s only available in the UK, and it will likely stay that way thanks to a bevy of licenses and regulations entailed in getting near the finance sector. It’s even worse in the US, where each state has its own laws. Even a copy cat business might be cost-prohibitive in the U.S. because of all the state-by-state regulations and red-tape. As our taxpayer dollars continue to bail out the same lousy institutions, it’ll take innovators like Wonga to force real change in the finance world. But in this country, it’ll need an assist from the government as well.

Twinity scoops a further €4.5m to develop 3D cities

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Virtual worlds can be pretty dull when nothing you see there is recognisable as anything remotely real-world, which is perhaps why Twinity has such confident investors. The virtual world which re-creates the world’s cities for real-looking avatars to wander around, has closed another round of financing from existing investors to the tune of 4.5m Euros ($6.26 million).Twinity’s owner Metaversum, which has taken a totally different tack to the likes of Second Life, won the backing from existing investors Grazia Equity and Balderton Capital, which joined BFB BeteiligungsFonds Brandenburg from InvestitionsBank des Landes Brandenburg, which is managed by BC Brandenburg Capital and KfW. As you can tell the startup is based in Germany. The funding will be used for development and expanding internationally.Back in April last year Balderton, best known for investing in and exiting from Bebo and MySQL (the former to the tune of $140 million) joined investors in Metaversum (Twinity Metaverse wins Balderton backing).In Twinity, members use real profiles and realistic-looking avatars. A virtual Berlin is in public beta right now, but a virtual Singapore is set to follow this summer, and London is under construction (much like the real London if you are familiar with its roads).

Circle hospital nears completion

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Finishing touches are being put on the first hospital designed by Norman Foster, part of what will become a 25-hospital portfolio operated by Circle Healthcare. The private healthcare partnership is commissioning Britain’s leading architects to design medical facilities that will feature hotel decor and luxury food.The £50m Bath facility will be the first of four Circle hospitals designed by Foster Partners, and will be complemented by a further three designed by Sir Michael Hopkins. Other companies engaged in Circle’s future projects include Rogers Stirk Harbour – designer of the Millennium Dome – and BDP. Circle Healthcare already operates a private clinic in Stratford and three NHS treatment centres, in Nottingham, Burton-on-Trent and Eccleshill. The group directly employs 1,000 staff, all of whom are also partners in the business.“We’re trying to create a model a little bit like John Lewis,” said Nick Boyle a consultant surgeon and member of Circle. Any consultant physician who undertakes to do part of their private work at a Circle facility, advises the group, or helps to manage it becomes a member of Circle. Profits are distributed on the model of partners in a law firm. “My brother is a partner in a law firm,” said Mr Boyle. “He has equity in that business, and makes money on the basis of whether it’s successful or not. More importantly, he participates in the decisions about how that business works, but the vast majority of private hospitals in the UK are not owned by doctors, they’re not managed by doctors. Most of them are owned these days by private equity, and the reality is that we as professionals have little input into how they are run at every level.”The chance to run and work in a hospital group that operates in a similar fashion to John Lewis or a law firm has already led 1,200 consultants to undertake to do private work at Circle, when the group rolls out its hospitals in the coming years. Planning permission has been secured for a further eight buildings. Another attraction for physicians is the design of the buildings themselves. Roughly 20 years ago, about 80 per cent of all surgery was in-patient, requiring overnight stays in hospital. Today, however, best practice is that no more than a quarter of surgeries should be in-patient, but with most private hospitals more than 30 years old, the hospitals have not changed to match these clinical developments.“The asset class we have in hospitals is fundamentally not fit for purpose,” says Ali Parsa, a former Goldman Sachs banker who founded Circle Healthcare in 2004. “They have too many bedrooms too little capability to do day surgery. You can get as much clinical efficiency from these existing assets as you would get energy efficiency from the cars that run on the streets of Havana.” Foster Partners were also keen to try their hand at something new: they had never before been approached to design a hospital. “There hadn’t been an opportunity before now, it’s as simple as that,” said Spencer De Grey of Foster Partners. “Maybe through this particular initiative, that will start to change things.”For patients, the attraction will be a hotel experience. The food contract for Bath has been given to an upmarket boutique London caterer, while the group’s hospitality director is Michael Neuner, who brought the Mandarin Oriental hotel chain to the UK. So far, Circle has raised £100m over the course of three funding rounds since 2005. Benchmark Capital’s Balderton fund has invested, as have Lansdowne Partners, Blue Crest, and Moore Capital. Together they own 30 per cent of Circle, but Mr Parsa has said that as the group develops, 50 per cent of the business must always remain owned by partners of Circle Healthcare.

Road Safety Team Reaps Top National Award

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Staffordshire and GreenRoad Recognised for Programme to Reduce Crashes London, UK, June 29, 2009 -- An innovative programme adopted by Staffordshire County Council’s Road Safety team in partnership with GreenRoad Technologies Ltd has scooped yet another national award. Staffordshire County Council and GreenRoad Technologies fought off stiff competition from major national companies to be awarded The Institute of Highways and Transportation Road Safety Award 2009. The team won the accolade in the Reducing All Casualties category for its use of GreenRoad’s Service in its Young Driver Coaching Programme. As part of the programme, newly qualified drivers can use the GreenRoad service to monitor their driving performance by measuring up to 120 different risky driving manoeuvres. If, for example, the driver brakes hard into a bend an LED flashes red or amber to alert the driver. This information is then available to both the driver and their parents via a secure website, the GreenRoad Safety CentreTM. Online reports and tools empower the driver and parent to manage and reduce the number of dangerous manoeuvres the young driver makes. The Young Driver Coaching Programme brings parents, driving instructors and the road safety unit together to coach the young driver from the earliest stages of learning to drive safely right through the first 12 months after passing their test. Almost 40% of those killed or seriously injured on Staffordshire’s roads are aged between 17 and 25 years and one in five will have a crash within 12 months of passing their test. Criteria for the award included research into the problem, innovation and potential road safety success. In making the award, the IHT judges noted how the programme brings safety benefits to young drivers on the road and reviewing details at home with parents and others will enable them to learn from their mistakes. Staffordshire County Councillor with responsibility for Road Safety, Mike Maryon was delighted with the award. “For the County’s Road Safety team working with GreenRoad to secure another national award in recognition of our efforts to drive down the number of young people killed or seriously injured on our roads is fantastic. The number of road casualties involving young people is a real worry to us and we will continue to lead the way in developing new ideas that will make a difference.” Hod Fleishman, chief of safety, GreenRoad, added: “The results of Staffordshire’s Young Driver Programme have been impressive. During the pilot scheme, drivers reduced their risk - measured by the number of high-risk driving manoeuvres - by an average of 58%. This recognition from IHT underscores the powerful contribution technology can make to safer driving. And, moreover, safer driving means more economical driving with fuel savings of up to 10 percent.” The Young Driver Coaching Programme is supported by the Royal Society for the Protection of Accidents and received the Prince Michael International Road Safety Award for technology in 2008.

GreenRoad Wins San Francisco Business Times’ Green Business Award

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. – June 15, 2009 – GreenRoad, a global pioneer in improving driving behavior, announced that it has been named the winner in the San Francisco Business Times’ Green Business Awards, in the transportation category. The company received the award at an awards reception held at the Hilton San Francisco, June 11. “We are honored to accept this award and acknowledgement of our hard work toward improving driving behavior and reducing vehicle emissions,” said Dan Steere, CEO of GreenRoad. “We appreciate being able to contribute to San Francisco’s leadership in green innovation, and already are working with other great cities and states who are following suit.” “GreenRoad was one of 15 exceptional companies who received the Green Business Award out of a pool of more than 200 nominations,” said Mary Huss, publisher, San Francisco Business Times. “GreenRoad sets the bar high for green innovation, providing solutions that not only can save the environment, but also save companies money and save lives. Companies like GreenRoad are the engine for economic growth.” GreenRoad’s service combines patented in-vehicle technology with integrated Web-based applications that continuously rate driving skills and behavior, provide drivers feedback as they drive and sustain behavior improvements through constant reinforcement. Sensors analyze up to 120 separate types of driving events. Drivers receive in-vehicle feedback in the form of a red-yellow-green LED display. The San Francisco Business Times’ Green Business Awards are designed to honor the leaders and entrepreneurs in green business, clean technology, energy conservation and alternative energy, as well as innovators and champions of green and sustainable business. Winners were announced in 15 categories, selected from 29 finalists.

Wonga secures $22.25m of new finance

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Wonga.com , the online loans company, has secured $22.25m (£13.9m) of new finance in a deal led by Accel Partners and Greylock Partners. It is one of the biggest private equity funding rounds in Europe this year, exceeding the $17m raised by Seatwave this month.Wonga's original private equity backers, Balderton Capital, also put further cash into the business.The company, founded by Errol Damelin and Jonty Hurwitz, provides short-term loans of up to £750 for consumers over the internet. Banks' reluctance to lend during the credit crunch has led many people to turn to alternative sources of financing such Wonga. In spite of being launched just 11 months ago, it has already advanced 100,000 loans and is expecting revenues of £15m this year.It is also already profitable, thanks to a combination of high interest rates - 1 per cent per day - and a highly selective approach to who it lends to. An automated computer system assesses the creditworthiness of applicants, and less than 20 per cent are approved. Default rates for loans are below 10 per cent, less than the average rates for credit cards.The fact that Wonga has been able to become profitable on original financing of just $3m, makes it one of the most capital efficient start-ups in the technology sector, and explains why it has been able to raise a relatively large amount of financing in spite of the general caution among private equity investors.The new capital injection will allow Wonga to increase the number of people it lends to. "We have had more demand than we could service and that won't be the case any more," said Mr Damelin.The extra cash will also give Wonga the credibility to form partnerships with other companies. It could, for example, go into partnership with a boiler-repair company, offering emergency finance to customers who are facing unexpected boiler repairs.No partnerships have yet been announced, but Mr Damelin said the company was in talks over such deals."Up to now we have reached customers in a limited way," he said. "But now we'd like to put ourselves in a context. To do that we need volume, and a strong balance sheet."

Wonga.com secures $22m financing round

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Wonga.com secures $22m financing roundInnovative online lender poised for continued growthLondon – 8 June 2009 - Wonga.com, the leading online provider of short-term cash advances, today announced the completion of a major new round of funding led by Accel Partners and Greylock Partners.The $22.25m round was also supported by existing investor Balderton Capital and will allow the company to continue the strong growth demonstrated since the site’s full market launch just eleven months ago.Wonga.com was founded by Errol Damelin and Jonty Hurwitz and helps UK consumers solve occasional cash flow problems in a quick yet responsible manner. The company has already provided nearly 100,000 flexible cash advances of up to 30 days. Applicants select exactly how much cash they need, up to £750. They can then determine their own price by then selecting how many days they want the money for.Errol Damelin, founder and chief executive officer of Wonga, said: “Our ground-breaking technical innovation and focus on amazing our customers has enabled us to become profitable in a very short a space of time. Yet we are also building a sustainable business based on making highly selective and responsible lending decisions.“We’ve built to scale and there is now huge scope for expansion and delivering even more value for our customers. Balderton Capital has backed us from concept and our two new investors show how game-changing the Wonga proposition is.“Accel Partners is a global investor that has backed some of the fastest growth companies of the last two decades, such as Facebook. Greylock Partners is a thought leader and a long-term investor and they’ve made a significant statement by making a commitment to Wonga. Backing from three such prominent firms underscores our ability to challenge a major market in a very meaningful way.” Laurel Bowden, partner at Greylock, commented: “In this market, there are some excellent opportunities to build innovative financial services businesses. Wonga’s management team has developed a very innovative and real-time credit offering, solving relatively small immediate cash needs, and the business has shown impressive traction in the market. This is a key deal for Greylock in Europe and we are pleased to have an opportunity to help Wonga expand both locally and globally.”Wonga.com is the first and only company to fully automate the lending process and provide a truly online credit solution around the clock. Applicants receive an instant answer thanks to sophisticated risk and decision technology that crunches hundreds of pieces of data in milliseconds. Cash is then deposited into the customer’s bank account within an hour, at any time of day or night.Sonali De Rycker, partner at Accel, said: "Wonga's ability to offer credit in real-time while keeping a tight control on customer experience and defaults is truly disruptive. The team has done a phenomenal job growing the company rapidly over a short period of time. We believe the company has the potential to become a category leader in the consumer finance marketplace."Wonga has received glowing feedback from customers and industry insiders alike, recently achieving a world-class Net Promoter Score (www.netpromoter.com) of 79% and scooping numerous awards including the Red Herring 100 EMEA, Credit Risk Team of the Year from Credit Today and One to Watch in the annual Media Momentum listings.Bernard Liautaud, partner at Balderton, added: “It is a great achievement to have raised such a significant second-round funding in this environment and proves the success of the Wonga business model. We backed the company three years ago and in that short space of time Errol and his team have created breakthrough innovation in consumer finance.”EndsFurther media informationWonga.com John Moorwood on 44 (0)7872 198 128 or john.moorwood@wonga.com Balderton Capital Victoria Palmer-Moore on 44 (0)7725 565 545 or victoria.palmermoore@powerscourtmedia.com Accel Partners Tony Lederer on 44 (0)75 0008 1131 or tony.lederer@bitepr.com Greylock Partners Laurel Bowden on 44 (0)7770 753 345 or lbowden@greylock.comWonga.com (www.wonga.com) Wonga is a ground-breaking online lender based in London. We launched our first beta website in October 2007 and rapidly became one of the UK’s most innovative credit businesses. Our mission is to provide consumers with instant money whenever they need it, in an entirely responsible manner. We are transforming the huge UK credit market by offering small, short-term loans with more speed and convenience than banks, high street lenders and other websites. We have a consumer credit licence from the Office of Fair Trading and are members of the Finance and Leasing Association.Greylock Partners (www.greylock.com) Founded in 1965, Greylock Partners is one of the world's leading venture capital firms. Over the past four decades, Greylock has funded and helped build several hundred market-leading companies, including Ascend Communications, CheckFree, CipherTrust, Constant Contact, Continental Cable, Decru, Data Domain, digg, DoubleClick, Facebook, Farecast, Internet Security Systems, Ikanos, Legato, LinkedIn, Media Metrix, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Openwave, Open Market, Red Hat, RightNow Technologies, Success Factors, Tellabs, Trilogy, Wily Technology, Workday and Zipcar. Companies Greylock has funded in Israel and Europe include WebCollage, Red Bend, MySupermarket.com, Payoneer, Imperva, Port Authority and Zend Technologies. The Greylock approach is to put the entrepreneur first in a highly supportive way and to provide founders the resources they need to build outstanding businesses. Greylock operates in a number of global centers of innovation, including Silicon Valley, Boston, Israel and India.Balderton Capital (www.balderton.com) Balderton Capital is one of the largest venture capital firms in Europe, committed to finding and helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies. Based in London, it manages $1.9 billion in committed venture capital. Since 2000, Balderton has invested in over 80 companies, principally in numerous European countries but also in the US and Asia. Balderton’s investments span a wide variety of sectors including communications, consumer services, enterprise software and services, e-commerce, mobile, semiconductors, plus media and financial services. Balderton invests in innovative businesses and approaches investment using the principles of teamwork and an intense dedication to building companies of lasting value. The investment partners combine International and Silicon Valley operational experience with company-building expertise. Notable investments include Bebo (sold to AOL for $850m), Betfair (the online betting exchange), LOVEFiLM (the home entertainment subscription service) and MySQL (sold to Sun for $1 billion).Accel Partners (www.accel.com)Founded in 1983 and with offices in Palo Alto, London, Bangalore and China (via the IDG-Accel Partnership), Accel Partners has a history of excellence and innovation in the venture capital business. Accel is dedicated to partnering with outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams to build world-class internet and technology businesses. Category-defining companies backed by Accel include Admob, Actuate, Agile Software, Alfresco, Arrowpoint, BBN Technologies, BitTorrent, Brightcove, Brightmail, ComScore, Facebook, Foundry Networks, Gameforge, GlamMedia, Infinera, Interwoven, JBoss, Kayak, Macromedia, metroPCS, Polycom/PictureTel, QlikTech, Real Networks, Redback Networks, Remedy, Riverbed, SupportSoft, UUNet, Veritas, Walmart.com, Wily Technology, XenSource and Zimbra.

GreenRoad raises $15M for safe driving technology

Thu, 28 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

GreenRoad, maker of equipment and software that reinforces safe driving habits, has brought in $15 million in a fourth round of funding to build its customer base and attract partnerships with technology and insurance companies. DAG Ventures led the round, which also included Amadeus Capital, Balderton Capital, Benchmark Capital and Virgin Green Fund. Based in Redwood Shores, Calif., the company makes a device that you place in a car. It monitors 120 factors like speed, acceleration, braking and merging to identify risky driving behavior. It displays this analysis in the form of green, yellow and red lights that blink on and off. So far, it is predominantly used by vehicle fleets. Because the device beams driving data back to a central web database, fleet managers can easily view which of their drivers are safest and most efficient. GreenRoad claims that this system can reduce fuel costs by 10 percent and car accidents by up to half, according to VentureWire. The seven-year-old company currently works with 60 commercial fleets, spanning thousands of vehicles. It has raised $40 million to date.

Wonga pushes web loan innovation

Sun, 24 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Wonga.com, a UK internet loans company, is seeing its business boom in the downturn. With banks reluctant to lend and credit card interest rates rising, thousands of people are coming to the start-up website each month for short-term loans.The company expects to have made more than 100,000 loans by the beginning of next month. Although the loan sizes are small – on average about £200 – Wonga will have lent about £20m since it opened for business just 10 months ago. The company expects revenue of some £15m this year and is already profitable.Customers tend to be young urban professionals, the 20-40 crowd in first or second jobs, who find themselves short of a few hundred pounds for things such as holidays or unexpected boiler repairs. Interest rates are an eye-watering 1 per cent a day – a £100 loan for two weeks will cost £14. The maximum loan is £750 and the maximum term is 30 days. “We are not cheap,” admitted Errol Damelin, founder and chief executive. “We are a premium service. Its very fast and convenient and you have to pay for that.” Despite its high fees, Mr Damelin believes Wonga is “more honest” than banks, who attract customers with seemingly low rates but often sting them for late payments and overdrafts. “Many people think banks are dishonest when they hang a big sign in the window for loans at 7.9 per cent, but then make their real money when people can’t pay back on time. We are completely upfront about our charges.” Tougher economic times have also benefited a number of other new financial services companies, such as Zopa and Prosper.com, which help customers bypass high street banks. All kinds of payday loans companies have seen a rise in interest. However, Wonga is pushing innovation in this market, harnessing technology to create a faster, slicker, more foolproof service. The online service is entirely automated and available 24 hours a day. Once a user has entered their details, the system pulls in about 1,500 data points to build a picture of their credit history. If accepted, the money can be in a borrower’s bank account within the hour, even at 2am.Default rates at Wonga are fairly low, less than 10 per cent, which is better than the average for credit card repayments. The company is, however, very selective about who it lends to. Only about 20 per cent of applications are successful.“It’s not for people who constantly need money. If you are £1,000 behind every month, you have a problem and we wouldn’t lend to you. This is for people who, two or three times a year, might be surprised by something and need cash for a short time,” Mr Damelin said. “We try to lend responsibly. We have budgeting tools on the site to help people. We want this to be a sustainable business.”

GreenRoad Wins Fleet World Honours Award

Fri, 22 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

GreenRoad Wins Fleet World Honours Award Second Year in a Row GreenRoad is Recognised for Improving Driver Safety and Fuel Economy London - May 22, 2009 - GreenRoad, a global pioneer in improving driving behavior, today announced that it has won the Technology Award in the 2009 Fleet World Honours. The trophy was presented at a special ceremony held at the Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall on Wednesday 20th May. This award follows GreenRoad's previous success in the environment category at the Fleet World Awards 2008. The Fleet World Honours are presented annually to those motor manufacturers, service companies and individuals who have, in the opinion of the judges, achieved the highest possible level of excellence in their sector. The judging panel is chaired by industry professional George Emmerson, who has managed fleets at IBM, NHBC and Black Horse Agencies. Members of the judging panel include Ken Rogers, John Kendall, and Ross Durkin from Fleet World's editorial team, and fleet manager Jackie Pomfrett. Residual value, maintenance cost and reliability data is also provided by ALD Automotive, Masterlease and ING Car Lease. Market value data is provided by EurotaxGlass, CAP Motor Research and Vehicle Information Publishing. Commenting on the award, Chairman of Judges George Emmerson said: "GreenRoad Safety Center™ uses in-vehicle technology to improve driving behaviour in a real and measurable way. It includes real-time, in-vehicle feedback; coaching; web-based reporting; and risk analysis tools. The result is an immediate reduction in crashes, better fuel economy, lower C02 emissions and a reduction in the overall cost of operating vehicles. At a time when businesses are looking for new ways to control fleet operating costs, these are benefits that cannot be overlooked." Fleet World editor Ken Rogers commented: "The technology behind the GreenRoad Safety Centre is extremely clever, but the way in which the management information is presented makes it very easy to use. We have seen several case study reports about the effectiveness of the system, which clearly demonstrate the potential savings - both direct and indirect." Commenting on the high level of interest in this year's awards, Fleet World managing editor, Ross Durkin, said: "Despite the difficult economic conditions, we had a tremendous number of entries in this year's Fleet World Honours - a sign not only of the significance of the awards themselves, but also of the tremendous level of service, innovation and competition that exist within the fleet industry today. Those who have won can be justifiably proud of their achievement." GreenRoad's service combines patented in-vehicle technology with integrated Web-based applications that continuously rate driving skills and behavior, provide drivers feedback as they drive and sustain behavior improvements through constant reinforcement. Sensors analyse up to 120 separate types of driving events in five categories - speed handling, cornering, lane handling, braking and acceleration. Patented algorithms associate risk with vehicle movement and categories of driving and automatically assess driver safety. Drivers receive in-vehicle feedback in the form of a red-yellow-green LED display. This data feed also automatically updates the online reports and analysis available to drivers and fleet managers via GreenRoad SafetyCenter, a Web portal to reporting, risk analysis and coaching tools.

America next as Betfair pushes betting boundaries

Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

A newly published history of Betfair serves as a reminder of the fundamental change the exchange has brought to bettting. We live in an age when sports stars who are barely old enough to vote can publish books subtitled My Life: The Full Story, which inevitably consist of five per cent meat and 95% filler. Quite a contrast, then, with Colin Cameron's You Bet (HarperCollins), a recently published history of Betfair, which is a useful reminder of the fundamental change that the exchange has brought to both racing and betting in just 10 years. Ten years. In the context of a 250-year-old sport, it is nothing at all, yet just a decade ago the mere idea of a punter laying a favourite was extraordinary. In-running betting, trading in and out and the memorandum of understanding that finally gave the regulators the power to attack corruption are just a few of the breakthroughs that have followed. Cameron's book is as thorough an account of the Betfair story as anyone could realistically expect. It is a history, though, and as a result includes little speculation on the really interesting question of what happens next. Ten years is a good point to take stock, but in another 50, it may be apparent that as yet, we have only reached base camp. Betfair, after all, owes its success to millions of people who think they can see into the future, so it does no harm to play the same game with the business itself. One fascinating possibility, for instance, is that Betfair will be the first major British-based betting operation to crack America. Betfair has played a very long game when it comes to the States, doing whatever possible to refuse bets and accounts from Americans. Now, having bought the TVG racing television channel, it is ideally poised to take advantage of the much-anticipated move to relax the gambling laws. The continuing globalisation of the Betfair brand is also likely to have major effects, particularly in countries where pool-based pari-mutuel systems like our own Tote have previously been dominant.So far, the most prolonged complaints about exchanges have come from traditional bookmakers, but then, our betting landscape is dominated by bookies. However, a betting exchange has more in common with a pari-mutuel than it does with a bookmaker, not least in the fact that whatever the result, the exchange always wins.As long as it has enough layers to take the backers on, Betfair is essentially that much-desired device, a PMU that lets you take a price. As such, it might seem to offer the ideal global betting platform for a sport that is more international than ever. This is a concept that has already attracted some well-placed evangelists in America, where many tracks are clinging on by their fingertips.Of course, there are huge differences in betting cultures around the world, not least when it comes to the love of "exotic" bets in many countries with PMU monopolies. But then, exotics offer at least some refuge from the corrosive effects of high takeouts from pools. So does Betfair, just much more effectively.The important point is that the arrival of Betfair took the old deck of cards and threw it into the air. So far into the air, in fact, that many are still coming down.

Opportunity gently knocks

Mon, 18 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

DESTRUCTIVE? Absolutely. But will the financial crisis also be creative? When incumbents disappear and established business models no longer work, that is usually good news for up-and-comers. The massive disruption in banking has members of the industry’s fringe rubbing their hands. They include: Advisory boutiques. “Like gnats” is how an executive at a big investment bank describes boutiques. Without financing capacity, a global presence or big capital-markets businesses, they lack the firepower of bigger rivals. But the crisis has nevertheless increased their capacity to irritate the giants. Clients’ faith in the advice of the industry’s big names has been badly dented by their conspicuous inability to manage their own businesses. Many banks have damaged client relationships more directly, by skimping on credit as they slim their balance-sheets. Conflicts of interest for large banks are also more common now that their ranks have thinned. And boutiques have lots of high-quality job-hunters to choose from. Peer-to-peer lending platforms. These websites, through which savers pool money and lend to borrowers, have also been boosted by the crisis. Derisory interest rates are encouraging savers to seek better returns elsewhere. Zopa, a British website that pioneered the concept, says the number of lenders joining it has soared. For borrowers spurned by their banks, low-cost and unleveraged social lenders are an attractive alternative. Zopa’s boss, Giles Andrews, says new entrants like his should gain from how the crisis has undermined customers’ faith in banks’ solidity and intensified their doubts about whether the banks have customers’ best interests at heart. Islamic finance. This was booming before the crisis, thanks to oil-fuelled liquidity in the Gulf, rising devoutness among Muslims and a fast-developing market infrastructure. But its emphasis on risk-sharing and prohibition of speculation has a fresh resonance given the failures of Western finance. Its backers stress the ethical side of sharia-compliant finance. However, the Middle East is suffering its own economic headwinds and the industry’s fundamental problems, including an over-reliance on short-term funding, have yet to be solved. Supermarkets. They see the crisis as an opportunity to push further into financial services. Their costs of acquiring customers are low, because they already have millions of shoppers passing through their stores. Their brands are trusted. And those who have seen how retailers work with banks in joint ventures consistently note how much more focused grocers are on the customer’s needs. “Retailers think first about the customer, banks about the profit,” says an executive. Britain’s Tesco announced an ambitious expansion of its banking activities in March. Just how capable non-banks are of taking big chunks of the market is unclear. The downturn is hitting most institutions, retailers included. Regulators will also have a big say. The rules may have been tweaked to make it more attractive for private-equity firms to invest in American banks, for example, but Douglas Landy of Allen & Overy, a law firm, expects continuing hostility to the idea of non-banks owning banks. And serious questions hover about whether it makes sense to encourage more competition in banking. “Anything that smacks of loosening regulatory standards is going to be politically hard,” says Andrew Schwedel of Bain, a consultancy. There are great opportunities lying among the debris of the banking industry but reaching them may be tricky.

Yingli To Be Sole Photovoltaic Cell Supplier To AES Solar

Fri, 15 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Yingli Green Energy Holding Co. (YGE) entered a three-year agreement with AES Solar to be the exclusive supplier of a type of photovoltaic cells to the solar power company.The news recently sent American Depositary Shares of Yingli up 8.4% to $8.76 in premarket trading. AES Corp. (AES), a parent of AES Solar, closed Thursday at $9.15 a share and was inactive premarket.Many solar panel makers have seen sales plummet amid tighter credit conditions, and an oversupply of panels has led to lower prices. Yingli has focused on raising capital in recent months, in part to expand its production capacity. The company had lowered its margin target in March, citing a drop in the average selling price of photovoltaic modules. Yingli said it will be the sole supplier of photocrystalline photovoltaic modules, which it expects AES Solar to buy for use in projects in some of its major solar markets. AES Solar is the $1 billion joint venture of independent power producer AES Corp. and energy buyout investor Riverstone Holdings LLC. AES Solar has 24 megawatts in operation in Spain and activity in other countries.

No Recession in WeeWorld: Teen Socializing Drives Growing Virtual Goods Revenues

Thu, 14 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Dinner party conversations with Celia Francis don’t go down the usual paths. “When people ask ‘What do you do?” she says, “I have to say ‘I sell animated ferrets.’” Francis is the Harvard- and MIT-educated founding CEO of WeeWorld, a transatlantic virtual goods company with its U.S. headquarters in Concord, MA, and its European headquarters in Glasgow, Scotland. The company is most famous for creating WeeMees, cartoonish avatars used by more than 27 million people around the world to personalize their identities for instant messaging tools and digital voice applications such as Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, and Skype. But its real business revolves around WeeWorld, an online virtual world where members, represented by their diminutive WeeMee avatars, can socialize, play casual games, and collect virtual items. The company makes money by selling advertising space on the WeeWorld website and by selling virtual gear and the corporate sponsorships that go along with it—think Boston Celtics or LA Lakers jerseys for your WeeMee. I couldn’t find an actual animated ferret in the WeeWorld shopping mall, but I’m sure Francis could have one designed for you. The virtual goods business “seems to be totally unaffected by the economy,” Francis says. In fact, Wal-Mart and Target would kill for WeeWorld’s sales statistics. Revenues from virtual goods have been growing at 15 percent per month throughout the recession, and advertising is “growing nicely” as well, she says. Part of that may be thanks to the relatively low prices of virtual goods: for the teens and twenty-somethings who are WeeWorld’s main users, $5 can buy quite a bit of bling. “It’s not a big spend compared to some other ways you can be entertained,” says Francis. Venture funders apparently agree that WeeWorld is on to something. The startup has raised $21 million to date, with the most recent round of $15.5 million coming from Accel Partners and Benchmark Capital in May 2006. But the company’s success isn’t blinding its 40-some staffers to the fundamental strangeness of their business. “The whole thing is amusing, and the company has had a sense of humor about it from the earliest days,” says Francis, whose own WeeMee wears an emerald-green suitjacket and clutches a light saber. “It’s a cheeky, fun, entertaining brand.” For consumer brands trying to get their message to young people—who are spending less time watching television and more time online—virtual worlds are one promising platform. Whether it’s through full 3-D worlds like Second Life or Boston-based Hangout.net or “Sims”-style “2.5D” worlds like Habbo and WeeWorld, consumer-dependent organizations like clothing brands, sports teams, and musical groups are thrilled to have young people decorate their avatars and their spaces with branded goods. In fact, the organizers of the annual Virtual Worlds conference held each year in New York renamed their event the “Engage! Expo” to reflect the new emphasis on virtual worlds as marketing platforms. WeeWorld’s philosophy of engagement is to make time spent in-world feel like play. “The people on WeeWorld are mostly teenagers, and they need a place to express themselves and evolve their identities as people,” Francis says. “This kind of thing didn’t exist when I was a teenager. You can come onto the site and every single day play with a different look or persona or interest. That kind of playfulness is so core to being a teenager—and that’s really what’s driving the virtual goods sales.” Every day, Francis says, the company gets hundreds of requests from members for new virtual items that they’d like to buy. “Brands are a big part of it, which is why we’ve been really successful with advertisers,” Francis says. “Kids want to identify with certain brands that express who they are.” And not just any brand: Francis says figuring out which virtual items will sell, and which will make members will turn up their noses, is “a total black art”—but one that the company has begun to master over time. “We’re experimenting with all kinds of different items, whether it’s furniture or accessories for your WeeMee,” she says. “We constantly tweak the pricing, the presentation, and the content itself, and every day every single person in the company gets a digest of the feedback from the audience, so we can quickly say that ‘What’s really going to be hot today is the animated lightning T-shirt.’” Some of the best ideas for virtual products, Francis says, come directly from members. Unlike other virtual worlds such as Second Life, though, WeeWorld doesn’t give members tools to build and trade their own virtual goods. It’s not that these tools don’t exist; they’ve been part of the WeeWorld back-end infrastructure since the beginning, Francis says. The problem is that in a free-for-all virtual market, it would be too hard to maintain a consistent style, not to mention a G-to-PG-rated environment. (Which is an issue when your biggest advertisers are Disney and Procter & Gamble.) “It’s tempting [to open up the world to community-generated content] and I know what the potential is, but there’s a conflict between doing that and the cost of moderation,” says Francis. “It may be a strength or it may be a weakness, but we like to stay a family-friendly brand that has a certain style and flavor.” Francis says she thinks the company will “eventually” figure out a way to let members create their own virtual items without compromising the company’s brand or the site’s family tone. You may wonder how teens without credit cards buy the WeeWorld points they need to pay for all of that branded Jonas Brothers, Pussycat Dolls, Justin Timberlake, and NBA gear. Some use their parents’ cards, some use PayPal, and some use prepaid WeeWorld cards that they can purchase for cash at supermarkets and other locations. In fact, the retail cards are about to become a much bigger part of WeeWorld’s strategy. “We have cards at Safeway, Albertson’s, Vaughns, and Toys-R-Us, and we’re going to be launching in a ton more locations in the next month,” Francis told me in an April 14 interview. Members can also earn WeeWorld points by filling out marketing surveys. The majority of people who encounter the startup do it only through their WeeMee avatars and never actually visit WeeWorld—but that’s fine, Francis says, because the WeeMees still operate “like a farm team for the virtual world,” drawing in a good number of people every month. They also help to bring in a few people from outside the world’s typical teenage demographic. But WeeWorld is the company’s permanent core focus, Francis says, and is only going to grow more elaborate over time. “You might think of it as a constantly evolving game that never ends, where you socialize and play with your friends but where there are also various levels of achievement,” she says. “We add to it every month…so that you’re always coming back, always engaging in that quest for identity that, for teenagers and young adults, is something that just doesn’t get old.” At least, not until the users themselves do.

Thinking Digital

Wed, 13 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Thinking Digital is an annual conference where the world's greatest thinkers and innovators gather to inspire, to entertain, and to discuss the latest ideas and technologies.

Stanford University's European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders Seminar

Wed, 13 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Stanford University's European Entrepreneurship and Innovation Thought Leaders Seminar presents industry leaders from Europe's hitech startup, venture finance, corporate and university research and technology commercialization communities to share their insights and experiences with aspiring and veteran entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley.

Nordic Venture Network

Wed, 13 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Nordic Venture Network is a unique strategic tool for relevant international parties wanting to cover the Nordic Technology Venture Capital market in an efficient way. Through NVN international players, such as investors, venture funds, advisors and large technology companies, get access to strategic business relations to the leading firms on the Nordic market. Since all leading Nordic based Technology Venture firms are members of NVN, the members make up at least 80% of the Nordic Venture Tech market.

Social Gambling Summit

Wed, 13 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The Social Gaming Summit 2009 is a one day event focused on the intersection of games and the social web. This year's event will focus on helping social games developers build, monetize, and grow their social games. We're bringing together the leaders in free-to-play games, social networking, and payments infrastructure for a full day of panels and talks.

Big Fish Games swallows Grubby Games

Mon, 04 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Big Fish Games has acquired game development studio Grubby Games as it makes its first big spend from the whopping $83.3 million war chest it raised last year September to fuel expansion. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but the Big Fish Games blog notes that Grubby Games co-founder Ryan Clark will run the company’s Vancouver office. With lots of competition in the casual game space, some consolidation is predictable. Among Grubby’s hit games are Professor Fizzwizzle, FizzBall, IncrediBots, and My Tribe. Grubby Games was founded in October 2004. Three of Grubby’s employees are joining Seattle-based Big Fish, which has raised more than $90 million to date from investors including Balderton Capital, General Catalyst Partners and Salmon River Capital. Big Fish was founded by former Real Networks game executive Paul Thelen in 2002. It has more than 300 people, mostly in the Seattle area. More than 500 independent developers work with the company now, providing games that Big Fish distributes on its web site. Big Fish indicated it wanted to expand into Vancouver, so the acquisition fits with that plan. Prior to September, the company raised $8.7 million in angel funds — in two different tranches — in 2005. Growth has been strong thanks to the extended reach of broadband, a growing interest in casual games among all demographic groups, overseas expansion, and strong social networking. Big Fish is the big kahuna in downloadable games that users can play free for an hour before purchasing. The company has tried to be a MySpace of games by creating reward programs for those who spread games virally by sharing them with friends. After a year, players get rewards. And they can chat with each other in forums built into the site. The company has partnerships with Activision Blizzard, which publishes some of the company’s biggest hits in retail stores, and Nintendo, which published “Mystery Case Files: MillionHeir” for the Nintendo DS. Mystery Case Files was a big hit on Big Fish. Rivals include casual game companies of all sorts, including Real Networks, Electronic Arts’ Pogo.com division, and Disney’s Club Penguin. In September, Big Fish Games chief executive Jeremy Lewis said the company continues to experiment with new business models, and he noted that more than half of the company’s staff is dedicated to research and development.

Codemasters unveils F1 line-up

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

British publisher confirms fully licensed 2009 and 2010 titles for Wii, PSP, PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton will make his video game debut this autumn, MCV can reveal. Codemasters will launch F1 2009 for PSP and Wii this year, which will feature official tracks, cars, teams and drivers, including Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel – and UK world champion Hamilton. This will be followed by the high definition F1 2010, which will hit shelves in spring next year for PS3, PC and Xbox 360. This title boasts an ‘authentic’ F1 experience, and makes use of Codemasters’ EGO Engine technology, which powered the BAFTA award-winning Race Driver: GRID. “Formula One is the pinnacle of motorsport,” said Codemasters chief executive Rod Cousens. “We are producing a series of games that will deliver the passion, glamour and exhilaration that fans deserve and we know how to do that. “F1 2009 is the start of something very special for Codemasters and will set the standard for the high definition versions that will follow in spring 2010. “Our studios are working extremely closely with Formula One Management Limited and the teams to produce the most authentic and thrilling experience possible. “We are delighted with the level of support and access afforded to us so far, enabling us to get as close to the sport as possible.” Formula One Management CEO Bernie Ecclestone added: “Codemasters has a great heritage when it comes to racing games and their reputation is second to none. We’re working very closely together on the upcoming titles and are very impressed with what we have seen.”

Figleaves.com go modest and angelic with a new clothing line

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Masters of undies, Figleaves.com, have just launched a collection of womenswear in a step to expand their empire and grow into a lifestyle brand. This season sees a collection of whimsical chiffons, pictured above, as well as brands Citizens of Humanity, Hudson, Splendid and American Vintage to make Figleaves.com a real fashion destination. Personally I like the spiritually titled "angel" dresses. My friend and spiritual mentor, Kriss Wellington approves too. Of the pieces he told me: "The colours in clothes have meaning in terms of the cosmos. The orange dress would be great to wear for a new job interview as it signifies ambition. And the mint green would be better to wear during harder times as it's a healing colour." Of course if you dare not wear pillar box red to enhance you're quickness or pink to signify love and happiness, you can always turn to Figleaves.com for underwear in these colours instead. But then again simply indulging in a bit of retail therapy alone will surely boost your mood.

UPDATE 1-Yingli secures funding to expand business

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

*Yingli secures additional financing to expand business*Chinese bank to provide 1 billion yuan credit line LOS ANGELES, April 16 (Reuters) - Chinese solar power company Yingli Green Energy Holding Co Ltd (YGE.N) said on Thursday that it secured additional financing that would allow it to expand its business. In a statement, Yingli said it would draw down $50 million under a three-year loan facility. The facility is provided by a fund managed by Asia Debt Management Hong Kong Ltd, or ADM Capital. In addition, the company said it renewed credit lines of up to 1 billion yuan with the Export-Import Bank of China, a bank owned by the Chinese government. Yingli Chief Financial Officer Zongwei Li said the funding would strengthen the company's capital position and enable it to expand its business despite the weak economy. Since the end of last year, solar power companies have struggled with a lack of access to funding due to the global credit crunch. Lending from government-owned Chinese banks, however, is emerging as a bright spot for that nation's growing solar industry. Last month the Chinese government said solar projects would be eligible for a new subsidy, prompting a broad rally in Chinese solar stocks. Yingli's announcement came a day after Chinese solar wafer maker LDK Solar Co Ltd (LDK.N) said it secured a 200 million yuan loan from the China Development Bank and a 1 billion yuan credit line from the Agricultural Development Bank of China. Yingli shares were down 19 cents, or 2.6 percent, at $7.16 in afternoon trade on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Nichola Groom, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

Retaining Top Employees in Tough Times

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

After repeated rounds of layoffs, managers must focus on retaining and motivating those who are left over. Even in a bad economy, experts say the most talented workers always have options; retaining those employees can be critical to keeping the business on track during rocky times. Here are some dos and don'ts of retention. Do give pats on the back. The most inexpensive retention strategy is employee recognition, says Chason Hecht, President of Retensa, a New York-based retention consultancy. Whether a hand-written note or a moderate cash reward, recognition builds loyalty and lets managers reinforce good behavior immediately. On the other hand, performance-based bonuses typically are given out just once a year (if that) and are far more costly. Dow Jones Newswires' Simon Constable speaks to Retensa President Chason Hecht about how companies can retain good employees without fat bonuses. One warning: Make sure all employees, from top to bottom, have the opportunity to participate in the recognition program, says Eric Mosley, CEO of Globoforce, a designer of employee-recognition programs. Otherwise, you'll risk playing favorites. Do invest in employee training. While laid-off employees might receive a retraining allowance to make themselves more marketable, remaining employees often experience training cutbacks in a downturn. Those cutbacks may seem like a minor sacrifice, but employees will need new training to fill the gaps in lost productivity. Failing to provide that support could result in turnover, says Mr. Hecht. Moreover, employees who receive training, workshops and mentoring are likely to remain loyal, says Mr. Hecht. Some even plan a long-term career at the company. Employees of financial software producer Intuit, for example, use a Web-based program to show managers their resumes and explain where in the company they'd like to move next, says Jim Grenier, Intuit's vice president of human resources. Do not overcompensate any employee. It may seem obvious, but it bears repeating: forking over outsized rewards for short-term gains is a recipe for disaster, no matter how talented the earner. Paying huge amounts to top talent can demoralize lower earners and hurt your overall culture, warns Mr. Hecht. "Managers often make the mistake of bending over backwards to retain the highest money maker," Mr. Hecht says. "That sends the wrong message and de-motivates others." However, significant rewards may still be an option in some cases, says Mr. Mosley. You can justify weighty compensation by correlating it to long-term added value. Don't leave your employees out of cost-cutting reviews. Ask employees for input on how else to cut costs. They may have spotted inefficiencies that managers haven't noticed. Plus, failing to solicit employees' advice will likely alienate them. "You're going to end up frustrating a lot of people if after you've cut jobs and frozen salaries, you then try and do an efficiency exercise that's not inclusive of employees," says Mr. Hecht. Do spruce up the workplace. A consumer who can't afford a getaway might opt instead to spruce up the homefront, says Mr. Grenier. Likewise, if you can no longer afford travel budgets for employees, then begin investing in the physical workspace, he says. Reducing travel often means losing face-to-face communication. To address this, consider improving video-conferencing technology in your offices, says Mr. Grenier.

Betfair to sponsor RTE racing coverage

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

BETFAIR have signed a deal with RTE to sponsor their live racing coverage for the next 13 months. The new association with Ireland’s national broadcaster gets underway this Sunday with the Fairyhouse Powers Gold Cup meeting and will run to the 2010 Punchestown Festival. In total some 38 meetings, including relayed coverage of several British fixtures, will be covered under the new deal. Betfair’s head of Irish operations Graham Ross said on Friday: "We’re delighted to agree this deal and feel it is a very good fit for our brand, representing a real opportunity to promote Betfair to a broader audience on RTE. Ross added: "We feel it is a positive development for Irish racing to have this coverage sponsored in the medium term and look forward to making a success of it for all parties."

McCartney falls victim to website hacking

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Sir Paul McCartney has become the latest celebrity to have his official website hacked.The site was infected with a computer virus that could have left users vulnerable to identity theft, according to The Daily Telegraph.It happened just moments before the ex-Beatle reunited with former bandmate Ringo Starr at a benefit concert."They obviously chose that time because they knew the site would be busy. We've seen this before with Paris Hilton and it can cause all sorts of problems," said a spokesperson for ScanSafe, the company that identified the problem."One of our clients was actually using the site and reported it to us. Hackers like these do around one site a week and obviously the more high-profile it is, the better," they added.A representative for McCartney's website has since confirmed that the virus has been removed and that the site is safe to use. Hilton's official website was infected with a similar virus in January, leaving thousands of visitors at risk of having their personal details stolen.

Inside Games: Codemasters

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The games industry employs a diverse range of people in a number of different roles. Over the next few months, BBC News is going to profile a range of jobs in the industry, as well as the firms themselves; talking to the people who actually do the work as they tell us what exactly they do. The current economic crisis knows no boundaries. Across the country, property prices are falling, firms are laying people off and - for now - there are still no signs of any green shoots of recovery. Nowhere is this more in evidence than in the market town of Leamington Spa, 25 miles south-east of Birmingham. “ As a publisher, you need to stay focused as to what you actually are. ” Gavin Cheshire Two years ago, Leamington Spa had property prices on a par with London, high employment and a bright future. Today, that future is not quite so bright. Companies have been tightening their belts, property prices are in freefall, and car firms such as Ford and Land Rover have been laying people off. But amid the gloom, there is one firm that is still doing rather well: jump in a taxi outside the station and the first thing they ask is if you are going to visit Codemasters. History lesson Founded in 1985 by two brothers - Richard and David Darling - the firm started off developing games for the ZX Spectrum. It was not long before they expanded to include the BBC Micro, Commodore 64, Amiga and Atari ST. The firm's first major success was in 1991 with the release of Micro Machines, the toy car racer that had miniature motors racing across a kitchen table. In fact, racing has been one of Codemasters' fortes, releasing numerous driving titles for the Colin McRae Rally and TOCA Touring Cars series. Today, the firm employs nearly 500 people in the UK and has a turnover measured in millions. However, in 2005, the Darling brothers sold their stake to a venture-capital fund. Codemasters general manager of development - Gavin Cheshire - said that while the firm has changed radically in 20 years, the public's perception of the games industry as a whole had not. "Games are one of the biggest pieces of the global entertainment industries today, but it's always been seen as geeks in their back bedrooms writing games," he said. "Not any more, today it is multi-million pound budgets for games that even eclipse some films." Two hats Codemasters is unusual in that it is both a games developer and games publisher (many of which are from third party development studios). The only other big British firm in this position is Eidos, whose financial situation is very different. In 2007, Eidos posted losses of £81.4m and while the firm has managed to cut its operating loss to under £10m, the company is about to be taken over by the Japanese publisher Square Enix. Mr Cheshire said the two firms had a very different business model. "As a publisher, you need to stay focused as to what you actually are. Eidos from the very conception, had one big game - Tomb Raider - and they milked that very well, but with the exception of the Champ Manager series, they had very little else. "Codemasters have never had that one exceptional brand, like Tomb Raider, we've had lots of very good sustaining brands. "The trouble is, if you get one of those big brands wrong, and if that's all you've got on your roster for the year, then you tank very successfully. And with Tomb Raider they got it very wrong for the past few years." Economic climate change With the global economy on the brink of meltdown, there has been much speculation on what that will mean to the games industry. Mr Cheshire sounded a positive note, saying that when times were lean, families fell back on cheaper ways of entertaining themselves. "The games industry still provides a really useful service, because they are a way to save some money but still entertain yourself," he said. The games industry also faces a more serious, longer term problem. In March 2009, the games industry body - Tiga - said that without urgent help, the UK risked slipping from being the third-largest game developing nation to the fifth. The report said tax breaks and access to well-trained staff, as well as extra finance, was needed to address the "severe competitive disadvantage" to foreign rivals. Mr Cheshire said he agreed - in part - with Tiga but said there were other ways the government could help. "I think the government does a fair amount to help. And while UK publishers are few and far between, there are still a lot of developers out there. "Could the government do more, such as giving tax breaks? Of course they could. But as a taxpayer, do I think my money should be spent that way?" "We should be a profitable industry in its own right. In fact, every industry should stand on its own two feet, because it's healthy," he said. "What is wrong is the way other countries do things to make it easier to set up in their territory. That unevens the playing field and that is something the government could focus on." The future Codemasters say that how consumers will get games will change over the next few years. It cites iTunes as an example of a digital download success story, but stress' that - for now - the retail channel would exist. Publishers were keen on digital downloading for a number of reasons. Firstly, it takes some of the "risk" out of publishing games: producing CDs, manuals, boxes and estimating how many they will sell in retail is always a gamble. Software piracy, especially for PC games, is also a major issue. The Steam digital delivery system pioneered by US developer Valve, appears to have - for now - been fairly hack proof. A more contentious reason is "resale". Codemasters say that a games publisher got nothing from someone selling on a game, and with many games being sold two, three, or four times, that was a significant revenue stream games developers (but not retail outlets) were missing out on. Mr Cheshire said that Codemasters had played its part in shaping the games industry over the past three decades. "The games we've produced, with the advent of more advanced technology, have turned this into a multi-billion dollar industry. "We're still sitting quite well in that industry and we're still proudly flying the Union Jack."

7Digital announces Winamp tie-up

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

7Digital is to sell tracks via AOL’s Winamp application as part of its third download integration deal in three weeks. The new partnership follows deals with Spotify and Songbird agreed last month. MP3 downloads have been integrated into the Winamp player using 7Digital’s application programming interface (API) platform, so users can buy tracks within the media player from 7Digital’s catalogue of 6m songs without leaving Winamp. The API pulls data from 7Digital’s website about the artist, track and album into the ‘Now Playing’ menu. 7Digital CEO Ben Drury says, “We opened the API platform to developers last year to encourage anyone, from multinational retailers to bedroom developers, to create a range of music applications and services. This, combined with our European network of download stores, has allowed Winamp to create a first-class music discovery offering.” The partnership covers 10 European countries, including the UK and Ireland.

The Importance of Effective BI: Talking With Kalido's John Evans

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

At last month's Gartner BI Summit in Washington, D.C., the first person I sat down to chat with was John Evans, Director of Product Marketing at Kalido, a Boston-area-based BI warehousing and MDM solutions company. Evans was kind enough to agree to do a live podcast with me, and so we did...only to discover afterward that my MP3 recorder didn't actually record our discussion. Technical difficulties aside, the talk Evans gave me was great, and luckily he agreed to re-record once we returned to our respective offices.Hear Evans discuss what effective BI is and why it's so important in today's economy, his company's recent partnership with Netezza, the hot BI topic of data governance and more in this podcast.---TRANSCRIPT---So we met a couple weeks ago at the Gartner BI Summit in Washington, DC and there you told me a little bit about Kalido's partnership with Netezza. Can you tell me a little bit more about that and what it means for each party?Sure. Yes. So earlier in March at the summit, we announced a strategic partnership with Netezza. And what this means is customers will now be able to get a high-performance data warehouse solution in automated and flexible architecture with a low total cost of ownership. And what Kalido brings to this equation is the second part so the flexibility and the automation. Our product is the Kalido Information Engine and it's known for its ability to quickly capture the requirements for the warehouse using a business model. And then, Kalido automatically builds the warehouse based on that model. And, of course, Netezza is a very fast-performing, very scalable warehouse appliance and we ported our database to run on Netezza appliances. So for customers that need the scale, and the query speed, and are faced with lot of change in their business that makes it hard for their warehouse and BI environments to keep up-to-date, then together Kalido and Netezza have a really great offering. We also announced as part of our partnership that we'll collaborate to develop industry specific solutions and those will be based on best practices of both companies and they'll also include some prebuilt business models, load processes and dashboards.Okay, that sounds really great. The next question is how would this partnership impact customers, which I'm sure listeners want to know?Sure. Well, there are a couple really nice benefits to customers. First, is the combination of scale, and performance, and flexibility in a single appliance so customers no longer have to choose between those attributes in their warehouse solution. But more specifically from a Kalido point of view, customers can save costs and deploy a lot faster compared to taking a more traditional warehouse development steps so our approach and automation in our technology mean less hand coding, less database administration work, and much less BI tool configuration. So there is a faster time to value, there's much less cost, and a platform that can be quickly changed when the business changes. And then, of course, on a scalable vast warehouse appliance platform, we think this is a really very compelling offering. And the solutions that we will deliver will help customers get a head start on solutions to some very specific industry problems.And is this type of effective BI more important now given the tough economy?Yes, absolutely. We saw from the Gartner BI Summit where we announced this partnership with Netezza that Gartner survey indicated that BI remains a top technology interest for companies. And I think part of the reason for that is organizations need to keep on top of the indicators they use to run and manage the business. And when time gets tough, there's even more scrutiny on this information. So BI helps deliver it throughout the organization and if he asked them the right questions, and can get the right data, then you have a better chance of making informed decisions about how to respond to these changing market conditions. Now, the other thing we're seeing is even though BI is important, companies are taking a really focused and tactical approach to investing in technology. So for example, rather than pursuing a broad enterprise wide deployment, they're looking at smaller more focused projects or problems to address and then building a business case and getting a return on their investment quickly. So even if someone has budget, they're not necessarily going to spend it unless they can demonstrate a way to get business value quickly from that investment. Right. Exactly. And last time we spoke, you told me about Kalido's business driven models to BI. Can you tell me why this is important?Yeah. The business model approach that we have has been really important for our customers. And they use the business model to create this conceptual view of what they want to analyze and how all that information interrelates with IT working collaboratively with the business stakeholders this way they can get their requirements and quickly generate a prototype warehouse and it'll automatically generate the BI queues from that. And if they need to change the warehouse to get the right views, or the requirements change, or if there were some misunderstanding, or something going on in the business, they can just change the model and the new view of the business ripples up to the BI tools. So it's a much more responsive environment. It's much easier to implement and manage and just helps customers get better BI faster. Typically, we're able to get something going within four to six weeks or so. Then after a few iterations on the model, getting it just so, they can easily put that prototype into production so this can say several months compared to a more traditional approach to building these systems.That sounds excellent. I've also noticed that Kalido has been talking a lot lately about data governance, can you tell me where data governance fits into this whole process?Sure. Well, of course, you want to make sure that you're putting data into the warehouse that's accurately and consistent. And unfortunately, you can't control all the information coming in because some of it might be from external sources so it's not going to match, you're going to have to do something to get it aligned with your internal data. And you can try and clean up that data before you load it, but there's always going to be something you can't fix with technology. In other words, some person is going to have to be involved to determining whether that information is valid. So we recommend a data governance program and have a technology that can help you set it up. And we see there are three pillars of what you need in any technology that's going to help drive your data governance program. First, is the business rules of what is the data standard? What makes up the valid data? The second is governance processes and delivered by an embedded workflow so you can make sure that the data stewards are doing what they need to do, keeping track of those processes. And the third thing you need is some sort of audit and tracking and controls in place around security, around seeing who did what when, and keeping track of prior data values so you could have the bulletproof audit trail for compliance purposes. So we think having this sort of data governance capability is good, generally, but it's also really important to have data governance for your data warehouse, because after all, you think about it that's a lot of really high value information, aggregated information that you're putting into your warehouse that needs to be accurate and consistent and valid. And then, using that information again to help you make the right kind of informed choices during these difficult times.

Clothes launch for Figleaves

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Lingerie etailer Figleaves will launch women’s clothing next week, as it looks to evolve into a fully fledged lifestyle etailer. The etailer has invested £1 million in the launch of its own-label womenswear brand, Figleaves Woman, which will sit alongside other womenswear brands including Hudson Jeans, American Vintage, Citizens of Humanity and Splendid on its website. An own-label kidswear range is also planned for later this month and a menswear range for later in the year. Figleaves is branching out into new categories to boost sales and offset falling online lingerie sales. Etail trade body IMRG said lingerie sales in February fell 14% against last year. Figleaves chief executive Julia Reynolds said Figleaves Woman was positioned at the upper end of Marks & Spencer and just below more premium high street chains such as Whistles and Reiss. Prices range from £15 to £120. She said: “I know we can’t make a complete business selling lingerie alone, it’s too fringe. Lingerie has also been impacted by the recession. I’d like clothing to become 30% of the offer within a year.” Figleaves, which launched eight years ago, has yet to turn a profit, but Reynolds said the business was on target to make a profit this year.

NewBay LifeCache Hits 4 Billion Milestone

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

NewBay LifeCache operator cloud services now storing over 4 billion pieces of user-generated content. NewBay, the leader in digital lifestyle solutions for operators, today announced that its award winning LifeCache product suite is storing over four billion pieces of user-generated content (UGC) online for subscribers worldwide. Petabytes of data are now stored by LifeCache, with millions of photos and videos uploaded to its digital lifestyle services, across Web and handset channels, every day. LifeCache powers a range of services for mobile and converged operators that allow consumers to create, store, share and view user content including pictures, videos and messages. The announcement follows the recent LifeCache achievement of storing over 16 million messages in just one day for O2 BlueBook. Built on LifeCache Message Minder, O2 Bluebook is a service which enables subscribers' SMS and MMS messages to be automatically saved online via a network-initiated back up. The increase in the volume of media safeguarded on LifeCache can be attributed to better user-experience and technology advancements, which facilitate the creation, management and online storage of user content. For example: NewBay's one or zero click media upload client Network copy of SMS/MMS Subscriber usage of cloud services provided by operators "By combining the latest Web 2.0 developments with powerful user generated content capabilities, NewBay has developed a powerful formula for harnessing the strategic potential of user content for operators," said Dr Nagappan Arunachalam (Arun), Chief Marketing Officer at NewBay Software. "In providing compelling cloud-based services, operators are in a strong position to take advantage of the explosion in digital content, not only deriving benefits in terms of increased ARPU, but also by forging a valuable, lifelong connection with subscribers' digital lives." NewBay LifeCache is built on Astra, the telco-grade, internet style platform, which allows NewBay's solutions to scale up to 100 million users on a single system. NewBay has experienced exceptional success working with leading operators worldwide. The LifeCache product suite is currently powering operator services including T-Mobile MyAlbum, Telefonica-O2 Bluebook messaging and album service, U.S. Cellular Online Album and Orange Social networking services.

Cable Show 2009: Openet Tracks Cable Subscribers' Usage

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Openet -- after two years of "behind-the-scenes" work with two of the four biggest U.S. cable operators -- is launching software designed to let MSOs better measure consumers' TV viewing and voice and data usage. Openet's roots are in analyzing transactional data for wireless carriers, including BT, Orange, AT&T and Verizon Wireless. The Openet solutions for cable are built on its FusionWorks product suite, which enables real-time processing of network events and transactions. Manzo claimed the platform is highly scalable, handling 15 billion transactions per day for Verizon Wireless. "Gaining subscriber, service usage and content viewership visibility is a vital first step for cable operators to develop new business models and improve the subscriber experience," said Openet chief marketing officer Mike Manzo. Openet's new cable solutions comprise Audience & Engagement Measurement, Convergent Usage Measurement and Interactive Services Fulfillment. The Audience & Engagement Measurement solution measures subscriber activities across all video services, including linear and non-linear viewing data and click-streams associated with interactive TV applications. Interactive Services Fulfillment allows operators to collect interaction information from Enhanced Binary Interchange Format and tru2way-based applications and forward the data to a fulfillment server, in order to respond to real-time subscriber requests. The third new solution, Convergent Usage Measurement, collects and distributes data and voice usage. Manzo said competitors in the cable space include Concurrent's Everstream, Microsoft's Navic Networks and Cisco Systems. Earlier this year, Openet announced two other solutions for cable operators: Fair Usage and Tiered Service Controls, which let operators manage network activities based on dynamic business rules.

Habbo Hotel owner Sulake turns to 2008 profit

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

* 2008 sales rise 19 pct, turns to profit* No immediate IPO plans* Helped by smaller exposure to advertising downturn HELSINKI, March 30 (Reuters) - Finnish Internet company Sulake swung to a profit in 2008, boosted by increasing usage of its teenagers' networking site Habbo Hotel. Sulake's virtual world Habbo Hotel (http://www.habbo.com/) has around 11.5 million monthly visitors, with most users being 13 to 16 years old and 90 percent using the site for free. Micro-payments via credit cards and mobile phones for items like virtual room furniture mean the revenue stream at Sulake, founded in 2000, is growing. Advertising generates less than 20 percent of total income. "We are confident that our Habbo business model, which is based primarily on user sales and supported by advertising, is a clear strength in the current economic climate," Chief Executive Timo Soininen said in a statement. Sulake on Monday reported 2008 sales up 19 percent to 50.1 million euros ($66.3 million), with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation reaching 4.8 million compared with a slight loss in 2007. Sulake said regular site upgrades and a refresh of avatar clothing and accessories contributed to boosting user numbers. "The strong revenue growth was mainly driven by a very good Habbo user revenue performance, supported by stable advertising sales," Chief Financial Officer Outi Henriksson told Reuters. In 2009 the company said it will focus on sales and profit growth now that previous expansion plans to countries like China are complete. Sulake also plans to launch a new service this year, but did not disclose details. "This, combined with the current state of the financial markets, means that we are not actively pursuing a public listing at the moment," Henriksson said. The company earlier said it was planning a commercial launch for its mobile service minifriday.com, which has gathered more than a million users in a testing mode. Before the financial crisis hit stocks and valuations, Silicon Alley Insider last year valued Sulake at $1.26 billion, just above career networking site LinkedIn. Sulake's owners include Finnish advertising agency Taivas, which is partly owned by Britain's WPP , venture capitalists, telecom operator Elisa and Japan's Movida Group. (Reporting by Tarmo Virki; Editing by David Holmes) ($1=.7560 Euro)

Spotify adds download through 7Digital

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

On-demand music streaming app Spotify has now formally added one of the three music retail affiliates it told us about earlier this month. Listeners can right-click track names and pick "Buy From 7Digital.com", letting them purchase corresponding 320Kbps MP3s and some FLAC files from the six million track-strong service. Later, users will also get to buy whole playlists they create inside Spotify. With Spotify gaining a loyal audience, it's a good deal for chief executive Ben Drury's Shoreditch, London-based 7Digital which, by virtue of its API, also this month inked a similar deal to be a retail affiliate inside Mozilla-based media player Songbird and which also powers some downloads for sites including Last.fm. For Spotify, it's the start of an a la carte downloads model that could supplant its core ad-supported, per-per-day and monthly subscription models. The commercial split is unclear. As is one other thing: since Spotify's model is all about streaming from the cloud, who will really buy individual tracks through it? Spotify already had retail affiliate relationships with 7Digital, iTunes Store and Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) MP3 on a very small selection of its catalogue - for now, it will go with 7Digital alone but does want to expand in future. Earlier this month, chief executive Daniel Ek told paidContent:UK there would soon be "a more integrated offering" for the 7Digital and Amazon stores, but for iTunes the service would probably continue to link directly to the Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) store. Spotify and 7Digital, however, want to "ultimately allow users to listen and buy MP3s securely with one or two clicks", Drury said in the release. The 7Digital arrangement will be international but will start with UK and Germany, France, Italy and Spain (so far, Spotify is only available in those countries, Finland, Norway and Sweden).

Yoox Hires Goldman, Mediabanc to Underwrite Its IPO

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Yoox Group SpA, the online fashion retailer, has hired Goldman Sachs and Mediabanc to underwrite its initial public offering of stock, planned for December, the retailer's chief executive officer said Tuesday. Federico Marchetti, who founded the Bologna, Italy, retailer in 2000, said the company's business model -- of serving as an e-commerce site as well as running the online retail sites for luxury fashion brands such as Valentino and Armani -- is proving resilient during the global slowdown in consumer luxury spending. The company reported net sales of €101 million for 2008 on March 5. In 2009, Yoox plans to roll out eight new single-brand online stores, including Bally and Moschino -- bringing the total to 18. This has been considered revolutionary in the luxury industry, where brands once believed that consumers would refuse to shop online. Instead, these online sales, though still relatively small, are a source of revenue growth. Mediabanc and Goldman couldn't be reached for comment. Though late to selling online, many fashion houses are taking the plunge in recent years, realizing they can tap busy consumers and those who live beyond the reach of their stores. Yoox has stepped in with the capability to run the online sites for brands such as Emporio Armani, Valentino, Pucci and Marni. Yoox also operates Yoox.com, a fashion retailer selling many brands online. Mr. Marchetti, who currently owns 10% of Yoox, said he will work out the amount of capital to be raised from the offering with the two banks. Yoox's plans mark a rare sign of optimism as IPO activity has all but dried up this year with the financial crisis and few companies have come out with plans for year-end. "We don't feel that our growth will slow down," Mr. Marchetti said.

Social lending website Zopa profits from banks' decline

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Zopa, the social lending website that cuts out banks, lent a record £2.5m in February and is piling on new members as the credit drought makes its service more attractive. The company, which brings lenders and borrowers together via the internet, said its business grew rapidly in the second half of last year as bank lending prices rocketed while savings returns tumbled. Giles Andrews, Zopa's chief exec-utive, said that in the second half new members "with an appetite to lend" rose 81 per cent from a year earlier and loans paid out increased by 78 per cent. In January 2009, new lenders were up by more than 700 per cent and the amount of money lent rose 109 per cent. Each month since July has seen about double the lending of a year ago. Bad debts are running at about 0.3 per cent of total lendings. Zopa is advising current lenders that bad debts will be higher than that but they should still make at least 7 per cent return, Mr Andrews said. Zopa stands for "zone of possible agreement" - the point where two people's appetite to do a deal overlaps. Through its website, lenders declare how much they want to lend, at what rate, to which kind of customer, and borrowers bid for the money. The shortage and increased cost of credit has been a key benefit to Zopa, Mr Andrews said. Where a creditworthy borrower could get credit at 6 or 7 per cent from a bank, now they pay 11 or 12 per cent – if they can get a loan at all. Lenders used to get a percentage point or so extra for taking on risk through Zopa but can now get 9 per cent with Zopa compared with 1 per cent in a savings account. "People didn't necessarily like their banks or believe them to have their best interests at heart but they did trust them to be around. We had to try to compete against that very solid, substantial trust," Mr Andrews said. "From September 2007, when queues started building outside Northern Rock branches, that positive view of banks started to erode. Their trust advantage has gone." Zopa makes its money by charging lenders 1 per cent of the value of their loan and taking a flat £118.50 fee from each borrower. Lenders spread their risk by lending in chunks of no more than £10 to individual borrowers checked by Zopa to ensure they are low-risk. The company, which celebrated four years of trading this month, was started by three of the founders of Egg and is backed by venture capitalists including the US firms Bessemer Venture Partners and Balderton Capital. The former Egg men have now handed over the running of the company to Mr Andrews but are still shareholders. Zopa has international ambitions. An exploratory attempt to launch in the US fell foul of the regulatory system and the cost involved. But Mr Andrews said Zopa was looking at launching in Japan.

DEMO 09

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

DEMO is the launchpad for emerging technologies both as conferences in the U.S., Europe, and China and as a news and information Web site. DEMO conferences and news coverage are where digital entrepreneurs and investors change the game and stay ahead of the curve. http://www.demo.com

Jefferies 5th Annual Internet

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

5th Annual Internet & Media conference; a gathering of nearly 60 CEOs and leading institutional and private equity investors that offers you the ideal opportunity to take the pulse of opinion leaders and top decision makers, assess where we are in the growth cycle of the Internet, and how traditional media is likely to cope with these challenges going forward. http://www.jefferies.com/cositemgr.pl/html/OurFirm/ConferencesEvents/index.shtml

Cebit

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Cebit is the world's largest and most renowned trade fair for the world of IT and telecommunications. http://www.cebit.de/homepage_e

Montgomery Technology Conference

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

A meeting of senior-level private equity and venture capital investors and corporate industry executives. http://www.monty.com/pages/mediaCenter/mtc2009/MTC2009Overview.html

SXSW Interactive

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The SXSW Interactive Festival features five days of exciting panel content and amazing parties. Attracting digital creatives as well as visionary technology entrepreneurs, the event celebrates the best minds and the brightest personalities of emerging technology. http://sxsw.com/interactive/

Web 2.0 Expo

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Web 2.0 Expo features the most innovative and successful Internet industry figures and companies providing attendees with examples of business models, development paradigms, and design strategies to enable mainstream businesses and new arrivals to the Web 2.0 world to take advantage of this new generation of services and opportunities. Web 2.0 Expo is co-produced by O'Reilly Media and TechWeb. http://conferences.oreillynet.com/

MIPTV

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

MIPTV is the unique business event where you can meet all the major decision makers in one place and at one time, including representatives from the major content studios, producers and distributors, strategic broadcasting partners, representatives from advertising agencies, and digital network operators. http://www.miptv.com/

GreenRoad and Admiral Partner to Launch ‘First Pay How You Drive’ Insurance Scheme

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Staffordshire Rolls Out Programme with GreenRoad and Admiral; has Reduced Young Driver Risk by 58%. GreenRoad today announced that it is working with insurance specialist Admiral to encourage young drivers to drive safely with the first ‘pay how you drive’ scheme in the industry. GreenRoad and Admiral are offering select UK councils an incentive programme that rewards young drivers who drive safely with reduced insurance premiums and the ability to earn cash vouchers when they drive in a safe manner. The first council to take advantage of this scheme is Staffordshire County Council, which is going live with its Young Driver Coaching Programme and installing GreenRoad’s Safety Center in up to 500 cars in the county. Admiral is offering a 25% discount to all the young drivers participating in Staffordshire’s scheme. Each month, safe drivers – those who stay green or are low risk - will also receive up to 10 percent of the annual non-discounted insurance premium as vouchers to spend. This could be worth up to a maximum of £156 per driver. Forty young drivers and their families from across Staffordshire volunteered to install GreenRoad Safety Center in their cars as part of a trial starting in April 2008. Both young drivers and their families improved their driving dramatically during the six-month trial, with many transforming their attitude and becoming model drivers. Overall the young drivers in the pilot scheme reduced the number of high-risk driving manoeuvres by an average of 58%. The number of high-risk manoeuvres while driving at night -- often the most dangerous time for young drivers -- declined by 71%. Those drivers who started the pilot in the highest risk group reduced the number of risky manoeuvres by 65%. GreenRoad and Staffordshire have been awarded the prestigious Prince Michael International Road Safety Award in recognition of the pilot programme’s outstanding contribution to improving road safety. Through safer driving, GreenRoad clients also reduce fuel consumption by an average of up to 10 percent, cutting costs and CO2 emissions. William Williams, product development manager at Admiral said, "New drivers pay a fortune for car insurance and that's because they are so much more likely to kill or maim while driving. We are hoping that Admiral's 25% premium discount will encourage more new drivers to sign up for this brilliant initiative. It's a way to cut the carnage on the roads while also cutting the cost of car insurance." “Admiral is the first insurer to directly reward people for how they drive,” said Eric Shishko, senior vice president, insurance and consumer at GreenRoad. “As insurance companies look to attract and retain new customers and good drivers in a competitive marketplace, Admiral is setting a new standard with this innovative way to reduce crashes and insurance claims.” GreenRoad also works with a variety of insurance carriers and brokers, such as Marsh and Belmont International, to provide innovative solutions to commercial fleets. About GreenRoad Safety Center Safety Center uses innovative technology to help improve driving skills and reduce fuel consumption. A personalised professional coach, Safety Center empowers drivers to manage their own safety and improve their driving techniques. Safety Center provides an automated solution for families, road safety professionals, fleet managers and insurers. Its in-vehicle sensors collect information on approximately 120 different driving manoeuvres. Each manoeuvre is evaluated in five categories: acceleration; braking, lane changing, cornering and speed handling. Using proprietary algorithms, manoeuvres are analysed to give drivers continuous in-vehicle feedback about areas that require improvement, and build their driver profile. Driver safety and economy levels are displayed using a colour classification system: green light indicates safe driving, yellow needs attention and red is high risk. Feedback is also provided using SMS, email, and Safety Center’s password-protected website. About GreenRoad GreenRoad develops driver safety technologies that stop risky driving before an accident occurs, and dramatically reduce crash rates. Its solutions are designed to empower drivers to manage their own safety by giving instantaneous, in-vehicle driver feedback—without invading privacy. GreenRoad provides immediate savings, the result is fewer accidents, lower accident costs, and reduced fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. UK customers include Stagecoach, T-Mobile, PHS Datashred, Staffordshire County Council, Balfour Beatty Utility Solutions and the Ministry of Defence. GreenRoad is backed by Benchmark Capital, Virgin Green Fund, Amadeus Capital Partners and Balderton Capital. For more information about GreenRoad, visit www.greenroad.com. About Admiral Admiral, (a trading name of EUI Ltd) launched in 1993, and is part of Admiral Group plc. It was set up to target those motorists who traditionally pay higher than average premiums, including those under-35, living in cities or driving hot hatches. Admiral writes its motor insurance business to a consortium of insurers, these being:Admiral Insurance Company Ltd Admiral Insurance (Gibraltar) Limited Great Lakes Reinsurance (UK) plc Admiral’s salesline is 0800 600 800 - open from 8am to 10pm on weekdays, from 9 am to 5pm on Saturdays, and on a Sunday between 10am and 4pm Admiral’s web site address is www.admiral.com. The Admiral Group employs over 2,500 people, has over 1.5 million customers.

Hotel video site lets you look before booking

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

TVtrip.com What it offers: Hotel video tours What we like: TVtrip.com offers video tours — shot by professional videographers — of hotel exteriors, lobbies, guest rooms and more. Listings are accompanied by a minimum room rate for the next month, and are integrated with a search tool that launches a booking window. Hotels also can be viewed on an interactive city map. What needs work: Inventory is limited, just under 11,000 videos in all, and is skewed toward Europe and Asia. Popular U.S. destinations such as Orlando are not yet included yet. Text with the videos is rife with marketing-speak.

Betfair takes a £35m punt on American racing channel

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Betfair, the internet betting exchange which matched its first bet less than 10 years ago, took a huge stride into the American racing and betting markets yesterday when it purchased the the racing television channel TVG for $50m (£35m). TVG covers racing from 70 tracks in 16 states, including the major racing centres of Kentucky, California and New York. It also accepts bets from residents of those states, dividing the profits with the racecourses concerned, which include Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby, Santa Anita, Belmont Park and Saratoga. Betting in the US is strictly regulated, and its gambling market has previously been considered off-limits for British betting firms. Betfair has no plans at present to introduce its exchange model of betting into the American market, but will expect to use its cutting-edge betting technology to improve the pari-mutuel service to TVG clients. Looking further into the future, meanwhile, Betfair's purchase of TVG must also give the company a significant head-start on its competitors if, or when, current regulation is eased. US racing has struggled to compete in the domestic gambling market in recent years, prompting some industry figures to suggest that an exchange model, giving punters much greater choice and flexibility in their betting, could be the way forward. "We have waited to enter the US market until we had a high quality, and above all, legal product offering," David Yu, Betfair's chief executive, said yesteday, "and we believe with this acquisition we have secured those goals."

TALEND SECURES $12 MILLION IN FUNDING TO FUEL CONTINUED WORLDWIDE GROWTH AND MOMENTUM

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Balderton Capital and AGF Private Equity Lead Series C Round of Investment in OpenSource Data Integration Leader PALO ALTO, Calif., January 26, 2009—Talend, the first provider of open source data integrationsoftware, today announced it has secured $12 million in Series C financing to help fuel furtherworldwide growth and company expansion. The funding round is being led by Balderton Capital, anearly investor in MySQL, and existing investor AGF Private Equity bringing Talend’s total funding tomore than $20 million. Balderton General Partner Bernard Liautaud, the founder, CEO and Chairmanof Business Objects for 18 years up until its eventual sale to SAP for $6.7 billion, will join Talend’sboard of directors. During 2008, Talend moved from being a disruptive innovator to an open source data integrationleader. The popularity of Talend Open Studio, the Company’s flagship open source data integrationsolution, has risen sharply since its introduction more than two years ago with more than 3.3 millionlifetime downloads. In the past twelve months alone, Talend’s paying customer base increased bymore than 300 percent, steadily taking market share away from proprietary data integration tools suchas Informatica PowerCenter or IBM WebSphere DataStage, and confirming the suitability andscalability of its solutions for enterprise projects of large and well-known companies. "The ability to raise a new round of financing during the current economic environment reinforces ourgeneral belief that Talend is poised to maximize its potential," said Bertrand Diard, co-founder andCEO of Talend. "Enterprises large and small are searching for ways to optimize costs and increasevalue without sacrificing the performance, functionality and benefits of their data integrationdeployments. Talend has become the target of that search, joining the likes of Red Hat, JBoss andMySQL in changing the economics of a long-standing software category to become a global power indata integration. With worldwide economy favoring companies that bring feature-rich softwaresolutions to market at an optimal cost of ownership, we expect to continue our momentum in 2009 andbeyond." “AGF Private Equity was an early backer of Talend, and we are proud to affirm our support to thecompany and its team,” said Matthieu Baret, Partner with AGF Private Equity. “Talend hasexperienced tremendous momentum in US and Europe over the past two years. With the addition oftoday’s announced funding, Talend is poised to further expand globally, extending its offering and itsposition as a leading provider of open source infrastructure software for enterprises.” “Today's information systems rely on a mix of open source and traditional technologies,” said BernardLiautaud. “Open source has proven its maturity, and its ability to handle even the most complex needsof enterprises, while seamlessly working alongside established solutions. Talend has proven that opensource in particular is especially suited for operational data integration. I am proud to be associatedwith a category leader and to help IT organizations in companies of all sizes unlock their data assets.” “During the economic downturn earlier this decade, most open source applications were not mature orfeature-rich enough to fill the proprietary software void, forcing enterprises to reinvest in their existingIT investments,” said Raven Zachary, research director at The 451 Group, an independent technologyindustryanalyst company. “Fast forward to today, open source is a much more widely acceptedalternative, allowing enterprises to accomplish their project goals while reducing overall IT costs. The451 Group expects companies like Talend—companies that provide open source, feature-richenterprise-grade products—to do well in the 2009 global economic environment.” Leveraging the additional funding, Talend will expand global operations into key markets in theAmericas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific, targeting large enterprises and partners that are looking at costeffectivealternatives to proprietary integration suites in a time of shrinking budgets and slimmingservices margins. The company will accelerate its growth, reinforcing its position as a key player in amarket still dominated by a handful of proprietary vendors. Talend will also unveil new products in2009 to help solve emerging integration requirements stemming from merger and acquisition activityas struggling companies are acquired.“Over the past 12 months we have seen hundreds of new customers and dozens of new partnersembrace our open source data integration and data quality technologies as the foundation for enterpriseprojects,” said Fabrice Bonan, COO and co-founder of Talend. “The open source model is a uniquedriver of innovation, enabling Talend to rely on a fast-expanding and vibrant community to accelerateits development cycles. The additional funding will allow us to expand our development teams,broaden the functional coverage of our technologies and provide more advanced products and featuresto our community and customers.” About Balderton Capital Balderton Capital is a leading venture capital firm, committed to helping talented entrepreneurs buildgreat companies. Based in London, Balderton has approximately $1.85 billion under management.Since 2000, Balderton has invested in over 80 companies across a wide variety of technology sectorsand geographies, including Europe, the US and China. Notable investments include Betfair, theworld’s largest online gaming exchange, Bebo (the social networking site, recently sold to AOL for$850m) and MySQL (the open-source database business, recently sold to Sun for $1 billion). For moreinformation, please visit: www.Balderton.com. About Talend Talend is the recognized market leader in open source data integration. More than 400 payingcustomers around the globe, including Yahoo!, Virgin Mobile, Sony and Swiss Life, use the TalendIntegration Suite of products and services to optimize the costs of data integration, ETL and dataquality. With over 3.3 million lifetime downloads and 700,000 core product downloads, Talend’ssolutions are the most widely used and deployed data integration solutions in the world. The companyhas major offices in North America, Europe and Asia, and a global network of technical and servicespartners. For more information, please visit http://www.talend.com.

Bernard Liautaud entre au conseil d'administration de la PME Talend

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

L'éditeur français Talend, développeur d'une solution d'intégration de données en Open Source, vient de lever 12 M$ de plus : 9 M$ auprès de Balderton Capital et 3 M$ apportés par AGF. Bernard Liautaud, fondateur de Business Objects et associé de Balderton, entre au conseil d'administration de Talend. Sur fond de crise économique, l'éditeur français Talend réalise la prouesse de boucler un troisième tour de table. La start-up fondée par Bertrand Diard et Fabrice Bonan(*) vient de lever 12 M$ auprès de son actionnaire historique AGF et du fonds britannique de capital risque Balderton Capital. Lequel compte parmi ses associés Bernard Liautaud, fondateur de Business Objects (photo ci-dessus, à droite). Mieux encore, l'emblématique patron de BO, qui a revendu sa société à SAP en septembre 2007, fait son entrée au conseil d'administration de Talend. Il s'est dit séduit par l'offre d'intégration de données développée par l'équipe française et par le parcours que la start-up a effectué depuis son premier tour de table, au printemps 2006. Aujourd'hui, Open Studio, le logiciel d'ETL (extraction, transformation et chargement de données) proposé par Talend en Open Source, a été téléchargé 3,3 millions de fois dans le monde et Bertrand Diard évalue à 200 000 le nombre des utilisateurs du produit. Au-dessus du coeur gratuit Open Studio, l'offre de Talend comporte des briques complémentaires fournies sous forme d'abonnement, avec support avancé. C'est sur ces offres à valeur ajoutée que Talend a bâti son modèle économique. En 2007, après un trimestre d'exercice, la start-up avait déjà engrangé plus d'un million de dollars de chiffre d'affaires. Un revenu qu'elle a multiplié par six sur l'année écoulée. De trente collaborateurs, début 2008, la société est passée à cent personnes douze mois plus tard, et compte 150 partenaires intégrateurs dans le monde. Une tarification très concurrentielle En moins de trois ans d'existence, l'éditeur français a su gagner la confiance de nombreuses grandes entreprises ; des clients qui, en outre, le dispensent souvent de la démarche d'approche commerciale puisqu'ils le contactent régulièrement eux-mêmes après avoir déjà téléchargé et essayé son ETL. C'est en partie ce qui permet à Talend de proposer des tarifs très concurrentiels - pouvant descendre jusqu'à 30% de certaines offres, face à ses concurrents directs, aux cycles commerciaux plus lourds (les Informatica, IBM avec son offre Datastage héritée du rachat d'Ascential, ou encore Oracle avec l'offre rachetée à Sunopsis). Son tarif n'est pas basé sur le nombre de serveurs, ni sur le nombre de bases cibles et sources (comme chez Oracle), mais sur le nombre de développeurs. « Nous avons gagné 350 nouveaux clients en 2008 », comptabilise Bertrand Diard. Dans le portefeuille de Talend figurent, en France, des entreprises comme SFR, Orange, Virgin Mobile, cdiscount, Eurofins Scientifique ou Boloré. Et aux Etats-Unis, région qui génère 30% des revenus de l'éditeur, Open Studio a été choisi par des groupes tels que US Cellular, Yahoo, eBay, Sony et DuPont de Nemours. Tous clients qui ont recours à l'outil d'intégration de Talend pour traiter de très gros volumes de données. Chez SFR, notamment, il est utilisé pour la génération des factures clients. Bertrand Diard promeut l'Open Source à l'Afdel Sur son marché, Talend participe par ailleurs aux initiatives menées pour développer l'industrie française du logiciel. A la fin de l'année dernière, son PDG Bertrand Diard, a pris la tête, dans le cadre de l'Afdel (association française des éditeurs de logiciels), d'une commission sur l'édition en environnement Open Source. Si l'année 2009 se joue dans un contexte économique compliqué, Bertrand Diard table sur le fait que sa solution va permettre aux DSI d'accompagner leurs réductions des coûts. Sans compter l'incontestable crédibilité qu'apporte l'arrivée de Bernard Liautaud au conseil d'administration de la société. Balderton Capital, le fonds de capital risque qu'il représente, fut l'un des tout premiers à investir dans la société suédoise MySQL, qui s'est revendue en janvier 2008 à Sun pour un milliard de dollars. Son intérêt pour Talend (il a apporté 9 M$ et AGF 3 M$ de plus) semble donc de fort bon augure.

More Validation For Open Source Software: Talend Raises $12 Million

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Open source data integration software maker Talend has raised $12 million in Series C financing from Balderton Capital and previous investor AGF Private Equity. Balderton’s Bernard Liautaud is joining their Board of Directors. The company says its flagship product, Talend Open Studio (demo video), has seen over 3.3 million downloads so far, and Talend boasts about having 400 paying customers (an increase of more than 300 percent over the past 12 months) and over 100 partners. Talend intends to use the funds (which according to the blog post announcing the deal, were “no small feat” to raise in these economic times) to expand global operations into the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific, and introduce a number of new products in the course of this year. Talend had previously raised $3.5 million in Series B funding, so this investment brings its total financing to more than $15.5 million (sources are floating it’s more like $20 million in total). Talend is not the only venture-backed company trying to disrupt the data integration software market with an open-source product; SnapLogic has raised over $2.5 million for a similar service. London-based Balderton Capital has done a couple of notable investments so far, such as Bebo (the social networking site that was sold to AOL for $850m) and MySQL (the open-source database business, sold to Sun for $1 billion). This is their first investment since they raised a new fund to the tune of $430 million two weeks ago.

Zopa takes up where the banks leave off

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Julian Knight and Nargis Ahmad look at the site matching individual lenders and borrowers who recoil from high-street ratesSavers and borrowers alike are struggling in the back- draft from the credit crunch. The return on savings has been slashed dramatically following a series of Bank of England rate cuts. On the other side of the coin, borrowers have seen credit-card, loan and overdraft rates rise as banks grow ever more reluctant to lend. Even people with a good credit history are being charged more or refused a loan altogether. Against this backdrop, any initiative that offers to cut out the banks is bound to appeal. This is where Zopa.com, the money-exchange website, fits in. It styles itself as a market offering "loans from people, not banks". Basically, it matches individuals with cash to lend to individuals looking to borrow. Zopa was formed in 2005 and from small beginnings, business has boomed as the credit crunch unfolds. The concept behind the service is that lenders deposit money with the site, which is then advanced to other users. The loan is repaid over time at a set rate of interest. "Zopa is a lending and borrowing marketplace. There is money available to borrow, unlike at some high- street banks," says Giles Andrews, managing director and co-founder of Zopa. "Business is good. Lenders are coming to us because of the potential of better returns than on savings and borrowers because rates can be lower than with the banks." Andrew Hagger, from the financial advice website Moneynet.co.uk, admits that when Zopa was launched, he had misgivings. These, he says, have eased over time. "I was worried about the possibility of savers losing out due to borrowers defaulting, but after three years there is no sign of this. The key is that, through precise credit scoring, Zopa does tend to be careful over who gets the loans." Indeed, Zopa says it rejects around half of all loan applicants and carries out more checks than the banks, not only looking at credit histories but assessing whether or not the borrower can afford the repayments. Mr Hagger adds that the Zopa concept plugs into the anti-bank zeitgeist. "People feel differently about banks; they are no longer trusted. So if they can be taken out of the equation then that is a powerful draw," he says. Lenders can choose their own rate of interest and pick who they want to receive their money. The cost to lenders of using the service is a 1 per cent fee of the total value of the loan. However, this is no short- term commitment. They have to tie their money up for either three or five years. The amounts deposited start at £10 and go up too £25,000. Switching to the other side, borrowers can take out a loan of between £1,000 and £15,000, which again will be repaid over three or five years. There is also a fee payable to Zopa of £94.25, but unlike with some banks, there are no charges for early repayment of the loan. When signing up to the site as a potential borrower, your credit history will be checked and this will determine which band you fall into and the subsequent interest rate charged. There are five bands – A*, A, B, C and "Young" – with A* the most credit-worthy and C the least. Borrowers aged between 20 and 25 are put in the "Young" category. Traditionally, people in this age range have struggled to get credit as they have no history of taking out or repaying loans. Advancing money to borrowers in bands B or C will mean lenders receive more interest, but there is extra risk in doing so.The returns on offer seem eye-catching: the site advertises that lenders have earnt an average of 9.1 per cent. Borrowers don't fare too badly either. For example, £5,000 borrowed over three years currently attracts an interest rate of 7.3 per cent. This makes Zopa a "best buy", though people in higher-risk categories can expect to pay more. Understandably, given the troubles that have assailed banks over the past 18 months, savers are putting safety at the top of their checklists. To minimise any risk, Zopa will typically split a sum of £500 between 50 borrowers to reduce the risk of losing money. Be aware, though, that Zopa is not a bank, so lenders do not have the safety net of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Borrowers who miss repayments are charged a fee, and debt-collection agencies may be employed to chase defaulters. Although only around 0.2 per cent of borrowers have defaulted on their loans so far, there is a chance that those who advance cash might not get it back. And with the economy worsening, most analysts agree that lenders, of any hue, are going to suffer a rise in the level of bad debts. "Like high-street banks, social lending websites use debt-collection procedures to get the money back," says Richard Mason, spokesman for financial advice website Moneyextra.com. "But the loans are unsecured, which is a potential problem.".

LoveFilm announces over 1m subscribers

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Online DVD and games rental service LoveFilm has announced it has achieved over 1m subscribers and received £10.5m of debt funding.Lovefilm became profitable last year having achieved revenue growth of around 50%. It has secured the funds from Lloyds TSB, which it plans to invest in new on-demand technology as well as repay existing debts. Jim Buckle, chief financial officer for LoveFilm, said the investment was vital to help meet subscribers' developing demands. "This deal provides us with a solid platform from which to grow the business further and to continue to evolve new delivery platforms to suit all our subscribers' preferences," he added.

Nat Geo Music Signs Exclusive Global Publishing Deal with Kobalt Music Group

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

CANNES (Jan. 19, 2009)—National Geographic Entertainment has entered into anexclusive relationship between its music division Nat Geo Music (www.natgeomusic.net) andleading independent global music publisher Kobalt Music Group. Kobalt will globally represent NatGeo Music’s catalog and provide full-service music publishing administration, including registrationof copyrights with performance societies. National Geographic’s music library contains more than16,000 original music cues, including the organization’s iconic theme song.The announcement was made today by David Beal, president of National GeographicEntertainment, and Willard Ahdritz, CEO and founder of Kobalt.“We think that Kobalt is uniquely positioned to complement Nat Geo Music and maximizerevenue potential for our rich catalog of copyrights. Kobalt’s customized services and state-of-theartNext Generation Portal will allow us to be completely involved in the process of copyrightmanagement, royalty tracking and analysis,” said Beal.“David Beal’s strategy for developing Nat Geo Music is very exciting. We are very happyto be a part of that vision by taking Nat Geo Music’s film and TV administration to a new level usingnew technology on a global basis,” added Ahdritz.Additionally, Kobalt’s film and TV departments and agents worldwide will work closely withJeff Clyburn, a director at Nat Geo Music, to generate new revenue streams and securesynchronization opportunities for Nat Geo Music through uses in motion picture, TV, advertisingand other media.Since the 1960s National Geographic has created thousands of hours of some of the finestdocumentary television and motion pictures. Nat Geo Music, formed in 2006 under the direction ofBeal, has expanded to include not only the music publishing catalog but also a growing musicproduction library, music supervision services, full-service record label, live events, an internationalmusic and lifestyle cable channel, a world music Web site and original network programming.Nat Geo Music’s 24/7 television channel broadcasts throughout Europe, Latin America andAfrica and features a mix of music videos and concerts from top international artists and originalprogramming, such as “Geo Sessions,” an exclusive concert and interview series; “Short Trips,”mini-docs that explore the intersection between music and culture; and “UNTZ,” a Friday nightdance block that features the best dance music from all over the world. About Nat Geo MusicNat Geo Music content and product offerings celebrate cultural diversity and raiseawareness for global environmental and humanitarian issues. Content developed by Nat GeoMusic is utilized across all National Geographic platforms, including online media, radio, printmedia, film and television. Nat Geo Music programs music from every corner of the planet andincludes global legends, local stars and upcoming artists such as Ben Harper, Bob Marley,Youssou N’Dour, Jack Johnson, Natacha Atlas, Cesaria Evora, Angelique Kidjo, Caetano Veloso,Compay Segundo, Gilberto Gil, Omara Portuondo, Marisa Monte and Manu Chao.About Kobalt Music GroupKobalt is a leading independent music publisher offering unparalleled transparency, onlineglobal copyright administration, creative and synch/licensing services, and advances to writers,publishers and other publishing rights holders. With 70 employees in offices in London, New York,Nashville, Los Angeles, Berlin and Stockholm, as well as agents in over 20 major territories, Kobaltadministers more than 140,000 copyrights worldwide on behalf of over 800 content holders,including the world’s top songwriters, artists and other music publishers. Kobalt clients includeGwen Stefani, Kid Rock, Danja, Dr. Luke, Ryan “Alias” Tedder, Max Martin, Moby, Interpol, BarryManilow, Desmond Child, Dennis Matkosky, Gary Burr, The Hives, 8 Mile Style (publisher ofEminem), Bridgeport Music (publisher of Parliament Funkadelic & George Clinton), EverGreenCopyrights, Music Publishing Company of America, Crosstown Songs, Big Life, Richard Ashcroft,Shelly Peiken, Nine Inch Nails, Herbert Grönemeyer, among many others. Kobalt’s online system,the Kobalt Next Generation Portal, is in its third version and offers clients the ability to take pipelineadvances online, uniquely analyze and track royalties, and be completely involved in the processof managing copyrights.CONTACT:Caryn Davidson Rebekah AlperinNational Geographic Alperin Entertainment PR(212) 506-1609 (310) 770-1045cdavidso@ngs.org ralperin@alperinent.com

Kobalt and National Geographic link up

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Kobalt Music Group has secured an exclusive agreement with National Geographic Entertainment to represent and administer its catalogue globally.The deal covers National Geographic’s music library of more than 16,000 original music cues and includes its theme song.National Geographic Entertainment president David Beal says, “We think that Kobalt is uniquely positioned to complement Nat Geo Music and maximise revenue potential for our rich catalogue of copyrights. Kobalt’s customised services and state-of-the- art Next Generation Portal will allow us to be completely involved in the process of copyright management, royalty tracking and analysis.”Kobalt founder and CEO Willard Ahdritz adds, “David Beal’s strategy for developing Nat Geo Music is very exciting. We are very happy to be a part of that vision by taking Nat Geo Music’s film and TV administration to a new level using new technology on a global basis.As part of the tie-up between the two companies, Kobalt’s film and TV departments worldwide will work with National Geographic Music director Jeff Clyburn to develop new revenue streams and look at sync opportunities.

American Idol teams up with Habbo for an Idol-themed virtual space

Wed, 14 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In a sign that the Internet is becoming a key magnet for major brands, American Idol is teaming up with Habbo the world’s biggest online world for teens.FremantleMedia Enterprises, which is the brand extension arm of American Idol co-producer FremantleMedia, will create an Idol-branded community within the Habbo virtual world, where teens chat with each other via cartoon-like virtual characters and decorate their virtual rooms. It will include in-world merchandise that Habbo residents can buy for real money. It should probably go over well, since Habbo surveys show that American Idol is the favorite show of Habbo members.The new section of Habbo will open on Jan. 30 and will be free to enter for all of the 3 million U.S. members of Habbo. The partnership is the first that Fremantle has done with a teen virtual world and it chose Habbo because it’s the biggest virtual world for teens, said David Luner, senior vice president of interactive & consumer products at FreemantleMedia Enterprises.American Idol and its show sponsors will post their signs and merchandise throughout the Habbo environment. They will hold events on stages and use spaces that resemble those in the show. Luner expects there will be a lot of interest in the space since teens are the biggest part of Idol’s audience. A third of all U.S. teens watched the debut of the newest season on Tuesday night.The show will last about 20 weeks but Habbo expects to keep the area open year round. Each month, Habbo will introduce new events and merchandise. If it works, Luner said the partnership may be extended worldwide. Habbo has 11.5 million unique users on a worldwide basis and more than 121 million characters have been created. About 90 percent of its users are 13 to 18. They spend an average of 45 minutes on the site per visit.FreemantleMedia is a subsidiary of broadcast company RTL Group of Europe, which in turn is 90 percent-owned by Bertelsmann AG. American Idol gets about 30 million viewers per episode and the voting generates as many as 78 million text messages. Freemantle co-produces the show with 19 Entertainment. American Idol, now in its eighth season, is valued at $2.5 billion.

Balderton raises £282m for tech and media investments

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Balderton Capital, the venture capital group that backed the Betfair gambling website and Setanta, the pay-TV broadcaster, will shrug off the gloom in financial markets on Monday by saying it has raised $430m (£282m) for technology and media investments. Founded in 2000 as the London-based arm of Benchmark Capital, the Silicon Valley venture capital group, Balderton has become one of Europe’s top start-up investors with $2bn of funds. The company spun off from its US parent in 2007. Barry Maloney, general partner of Balderton, said there were “significant difficulties” in the fundraising market for private equity. But he said his firm had raised the lion’s share of its $500m target in just two months thanks to a strong record. The downturn has made it more difficult for venture capital, as it is harder to float or sell the companies groups have backed. Mr Maloney told the Financial Times there were unlikely to be any venture capital-backed initial public offerings for 18-24 months and the climate could cause “some casualties” in Balderton’s portfolio of about 80 investments. But he said the downturn was also a better time to invest. “We are about to enter a very interesting time for new investments, if not for exits. “Part of the reason for raising this fund now is to take advantage of the opportunities that this stage of the cycle throws up.” Balderton enjoyed several profitable exits last year, notably MySQL, a Swedish open source software group bought by Sun Microsystems for $1bn, and Bebo, the social networking website, sold to AOL for $850m. It also sold a stake in Betfair to Softbank of Japan in 2006, in a deal valuing the online betting exchange at more than $1.5bn, and made strong returns from the Nasdaq flotation of Yingli Solar, the Chinese solar power technology company. Nonetheless, 2008 was one of the weakest years for profit-taking by start-up investors, amid predictions of an even worse period ahead. Only six venture capital-backed companies went public in the US last year, the lowest since the 1970s. In Europe, investors have been losing patience with the poor performance of venture capital since the dotcom bubble. Some former stalwarts of the industry, such as 3i and Apax Partners, have pulled out of early stage investing to focus on bigger deals. But venture capital could be coming back into favour as the credit crisis makes life difficult for their bigger buy-out cousins, which rely more heavily on debt. Another encouraging sign for venture capital came last month, when Accel Partners, the Silicon Valley-based investor in Facebook and RealNetworks, raised $1bn for two new technology and media-focused funds in the US and Europe.

Balderton Capital announces new US$500m Fund

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Balderton Capital, Europe’s leading venture capital firm, today announces that it has raised US$430m in the first closing for its new fund. This is Balderton’s fourth fund, having raised US$550m in December 2006, US$375m in July 2004 and US$500m in May 2000. Based in London, Balderton now manages approximately US$1.8bn in committed venture capital making it one of the largest VC firms outside the US. Since its inception in 2000, Balderton has invested in over 80 companies across a wide variety of technology sectors and geographies, including Europe, the US and China. Notable investments include bebo, (the social networking site, sold to AOL for US$850m), Betfair (the online betting exchange), Codemasters (the video games publisher), MySQL (the open-source database business, sold to Sun for US$1bn) and Setanta Sports (the European sports broadcaster). Barry Maloney, General Partner at Balderton, commented: “This is a great start for the year for Balderton in what is clearly a difficult economic environment. Our first fund was completed at the height of the dot com bust and we went on to invest in some of the strongest companies in our portfolio today. Each economic cycle provides opportunities for the best entrepreneurs and we are excited to be able to invest in tomorrow’s success stories in this our fourth fund.” Ends. For more details, please contactPowerscourtVictoria Palmer-Moore 44 207 324 0493 or 44 77255 65545victoria.palmermoore@powerscourtmedia.com Claire Melly 44 207 250 1446 or 44 7809 525747claire.melly@powerscourtmedia.com Notes to editors About Balderton Capital Balderton Capital is a leading venture capital firm, committed to finding and helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies. Balderton Capital approaches investment using the principles of teamwork and an intense dedication to building companies of lasting value. The partners combine Silicon Valley operating and company-building experience with a keen understanding of what it takes to build successful businesses in the media and technology markets. www.balderton.com

MIDEM / MIDEMNET

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

MIDEMNET – MUSIC BUSINESS IN THE DIGITAL AGEIn 10 years MidemNet has become the definitive event for monetising music in the digital age. This stand alone event offers two days of intense conference sessions and serious networking with unequalled opportunities to debate and engage with more than 1,400 key international executives and actively participate in shaping the industry’s future.MIDEMNET - CREATING, SERVING AND MONETISING THE ARTIST-FAN RELATIONSHIP!MidemNet 2009 will bring together leading experts from around the world and across the industry to discuss opportunities & solutions to enhance the artist-fan relationship. What are the most promising ways to foster this relationship further? What are the most promising organizations, services, social media and digital platforms for artists to better connect with their fans? How can the music industry create value and generate new revenue streams out of such a relationship? These are key questions to be addressed through exclusive keynotes, panels and workshops.

DLD (Digital, Life, Design)

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

DLD (Digital, Life, Design) is an inspiring community for the 21st century which features digital innovation, science and culture and brings together thought leaders, creators, entrepreneurs and investors from Europe, the Middle-East, the Americas and Asia. The DLD community meets in various styles and formats throughout the year and around the globe. From the beginning in 2005, companies and ideas have been sparked and new friendships have been made thanks to this connection of the unexpected. The DLD Conference is a three-day event chaired by publisher Hubert Burda and investor Joseph Vardi. DLD was founded by Stephanie Czerny and Marcel Reichart who can draw on the commitment and passion of a wonderful team, enthusiastic friends and partners.

3GSM Mobile World Congress

Mon, 12 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

2009 Congress OverviewThe GSMA Mobile World Congress (formerly 3GSM World Congress) combines the world's largest exhibition for the mobile industry with a stimulating and insightful congress that brings together prominent leaders and personalities from mobile operators and equipment vendors, as well as Internet and entertainment professionals.The 2009 Mobile World Congress is expected to attract approximately 50,000 attendees, so don’t miss this unrivalled opportunity to conduct business, discuss the hottest trends in mobile communications, and help define the industry’s path to continued growth.

Icera secures £47m backing

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

A Bristol-based chipmaker has secured $70m (£47m) of further backing from some of the technology sector's biggest venture capital firms to spur its assault on consumers' desire for data on mobile devices. Icera yesterday concluded a seven-month pursuit of further funds to take it to expected profitability in a year's time by securing $60m of new equity and $10m of debt. In the past Icera has raised $142.5m in five funding rounds from companies including Motorola, the mobile phone maker, 3i, Balderton Capital, which backed social networking website Bebo and Setanta, Accel Partners, which financed Facebook and BitTorrent, and Amadeus Capital Partners, which backed Lastminute.com. The new $10m of debt financing was provided by ETV Capital and MMV Financial Inc.

Le Web 3

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

LeWeb'08 is the #1 Web conference in Europe with 1500 participants from 40 Countries on Dec 9-10th in Paris. We have just announced our theme this year, LOVE! 30 Startups will also present in the startup competition room and there will be plenty of networking space, likely with a few beds, like last year... You can Download The Program here During the 2 days of conference, our speakers will be interviewed on stage by the following reporters, bloggers: • Michael Arrington, Co-Founder & Editor, TechCrunch • Steve Gillmor, The Gillmor Gang • Dan Farber, Editor-in-Chief, CNET News • Om Malik, Editor-in-Chief, GigaOm • Jennifer L. Schenker, Correspondent, BusinessWeek • Robert Scoble, Video Blogger, Fast Company • Kara Swisher, Co-Executive Editor, AllThingsD.com; Blogger, Boomtown; Co-Executive Producer, D: All Things Digital • Other interviewers tba DAY 1 - DEC 9, 2008 – PLENARY ROOM 08h00 – 09h00 WELCOME BREAKFAST sponsored By Cabinet Cotty Vivant Marchisio & Lauzeral 08h45 – 09h00 Opening remarks - Geraldine & Loïc Le Meur – LeWeb Founders 09h00 – 09h20 Dan’l Lewin - Microsoft Corporation ,Corporate Vice President for Strategic and Emerging Business Development. 09h20-09h40 Fireside Chat with Nikesh Arora - President, Operations EMEA & Vice-président, Google UK Ltd Loïc Le Meur  09h40-10h00 David Weinberger - Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society,Harvard University 10h00 – 10h30 Chris DeWolfe Co-Founder & CEO, MySpace.com 10h30 – 11h00 COFFEE BREAK sponsored By Codeur.com 11h00 – 11h20 Speaker to be announced 11h30 – 11h50 Linda Avey - Co-Founder, 23AndMe, Inc. 12h00 – 12h45 Helen Fisher - Visiting Research Professor, Rutgers University 12h45– 14h15 LUNCH BREAK 14h30 – 15h10 Paulo Coelho, Author 15h10 – 16h00 Loving Brands Online - Panel Panelists: • Georges-Edouard Dias, Team Leader, Internet & e-Business, L’Oreal • Matthias Lüfkens, Associate Director, World Economic Forum • Marc Mathieu, Senior Vice President, Global Brand Marketing & Creative Excellence, The Coca-Cola Company • Michael Tchao, General Manager, Nike TechLab Moderator: Dan Farber, Editor-in-Chief, CNET News 16h00 – 16h20 Yossi Vardi - Investor & Entrepreneur 16h20 – 16h45 COFFEE BREAK 16h45 – 16h50 Mike Butcher - UK & Europe Editor, TechCrunch 16h50 – 17h30 Introduction with Morten Lund - Lund XY Global Venture - Loic LeMeur Money Talks: How scared should we be of the markets crash ? - Panel Panelists: • Eric Archambeau, General Partner, London Office, Wellington Partners • Jeff Clavier, Founder & Managing Partner, SoftTech VC • Mark D. Kvamme, Partner, Sequoia Capital • Fred Wilson, Partner, Union Square Ventures Moderator: Ouriel Ohayon, General Manager, LgiLab, Editor, TechCrunch France 17h30 – 18h00 Fireside Chat with Marc Simoncini - Founder & CEO, MEETIC - Loïc Le Meur 22h00 – 02h00 LeWeb’08 Party with MySpace.com DAY 2 - DEC 10, 2008 – PLENARY ROOM 08h00 – 09h00 WELCOME BREAKFAST 09h00 – 09h20 Opening remarks: Why Are We In Paris? Eric Besson – France Secretary of State for New Technologies Surprise Guest Loïc Le Meur 09h20 – 10h00 Platform Love: Getting Along - Panel Panelists: • Travis Katz, Vice President, International Development, MySpace • Dave Morin , Senior Platform Manager, Facebook • David Recordon, Open Platforms Tech Lead , SixApart • Google Speaker TBA Moderator: Marc Canter - CEO, Broadband Mechanics 10h00 – 10h20 Love of Education: A shifting paradigm Robin Good - New Media Innovator, Explorer, Independent Publisher, Master New Media 10h20 – 10h40 Chris Anderson - Curator, TED  10h40 – 11h10 COFFEE BREAK 11h10 – 11h40 Love Entrepreneurship Your Own Way: Two perspectives on starting a business  A moderated discussion with Loïc Le Meur • John Buckman - Founder & CEO, Magnatune.com • Reid Hoffman - Chairman and President, Products, LinkedIn 11h40 – 12h00 Dr. Brian Cox - The School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester 12h00 – 12h30 Love of Entrepreneurship Jason Calacanis - CEO, Mahalo 12h30 – 13h00 Marissa Mayer - Google, Vice President, Search Products and User Experience 13h00 – 13h30 Sharing Love Joichi Ito – CEO, Creative Commons 13h30 – 15h00 LUNCH BREAK 15h00 – 16h00 Start-Up Competition Awards and Winners 16h00 – 16h30 Dr. Werner Vogels, VP & Chief Technology Officer, Amazon.com 16h30 – 17h15 European Originals - Start-Up Companies That Are Uniquely European - Panel Panelists: • Jacques Antoine Granjon, CEO & Co-Founder vente-privee.com • Jonas Birgersson ,Chairman, ViaEuropa • Klaas Kersting, Gameforge • Speaker TBA Moderator: Jennifer L. Schenker,Correspondent, BusinessWeek 17h15 – 17h45 Fireside Chat with Gary Vaynerchuk - Host, Wine Library TV.com – Loic Le Meur DAY 2 - DEC 10, 2008 – LeWeb “Deep Discussion” Stage 9h15 – 10h00 Your Mobile is Your Love Device: Nokia 10h00 – 10h30 The Revenge of Email - Panel Panelists: • Nick Heys Founder & CEO, Emailvision • Jason Calacanis, CEO, Mahalo Moderator: Robert Scoble, Video Blogger, Fast Company 10h30 – 11h10 Social Advertising: Where’s the Love? - Panel Panelists: • Seth Sternberg - Meebo • Lorenz Bogaert – Co-founder and CEO Netlog.com • Speaker TBA Moderator: Scott Rafer - CEO, Lookery 11h10 – 11h50 Love in Motion: Why are Mobile Social Networks booming? What makes them tick? Who is using them? A global look at the developments, demos and a convivial chat with pioneers Panelists: • Dr. KF Lai - CEO & Co-Founder, BuzzCity • Ewan Spence - WuBud • Antonio Vince Staybl - CEO & Co-Founder, itsmy.com (a Gofresh company) Moderator: Ferhan Cook - Publisher www.mobiadnews.com & President Any Screen Productions Ltd.,UK 11h50 – 12h30 Big Love: Embracing Asia's Market Explosion - Panel Panelists: • Masashi Kobayashi • Frederick Saurat - CEO & Co-founder The TMS Way Ltd Moderator: Thomas Crampton 12h30 – 12h50 Modesty & Shamelessness on the Web - presentation/discussion Who do we like, love and relate to online? And what are we ready to give them about ourselves? • Dominique Cardon - Sr. Researcher, Orange Labs • Daniel Kaplan - CEO, FING

Big Fish Swims Against Current, Looks To Make New Hires—and Not Only for Games

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

“We’re not just a gaming company,” says Glenn Walcott. The chief financial officer of Seattle-based Big Fish Games is telling me about his company’s focus on new hires, and this comes as a bit of surprise. People tend to think of Big Fish as a game producer, but Walcott stresses that most of its engineers don’t work directly on games. They work on other aspects of the business, like e-commerce, distribution platforms, and real-time memory systems for personalized user experiences. “It’s a lot of fun for new guys,” he says. But the main message is the company is hiring—period. It’s a welcome change from the doom and gloom we’ve been reporting lately. On a sunny Friday afternoon, I checked out the Big Fish offices on Elliott Avenue West, where the company moved last July. The open floorplan means most employees have a striking view of Elliott Bay. And the beautiful aquarium in the lobby is getting new fish this week (no word on their size, but I have a hunch). There has been a lot of talk about whether the gaming industry—particularly “casual games,” which are relatively cheap and don’t require much time commitment—might be recession-proof. Walcott eschews the label, but he notes that Big Fish’s October sales were up 23 percent over September, and November sales were 10 percent above that. The company’s latest big release, Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst, has sold 100,000 in its first week, and Thanksgiving weekend was Big Fish’s biggest sales weekend ever, says Walcott. It all adds up to unprecedented growth for the company, which landed an $83.3 million investment led by UK-based Balderton Capital in September. Walcott says Big Fish currently has 35 open positions—mostly for engineers, programmers, and software development testers, but also for a director of marketing. Native foreign-language skills are a plus, Walcott adds; the company does a lot of business in Europe. A few more tidbits about the Big Fish workforce: —Of its 320 workers in Seattle, 45 percent are engineers. Only about 15 percent of the staff work on game development (for the company’s studio). The rest work on things like building a software platform to handle two million game downloads a day. —The company’s talent mostly comes from the Northwest. Walcott estimates 95 percent of the staff had a previous job in the Seattle area before joining Big Fish. —The firm opened an office in Vancouver, BC, in August. It has five workers there, with the goal of building up to about 30 people, primarily for game development. Why Vancouver? A great talent pool, and it’s easier to get work visas there for employees from Europe, for instance. Looking ahead to next year, Walcott predicts there will be a lot of talented workers available in the first quarter. Big Fish would love to snap them up, of course, but people might be hesitant to make any career moves because of the economy, he says. With those people in mind, I asked him what his company’s greatest selling point is. Besides its “fun, family-friendly product,” Walcott says the Big Fish culture is open and very collaborative. “I think it’s the best company to work for in Seattle,” he says. OK, clearly he’s biased, but his message is clear. “We really try to take care of our employees…I’m proud to say people here have a very good work environment.” Sounds like Big Fish is trying to reel in its new employees, hook, line, and sinker (sorry, couldn’t resist).

Mini Friday, the mobile Habbo Hotel, nears 1M users

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The makers of Habbo Hotel, the wildly popular virtual world game aimed at teenagers, have quietly released a mobile version called Mini Friday that is seeing steady growth: It’s about to hit a million registered users.That’s a robust number, keeping in mind that the application requires downloading and registration, is restricted to users 18 or older, and runs only on select phones (Nokia S60 series). The company also hasn’t really talked about the product.Habbo Hotel’s co-founders Sampo Karjalainen and Aapo Kyrola revealed more about the overall company’s momentum yesterday, during the “Slush” event here in Helsinki on entrepreneurship, where I moderated two panels. The company (the parent company is called Sulake) finally became profitable this year, on $50 million in revenue.Earlier this year, the flagship product, Habbo Hotel, registered its one hundred millionth member, though only 10 million of those are active each month.With its immense appeal, and business model of virtual goods, I’d have expected Habbo to be a little more profitable. But this is a large operation: It has offices in 15 countries, and employs more than 300 people.It has raised $25 million in venture capital from Benchmark, 3i Group and Finnish telecom company Elisa Group.And the company’s tale — it toiled for eight long years, beginning with a team of just four people — was an inspiration to the audience here, where the gloom about the economic downturn is palpable.Habbo Hotel makes money by charge users when they want more furniture, and access to room layouts, more avatar clothing and hair styles and other tools.The founders said they were initially skeptical that Habbo Hotel would work on mobile phones.However, the mobile testing version (beta), launched in 2006, has steadily grown users, with particular strength in Brunei and Indonesia.The company plans to take the product out of beta soon. See video below for a demo of how it works. Users get to select the gender, height and clothing of their characters, and move them from room to room (in the mobile version, the rooms are frequently bars), and there’s more “mature” chat.Characters can talk with individuals within each bar, or “shout” to the whole group. You can dance. It also lets you choose which language you want to speak, by referring you to rooms with people who speak that language.Kyrola said the company is working on an iPhone version of the application. He said it has been a joy to work on the iPhone platform compared to the “horrible” experience of working on the Nokia/Symbian platform.Yep, even here in Finland, on Nokia’s home turf, the brightest developers are dissing Nokia and turning to embrace Apple’s iPhone.

Online Betting Site Takes on Derivatives

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Online betting exchange Betfair has spun off a new venture called Tradefair which it hopes will allow it to cash in on the retail derivatives space—a market it estimates is worth at least £650m per year. Betfair, the peer-to-peer betting site launched in 2000, has around 200 million registered users, 500,000 of whom were active last year. The company set up an internal VC unit to explore other ways to exploit its exchange technology—Tradefair, which launched in late 2007 as a subsidiary of Betfair, is the result. The website currently only offers financial spread betting—and a high low betting game based on movements of the FTSE 100—as it awaits authorisation from the FSA, expected in early 2009. Martyn Holman, commercial director of Tradefair, said: "We put together a plan to address what we call the retail derivatives space. That sits between ordinary financial betting—as you would bet on an outcome—and ordinary financial trading—i.e. buying a share or a bond as you would through your online broker. It encompasses two products: spread betting and instruments called CFDs (contracts for difference)." Once the Financial Services Authority gives the thumbs-up, Tradefair will be able to offer its users the ability to trade and bet on CFDs—equity derivatives that enable investors to speculate on share price movements without actually having to own the underlying shares. "Instead of buying a share you buy a CFD… you don't have to put up all the cash, you put up a portion of the cash but you benefit in the same way from the underlying share moving," Holman said. "We estimate that the global audience for spread betting and CFDs is about £650m per annum retail operator revenue, growing at a rate of about 20 to 30 per cent per annum. And we think that that number is a significant underestimate of the actual market because there are various other forms in which people participate in this derivatives space," he added. As with Betfair, the business is dependent on technology that can ensure a formidable level of performance—or what Andy Phillips, head of systems at TradeFair, calls an "extreme transaction processing system". The exchange was inspired by Betfair's Flywheel betting engine tech but takes it to the next level, according to Phillips, and is able to support 100,000 customers concurrently. "We've got effectively a zero contention design. If you look at what we can do, we're now clocking around about at 190,000 orders per second," he said. By contrast, he said long established institutions such as the London Stock Exchange "can maybe handle a couple of hundred customers connecting to them simultaneously". Phillips added: "[Our exchange] can complete with the best in the world—the latest financial exchanges." Martin Thompson, chief technology officer of Tradefair, said one way Tradefair delivers very fast transaction performance is to ensure all of the data needed to form that transaction is in memory—so there is no need to wait while a hard drive is accessed. Phillips added: "Latency [the amount of time taken to process an order and get the acknowledgement back to the customer] is really a key thing… And certainly within the FS space, latency is one of the key things that you measure an exchange about. "Very often you find that people will trade latency for manageability or core security but what we've done is we've very carefully designed both the hardware and the software together—so that… [essential features such as] security [also don't] impact the speed of the exchange." Tradefair also makes "heavy use of virtualisation", Phillips added. The hardware running the exchange includes 43 servers, 14 switches, 12 firewalls and 2,700 network cables, while the IT team is modest at: 10 developers, eight systems administrators, two business analysts and two quality assurance staffers. The system runs on the Red Hat Linux OS—which Phillips said is preferable to closed source offerings as it gives the company the flexibility to change things itself. "If we need to fix the kernel then we can fix the kernel and recompile it," he said. Phillips added: "We've chosen best of breed technologies—all the latest things and we're also looking a bit beyond that to 10GB Ethernet and to the use of iSCUSI instead of storage area networks so I think we're trying to look 20 minutes into the future with this design." Asked when he expects the company—which is fully funded by Betfair—to be profitable, Holman said would not give a timeframe but said in the "short term", adding it would be "well within" five years.

Sulake swings to H1 profit, sees no 2009 listing

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:46:00 GMT

Finland's Sulake reported a six-month profit on Tuesday thanks to the strong performance of its Habbo Hotel Internet networking site, but said a stock market listing was not likely next year. "A listing is still a valid plan, but now we are concentrating on future growth ... and improving our profit and cash flow," Sulake Chief Financial Officer Outi Henriksson told Reuters. When asked if the Internet company would next year, she said: "I don't think so, it could happen a little bit later on. 2009 would be early." Sulake reported January-June earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 2.8 million euros ($4.1 million), up from a loss of 1 million a year ago. Sales jumped 19 percent to 25.6 million euros. "Continuing the good result development from the start of the year, Sulake targets around 30 percent (revenue) growth in 2008 compared to the previous year," Sulake said in a statement.

Smart pipes dream

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Openet’s chief executive Niall Norton has two years to bring the software company to the top. With revenues of about €40 million this year, he is well on his way. Niall Norton likes to think of his company, Openet, as ‘‘the plucky little schoolboy’’ standing up for itself against the big boys in the playground. A provider of software to many of the biggest telecoms and cable companies in the world, the firm routinely competes with - and beats - the gorillas of the software industry for business, according to the Openet chief executive. If Norton has his way, however, the word ‘little’ could soon be dropped from his description of Openet. Under his plans, revenues at the Dublin-headquartered firm will be close to €40 million this year, depending on the timing of deals, and should hit €100million in three to four years. As Norton puts it, he wants ‘‘to take it the whole way’’ with Openet, possibly even to a stock market listing. By his own admission, Norton loves talking about Openet. Founded in 1999, the company has raised about €40 million in funding from some of the biggest names in international venture capital. It has always had big ambitions, but has managed to fine-tune those in recent years, expanding revenues and turning losses into profits. ‘‘My objective has been to bring the company to a point where the shareholders have options. I have been very pleased with our progress so far,” said Norton, a UCD commerce graduate and accountant who was chief financial officer of Openet before taking the top job in 2006. ‘‘We have been getting the company to a place where its probability of success is greater.” Openet’s software is used by telcos and cable firms to manage and charge for a range of services, and its deals are typically ‘‘multiple year, multiple millions’’. ‘‘Our mission is to make dumb pipes smart,” he said, describing how operators were focusing on selling an increasing range of services, often using their existing infrastructure. Increasingly complex mobile devices, such as the Apple iPhone, as well as the so-called convergence between fixed and mobile telecoms and the internet, are also helping Openet, as companies try to ‘‘monetise the value of transactions’’, he said. The firm has made progress on several fronts this year, winning deals with new and existing customers, launching two new products, forming industry partnerships and hiring additional staff around the world.Openet now employs 290 people, with about 110 in Ireland, 110 in the US, and offices in Malaysia, Brazil and Australia. The spread of offices reflects the company’s customer base. In Europe, it counts Orange and BT as customers; in the US, it is working with AT&T and Verizon Wireless; in Australia, it has a deal with Telstra, the country’s biggest telecoms operator. Norton said that deals in the industry ‘‘take a long time to win’’, but were lucrative in the long run. ‘‘Our average licence deal would be worth about €2 million to €3 million for the initial deployment, with a pay-as-you-grow element, so we share in future revenues,” said Norton. ‘‘We have built trusted relationships with billion-euro companies because we can deliver the solutions they need.” Openet has also been expanding into the cable industry, doing deals with TimeWarner Cable, ComCast and Cox Communications in the US. A move into providing services to big operators has already yielded deals with four ‘tier one’ operators, which also ‘‘moves the needle for the company’’ in revenue terms, according to Norton. He said that Openet was forming alliances with a small number of big partner firms that would sell its software as part of a larger package. The firm is also actively considering acquisitions. ‘‘There is one company we are looking at,” he said, ‘‘although a deal is not likely until next year.” ‘‘There are one or two areas we’re giving active consideration to in terms of expanding the product portfolio. We have the right focus - we just need to sharpen it.” All of those moves will help Openet’s finances, although Norton said the firm was still expanding and investing heavily. The company’s accounts for 2007 show turnover of €30.4 million, up slightly from €29.8 million in 2006. However, pretax profits fell to €1.9 million last year, from €3.6 million in 2006, reflecting rising costs because of continuing investment. At the end of last year, the company had €26.1 million in accumulated losses, but had shareholders’ funds of €11.5 million. Norton said the firm was self-funding and had not raised any new capital since 2002, although it had ‘‘topped up’’ a specialist loan facility to €5 million this year. That will allow the firm to continue to invest in expansion, a strategy that has been endorsed by its board and backers, according to Norton. ‘‘The figures mask the level of activity.We have ploughed a lot of money into product development and marketing,” he said, pointing to the continuing release of new products, with two more due to be launched early next year. ‘‘The product development team has increased in size by about 20 per cent, which equates to an additional €1 million. Our marketing spend has probably gone from €500,000 to €3.5 million. We are getting the best people and have continued that into 2008 on a fairly serious basis.” Despite the slowdown in world economies, Norton said that Openet was not yet seeing an impact on spending among telecoms firms. However, ‘‘some timing issues’’ could affect this year’s final revenue figure. ‘‘People are being more careful about cashflow and a lot of things are being pushed into the last quarter of the year. By year end, we would expect to do between €35 million and €40 million. Even at the lower end of the spectrum, we expect we will still make decent money, with profits in the same region as last year,” said Norton. While he is not a technologist, Norton has an insider’s knowledge of the telecoms sector, having been chief financial officer of O2 Ireland - the second-biggest mobile operator in the country - before joining Openet. He joined the mobile firm in 1997 when it was Denis O’Brien’s Esat Digifone, a fledgling operation with about 9,000 subscribers. Digifone’s then chief financial officer, John O’Rourke, was ‘‘a mentor figure’’ for Norton during the flurry of activity in the following years, with the major ramping up of Digifone, followed by the takeover by British Telecom and demerger of the mobile business. When the dust from those transactions had settled, Norton was a senior executive of a company with more than 1,000 employees, 1.1 million subscribers and strict quarterly reporting requirements. ‘‘The promotion path would have been into a group finance function [in O2] with a view to being a plc chief financial officer,” said Norton,who had enjoyed being involved in the entrepreneurial side of growing Esat. ‘‘I am a huge believer in creative destruction - that all the old stuff needs to be blown up every so often,” he said. Rather than getting deeper into the plc, he wanted to add some ‘‘general management experience’’ to his background in accounting and corporate finance. For help, Norton turned to his old boss from Digifone, Barry Maloney, who had left after the BT takeover. Maloney had become a venture capitalist with Benchmark Partners (now Balderton Capital) and had led the firm’s investments in several Irish companies, including Openet. ‘‘I sat down with Barry and described what I was looking for and asked if he could think of anything suitable,” said Norton. ‘‘He suggested Openet.” Meetings with the Openet team followed, including founder and chief technical officer Joe Hogan, and Norton was convinced by the firm’s prospects. After ‘‘some negotiations at home’’, he left O2 in early 2004 to take the chief financial officer post at the software firm. Norton said there was ‘‘some degree of surprise, but no bad feeling’’ inO2 at his decision to leave the security of the mobile operator for the risky software sector. Dozens of Irish technology companies had attracted funding during the dotcom boom, but most had struggled to achieve any scale. Many had gone to the wall or scaled back their ambitions. Openet was not in that category, and had actually taken part in industry consolidation in 2003, buying up Sepro, another Dublin firm operating in the telecoms billing sector. However, despite having some large customers and revenues of about €16 million in 2004, the company was still loss-making as it built its business around the world. When chief executive John Rainger left in 2006, Norton stepped up to the top job. While revenues have doubled from the 2004 figure and the company is firmly in the black, Norton said he was not taking anything for granted. ‘‘We are not in any sense complacent or arrogant - our motto is that only the paranoid survive. We are a growing company with a specialised product, and we can’t afford to place too many wrong bets,” he said. Norton acknowledged that Openet’s backers would also be looking for a return on their investment, but said he was not under any pressure in the short term. ‘‘We are not looking to be bought. We will have no more shareholder withdrawals unless we have a run at buying somebody ourselves,” he said. ‘‘But our investors are all hard-nosed businesspeople. I have two years to go in a plan to bring the company to a place where it has serious options. That could be a stock market listing under our own steam or a strategic partnership. Our vision is pretty ambitious.”

'Stay at home' economy gives Lovefilm a happy ending

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Lovefilm, the online DVD rental site, expects to grow its customer base by up to 70pc this year due to the growing 'stay at home' economy and its recent acquisition of the UK and German DVD rental businesses of Amazon, the US retailer. Simon Calver, Lovefilm's chief executive, said that the credit crisis is forcing people to stay in to save money, something that is playing into the company's hands. The bullish forecast comes as the company, which allows customers to rent DVDs for an unlimited time before posting them back, prepares to file its accounts for the financial year to December 31 2007. These figures will show that sales at Lovefilm were £49m over the year, up from £41m over the 18 months to December 31 2006. The company made an operating loss of £7.4m, compared to a loss of £12.3m over the previous 18 months. However Mr Calver said that since the start of 2008 Lovefilm has started to generate profits from its operations for the first time. It also expects revenues over the year to be over £70m, up from £49m last year. "The 'staying in' trend is really suiting Lovefilm," said Mr Calver. "The business is consistently demonstrating its strength in the recessionary environment because people are spending more time at home," he added. Mr Calver said that Lovefilm's business model – which puts no cap on the number of DVDs that can be rented each month and charges no late fees – gives more value for money than traditional rental models. Lovefilm offers 65,000 titles, including movies such as Home Alone. In April Lovefilm acquired Amazon's UK and German DVD rental operations in April for £61m. As part of the deal, Amazon made a cash investment in Lovefilm and became its largest shareholder. In its results statement Lovefilm says that it is possible that new digital technologies, such as downloads, "will take hold quicker than currently envisaged". It says that it "may be unable" to maintain the same market share in downloads as it currently holds in DVD rental. "To date, however, has been at the forefront of new technological developments in this sector," the company said.

Daylife goes 'Select' for the non-techies

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Daylife, a news aggregation start-up that runs a pretty Web site but makes its money from licensing its software to clients, has launched a new product: Daylife Select. It's a tool for Web sites and online publications to add aggregated news and multimedia content (like YouTube videos, Twitter feeds, and Flickr images) from Daylife without requiring technical expertise. With a point-and-click interface, participants can insert and place widgets, customize the theme, and even import the CSS design from their own sites. Access to Daylife Select comes along with a subscription to the company's API, which ranges from $10,000 to $30,000 per month. The release of the product is more or less perfectly timed for news outlets that may be cutting costs in the light of the economic downturn--including laying off writers and editors. A cheaper and easier way to install an aggregate news page could be an option for small publications that have been feeling the pain. "We're kind of a solution for publishers who are short on head count," founder and CEO Upendra Shardanand said to CNET News, adding that Daylife has been riding high on tighter budgets: the company said it reached halfway to its fourth-quarter projections two weeks into October.

Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The pioneers of the 2.0 world innovate so quickly that it's difficult to stay abreast of new developments and trends. Meanwhile, the true depth of the impact of the Web 2.0 movement is just beginning to show in the enterprise, as companies move cautiously towards 2.0 technologies, processes, marketing strategies and ways of thinking. Web 2.0 Expo extends the principles, practices and tools of Web 2.0 to a broad audience, bridging the safe center with the disruptive edges. It provides a testing ground for new ideas while helping businesses articulate the advantages of a 2.0 strategy and overcome the obstacles posed by legacy technology and thinking. Like the 2007 gathering, delegates from dozens of countries across Europe and the world will converge in Berlin for the 2008 event. While it can be a challenge for any one event to reflect the dynamics and innovation of so many diverse web communities, each track at Web 2.0 Expo Europe 2008 will be a mix of inspirational, theoretical and practical sessions. Ideas and techniques presented at the conference are designed to be applied by all delegates - whether from corporate, startup, or independent settings - across different markets and situations. If you're a designer, manager, developer, marketer, entrepreneur, business strategist, IT vendor, or hacker looking for new opportunities and ways to interpret the coming changes, join us at Web 2.0 Expo Europe. Delegates at Web 2.0 Expo Europe 2008 will take part in: - A multi-track conference offering dozens of sessions covering most important issues - High-level keynote presentations painting a vision of technology's future - An Expo, integrated into the common spaces, featuring leading Web 2.0 companies - In-depth, practical workshops to hone skills - Vibrant networking events designed to celebrate the Web 2.0 community Co-produced by O’Reilly Media and TechWeb, the second Web 2.0 Expo Europe, taking place 21-23 October, will welcome delegates to a new venue - the Berliner Congress Center, a beautifully-designed space in a central Berlin location.

Top-secret innovation will revolutionise internet use

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

With laser technology, Intune Networks has an Irish solution to a universal problem, writes Jane Suiter.EVER been annoyed at the crappy resolution on a YouTube video? Enraged that you couldn't see the ball when watching the Ryder Cup on the net? Or simply wanted to have a real high-definition chat with your colleagues around the world? Then an Irish company may have the answer to your problems.Intune Networks, described by hi-tech investment expert Barry Maloney as one of the hottest opportunities in the world, is getting ready to unveil its new laser network.The technology is ultra geeky and complicated -- suffice to say it could mean that all your internet hassles are over.The company was founded in 1999 by John Dunne (then a UCD PhD) and researcher Tom Farrell when they turned down job offers in the US and the UK in favour of setting up their own firms with the help of four angel investors and Enterprise Ireland.They began selling manufacturing equipment, but were determined to do something new -- and so they also kept their heads down at R&D. In 2003, they hit potential gold, inventing laser technology that has the potential to transform the way we use the web.The invention attracted some big names in Silicon Valley, and now the former Santa Barbara denizen and Microsoft TV executive Tim Fritzley has taken over the CEO job, with Dunne moving to chief marketing officer.Fritzley, an enthusiastic Californian, is just about coping with the Irish weather -- but he is evangelical about the technology. It means, he says, that anyone will be able to have as much bandwidth as they like on demand -- where and when they need it.This new network will simply allocate a 100 per cent guaranteed amount of space to wherever you want it. Right now, watching high-definition video of a live sports event is impossible through the internet, explains Dunne. Intune will unblock this using optical technology.This technology will deliver voice, music, video -- you name it -- on demand. It will change the way we interact and will mean the equivalent of HDTV instantly, wherever you are -- whether at home, on a bus or on the beach. The best bit is that you will pay for only what you use."We're talking zeta bytes," says Dunne. That's millions and millions of zeros to you and me.The company will be selling this technology to all the big internet providers across the world. Everything is still top secret, but what they can say is that the technology has been validated by several large telecom companies.The other main benefit from the major telecoms' point of view, claims Dunne, is that it drastically reduces their energy consumption by as much as 75 per cent while space requirements will fall by up to 50 per cent.Some large telecom companies -- such as Deutsche Telecom -- can be responsible for up to 3 per cent of a nation's power needs, so this is potentially a mega reduction.A typical exchange will have hundreds of switching devices from Cisco and massive fan systems. That will be gone. Indeed, if Intune has its way, it will be taking over large parts of that market from Cisco."This is going to be the Nokia of Ireland," predicts an excitable Fritzley.The market is considerable -- worth $15bn a year globally -- but what is most remarkable is that Dunne has not yet encountered any competition.Basically, the company invented the technology and has patented all the key elements. Research and development is continuing and Intune now employs 88 people, more than half of whom have PhDs.Just two years ago, when Fritzley joined, there were14 people employed, but the plan is to have 100 by the end of this year. He went out fundraising and came up with a €13.5m package from a consortium of venture capitalists, including the lead investor and the largest in Europe, Balderton, run by Barry Maloney (see panel). Amadeus, London's oldest venture capitalist, and the Boston based Spark, are also in there.In the meantime, the company has opened a research and development office in Belfast, where there is lots of optical expertise thanks to Nortel and Fujitsu.And Fritzley is now going after the next round of fundraising."We need to grow to about 200 people to be able to have this on the market within 18 months," Fritzley says.Anyone wondering where to put their money in these uncertain times is welcome to come and talk, he quips.

Globoforce wins major new deals

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Globoforce, a Dublin firm that runs employee reward schemes for some of the biggest companies in the world, has won several new deals worth ‘‘tens of millions of dollars’’.Eric Mosley, chief executive of Globoforce, said the company had recently launched its system with three companies with more than 20,000 employees each, including technology firm Symantec and KPMG in Europe.Computer chip maker Intel, an existing Globoforce customer, is extending the use of the system to its entire workforce of about 100,000 people.The Globoforce system is used by more than 100 firms which collectively employ more than 1.7 million people. Company employees use the system to give online rewards to their colleagues, usually in the form of points that can be cashed in for gift vouchers. Globoforce makes its money by taking a transaction fee each time its rewards platform is used. Mosley said the recent deals helped Globoforce to consolidate its position as market leader.‘‘Among Fortune 500 companies with a global workforce, we are seen as the only solution,” he said. ‘‘There are 900 companies in the US with more than 20,000 employees each, so it is a case of keeping our heads down and focusing on capturing more market share.”Mosley said that the company was on track for ‘‘very healthy growth’’ in revenues this year after recording a rise in revenues to €46.9 million last year, up from €27.3 million in 2006. The company turned a €1.1 million operating loss in 2006 into a €1 million profit last year.Globoforce employs more than 120 people, including about 80in Dublin. Its other major centre is in Massachusetts, where Mosley has been based for the past three years after the firm took a decision to target the American market.He said that about 80per cent of Globoforce’s business was now ‘‘US-driven’’, although its customers all had operations around the world.Mosley said that Globoforce had not been affected by the slowdown in the major world economies or turbulence in the financial markets. ‘‘We have the best sales pipeline we have had for a number of years. When times are tough, companies look at how to maximise productivity and there is a growing appreciation for what employee recognition can do.”Globoforce is backed by venture capitalists Atlas Capital and Balderton Capital, and Mosley said the firm had no need for further funding. ‘‘We are profitable and fully capitalised,” he said. ‘‘Our investors are happy and we are all focused on building the company. The market opportunity is very large and we are doing well. We are well positioned for the future.”Mosley, who founded Globoforce in 1999, expects the firm to be ‘‘a $200300 million company’’ within the next five years. He is a finalist in this year’s Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards, which take place on October 23.

Amazon Web Services Event

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The AWS Start-Up Tour What does every tech start-up need, besides a great idea? The ability to scale their business and their infrastructure—on demand. Amazon Web Services provides entrepreneurs access to Amazon’s robust infrastructure and technological resources via services such as Amazon EC2 and Amazon S3. Utilizing these AWS solutions, you can compete on ideas, not resources, and turn your idea into a successful business. Amazon Web Services is holding several half-day events, in start-up “hot spots” around the country. Come learn how Amazon Web Services empowers entrepreneurship, innovation and sustainable growth. SEATS ARE LIMITED, RSVP TODAY Who should attend: * Entrepreneurs, founders and leaders of start-up/early-stage companies and venture capitalists Reasons to attend: * Understand how to integrate Amazon Web Services into your business * Find ways to cut fixed infrastructure costs while increasing reliability and scalability * Network with start-up leaders and investors from your area * Learn from successful start-ups about their use of Amazon Web Services, including presentations from Animoto, Netseer, Vertica, SOASTA, Kidzui, iloverewards, Meetup, Heavy, Pixily, and more… Agenda: 2-5pm: Presentations from Amazon Web Services and from local start-ups on how they built their businesses on AWS 5-7pm: Networking/Cocktail Reception Where/When: San Francisco, Sep. 3. 08, Sir Francis Drake Hotel This link will launch a new browser window or tab. Silicon Valley,

Web 2.0

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Now in its third year, Web 2.0 Expo is for the builders of the next generation web: designers, developers, entrepreneurs, marketers, business strategists, and venture capitalists. We look not only for the hot new thing, but for the failures to learn from, the innovations and inspirations, the successes that will surprise you, and the practical applications of all of the above. The Web 2.0 Expo Call for Participation is now open. Submit Your Proposal by October 8, 2008. O'Reilly and TechWeb are seeking the best and brightest in the Web 2.0 universe to show the world how the next Internet Revolution is being designed and delivered. Are you an alpha geek? A design rockstar? A black hat SEO? The best web ops engineer money can buy? A once-burned-twice-shy dot-commer, now battle-tested? If you know how Web 2.0 works, we'll give you the biggest stage in tech to tell your tale. Submit a proposal now Whether you're an expert in Ajax, Ruby, tagging, Facebook, user experience, meta-programming, search engine marketing, community building, web operations, user-generated content, building startups from scratch, or "Web2.0-ifying" the enterprise, we'd love to hear what you have to say. Give us a taste of one of your secret Web 2.0 recipes and we'll put you in front of a very big, very hungry audience. Read more about Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco.

Podell Named CEO of Next New Networks

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

"After a three-month search, Web video studio Next New Networks has appointed advertising executive Lance Podell as its CEO, effective Oct. 1. He replaces Herb Scannell, who founded Next New Networks and will remain chairman of the company. Mr. Podell most recently was CEO of Seevast Corp., which handles search engine marketing and sponsored links for some of the top Web properties and Web ad networks. During his stint at the company, he built it into a $100 million business. At Next New Networks, Mr. Podell will focus on how to most effectively monetize the programming. “He’s built businesses from the ground up and been in the Web business since its most formative years,” Herb Scannell, chairman of Next New Networks, said in a statement. The Web studio has already developed a loyal viewer following and also has been growing its advertising stable as it heads toward profitability next year. Next New Networks launched in 2007 and its Webisodes, including “Indy Mogul,” “Barely Political” and “ZapRoot,” have been viewed more than 190 million times. “Understanding how to monetize content is something I bring to the table,” Mr. Podell told TelevisionWeek. “I come from the Web business for years and have managed startups and am looking at how you build this within the framework of Web budgets, not TV budgets.” Mr. Podell also served as the chief marketing officer at Shopping.com and has worked at Chiat Day, Time Inc. and Ogilvy & Mather. “My entire career has been at the intersection of content development and advertising,” he said. “Next New Networks has phenomenal programming and we need to monetize that inventory. I bring the monetization aspect and the ability to innovate ad solutions.”"

7Digital to sell rights-free music

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

"A UK start-up has beaten the likes of Apple, HMV and Tesco to be the first to sell music from all of the large labels online without restrictions on copying or playing devices. 7Digital, which was founded in 2004 and has received £5.75m in venture funding, said on Tuesday that SonyBMG – home to artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan and Leona Lewis – has joined EMI, Universal and Warner Music in providing its catalogue in MP3 format. MP3 does not have the “digital rights management” protection technology used by most download services, including Apple’s iTunes. 7Digital is the first European service to provide the complete range of large labels DRM-free, as well as several independent labels. Ben Drury, its founder and chief executive, said removing DRM boosts online sales, as people buy more albums rather than individual tracks. Customers spend an average of £4.70 per transaction. “Early adopters understand what MP3 is and that it is the only format that works on everything,” he said. “The impact amongst early adopters has been really strong, and is slowly starting to trickle down to the mass market.” Mr Drury added that 80 per cent of 7Digital’s customer service calls were related to DRM, as they struggle to move tracks from one device to another. While 7Digital has had 1.3m customers since it began, iTunes, which only sells tracks that work on iPods, is the runaway leader in the UK download market, with more than 75 per cent market share, according to Jupiter Research. Mark Mulligan, a Jupiter analyst, said music labels were granting DRM-free licences to other services ahead of iTunes in an effort to dent its dominance. But he said rival services may struggle to match iTunes’ seamless integration to the iPod. “We’ll see a lot more services going to MP3, which will put a lot of pressure on iTunes,” said Mr Drury. “It could be the only service that doesn’t sell MP3.”"

More deals on the way for NewBay

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

"Mobile software firm NewBay is believed to be on the verge of signing another major deal with a large mobile operator, following an agreement last week with American mobile operator US Cellular that will see its LifeCache software used by 6.2 million customers. Company sources declined to comment on the identity of the new customer, but it is believed to be a European firm. NewBay’s LifeCache is an online service that is hosted on NewBay’s servers and can be accessed from any phone on the US Cellular network. NewBay chief marketing officer Nagappan Arunachalam said that LifeCache will replace an existing solution provided by a rival firm, which means the deal will present NewBay with an active user base. Arunachalam declined to comment on the value of the deal, but did state that it was not a revenue-sharing agreement. NewBay will receive a licensing fee for use of the software, in addition to fees for the number of customers who actively use the service. This is the third US operator that NewBay has signed up to use the service, following earlier deals with T-Mobile and Alltel, which is being taken over by Verizon. NewBay was last week exhibiting at CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment exhibition in Bellevue, Washington and, aside from the US Cellular deal, also announced details on its latest product offering, version two of its LifeCache Social Networking software. It allows users to access aggregate content from their social networking accounts from their mobile phone. It pulls information from Facebook, Bebo, YouTube and MySpace into a single feed, which is then viewable from a single web page on a mobile phone. Arunachalam said that this service is also hosted by NewBay from its own servers. Users will be able to click on links from the feed and access individual social networking sites and their associated services from it. The company has yet to announce any customers for the product, but users of the first version include Vodafone, O2 and Orange. Founded in 2002, the company’s chief backer is Barry Maloney’s Balderton Capital. Propylon founders Declan Hogan and Paul McKeon are also investors in the company. According to its most recent accounts, revenues rose from €2.7 million in 2005 to €4.4 million in 2006, but the company had a €364,000 loss for the year after turning a profit of €719,000 in 2005. It had accumulated losses of €137,000"

BIG FISH GAMES CLOSES $83 MILLION FINANCING WITH PREMIER INVESTMENT FIRMS

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

"SEATTLE – Big Fish Games™ (www.bigfishgames.com), the world’s leading online destination for games and interactive entertainment, announced today that it closed an $83.3 million financing from Balderton Capital, General Catalyst Partners, and Salmon River Capital. Big Fish Games intends to use the new capital raised to accelerate its global expansion. “After an extensive search, we are delighted to announce our new partners,” said Jeremy Lewis, president and CEO of Big Fish Games. “Together they share our vision for building a transformative entertainment company serving the international community of game developers and consumers.” “Big Fish Games has a remarkably deep and talented management team and the company is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the worldwide growth of online interactive entertainment,” stated Mark Evans, general partner of Balderton Capital, who will join the Big Fish Games Board of Directors. “We, along with General Catalyst and Salmon River, are thrilled with the opportunity to partner with the Big Fish Games team and contribute to their rapid growth and market leadership.” About Big Fish Games Big Fish Games is the world’s leading online destination for games and interactive entertainment. Based in Seattle, Washington, Big Fish Games offers “A New Game Every Day™” – Big Fish Games works with more than 500 game developers and distributes over 1 million games per day to consumers worldwide. Big Fish Games Studios develops and publishes some of the industry’s leading brands including Mystery Case Files®, Hidden Expedition™, Azada™ and Fairway Solitaire™. For more information, please visit: www.bigfishgames.com. About Balderton Capital Balderton Capital is a leading venture capital firm, committed to helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies. Based in London, Balderton has approximately $1.5 billion under management. Since 2000, Balderton has invested in over 80 companies across a wide variety of technology sectors and geographies, including Europe, the US and China. Notable investments include Betfair, the world’s largest online gaming exchange, Bebo (the social networking site, recently sold to AOL for $850m) and MySQL (the open-source database business, recently sold to Sun for $1 billion). For more information, please visit: www.Balderton.com. About General Catalyst Partners General Catalyst Partners is a venture capital firm that invests in exceptional entrepreneurs who are building the technology-based companies that will lead innovation and transform industries. Founded in 2000, General Catalyst Partners leverages its principals’ extensive operational, business development and technological expertise to provide portfolio companies with a catalyst for success through business-building and partnership development assistance. General Catalyst has approximately $1 billion under management and is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. For more information, please visit: www.generalcatalyst.com. About Salmon River Capital Salmon River Capital is a specialized venture capital and private equity firm that backs exceptional entrepreneurs building technology enabled businesses created to lead their industries. Based in New York, Salmon River focuses on a range of sectors, leveraging a broad set of capabilities and an unusually flexible capital base. Notable investments include the Capella Education Company (NASDAQ: CPLA), PerTrac Financial Solutions (www.pertrac.com), Netsmart Technologies (www.ntst.com) and Axioma Inc. (www.axiomainc.com). For more information about Salmon River Capital, please contact Matt Evans at 212.931.5358, or email info@salmonrivercapital.com. Big Fish Games and its corporate affiliates develop and distribute games through websites they operate, including www.bigfishgames.com, www.bigfishgames.de and www.bigfishgames.fr. For more information, press only: Paulette Zimmerman, Communiqué PR, (206) 282-4923 ext 115, paulette@communiquepr.com Colleen Moffitt, Communiqué PR, (206) 282-4923 ext 113, colleen@communiquepr.com "

'Big deal' a first for networker NewBay

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

MOBILE SOFTWARE firm NewBay used this week's CTIA wireless industry get-together in San Francisco to announce it had signed a significant deal with US Cellular and to release what it claims is the world's first "aggregated" mobile social networking solution. The contract win with US Cellular, the fourth-largest mobile network in the US, is the latest for NewBay, which also supplies T-Mobile. US Cellular will use NewBay's LifeCache technology to provide a multimedia album service where users can upload and manage content including photos from their mobile phones. NewBay chief executive Paddy Holahan declines to place a value on the contract but says it is a "big deal", not just in terms of its monetary value, but because it is with a new customer which the firm can potentially sell other products to. NewBay also used the CTIA Wireless IT Entertainment 2008 get-together to launch its LifeCache Social Networking v2.0 product, which allows users to access their accounts on multiple services including Facebook, Bebo, YouTube and MySpace from their mobile. Features include the ability to update status in real time, view friends' profiles, browse, download and comment on online media, and send private messages. The company describes it as bringing together "internet-style consumer innovation with carrier-grade stability". Holahan says that NewBay's offering was "miles ahead of the pack" compared to similar mobile social networking products on show at CTIA. NewBay has been offering mobile community products such as blogging platforms since its foundation in 2002. "We did it very early on with lots of first generation stuff and we learnt an awful lot from that," says Holahan. "There's a lot of investment gone into this." Holahan admits that mobile operators are struggling with how to make popular internet services available on mobiles, without simply becoming "dump pipes" that carry traffic to the web. "The social networks need activity but the operators don't want to hand the relationship with their subscribers exclusively to the social networks," says Holahan. One of the major advantages of the mobile platform is that users can be automatically logged into a range of services, using their mobile phone number as a strong form of authentication. "If you are sitting in the pub, you can update your status across all your networks with a single command," says Holahan. "This provides a single view of your world." The new software can be accessed through WAP technology, but a richer experience is offered through a client on the handset. Holahan says NewBay will work with operators to pre-load its software because relatively few consumers ever download mobile applications. Orange UK is pre-loading NewBay's software on Nokia N95 phones, and as a result Holahan says it is seeing 50-100 times more usage of its services.

Big Catch: Big Fish Games Raises $83 Million Funding

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

And who said there was anything casual about casual games: Seattle-based casual games distributor Big Fish Games has received the biggest game-related fundings in recent history. It has raised $83.3 million in funding in a round led by Balderton Capital, General Catalyst Partners, and Salmon River Capital. The money will be used for acquisitions and international expansion...The company has acquired two companies along the way, and expect a few more soon. Paul Thelen, a former RealNetworks manager who built its RealArcade gaming business, started BFG in 2002. CEO Jeremy Lewis, a Goldman Sachs veteran, took over last fall when Thelen became chief strategy officer. Beyond online and downloadable games-- it distributes games such as "Mystery Case Files," "Azada" and "Hidden Expeditions"-- it is expanding into Nintendo Wii console games. This new round was a recap, and the new investors are buying out the handful of angel investors who contributed $8.7 million to help launch the company, plus new shares that are being issued, reports Seattle Times. Here's the best part, always: it didn't need the money, but raised it anyway. It's profitable and had sales of about $50 million last year. Seattle PI: In 2005, the company reported revenue of $8.6 million, rising to $24.1 million in 2006 and $50.8 million last year. This comes as BFG's cross town rival RealNetworks is spinning off its online gaming business and considering an IPO for it. BFG says it won't IPO anytime soon.

Irish companies win business awards

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Businessman Richard Branson will receive a lifetime achievement award at the International Business Awards, which will be attended by about 250 people in Dublin tomorrow. Irish firms Globoforce and Creganna will be among the firms accepting so-called ‘Stevie’ awards, which are presented in 40 categories, covering products, communications, management, marketing and other areas of business. It is the first time that the awards, which are now in their fifth year, have been presented outside the US. Globoforce, which runs staff incentive schemes for large firms, will collect one award for best multinational company and another for its website. The company’s customers include Intel, Amgen and Citibank, and it is on course to have revenues of $100 million this year. Medical device firm Creganna won an award for the best product development department. The company had sales of €45 million last year and Helen Ryan, chief executive of Creganna, said the firm would grow by more than 20 per cent this year. Adrian Brady, the Irish chief executive of British-based public relations firm Eulogy, will collect a Stevie award for the best communications campaign in Europe, for the launch of the Hard Day’s Night hotel in Liverpool. The advisory board for the awards includes billionaire Donald Trump.

Sulake swings to H1 profit, sees no 2009 listing

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Irish tech company among top-500 fastest-growing firms in US

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

A dotcom gift company started in Dublin in 1999 has emerged at No 251 on the top 500- list of fastest-growing private companies in the US, siliconrepublic.com can reveal. According to the annual 500 list of fastest-growing private companies in the US, compiled by Inc. magazine, Globoforce came in at No 251. It also came in at No 34 on Inc magazine’s list of Top 100 Business Services Companies. According to Inc. Globoforce has positioned itself as a global provider ahead of the curve and was in place and operational when businesses recognised the need for a global focus. Globoforce.com was started up in Dublin in 1999 as a way of delivering gifts on behalf of corporates wishing to reward employees and customers. The company is co-headquartered in Southborough, Massachussets and in Dublin, Ireland. The company has developed an on-demand software solution that engages employees across the globe and focuses specifically on Global 2000 companies that want to motivate their workforce. Customers include Avent, Dow Chemical, Global Crossing, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, Intel, Intuit, Nortel, Procter & Gamble and Thomson Reuters. “The rapid adoption of Globoforce's strategic employee-recognition solution by Global 2000 corporations, based in both the US and Europe, continues to fuel our tremendous track record of growth. “We have found that many of the world's largest organisations realise that the proven business benefits of having a mechanism in place to recognise, inspire, motivate, retain and ultimately engage a global workforce is essential to their company's ongoing, profitable operation, particularly during this current challenging global economic environment,” Mosley added.

Bypass the credit jam and drive loan costs down

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

That new motor can be yours. Look beyond traditional lenders for the cash. Kate Hughes reports This week, new cars will roll off forecourts up and down the country as the 58 registration is introduced. And despite endless warnings about the dire effects of the credit crunch, much of this spending will be financed through credit. But the financial information site Moneyfacts.co.uk has found that failing to shop around for the best deal on a car, home improvement or wedding loan could cost you 14 per cent more than it should – a mistake that could leave you thousands out of pocket. And if you really do have to borrow money, your funding options are getting increasingly expensive. As a result, it may be worth looking at more unusual ways to get your hands on the cash. USwitch.com, a price comparison site, says that a loan of £8,000 spread over four years will cost you £317 more in interest than it did 12 months ago. And it's worse for smaller loans. To borrow £1,000, you will now pay an average of just under 20 per cent APR, a jump of almost 3.5 percentage points in a year. What's more, borrowing criteria are getting stricter as lenders try to reduce the risk of bad debt. Almost 1.4 million people, according to banking industry estimates, have been refused an unsecured personal loan since the credit crunch kicked in a year ago. Borrowing large amounts on a credit card is often the most expensive way of financing a big purchase. And your chances of moving balances to a zero per cent rate are getting smaller as lenders continue to rein in their risk in this arena too. Since the credit crunch started, the average interest rate on balance transfers has risen from 15.11 per cent to 16.49 per cent now. But that's not stopping us borrowing. Credit card lending is growing by an average of £179m every three months. If you really want to go down the plastic borrowing route, the best standard interest rates include Barclays' Simplicity at 6.8 per cent APR, or Capital One's "One low rate with cashback" at 8.5 per cent. Or you can secure your borrowing on your home. The interest rates may be a little lower, but in the current economic climate, David Kuo of financial advice website Fool.co.uk says they are worth avoiding. "If you secure your loan on your property, you only have to miss one repayment and you put your home in jeopardy," he warns. "Lending criteria is tight now, but it is worth looking for an unsecured loan because the company won't be able to take your house off you if you run into trouble." But you don't have to go to a traditional lender to borrow. Zopa (uk.zopa.com) is a "social lending" network of private individuals lending and borrowing money. Borrower members state how much they need and why, and then bid for the loans offered. To reduce the risk, the borrower's credit rating is made available to lending members, who are liable for only £50 per loan. The borrower sources the whole loan from a number of lenders. "We look at the credit scores of people looking to borrow," a spokesperson says. "Lenders make an offer detailing the duration, amount and rate of the loan, and borrowers snap up the ones they like the look of." Zopa earns money by charging borrowers a £94.25 transaction fee and lenders a 1 per cent annual servicing fee. "This is a much more personal way of getting a great deal," Mr Kuo adds. "It's safe and you can often get better interest rates than you could hope for elsewhere." If the loan is specifically for that new motor, there are endless dealer finance packages available. These seem easy to set up when you buy the car, and you may get a few discounted perks if you take the dealer's package. But these are very rarely the cheapest deals, and because new cars rapidly depreciate in value, you could quickly find you are paying around 10 per cent interest on something that is not worth anywhere near what you paid for it. In effect, you could be signing up to the car equivalent of negative equity. One solution is a personal contract purchase, Mr Kuo suggests. "This is a loan arrangement where you buy the car but the dealer takes it back after a period of time. So you only borrow the difference between the new value of the car, and what it will be worth at the end of the period." A £10,000 car, for example, may be worth £6,000 three years on, so the buyer borrows only £4,000. "The interest rates are usually around 8 or 9 per cent, less than the 10 per cent or more you would pay for straightforward dealer finance," says Mr Kuo, "and you are paying that on a much smaller debt." You will have to stick to a specific mileage, have full insurance and maintain a full service history, though.

Codemasters appoints 4 new senior execs

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Codemasters has announced that it has appointed four new executives to its senior management team in a bid to keep the company on the "fast track", following three fiscal years of double digit growth. Axel Herr leads the list as senior VP of publishing for EMEA, having previously been MD of THQ in Germany and Nintendo of Europe, while former EA European studios marketing director Alex Bertie has been named VP for Brand & Marketing. Matt Jeffery, previously at Sony Computer Entertainment as platform development manager joins Codemasters as director of Digital Technologies, while ex-finance director for Sony BMG, Paul Martin, will be appointed VP of finance in September. "Codemasters is coming off the back of three consecutive years of double digit revenue growth and sustained profitability. The industry outlook is compelling and Codemasters is on the fast track. It is a high octane company with great energy and we are attracting people who make things happen," said Rod Cousens, CEO of Codemasters. "Axel, Alex, Paul and Matt have already made their mark in their respective fields. They are driven, have a hunger to succeed and a high work ethic. At Codemasters, they are a good fit and can be the incoming tide that takes the company forward. By targeting revenue uplift in excess of 50 per cent in the current fiscal year, Codemasters is poised for its greatest surge yet." Codemasters is currently working on Rise of the Argonauts, Damnation, Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria and Bella Sara, all set for release before the end of 2008.

For Cellphones, Cheaper Rates On Global Calls --- New Software Applications Route Traffic Over the Web; What What Echo Echo?

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

A few weeks ago, Scott Mesch of Boulder, Colo, picked up his cellphone and did something he wouldn't have dared try in the past: He called his cousin in Australia. Before, catching up with relatives near Brisbane would have cost him about $3.50 a minute. But using a service called Truphone, which he installed on his iPhone, the call was only a few cents a minute. "A lot of times I didn't even think of using my cellphone to make calls out of the country," says Mr. Mesch, an information-technology consultant. "Now I don't hesitate. If I want to call from my cellphone, it's no different from any other local call." In addition to Truphone, companies like Jajah, Rebtel and Gizmo have emerged to make calling overseas cheaper and easier -- often requiring little more than a cellphone with Internet access. The cellphone services are the latest iteration of voice over Internet protocol, or VoIP, which dispatch calls over the Internet rather than traditional phone lines. It first came into use as an alternative to the home phone, led by companies like Vonage Holdings Corp. and eBay Inc.'s Skype. There are still some hurdles for consumers, and the services require some level of tech savvy. Mr. Mesch says about one out of every 15 calls is static-filled or so faint he has to hang up and try again. Ernest Svenson, a New Orleans lawyer, says people he spoke with using Truphone sometimes heard their own voices echo. And the services don't cover every corner of the globe -- parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East are out of reach of some providers. A Truphone spokesman said the company is working on the call-quality issues and has an updated iPhone application in the works. People have learned the hard way how expensive it can be to use a cellphone to make international calls -- whether in the U.S. to overseas or vice versa -- given the steep rates and roaming fees wireless carriers charge. "It's a mistake you only make once," says Patrick Monaghan, a telecom analyst at Yankee Group. These services that route calls over the Internet can offer dramatic savings -- cutting the cost of calling India, for instance, from $3.50 a minute to just eight cents a minute. Calling China from the U.S. using Gizmo costs about four cents a minute, while Rebtel charges between two and 18 cents a minute for a call to England. Here's how the applications work: With most of the services, after signing up online, you receive a text message that contains a link to download and install the software. Billing is similar to that of prepaid phone plans, where customers make deposits that are deducted as they make calls. Some of these services work by stringing together two local calls, so that the caller can avoid international fees. To place a call on Jajah, for example, users enter the international number, which is then assigned to a local number. Maxroam, based in Cork, Ireland, takes a different approach. Instead of distributing software, it sells removable SIM cards that can be customized with multiple phone numbers. Customers take advantage of lower rates when traveling -- for example, a New Yorker roaming in London could receive calls from the U.S. and make calls in the U.K. without incurring his carrier's roaming fees. As more people rely on their cellphones as their only personal phone number, they are using cellphones more frequently to make international calls. The amount of international traffic originated by a cellphone grew 16%, to 66 billion minutes in 2006 (the latest year for which data were available), according to TeleGeography, the telecommunications unit of research firm PriMetrica Inc. International calls are a lucrative revenue source for the big wireless carriers, and companies like AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless have also lowered their rates to stay competitive with each other and VoIP services. Some rates offered by big carriers are close to those offered by the Internet-based services. But carriers also require a monthly fee, typically around $4, to get the lowest per-minute rates. Some people also prefer the Internet-based services because they aren't tied to a particular carrier's network or handset selection. Many of these services were founded in the past few years by tech entrepreneurs. Paul Arena, founder of i2Telecom International Inc., launched its service MyGlobalTalk in June after years in investment banking. Jajah, based in Mountain View, Calif., started in 2005 when the co-founders' wives complained about the existing options for making cheap international calls. Lars Kamp says he saves about $20 a month using Jajah on calls from San Francisco, where he works, to his family and girlfriend in Hamburg, Germany. The service occasionally routes to his voicemail instead of connecting the call, a problem Jajah said could be tied to the responsiveness of the phone itself. But Mr. Kamp, a consultant, says he sticks with it because it has good sound quality and is "device agnostic." "I can use it from pretty much any cellphone," he says.

Salesforce.com buys InStranet for $31.5 million

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Business software maker Salesforce.com Inc said on Wednesday that it bought smaller software maker InStranet Inc for $31.5 million. It is Salesforce's largest acquisition since the developer of computer programs that customers can only access using Web browsers and the Internet was founded a decade ago. Salesforce spokesman Bruce Francis said the purchase, which closed Aug. 4, had no impact on results for the fiscal second quarter ended July 31. He declined to comment on how the purchase would affect results in the third quarter, saying company executives would address that issue in an earnings conference call Wednesday afternoon. Salesforce is scheduled to report fiscal second-quarter results after the close of U.S. stock markets on Wednesday. InStranet had $4.2 million in cash and no debt on its balance sheet at the time of its sale to Salesforce, Francis said. He declined to disclose the privately held company's earnings. Chicago-based Instranet has most of its operations in France.

How To Get A Loan When The Bank Says No!

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

If you’re a regular reader of The Fool, you’ll know we’re pretty impressed by peer-to-peer lending business, Zopa. In fact, we like it so much we chatted to Zopa’s managing director, Giles Andrews, to find out more about their lending philosophy in a recent podcast: Zopa -- Better Than Your Bank? What is Zopa? Zopa, which stands for Zone of Possible Agreement, is an online social lending business which connects people, allowing them to lend to -- and borrow from -- each other. Think of it as an ebay for loans. Now you might be wondering why anyone would be willing to lend to people they don’t know. The answer is simple -- because the returns on offer to lenders can be very attractive. The rate the borrower pays will be set by the aggregate of all offers made by the lenders. Imagine earning 8% a year or more on money you have loaned out in the Zopa markets. Isn't this risky? Well Zopa's been around since March 2005 and, so far, the default rate on Zopa loans is tiny at 0.04%. And Zopa isn’t just great for lenders. Borrowers can get hold of money from their peers at competitive rates too. In fact, borrowing through Zopa measures up pretty well against loans available in the conventional market. I think Zopa is a great alternative to ordinary lenders such as banks and financial services companies. And I really like the fact that it cuts out the banking middlemen. If you would like to find out more, read my article: Borrow At Bargain Rates Or Earn 10% A Year On Your Investments. Zopa has been pretty successful so far, and it’s now gone one step further by opening up its market to younger borrowers. When Zopa first launched, borrowers had to be at least 26, but now anyone aged 20 to 25 can pitch for a loan too. Zopa and the credit crunch The credit crunch has forced many conventional lenders to push up the cost of loans because funding is now more difficult to come by in the money markets. But this doesn’t affect loans available through Zopa because they are funded by people like you and me. The credit crunch has also caused lenders to become incredibly picky over who they will lend to. These days, a borrower needs a very good credit history to stand any chance of getting a loan at decent rates. Zopa recognises young people, in particular, are finding it difficult to get accepted for conventional loans when they have a limited credit record. This has led to the launch of Zopa’s new ‘Young Market’ which is specifically designed for young, would-be borrowers who have been turned down by their bank -- or have been offered cash at ludicrously high rates -- simply because they have no, or a very limited, credit history. How do rates for young borrowers compare? The bad news is, if you’re a young borrower, you should expect to pay a bit more for your Zopa loan than you would if you had a perfect, detailed credit history. However, you should still find the rate on the Zopa loan cheaper than the rate you would be offered by a mainstream lender. And Zopa loan is also likely to be easier for you to get than a high street bank loan. Why will Zopa lenders charge you more, if they are not affected by squeeze on funding in the money markets? Simply because, as you have had little or no credit in the past, it’s more difficult to judge how well you’ll manage your loan. In this way, lending to you will be considered higher risk than lending to a borrower with a proven track record. So, in return for this extra risk, Zopa lenders will want a better return. Let's say you want to borrow £5,000 over three years. If you were an A* rated borrower (the highest credit rating you can get), you would typically be offered a loan of around 8.4% by Zopa lenders. But for younger borrowers with little credit history, the rate for the same loan could be around 12.7% APR. (NB: The actual rates will vary depending on the offers received from lenders.) Remember, Zopa takes it cut too. Borrowers pay a fee of £94.25 for their loan, while lenders pay an annual fee of 1% on the money they lend out. Looking at the total repayments, this means a young borrower could end up paying just £328 more than an A* borrower for their loan. Take a look at the figures: Loan of £5,000 repaid over three years Market (type of borrower) A* rated A rated B rated C rated Young Monthly repayments £157.09 £157.88 £160.56 £164.59 £166.21 Total amount repayable £5,655.23 £5,683.82 £5,780.08 £5,925.08 £5,983.58 Typical APR 8.4% 8.8% 10.0% 11.9% 12.7% Borrowers in the A* market are the most creditworthy. Borrowers in the C market still have a higher credit score than most of the population. Rates were taken from the Zopa market on 8 August 2008. Of course, this could be even more attractive to lenders who stand to earn a greater return by taking more risk in lending to a younger borrower. Over the last 12 months lenders have made an annual return of 8.2% (after fees and before bad debt) on the money loaned out, but this could be pushed up even further by lending through the Young Market. Is lending to a young borrower risky? Zopa will credit check young borrowers in exactly the same way as anyone else. Those with a poor credit history or who want to borrow more than you can afford, will be turned away. Zopa’s Young Market gives responsible younger borrowers financial help which they may not be able to get anywhere else. While lenders who are willing to take on a little more risk could enjoy an even better return.

Yingli Green Energy Reports Second Quarter 2008 Results

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Yingli Green Energy Holding Company Limited (NYSE: YGE) ("Yingli Green Energy" or the "Company"), one of the world's leading vertically integrated photovoltaic ("PV") product manufacturers, today announced its unaudited financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2008. Second Quarter 2008 Financial and Operating Highlights -- Total PV module shipments increased 24.9% over the first quarter of 2008 and 119.3% over the second quarter of 2007 to 68.2 MW. -- Net revenues increased 24.6% over the first quarter of 2008 and 120.5% over the second quarter of 2007 to RMB 1,987.0 million (US$289.7 million). -- Gross profit increased 30.5% over the first quarter of 2008 and 149.9% over the second quarter of 2007 to RMB 511.8 million (US$74.6 million). Gross margin increased to 25.8% from 24.6% in the first quarter of 2008 and 22.7% in the second quarter of 2007. -- Operating income increased 40.0% over the first quarter of 2008 and 168.1% over the second quarter of 2007 to RMB 395.7 million (US$57.7 million). Operating margin increased to 19.9% from 17.7% in the first quarter of 2008 and 16.4% in the second quarter of 2007. -- Net income was RMB 207.2 million (US$30.2 million) and fully diluted earnings per ordinary share and per American depositary share ("ADS") were RMB 1.60 (US$0.23) in the second quarter of 2008. -- On an adjusted non-GAAP(1) basis, net income was RMB 234.5 million (US$34.2 million) and fully diluted earnings per ordinary share and per ADS were RMB 1.81 (US$0.26) in the second quarter of 2008. "We are pleased to report another strong quarter," commented Mr. Liansheng Miao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yingli Green Energy. "During the second quarter, our total PV module shipments increased significantly, largely as a result of improvements in throughput and operational efficiency at the existing facilities attributable to our R&D efforts carried out at each stage along our vertically integrated manufacturing process, the production of thinner, 180-micron wafers throughout the quarter, higher yields resulting from reduced breakage rates, and higher cell conversion efficiency rates." "As of today, substantially all of our estimated production output in the second half of 2008 has been contractually secured. With solid demand from existing PV markets and growing demand from emerging PV markets, we have also further expanded our sales in emerging PV markets including Korea, Italy, France, Belgium, the United States and China, which demonstrates our strong ability to effectively build up our brand and extend our presence globally. We believe our position in these markets will further improve our brand recognition and generate well balanced sales portfolio in the future." "On the polysilicon procurement side, in addition to our four long term contracts with Wacker, the new supply agreements with DC Chemical and Sailing demonstrate our collaborative relationships with existing suppliers and our ability to attract new partners. Additionally, as previously reported, our expansion projects remain on track. Construction, equipment delivery and installation, and personnel training are progressing as planned. We are expecting total production capacity to reach 400 MW in late 2008 and 600 MW towards the middle of 2009." "As a result of our strong momentum stated above, we feel comfortable raising our expected PV module shipments and net revenue targets for the full year 2008. We are confident that the continued successful execution of our vertically integrated strategy will strengthen our leading position in the PV industry in both the near and long term." Second Quarter 2008 Financial Results Net Revenues Net revenues were RMB 1,987.0 million (US$289.7 million) in the second quarter of 2008, which increased by 24.6% from RMB 1,595.0 million in the first quarter of 2008 and by 120.5% from RMB 901.1 million in the second quarter of 2007. The increase was primarily due to continued strong growth in market demand for PV modules, and increased production output, resulting in a higher average selling price and increased shipment volume. The average selling price for PV modules(2) increased to US$4.20 per watt in the second quarter of 2008 from US$4.11 per watt in the first quarter of 2008. Total PV module shipments increased to 68.2 MW in the second quarter of 2008 from 54.6 MW in the first quarter of 2008. The increase of shipments was primarily due to improvements in operational efficiency and capacity utilization at each stage of our manufacturing process from our research and development efforts, full production of 180-micron wafers throughout the quarter, higher yields resulted by reduced breakage rates and achievements in increasing cell conversion efficiency rates. Gross Profit and Gross Margin Gross profit in the second quarter of 2008 was RMB 511.8 million (US$74.6 million), which increased by 30.5% from RMB 392.3 million in the first quarter of 2008 and by 149.9% from RMB 204.8 million in the second quarter of 2007. Gross margin was 25.8% in the second quarter of 2008, up from 24.6% in the first quarter of 2008 and 22.7% in the second quarter of 2007. The increase was a result of the cost reduction achieved through research and development efforts at each stage of the Company's vertically integrated manufacturing process. Operating Expenses Operating expenses in the second quarter of 2008 were RMB 116.1 million (US$16.9 million), compared to RMB 109.6 million in the first quarter of 2008 and RMB 57.2 million in the second quarter of 2007. Operating expenses as a percentage of net revenues decreased to 5.8% in the second quarter of 2008 from 6.9% in the first quarter of 2008. The decrease in operating expenses as a percentage of net revenues was primarily due to economies of scale. Operating Income and Margin Operating income in the second quarter of 2008 was RMB 395.7 million (US$57.7 million), which increased by 40.0% from RMB 282.7 million in the first quarter of 2008 and by 168.1% from RMB 147.6 million in the second quarter of 2007. Operating margin increased to 19.9% in the second quarter of 2008 from 17.7% in the first quarter of 2008 and 16.4% in the second quarter of 2007. The increase in operating margin in the second quarter of 2008 was primarily due to increased gross margin and decreased operating expenses as a percentage of net revenues. Foreign Currency Exchange Loss (Gain) Foreign currency exchange loss was RMB 68.2 million (US$9.9 million) in the second quarter of 2008, compared to a foreign currency exchange gain of RMB 66.3 million in the first quarter of 2008 and a foreign currency exchange loss of RMB 17.5 million in the second quarter of 2007. The foreign currency exchange loss in the second quarter of 2008 was primarily due to the appreciation of the Renminbi against both the Euro and the U.S. dollar which resulted in a loss upon the revaluation at the end of the quarter of accounts receivables and raw material prepayments partially offset by a gain from the revaluation of short-term borrowings. The foreign currency exchange gain in the first quarter of 2008 was primarily due to the appreciation of the Euro against the Renminbi, which resulted in a gain upon the revaluation of accounts receivables and raw material prepayments at the end of the quarter. Net Income As a result of the factors discussed above, net income was RMB 207.2 million (US$30.2 million) in the second quarter of 2008, which decreased by 7.3% from RMB 223.5 million in the first quarter of 2008 and increased by 227.6% from RMB 63.2 million in the second quarter of 2007. Fully diluted earnings per ordinary share and per ADS were RMB 1.60 (US$0.23) in the second quarter of 2008, compared to RMB 1.73 in the first quarter of 2008. On an adjusted non-GAAP basis, which excludes share-based compensation and amortization of intangible assets arising from purchase price allocation in connection with a series of acquisitions of equity interest in Tianwei Yingli, the Company's principal operating subsidiary, net income was RMB 234.5 million (US$34.2 million) in the second quarter of 2008, down 4.7% from RMB 246.2 million in the first quarter of 2008. Adjusted non-GAAP fully diluted earnings per ordinary share and per ADS were RMB 1.81 (US$0.26) in the second quarter of 2008, compared to RMB 1.90 in the first quarter of 2008. Balance Sheet Analysis As of June 30, 2008, Yingli Green Energy had RMB 674.7 million (US$98.4 million) in cash and RMB 3,335.8 million (US$486.3 million) in working capital, compared to RMB 564.3 million in cash and RMB 3,511.9 million in working capital as of March 31, 2008. Days sales outstanding was reduced to 47 days in the second quarter of 2008 from 66 days in the first quarter of 2008, primarily due to better payment structure for the executed sales contracts and strengthened internal controls over accounts receivable collection. Second Quarter 2008 Business Highlights Sales. In the second quarter of 2008, Yingli Green Energy entered into: -- Two contracts with Conergy AG under which the Company agreed to supply 7 MW of PV modules in 2008 and 50 MW of PV modules in 2009; -- Two contracts with GeckoLogic GmbH under which the Company agreed to supply 4 MW of PV modules between September and December 2008 and 3 MW of PV modules between October 2008 and March 2009; -- A contract to supply 9.19 MW of PV modules to EN-NEO NEUE ENERGIEN GmbH ("EN-NEO") from October to December 2008 under which EN-NEO has an option to purchase an additional 9 MW of PV modules in 2009; -- A contract to supply 5.75 MW of PV modules to S.A.G. Solarstrom Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH from June to September 2008; -- A contract to supply 17.35 MW of PV modules to Eiko Trading Corporation JP between April and November 2008; -- A contract to supply a minimum of 35 MW of PV modules to IBC Solar AG ("IBC") from May to December 2008 under which IBC has an option to purchase a maximum of an additional 45 MW of PV modules in 2009; -- A contract to supply 1.3 MW of PV modules to Korea Electric Power Industrial Development Corporation in April 2008; and -- A contract to supply 2 MW of PV modules to Kaycom Corporation by the end of May 2008. Polysilicon Supply Agreements. In the second quarter of 2008, Yingli Green Energy entered into: -- The third polysilicon supply agreement with DC Chemical Co., Ltd. ("DC Chemical"). Under the terms of the agreement, DC Chemical has agreed to supply polysilicon with a value of approximately US$39 million to Yingli Green Energy. The delivery period started in April 2008 and will end in December 2008; and -- A polysilicon supply agreement with Sailing New Energy Resources Co., Ltd. ("Sailing"). Under the terms of the agreement, Sailing will supply polysilicon to Yingli Green Energy from the fourth quarter of 2008 through the end of 2010. The total amount of polysilicon to be supplied under this contract will allow Yingli Green Energy to produce a total of 160 MW to 200 MW of PV modules, subject to the production ramp-up schedule of Sailing and further negotiations between the two companies. Production Capacity Expansion. The Company started initial and small-scale production of polysilicon ingots, wafers, PV cells and PV modules in late June 2008 from its latest 200 MW expansion project. Equipment continues to be delivered on time and in-line with the installation schedule. The Company expects to complete installation of the 200 MW of expanded capacity in the fourth quarter of 2008 with full production capacity to come online in late 2008. Once completed, the Company's total production capacity of each of polysilicon ingots and wafers, PV cells and PV modules will be 400 MW. Recent Developments. Since the end of the second quarter of 2008, Yingli Green Energy has: -- Entered into five new sales contracts to supply an aggregate of more than 7 MW of PV modules to five companies in Korea during the third quarter of 2008; and -- Entered into a fixed price sales contract to supply 10 MW of PV modules to Enfinity Management, bvba from July to December 2008. Changes to the Board of Directors At the Company's annual general meeting held on August 4, 2008 in Beijing, China, Mr. George Jian Chuang was re-elected as director of the Company, and Professor Ming Huang and Professor Junmin Liu were elected as directors of the Company to replace Mr. Shujun Li and Mr. Jiesi Wu, who retired from the board upon expiration of their terms of office. Professor Ming Huang is a professor of finance at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University in the United States and Professor Junmin Liu is a professor of economics in the Economics Department and the Chairman of the Virtual Economy Research Center at Nankai University in China. Business Outlook for Full Year 2008 Based on the current market and operating conditions, estimated production capacity and forecasted customer demand, the Company revises up its expected PV module shipments and net revenue targets for the full year 2008 as follows: -- PV module shipments are expected to be approximately 270 MW to 280 MW, which represents an increase of 89.5% to 96.5% compared to 2007. This compares to the Company's previous guidance of 255 MW to 265 MW. -- Net revenues are expected to be approximately US$1,053 million to US$1,106 million, which represents an increase of 89.2% to 98.7% compared to 2007. This compares to the Company's previous guidance of US$969 million to US$1,020 million. Non-GAAP Financial Measures To supplement the financial measures calculated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principals in the United States, or GAAP, this press release includes certain non-GAAP financial measures of adjusted net income and adjusted diluted earnings per ordinary share and per ADS, each of which is adjusted to exclude items related to share-based compensation and amortization of intangible assets arising from purchase price allocation in connection with a series of acquisitions of equity interest in Tianwei Yingli, the Company's principal operating subsidiary. The Company believes excluding these items from its non-GAAP financial measures is useful for its management and investors to assess and analyze the Company's core operating results as such items are not directly attributable to the underlying performance of the Company's business operations and do not impact its cash earnings. The Company also believes these non-GAAP financial measures are important to help investors understand the Company's current financial performance and future prospects and compare business trends among different reporting periods on a consistent basis. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to financial measures presented in accordance with GAAP, but should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, financial measures presented in accordance with GAAP. For a reconciliation of each of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, please see the financial information included elsewhere in this press release. Currency Convenience Translation The conversion of Renminbi into U.S. dollars for the second quarter of 2008 in this earnings release, made solely for the purpose of reader's convenience, is based on the noon buying rate in the New York City for cable transfers of Renminbi as certified for customs purpose by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as of June 30, 2008, which was RMB 6.8591 to US$1.00. No representation is intended to imply that the Renminbi amounts could have been, or could be, converted, realized or settled into U.S. dollars at such rate, or at any other rate. The percentages stated in this earnings release are calculated based on Renminbi.

7digital help ISPs combat music piracy

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

7digital has launched a new range of download services in order to help ISPs (Internet Service Providers) offer their customers legal musicdownloads, following the BPI's recent crackdown on piracy. 'Following the continuing efforts by the UK Government, BPI and ISPs to combat illegal file sharing, 7digital, the leading digital media delivery company and the home of MP3, today announces the launch of a range of tailored download services for ISPs,' reads the release just in. 7digital is already in discussions with several of the major six UK ISPs (those ISPs that are already involved in the BPI's letter-writing/scaremongering) that are looking to launch legal download and streaming services by the end of this year. Good news for the millions of British music fans out there that are keen to spend money on downloading their favourite tunes, but who are currently (for whatever reasons) obtaining most of their music via illegal downloading. 7digital's services will allow users to get hold of high quality MP3s compatible with all digital audio players. Three-tier offering 7digital is offering three different types of music download service to ISPs: 1. White label download services allowing broadband customers to purchase high quality MP3s directly from their ISP. The cost of the downloaded music will be automatically included in the customer's monthly bill. 2. Subscription and bundled services which allow customers to download music or stream tracks directly to their PC. This option can be included in a broadband subscription or as a premium cost option. 3. A partnership with 7digital.com that offers ISPs the capacity to create a download service with minimal investment. The ISP can still offer free music as part of the customer's monthly package, but without the full costs of creating and managing a service. Combating music piracy 7digital's CEO Ben Drury says of the latest negotiations with ISPs: 'We've always believed that the best way to combat piracy is to offer incredibly compelling legal services with great pricing and quality of service. 'ISPs already have existing billing relationships with their customers providing internet access alongside services including email, anti-virus protection and online backup. With legal MP3 sales rocketing and 7digital pioneering the way, we are in a unique position to offer this full suite of services to suit individual ISP's requirements.'He added, 'It's a natural step for ISPs to offer added valueservices such as music downloads and streaming to their existing customers. It will help combat churn and attract new subscribers.'

AdJug expands into Indian market

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Online ad marketplace AdJug has expanded into India in a bid to capitalise on the country's growing online ad market. AdJug is set to open an office facility in Bangalore and will create a launch team of up to 15 people to build an India-focused model to deploy local currency systems for local brands. The marketplace, which enables advertisers and publishers to buy and sell ads directly, will spend an initial $2m (£1m) implementing a local auction model for the Indian market, with further investment planned. The Indian office follows AdJug's European expansion, which has opened offices in London and Germany since launching late last year. Satish Jayakumar, AdJug co-founder and director, said, 'India is a key strategic market for AdJug. We aim to attract the country's best talent to help us develop a specific ad auction model for the rapidly growing Indian market. This will not only offer local inventory and ad space, but link to our European networks to drive wider revenue opportunities.'

How entrepreneurs are helping combat the credit crunch

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

You might think that the credit crunch is going to shift power back to the banks as they call in loans and overdrafts, and reset terms and conditions. To a certain extent that is true. But what is also true is that the non-bank lenders, such as Zopa, the social lending marketplace, and Wonga, the recently launched “cash on demand” online lender, are doing well as people shop for new types of financial service providers. Access to credit is one of the developed world’s major advantages. The fact that we can envisage something that we want, whether for business or pleasure, and secure it ahead of actually having earned the money for it, means that we can advance more quickly. Smart people pay off their credit as soon as they can, but they get the advantage of what they have purchased earlier – the house, the laptop, the trip or anything else. Many an entrepreneurial start-up would never have got off the ground if the founders had not – wisely or unwisely – decided to max out their credit lines to get or keep the company going until real funding came in. CREDIT IS HERE TO STAY We are never going to return to the days of having no credit. We will manage debt better – shopping for the best deal, and becoming alive to the tradeoffs we are making about interest and terms. The credit crunch also means that consumers are going to be experiencing short-term cash flow problems more frequently. Higher petrol and food costs are a fact of life. Banks are not known for their flexibility or innovation, to say the least. They perceive that as the antithesis of managing risk. Once again, enter the entrepreneur. Errol Damelin, a three-time successful entrepreneur, launched Wonga late last year, to help people avoid longterm debt in the current unsettled financial climate. Why help banks get their revenue via high penalty fees and charges for other services you don’t need? Why not get your money working to provide the short sharp benefit that you require? Wonga won’t extend more loans to people with bad credit risks. Instead, they reward people who manage their credit well with greater flexibility. The fees charged are not low, but if you have an immediate need, such as an urgent time-sensitive purchase, emergency repairs or a shock bill, and you are seven days away from payroll, what are your other options? REAL SERVICE Most people today are anti-bank and anti-credit card but love the flexibility of new bank-like organisations such as Zopa and Wonga. They are happy to pay a premium for being treated in a way where speed and convenience matter. Call it “cash on demand” if you will – I prefer to call it customer service.

MBA Polymers raises $40M for recycling plants

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Some plastics, like high grade steel or aluminum, are just too good to toss in the dump. But for years that has happened to them anyway, for lack of good recycling technology. MBA Polymers was started to separate out worthwhile plastics from waste streams to break down and re-form into new, high-quality plastics. The company just took funding to build new recycling plants, according to VentureWire. Although based in Richmond, Calif, MBA has plans to build its plants around the world, starting in either the United Kingdom or China. The $40 million investment was co-led by Citi Sustainable Investments and Honeywell Capital Management, both large corporate investors. Previous backers Doughty Hanson Technology, Balderton Capital and Asia West returned for the round.

OC agrees deal with Betfair to monitor betting

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The International Olympic Committee yesterday agreed a deal with Betfair to exchange information about irregular betting patterns on Olympic sport. Coming into effect in time for next month's Games in Beijing, the agreement means the IOC will for the first time be able to request the identities of account holders who bet suspiciously. As Betfair is the world's largest betting exchange, yesterday's deal is a significant addition to what the IOC already holds with EWS, the early-warning system of betting that is a Fifa subsidiary. But EWS offers no access to private data, unlike the memorandum of understanding signed yesterday with Betfair. The IOC, having in the past tried to prohibit all gambling activity on Olympic sport, changed tack after discussions with sports-integrity experts such as cricket's anti-corruption commissioner, Lord Condon. Weighing up the fraud threats posed by result-fixing in sport, the IOC president, Jacques Rogge, set in train plans to tackle corruption during an executive committee meeting last December. Yesterday's decision comes at a time when the IOC has decamped to the capital of a nation whose annual gambling turnover reportedly amounts to £50bn. All competitors, coaches, officials and journalists who attend the Games must also for the first time sign documents binding them not to bet on Olympic sport. Yesterday's decision provides the IOC with far more detailed powers of inquiry than it has ever had in the past.

MBA Polymers raises $40M for recycling plants

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Some plastics, like high grade steel or aluminum, are just too good to toss in the dump. But for years that has happened to them anyway, for lack of good recycling technology. MBA Polymers was started to separate out worthwhile plastics from waste streams to break down and re-form into new, high-quality plastics. The company just took funding to build new recycling plants, according to VentureWire. Although based in Richmond, Calif., MBA has plans to build its plants around the world, starting in either the United Kingdom or China. The $40 million investment was co-led by Citi Sustainable Investments and Honeywell Capital Management, both large corporate investors. Previous backers Doughty Hanson Technology, Balderton Capital and Asia West returned for the round.

Elevator Pitch: Wonga fixes that cash problem

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

If successful entrepreneurship is about identifying an unhappy customer base and disrupting the business model, Wonga is right on the money.It's a site that offers small, short-term loans, easily and over the web. Banks, schmanks! Chief executive Errol Damelin, founded the site in 2006, launching in beta late last summer. The site launched fully recently after extensive testing and, says Damelin, extremely positive feedback from users. Wonga employs 37 staff in London with a development team in the Ukraine, and is backed with venture capital from Balderton Capital, TAG and Kreos Capital. Damelin explains how it works. • Explain your business to my Mum. "We can provide her with a small, short-term loan whenever she has an unexpected expense or wants to make an urgent purchase. Application is entirely online and she can choose the exact size and length of the loan before proceeding. We'll give her an instant decision and, if she's accepted, she can expect the cash in her account within minutes." • How do you make money? 'We charge interest on our loans.' • What's your background? 'I started out as an investment banker, but soon became more interested in developing ideas myself, rather than helping others to realise their dreams. So I joined the founding team behind an advanced steel wire production company and cut my entrepreneurial teeth there. I then founded a software company called Supply Chain Connect that we exited from in 2005 - and it was while taking a break following the sale that I first got the idea for Wonga.'• How many users do you have now, and what's your target within 12 months? 'We served over 50,000 customers during our testing phase and expect to help many more over the next 12 months.'• How are personalisation and recommendation part of your business? 'For starters, we've developed a sophisticated and personalised trust rating system that automatically rewards repeat customers with more borrowing flexibility, providing they use the service responsibly. We use this proprietary measure because we're only interested in building responsible and long-term relationships with customers.' • What's your biggest challenge? 'Navigating the credit crunch and making sure we provide people with cash on demand in a completely responsible way. We essentially do this by ensuring that we collect and assess current data on applicants and our service is extremely transparent. Plus our unique flexibility means customers aren't saddled with debt for any longer than they need it for, and that is even more important as the economy gets tougher.'• Name your closest competitors. "There is a broad spectrum of competition, from traditional banks to other internet lenders. But we are not out to replace traditional lenders, rather provide a genuine, short-term alternative for people in need of some cash in a hurry." • Are we in the middle of a new dot com bubble? 'Not at all. While there may have been easy money around for some dubious social networking projects over the past couple of years, venture and angel investment is now challenging to get again and valuations are generally modest. In many consumer markets we're still experiencing the early stages of a structural digital revolution and a lot of the innovation is coming out of start-ups. That can (and should) create a lot of genuine value. When that value creation is reflected is asset prices, we shouldn't be surprised.' • Which tech businesses or web thinkers are the ones to watch? 'I admire Marc Andreessen as a thinker. He's smart, original and opinionated - which is a great combination. In terms of web projects, there are a lot of exciting ideas around but the one I love most is a non-profit called Kiva.org. They elegantly enable individuals to lend to entrepreneurs in the developing world. You can make very small loans via a credit card and help hard working people lift themselves out of poverty. It's brilliantly executed and a great cause.'• Where do you want the company to be in five years? "We're going to continue to focus on providing our customers with access to credit more quickly and conveniently than anyone else. To that end, there's a rich product and market development pipeline to ensure that we stay in the lead on this."

GreenRoad secures $3 million for driver-safety tech

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

GreenRoad Technologies announced it has received $3 million in series C funding from Amadeus Capital Partners, Virgin Green Fund, Benchmark Capital, and Balderton Capital on Monday. The company’s main product, the GreenRoad Safety Centre, might be called a digital backseat driver. It features on-board sensors tracking some 120 moves made by the driver. Paired with Web applications, a dashboard display offer real-time suggestions about how to steer the car more safely. GreenRoad claims that clients have found a 54 per cent reduction in crashes and 7 per cent drop in fuel costs. The company says its product is being picked up by commercial fleets, insurance companies and governments in the United States, Europe and Israel. With offices in Redwood Shores, Calif., and London, GreenRoad projects that its products could serve 77 million vehicles. In January, the company raised $14.5 million led by Virgin Green Fund and Benchmark Capital.

AdJug signs deals with The Sun Local and Oodle

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Online ad exchange AdJug has signed deals with classified ad websites The Sun Local and Oodle. The latest deals will see AdJug serve banner ads from its network to The Sun Local and Oodle sites. The ads will be targeted to key classified categories such as pets, cars, property and items for sale, as well as run-of-site. Oodle provides classified advertising for numerous websites including Lycos UK, Magic Radio and Infospace. The economic downturn is proving to be a boon for companies selling remnant inventory. Max Moore, vice-president of publishing at AdJug, said the ad exchange and marketplace sector was seeing growth. "Publishers are taking advantage of the opportunity in the marketplace, they've got nothing to lose as its free to use and non-exclusive. " "Adding Oodle's high calibre inventory to the AdJug inventory mix will provide our advertisers with a great cross-section of classified sites to target, and further expand AdJug's local channel." AdJug's marketplace currently records more than half a billion ad impressions a month across 1,200 sites.

Berlin virtualised in a game

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

We all know how popular virtual worlds are, with the best known examples being Second Life and World of Warcraft. These worlds are all very well, but they’re set in a fictional world. Not a bad thing for many people, but some players will hanker for more reality. This is where Twinity comes in. Twinity plan to accurately model cities from around the world and they’re starting with one of our fave cities, Berlin. To be specific, the Hackescher Markt district of Berlin. It’s a fantastic part of a great city, covering over six square kilometres, where many friends of Digital-Lifestyles live and we stay there when we can. Are virtual real worlds a good idea? It’s obviously not just us who think it’s a good idea. Back on 1 April (no, it wasn’t an April fool), Twinity’s developer, Metaversum, received what they describe as “a significant multi million Euro investment” from Balderton Capital, the VC firm previously known as Benchmark Capital Europe. Metaversum founders, Dietrich Charisius, Jochen Hummel and Mirko Caspar have been pretty patient in seeing their company grow, given that they formed it in July 2006. Real virtual city history We remember with fondness the release of action video game The Driver, where the big hook was that its developers had modelled the streets of London into the game. Those playing it could tear around London street, brandishing shooters and getting ‘well lairy.’ After extensive research (ie playing until our thumbs bled), we can attest that they did a pretty accurate job. Possible issues A virtual world set in a real world will bring some interesting issues - even more interesting will be watching how Metaversum deal with these. Conflicts between the inhabitants of a virtual world and those running it have often led to a few dust ups. We wonder if the blindfolded attitude of those in the real world — a desire to live where lots of rich people are (London Chelsea, Mayfair, etc) — continues in these virtual cities, given the ability to re-write the ‘rules.’ Another interesting area for consideration is if, as the game become more populated, will there eventually be the same lack of housing that burdens the physical world, duplicated in the Virtual world? Will people play the game, just to be come familiar with a city before they visit it, feeling familiar with the place before arriving? Lots of yet to be discovered answers … and questions … remain to be revealed. We await developments with this with interest and are looking forward to dipping our toes into Twinity.

Mobile firm in UEFA media album deal

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Football fans will be able to create their commemorative UEFA Euro 2008 album thanks to a technology developed by Dublin software company NewBay and deployed with Swisscom. Euro 2008 Album, which is localised in four languages, allows Swisscom subscribers to instantly upload multiple photographs taken at Euro 2008 championship matches to a personal album on the operator’s website via a handset client or web browser. The pictures and video appear on personal sites and can then be viewed by friends, family and football fans worldwide. Fans can interact by commenting on pictures and subscribers can combine their own snaps with official UEFA Euro 2008 photos and content, creating a commemorative album of the games that can be printed directly from the site and delivered right to your door. “The Swisscom UEFA Euro 2008 Album service is a great example of how NewBay powers digital lifestyles,” said Dr Nagappan Arunachalam, chief marketing officer, NewBay Software.“We were excited to be working on this project with Swisscom to provide a fun, easy-to-use, user-generated content service that allows subscribers to really capture and share experiences from the UEFA Euro 2008 on the go. The UEFA Euro 2008 Album service not only increases customer face time with Swisscom but also creates an additional revenue stream for the operator.” For a truly converged user experience, NewBay’s new LifeCache Desktop Media Uploader product was also deployed in the UEFA Euro 2008 Album service. This innovative desktop client enables the quick and easy simultaneous transfer of multiple high-resolution image files from a PC to the album. This is in line with Swisscom’s on-going commitment to become a converged operator, which is reflected in the company’s recent rebrand. The customer experience is further enhanced by other features, such as the browsing and selection of images by thumbnail, in addition to an intuitive Explorer-based selection. “We feel the UEFA Euro 2008 Album initiative has taken our support of the competition to the next level,” said Bruno Roesti, marketing manager, Swisscom said. “It has allowed our customers to become directly involved in the UEFA excitement, and at the same time has increased the level of interface with our brand.”

Zopa gains over 200,000 members

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Online lending exchange Zopa now has over 200,000 members and has achieved £23m in lending over the last three years. Since its launch, Zopa lenders have received an average return of 7.3 per cent and over the last three months a return of 8.9 per cent. Zopa says its default rate has remained extremely low at 0.02 per cent. Co-founder and UK managing director Giles Andrews says: "Reaching the 200,000 mark is very satisfying, but given the difficulty so many people in this country are facing when trying to secure a loan at a competitive rate, we know the number could be much, much bigger. "As more people get to know about Zopa and the excellent deals that are available by borrowing from other people rather than the banks, we know the number will climb higher and higher." Zopa has also launched in the USA and Italy, with plans to go live in Japan in the near future.

Technology appraisals names Rebtel low price leader

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Rebtel, a global communications company, has beaten 15 other companies in a report that compares international calling rates. The report has been compiled by Technology Appraisals Limited, which is an independent market research and publishing company based in London. The research conducted by Technology Appraisals also lists at least 30 new companies offering low cost mobile calling. According to Hjalmar Winbladh, co-founder and CEO of Rebtel, 'Low rates combined with the most reliable and clear connections are what bring customers to Rebtel, but the reason people use our services day in and day out is to stay connected with their loved ones. That’s what Rebtel is all about – and why 97 percent of our customers recommend Rebtel.' Rebtel was established in 2006 to give worldwide consumers an alternative to mobile operator’s outrageous rates for making international calls. It is absolutely free to set up a Rebtel account. All new customers get a 10 minute free call to test the service as well. Once an account is set up, customers have to pay for only those minutes that they use. Smart Calls between the 47 countries in which Rebtel has services are free. Also only one person on a call needs to be a Rebtel subscriber. Rebtel gives its customers local phone numbers in their country. Using this number, customers can connect directly with their friends, family or colleagues who live abroad. Since all the calls are local, users can call each other as often as required and talk as long as needed. With the Rebtel service, a customer living in Los Angeles is given a local Los Angeles number, for example, and then using this local number, the customer can connect to friends in Mexico City and in turn, the person in Mexico City will be provided with a local Mexico City number to reach his friend in Los Angeles.

AdJug to offer global ad inventory via Rubicon Project

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Online ad marketplace AdJug has begun offering its publishers' global ad inventory. The marketplace has agreed a deal with ad technology company Rubicon Project which gives it access to the UK inventory of its network of US publishers. UK visitors to US-based sites will now be served country-specific ads by AdJug following the deal. Michael Stephanblome, founder of AdJug, said the deal opened up a wide range of new inventory. 'This instantly helps us to bring additional liquidity into our marketplace and creates new and exiting inventory opportunities for our advertisers," said Stephanblome.'

Livebookings gets £6.5m

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Online restaurant booking service Livebookings networks has received a £6.5 million investment from private equity firm Balderton Capital. Financial advice during the transaction was led by partner Kristoffer Källeskog from technology, media and telecommunications corporate finance boutique EOC Partners in London. The team prepared and documented the investment case, structured the transaction and advised in the negotiation and execution phase through to completion. Källeskog said: “The fund raising process was a bit more complex and demanding than normal as it also involved a parallel acquisition in Germany. “We had not worked with the company before but quickly realised the potential and attractiveness of the investment case, and we accordingly received strong attention from the VC community. Livebookings is greatly positioned in a fast growing emerging market and the company is already shows great momentum.”

WHY STRUGGLE? Google won the search engine war, writes Juliette Garside, but the battle has been taken on by specialist engines

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

ALTAVISTA, Magellan, Infoseek... the web is littered with the corpses of search engines that were crushed during Google's rise to the top. Some, like AltaVista, which now belongs to Yahoo!, have been taken over by larger entities. Many were simply closed down. The internet's best brains are still trying to come up with alternatives. Wikipedia lists over 200 engines that search the open web, and dozens of others that restrict themselves to combing through limited groups of sites. Yahoo! tried to invent a Google-killer, but has now thrown in the towel, harnessing itself to Google's more popular search business. Microsoft is still trying, but for how much longer? Beneath the headlines, the battle has shifted to a new terrain. The prize now is to devise engines that can handle clearly defined tasks -such as finding video, or MP3 music files, or the best blogs - more effectively. Others use a different technology to Google, letting surfers navigate by clicking on pictures rather than typing in search words. Some are hoping to marshal armies of human volunteers to label information in ways that make the results more relevant. One of the leading European media and technology venture capital investors, Balderton Capital, is looking to put money into some of these alternative search engines. Dharmash Mistry, Balderton partner and former head of digital operations at magazine publisher Emap, believes that as we become more experienced users of the internet, we become more demanding. There are needs that are not being met by the general search engines which might be better taken care of by niche players. Says Mistry: 'Different consumer problems will be solved better by lots of players, as opposed to a single player solving all sorts of consumer problems.' Here we highlight seven alternatives to Google. Pixsta.com Launched in May, London-based Pixsta describes itself as a visual search engine. It helps the user find what they want by clicking on images as well as typing in words. The technology is being used for a shopping site, which functions in the UK, France and America, but other applications are in development ranging from facial similarity for dating to travel destination research. Pixsta has links to over 120 retailers, and is hosted on a number of consumer websites including handbag.com, Elle UK and, indeed, Telegraph.co.uk. Most search engines, like Google Images, rely on the text captions attached to pictures to bring back the correct results. Pixsta analyses images pixel by pixel, to calculate shape, colour, texture and pattern. To find a match, it will select other images with a certain number of identical features. If you type 'patent leather red shoes, stiletto heel', into the search box, the software matches your query to its visual signatures and shows a series of related image results. By clicking on one you quite like, it will show you others that are yet more similar, until you find the one you prefer. Each picture is linked to an online retailer, so that the item can be purchased. Pixsta is backed by Eden Ventures and private investors, and its co-founders are Dr Daniel Heesch, a German graduate of the London School of Economics, and dotcom entrepreneur Alexander Straub. Blinkx.com Hothoused by the UK's most successful search business, Autonomy Corporation, and now valued at pounds 55m on the London Stock Exchange, blinkx is a video search engine. Conceived at Cambridge University by Suranga Chandratillake and a team of fellow programmers, and developed with $150m of research funding over 12 years, it launched to the public in 2005 and claims to be the largest single source of video on the web, with 26m hours indexed so far. Like Pixsta, it is not dependent on the text tags applied to video by machines or humans. Its crawlers - the computer programmes that roam the web, indexing pages for search engines - can also listen to what is being said on a video using speech recognition technology. They can recognise over 500 famous faces. Most importantly, they can "watch'' videos to look out for text and detect scene changes. This means that in its summary of search results blinkx can show a snippet of the footage of Comply Or Die winning this year's Grand National, rather than the talking head in the television studio announcing the news. The user knows immediately whether they've found the right video. Blinkx claims that this technology makes its results more relevant than Yahoo! and AOL's Truveo, which rely on the written labels that surround videos loaded onto a web page. Blinkx already powers video search for three of the top five search engines, including Ask.com, MSN and parts of the AOL portal. According to measurement firm Hitwise, blinkx has now surpassed Google Video in the UK with weekly market share of visits. Endeca Unlike Google, this is not a public search engine. You cannot go to Endeca.com and type a query into a box. Instead, Endeca provides its technology to multinationals or government organisations so that they can search their own massive internal databases. Boeing, ABN Amro and the US Defense Intelligence Agency are among its clients. Its other big line of business is helping public websites make their contents more accessible to customers. Tesco.com, US retailer Wal-Mart and Borders bookstore are all clients. Emap, the magazine publisher, has an Endeca search on Motorcyclenews.com and Todaysgolfer.co.uk. The technology is known as faceted search. Queries are typed into not one box but five or six, to both include and exclude keywords or sources. Type 'pink Yahama' into Motorcyclenews and the results are categorised by subheadings including news, sport, bikes for sale and community. The search can then be refined by make, model, or price. If you decide to look for another brand of bike, the term Yahama can be removed and every pink bike on the site appears. Unlike Google, Endeca does not rely on advertising, but charges between $100,000 and $10m per installation. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the company is still privately owned but widely tipped as one of the next multi-million dollar new media stock market listings. It competes with Autonomy, valued on the London Stock Exchange at pounds 1.9bn, and Fast Search & Transfer, bought at the beginning of this year by Microsoft for $1.2bn. Technorati.com Technorati tracks nearly 113m blogs and over 150m videos, photos and other odds and ends like online votes. It categorises its findings into business, entertainment, lifestyle, politics and sports, but its strength is in monitoring information and opinion about technology. According to Technorati's data, there are over 175,000 new blogs every day. Its raison d'etre is to make these easily accessible and rank them in order of importance. Bloggers often link to each others' pages, and those with the most links are deemed by Technorati to be amongst the most authoritative. Wikia Search The brainchild of Jimmy Wales, co-founder of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, Wikia Search can be edited by registered users. The hope is that human brains can improve the quality of computer-generated information. "If someone runs a search and doesn't find the result they're looking for, we're giving them the power to go and fix it,'' explained Mr Wales. Users can edit results, titles and summaries, add notes, highlight the most relevant results, delete non-sequiturs. As of this month, it has attracted 25,000 volunteers who have made almost 60,000 edits. Songza.com A music search engine. There are many shades of grey in music search, from free download sites to those like Songza which guides users to paid-for music. Type in a song and it offers various options, from 'listen now' to 'buy on Amazon.com' or embedding it on your homepage. Ablegrape.com Looking for a 2000 Lafite Rothschild or an obscure estate wine? Ablegrape.com, the wine search engine, will supply you with a list of importers who claim to have it in stock. It can also classify results by tasting notes and producer. Very much part of the long tail of niche search engines, it links to 36,000 other wine sites.

Orchestria Named Winner of Two 2008 Tomorrow's Technology Today Awards

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Orchestria has been named winner of two Tomorrow's Technology Today Awards for its Data Loss Prevention solution. Silicon Valley-based Info Security Products Guide named Orchestria winner in two award categories, Content Security Solution and Intellectual Property Protection. 'Companies that have been honored with the prestigious 2008 Tomorrow's Technology Today award have each made a deep-rooted commitment to solving security issues,' said Rake Narang, editor-in-chief, Info Security Products Guide. 'Probably nothing differentiates a product or solution more than the superior technologies behind it, making them suitable for today's needs while pro-actively being ready for tomorrow, too.'

Bernard Liautaud

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Bernard Liautaud rejoint la société de capital-risque Balderton Capital en tant que general partner. Il prendra ses fonctions, à Londres, le 1er juillet. Bernard Liautaud, quarante-six ans, ancien élève de l'Ecole centrale Paris, entame son parcours chez Oracle France en tant que responsable marketing avant de cofonder, en 1990, Business Objects, dont il a été président-directeur général puis président du conseil d'administration jusqu'en janvier 2008.

CBE awarded to Codemasters’ founders

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

David and Richard Darling have been recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours list, both receiving a CBE for services to the UK games industry. The duo started up games firm Codemasters in 1986 on a shoestring after receiving help from their dad Jim. They began by publishing £1.99 'classics' such as Ghosthunter and the famous Dizzy series of games. The pair, who enjoyed senior management roles at the firm until they sold their stake last year, are now believed to be worth in excess of £100 million each. "For over 20 years, David and Richard led Codemasters as it became one of the video game industry's great British success stories," company chief Rod Cousens told the BBC. "Their drive and passion for creating the best in interactive entertainment will always be part of the industry's heritage and this recognition is well deserved." Site Map | Privacy Statement | Legal Information

Bernard Liautaud, founder of Business Objects, joins Balderton Capital as General Partner

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

London, June 16, 2008 – The Partners of Balderton Capital, the leading venture capital firm, are pleased to announce that Bernard Liautaud, the founder of Business Objects, will join the firm as a General Partner on July 1. Bernard Liautaud said: “I am excited to join Europe’s premier venture capital firm. I strongly believe that there is a significant opportunity now for European entrepreneurs to build global leaders. Venture capital will play an important role in that development. “I have been very impressed by the quality of the companies in the Balderton Capital portfolio, by the experience of the Partners and by the unique approach of the firm to help entrepreneurs build great companies. Having been an entrepreneur for over 18 years, I am really excited to be in a position to guide new talent and help fulfill their ambitions.”As one of Europe’s most successful entrepreneurs, Bernard built Business Objects into the global leader in business intelligence software and one of the top 15 software companies in the world. In January 2008, Business Objects was acquired by SAP AG for $6.7 billion, making it the third largest ever software acquisition at the time. Bernard is the latest key hire to Balderton Capital. He joins a highly experienced team which includes the other General Partners: Tim Bunting, Mark Evans and Barry Maloney. Based in London, Balderton manages approximately $1.5 billion in committed venture capital. Since 2000, Balderton has invested in over 80 companies across a wide variety of technology sectors and geographies, including Europe, the US and China. Notable investments include Bebo, (the social networking site, which was recently sold to AOL for $850m), Betfair (the online betting exchange), Codemasters (the video games publisher), MySQL (the open-source database business, recently sold to Sun for $1 billion) and Setanta Sports (the leading European sports broadcaster). Barry Maloney, General Partner at Balderton Capital, said: “Business Objects is one of Europe’s greatest technology stories and we are delighted that Bernard is joining our partnership. He will be both an invaluable guide to our portfolio companies and a great addition to our team. The last six months have been an important time for Balderton. We have made three excellent exits and have invested in several new companies which we believe will bring great returns to our investors.” Contact Victoria Palmer-Moore (Powerscourt) 44 207 324 0493 or 44 77255 65545 victoria.palmer-moore@powerscourtmedia.com Notes to editors About Balderton Capital Balderton Capital is a leading venture capital firm, committed to finding and helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies. Balderton approaches investment using the principles of teamwork and an intense dedication to building companies of lasting value. The partners combine Silicon Valley operating and company-building experience with a keen understanding of what it takes to build successful businesses in the media and technology markets. About Bernard Liautaud Bernard co-founded Business Objects in 1990 and was CEO then Chairman until January 2008. With 6,700 employees, 45,000 customers and $1.5 billion of revenue in 2007, Business Objects was the world leader in Business Intelligence and one of the 15 largest software companies in the world. Business Objects was the first European software IPO on Nasdaq in 1994. In January 2008, in the 3rd largest software acquisition at the time, Business Objects was acquired by SAP for $6.7 billion. Following the acquisition, Bernard is now a member of the SAP Supervisory Board. Bernard has received a number of distinctions including “Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur” in 2007 in France, Time Magazine Europe's Digital Top 25 and BusinessWeek Stars of Europe of 2002 and Top 10 CEOs in North America by Chief Executive Magazine in 2001. Bernard is the author of “e-Business Intelligence: Turning Information Into Knowledge Into Profit”, translated into nine languages and sold for more than 50,000 copies worldwide.

Bernard Liautaud, fondateur de Business Objects, rejoint Balderton Capital en tant que General Partner

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Les associés de Balderton Capital, société de capital-risque de premier plan, sont heureux d'annoncer que Bernard Liautaud, le fondateur de Business Objects, rejoindra leur société en tant que General Partner le 1er juillet. Bernard Liautaud a déclaré: << Je suis très heureux de rejoindre une des plus importantes sociétés de capital-risque en Europe. Je suis convaincu de la capacité des entrepreneurs européens à créer des leaders mondiaux, et je pense que le capital-risque a un rôle très important à jouer dans ce développement. << J'ai été impressionné par la qualité des sociétés du portefeuille de Balderton Capital, par l'expérience des associés et par l'approche unique que la société emploie pour aider les entrepreneurs à développer leurs entreprises. Ayant été moi-même entrepreneur depuis plus de 18 ans, je suis enchanté d'être désormais en mesure de guider de nouveaux talents et de les aider à satisfaire leurs ambitions. >> Bernard est l'un des chefs d'entreprise les plus réputés en Europe. Il a fait de Business Objects le leader mondial de logiciels de business intelligence et l'une des 15 premières sociétés de logiciels dans le monde. En janvier 2008, l’acquisition de Business Objects par SAP AG pour 6,7 milliards de dollars a été la troisième acquisition logicielle la plus important à cette date. Chez Balderton Capital, Bernard rejoint une équipe expérimentée composée des autres General Partners: Tim Bunting, Mark Evans et Barry Maloney. Basée à Londres, Balderton Capital gère environ 1,5 milliard de dollars en capital-risque. Depuis 2000, Balderton Capital a investi dans plus de 80 sociétés dans une vaste gamme de secteurs technologiques et de régions, dont l'Europe, les États-Unis et la Chine. Parmi ses investissements importants, on compte Bebo, (le site de social networking qui a récemment été acquis par AOL pour 850 millions de dollars), Betfair (la bourse de paris en ligne), Codemasters (l'éditeur de jeux vidéo), MySQL (société de bases de données en open-source, récemment acquise par Sun pour 1 milliard de dollars) et Setanta Sports (le diffuseur d'évènements sportifs le plus important en Europe). Barry Maloney, General Partner chez Balderton Capital, a affirmé: << Business Objects est l'une des plus formidables histoires d’entreprise de technologie en Europe, et nous sommes ravis que Bernard se joigne à notre société. Il sera à la fois un guide inestimable pour les entreprises de notre portefeuille et un ajout significatif à notre équipe. Les six derniers mois ont représenté une période importante pour Balderton. En effet, trois des sociétés de notre portefeuille ont réalisé d’excellentes sorties et nous avons investi dans plusieurs nouvelles sociétés dont nous pensons qu'elles pourront apporter des rendements considérables à nos investisseurs. >> Remarques à l'intention des rédacteurs À propos de Balderton Capital Balderton Capital est une société de capital-risque de premier plan, dédiée à détecter des entrepreneurs talentueux et à les aider à construire de grandes entreprises. Les associés de Balderton travaillent en équipe et se focalisent sur le développement d’entreprises de valeur sur le long terme. Les associés allient leur expérience opérationnelle de la Silicon Valley à une grande compréhension de ce qui est nécessaire pour créer des entreprises sur les marchés de la technologie et des médias. À propos de Bernard Liautaud Bernard a co-fondé Business Objects en 1990 et occupé les postes de PDG puis de président du conseil jusqu'en janvier 2008. Comptant 6 700 employés, 45 000 clients et 1,5 milliard de dollars de revenus en 2007, Business Objects est devenu le leader mondial des logiciels de business intelligence et l'une des 15 plus grandes sociétés de logiciels au monde. Business Objects a été la première introduction en bourse logicielle européenne au Nasdaq en 1994. En janvier 2008, dans le cadre de la troisième acquisition logicielle la plus importante enregistrée à cette date, SAP a fait l'acquisition de Business Objects pour 6,7 milliards de dollars. À la suite de cette acquisition, Bernard est à présent membre du Conseil de surveillance de SAP. Bernard a reçu un certain nombre de distinctions, dont celles de Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur en 2007, << Digital Top 25 >> du Time Magazine Europe, << Stars of Europe >> 2002 de BusinessWeek ainsi que << Top 10 CEOs >> en Amérique du Nord par le Chief Executive Magazine en 2001. Bernard est l'auteur de << e-Business Intelligence: Turning Information Into Knowledge Into Profit >>, oeuvre traduite en neuf langues et vendue à plus de 50 000 exemplaires dans le monde. Contact: Victoria Palmer-Moore, (Powerscourt), 44-207-324-0493 ou 44-7725-565-545, victoria.palmer-moore@powerscourtmedia.com

GDCM announces appointment of Bernard Liautaud and Tim Bunting as non-executive directors

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

International growth bolstered by multi-million dollar investment from Balderton Capital. Leading Data Centre Management Company, GDCM, has secured a multi-million dollar investment from Balderton Capital, the leading international venture capital firm. The investment will be used to accelerate the company’s international growth. Bernard Liautaud, previously chairman and chief strategy officer at Business Objects, and Tim Bunting, Partners at Balderton Capital will join the firm as non-executive directors. GDCM is a global software company which has developed solutions aimed at supporting organisations in providing a complete view of their data centres, allowing them to intelligently manage power consumption and forecast greenhouse emissions. The organisation counts HBOS, DHL and Clifford Chance among its growing list of clients. With offices now in London, New York, Dallas and California and with expectations to achieve triple figure growth this year, GDCM is strengthening the board as it rolls-out its services internationally. Bernard and Tim will play a key role on the board of directors at GDCM by advising on the growth strategy and helping to optimise revenue generation. They join with immediate effect. John Moreton, GDCM’s Chairman, said: “We are pleased to have the support of Balderton which has an outstanding track record in developing software companies and welcome Bernard and Tim to our board. Their industry knowledge and expertise will be invaluable as we continue our expansion in Europe and the US.” Balderton Capital is Europe’s premier venture capital firm behind investments such as MySQL, recently sold to Sun Microsystems for $1 billion, and Bebo, sold to AOL for $850m. Bernard has recently joined Balderton Capital as a Partner. He is one of Europe’s most successful technology entrepreneurs. He was the founder and CEO of Business Objects, the enterprise software company, which was sold to SAP in January this year for $6.7 billion, making the third largest software deal at the time. With 6,700 employees, 45,000 customers and $1.5 billion of revenues in 2007, Business Objects became one of the 15 largest software companies in the world and the first European software IPO on Nasdaq in 1994. Bernard was recently appointed to SAP’s supervisory board and technology committee. Tim Bunting, Partner at Balderton, brings with him over two decades of experience in the financial markets. He spent 18 years at Goldman Sachs as head of Equity Capital Markets, head of the European Financing Group and Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs International.

Liautaud joins Balderton Capital

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Bernard Liautaud, the French founder of Business Objects, a software company that sold for £3.3bn ($6.4bn) this year, has joined Balderton Capital, the London-based venture capital investor. Mr Liautaud sold Business Objects to SAP, the world’s third-largest business software group, in January. His remi t as general partner will involve investing across the technology sector, primarily in Europe. “I’m interested in building large companies, not just build start-ups fast and sell them to US companies or other large entities,” said Mr Liataud. “My belief is that Europe has been underinvested in many ways,” he added. His first appointment is to the board of GDCM, a new Balderton investment whose software helps reduce data centre power consumption. He also said he would be particularly interested in companies delivering software to businesses “on demand” over the internet. Mr Liautaud joins partners from Goldman Sachs and the former chief executive of Esat Digifone, the mobile provider that became O2 Ireland, at Balderton, which split from its Californian partners in Benchmark Capital a year ago. Mr Liautaud sounded a cautious note on the wave of online start-ups branded Web 2.0 that are yet to find a successful business model. “It’s clear that having lots of people coming on to your site doesn’t bring much unless you can monetise it,” he said. “In general Web 2.0 companies suffer from getting to a scalable revenue model. Very few of them have found a formula.”

Trinity Mirror's Amra to use AdJug

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

LONDON - Trinity Mirror regional sales company Amra is joining ad marketplace AdJug, adding the 274 newspapers it represents to AdJug's existing network of 1,200 publisher sites. Amra will join firms such as business publishers TouchLocal and Vivastreet in using the AdJug service, which allows companies to buy and sell ads directly, eliminating the need to use an ad network. The move means Amra can now use the AdJug marketplace to define how much advertisers pay for ad space. David Cleave, head of online at Amra, said: "In the time we've been working with AdJug, we have had a noticeable increase in the monetisation of our inventory." He added: 'AdJug's team has developed a remnant ad exchange system that delivers additional functionality for publishers and advertisers, and I am confident that we will see a further increase in Amra's return.'Amra represents 270 regional newspapers and 300 websites and is owned by Trinity Mirror. Separately, Trinity Mirror has announced that the Co-operative group is to be the sole sponsor of the Daily Mirror's Pride of Britain Awards, its TV awards. The two-year sponsorship deal was brokered by Mirror Group's head of innovation, Keith Yonnish.

Fashion retailer cuts a dash online

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The world of high fashion presents a public face of catwalks and cocktail parties on hotel terraces. Yet much of the real work is as likely to take place in grey warehouses in drab logistics and distribution parks. At one such site on the outskirts of Bologna recently, the uniform industrial lines on display were set off by fringed black clouds and driving rain. Inside, though, lie the operations at the heart of one of the fastest-growing companies in online fashion retailing. Founded by Federico Marchetti in 2000, Yoox started by selling end-of-season fashion gear by big names on its own website. It has since successfully broken down two barriers: persuading people to buy clothes before trying them on by offering a trial period at home and a free return service; and persuading high-end fashion companies to relinquish control of the marketing and distribution of some of their clothes. Mr Marchetti is still selling the end-of-season lines, which fashion companies traditionally move through discount outlets, but also offers other items such as vintage clothing and work by new designers. It has been a gradual process of persuading fashion companies to put part of their brand management in someone else's hands. Yoox, for example, has never displayed the original retail price of items, or presented its offerings as discounts. Instead all items are sold at their "Yoox price". And the company has now succeeded in winning contracts to build and manage the internet retail sites for such famous companies as Armani and Diesel. Further deals are in the pipeline. Gross sales have grown to €90m ($134m)in just eight years, the company is heading to profitability and headcount has risen from 40 to 200 in the past four years. An initial public offering is being considered for 2009, which will propel Mr Marchetti further into the spotlight. The 39-year-old founder says he had wanted to be an entrepreneur from a young age. "I came up with many ideas before but none of them were good ideas." Mr Marchetti, who speaks softly and with a ready smile, corrects himself: "Actually some of them were good but I couldn't leverage my expertise. When I was 19, I came up with the idea of putting together a cellphone and a camera [this was in 1990] . . . Perfect idea - now everyone has it - but I'm not an engineer so if I'd knocked on Nokia's door they would have said 'Thank you, bye-bye'."Mr Marchetti displays a sense of humility when describing how he set about building the right skills to run a business. "Even if I had dreamed of being an entrepreneur since I was about 13, I knew that I didn't having any experience or background and I had to learn," he says. In the past, he believes, entrepreneurs could be driven by instinct. "I took a different approach and I decided to learn as much as possible in the shortest possible time in order to make the fewest possible mistakes." At 19, he left his home town of Ravenna, on the north of Italy's Adriatic coast, and went to Bocconi university in Milan to study business. He took jobs in corporate finance at Lehman Brothers and had a stint at the consultants Bain. He did an MBA at Columbia Business School in New York, specialising in retail and entrepreneurship. "None of these jobs I liked, most of them I hated. But they were very functional to my learning in order to start my own business." He says he learnt about business plans at Lehman."In terms of dealing with my investors I think it was very good . . . You need to approach [potential investors] on your own. It's very important that you do the spreadsheet yourself in Excel - sales, margins, write-offs, variable costs, fixed costs. You understand where the red flags are." Before approaching investors, though, he needed to have his big idea. This came in 1999, when he saw the possibilities of putting the internet together with fashion. "Fashion is about exclusivity and the internet is about accessibility . . . if you are called Pucci [the Italian brand that is now part of France's LVMH], you are a very exclusive brand, [and] online you can have one store with your name. It's the perfect location." Mr Marchetti also had no money. An internet company was an attractive option because of its relatively low costs. "I was 30 and living in Milan. This was end of 1999. I was jobless and had a lot of debt. I had a business plan and a lot of enthusiasm. In Italy, venture capitalism is not so developed. Everyone said 'What a fantastic idea, who else is financing you?' They were just waiting for someone else to make the first move." Soon, however, he met Elserino Piol, a former senior executive at Olivetti. Mr Piol agreed to pay €1.5m for a share of the business and another €6m on condition that in three months the website was running, the first orders were coming in; and some key recruits such as directors of logistics and inform-ation technology had been made. Mr Marchetti established that the concept behind the company worked by agreeing a partnership with a store in Bologna. He took products on consignment from the store's warehouse and sold them online, keeping a percentage of sales revenues.No one, he says, was buying fashion on the internet at that time, so he attracted publicity and the orders started to arrive. The second tranche of funding was secured, just. "In April-May 2000, the bubble burst for internet stocks. If we had not had a contract for the second tranche it would never have happened."He recounts how he changed the company name from Yoox.com to Yoox Spa, the latter suffix being the Italian equivalent of "Inc" or "Ltd". "In 1999 [you needed] 'dotcom' [in your name] and then one year after . . . if you were a dotcom they treated you like crap." Mr Marchetti says about 75 per cent of Yoox customers are satisfied former customers. "Once you try and you understand how it works, you come back . . . they can touch and try everything, but at home - not in a shop. It's a different and probably more favourable location. At home you can mix and match with your wardrobe. You have two weeks to change your mind. In a shop the timeframe is half-an-hour." About 20 per cent of orders are returned, a percentage that has remained stable over time. At almost €10m, by far the company's largest cost is its UPS bill. Yoox is growing so fast that it has moved warehouse three times. The latest, in the Bologna industrial park, is a short drive from the company's headquarters and has 18 photography studios amid 20,000 sq m of storage space. Every item sold by Yoox on its own website or on those it has built for other companies comes through Bologna or other warehouses in Tokyo and New Jersey. In eight years, Mr Marchetti has built a global operation. What advice does he have for entrepreneurs? "Many people tell you what to do [but] there are no experts, don't listen to the experts . . . There are too many people doing things by the book. You can be successful only if you have the courage to differentiate." Joint initiative to bring high-tech culture to Italy's students One of Federico Marchetti's most important decisions was to base his internet company in Italy, a country not known for its venture capital and with a very small IT sector. He says these concerns were outweighed by the need to woo Italian fashion houses. "I think of Yoox as a fashion company via the internet rather than an internet company selling fashion." To fashion houses, he says: "We have the same roots and we understand that what they are selling is emotions . . . it's been a very strong competitive advantage to be based in Italy." But the downside is the difficulty of finding people in a country he says has no technology culture and no culture of service.Mr Marchetti says he spends one-third of his time recruiting.Now Yoox is tackling the problem head on. In conjunction with Politecnico di Milano it is co-founding a master's qualification in internet retailing and fashion.The first students will start in October and Yoox staff will host some seminars. Mr Marchetti is hoping he can recruit a few of the graduates.

Dharmash Mistry joins venture capital firm

Tue, 27 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Balderton Capital, the venture capital firm that has invested in companies including Bebo, Betfair and Setanta, has hired Emap's former head of digital operations, Dharmash Mistry. Mistry, who left Bauer earlier this year in the wake of the £1.1bn acquisition of Emap's consumer magazine and radio businesses, had run the latter's digital operations across brands including FHM, Heat and Kiss FM. Mistry has been hired as a partner with a remit to "use his extensive experience building businesses in the media, retail and consumer goods sectors to assist the companies in Balderton's portfolio and seek out new investment opportunities". "Dharmash has a broad yet deep experience in sectors which particularly complement Balderton's investments," said Barry Maloney, a partner at Balderton Capital. "He has a great knowledge of developing online businesses and the opportunities in digital media. He will be a great addition to our team as we continue to invest in the most innovative and fastest growing companies." Mistry spent almost eight years at Emap in a range of roles, most recently responsible for all consumer-facing digital businesses such as the websites for magazines including Heat and FHM, radio stations including Kiss, and the joint TV venture with Channel 4, Box TV. More recently he was behind the company's acquisition of Yospace, dubbed the "YouTube for mobile". Since 2000 Balderton has invested in a range of companies in the UK and abroad. Investments include video games developer and publisher Codemasters, Setanta Sports and Bebo, which was recently sold to AOL for $850m.

Globoforce Inc: Going Global

Mon, 19 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Eric Mosley has discovered that it takes a lot of effort, not to mention a well-planned strategy, for a small business to become a global force. Mosley says his nine-year-old company, Globoforce Inc., which is co-headquartered in Southborough and Dublin, Ireland, is addressing a key market need: the development of a Web-based platform that enables large multinational companies -- especially those seeking to increase employee engagement -- to run and manage their worker-recognition programs. The product also gives those same employees access to a portfolio of giftcard-based rewards offered by merchants across the world. Globoforce is compensated based on the volume of a client's platform usage, rather than a licensing fee. The technology provider has attracted an enviable list of Fortune 500 clients, including Avnet Inc., Dow Chemical Co. and Intel Corp., that have a global workforce. "Our DNA is to be global -- that was a legacy decision right from the very beginning," says Mosley, 37. Globoforce booked $65 million in 2007, an 85 percent increase over the prior year's total. Mosley says the company is on track to hit $100 million this year. Creating software for a global audience with multiple currencies, languages and cultures has required constant development and refinement over the past nine years, says Mosley. And because of the company's substantial reinvestment in that technology, Mosley says Globoforce only became profitable in 2006. "One of the downsides of having a global solution is that it's an enormous undertaking," Mosley says. "The gestation period is very long. ... In hindsight, we picked a category we wanted to dominate, and that category was very ambitious." In fact, when he launched the company in his native Ireland in 1999, Mosley faced a challenge. He strongly believed in the concept, recognizing that there was a greater need among large, multinational organizations for a sophisticated product to recognize top performers.Yet, he also knew Globoforce would have to overcome certain perception issues to persuade such large clients to work with a small company with limited finances.

TOP UP TV'S European push

Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

TOP Up TV, the pay-television broadcaster available on Freeview, is launching in France and is in talks to unveil its service in another dozen overseas markets. Chairman and cofounder David Chance says interest from abroad has been considerable. 'We are finding lots of international markets in the process of switching off the analogue television signal and moving to digital,' he says. 'We are talking to broadcasters in another ten or 12 international markets.' Top Up offers viewers access to Freeview channels on digital terrestrial television along with programming from Disney, Paramount, Discovery and sports broadcaster Setanta for a monthly fee. Programmes can be sent to customers' digital recorders overnight on the Top Up TV Anytime video-on-demand service, where they are stored for later viewing. The company is understood to have about 300,000 subscribers of which about half are 'Anytime' customers. Chance, former deputy managing director of BSkyB, co-founded Top Up with Ian West, ex-MD of Sky Entertainment, four years ago.

Icera wins baseband design-in

Thu, 01 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Icera Semiconductor, the Bristol wireless chip start-up, has achieved its first design win for a baseband in a wireless handset and is looking to raise another $60m in capital funding this year. “We have got a design win for a phone’s baseband”, Nigel Toon, vice president of marketing at Icera, told EW. He would not say from which company. It is a significant step for Icera because, up to now, its design wins have been in data card applications and many people in the wireless industry thought that handset designers would be reluctant to design in a baseband from a start-up company.The handset design win is for a smart phone and the Icera chip-set will give the phone the capacity for both HSDPA and HSUPA. The only other company actually shipping chip-sets with both HSDPA and HSUPA is Qualcomm. “We have clear performance leadership,” said Toon. With the recent Sirifics acquisition, Icera now has the capability to do all the main building blocks of a wireless device, i.e. the baseband, the power management and the RF transceiver. “60 per cent of the BOM (bill of materials) is owned by Icera”, said Toon. Helping Icera add design wins is the fact that major wireless carriers in all the main regions have certified the Icera platform as conforming with their approvals processes.“We showed the carriers that we can bring a performance advantage of faster downloads and so, because the user is off the network quicker, it frees up bandwidth for other users”, said Toon, “so they enrolled us in their approvals processes and pre-approved our devices for their networks. That allowed us to get our devices out into markets.” Icera is now set on raising another $60m on top of the $140m it has already raised. “We had intended to IPO in 2009”, said Toon, “but then we decided to acquire Sirifics and accelerate our engineering investment and delay the IPO to 2010, and this year we’re going to raise $60m plus.” Toon said investors had already expressed interest including ‘strategic investors’ i.e. customers/suppliers. Asked if a possible strategic investor might include a handset manufacturer, Toon replied: “It’s possible.”

Whisher Adds a Symbian App

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Whisher, which provides access to Wi-Fi hotspots around the world in exchange for access on users’ own home or business networks, has unveiled a client that allows access to its hotspots on Nokia Symbian (N81, N82 or E61) phones. The move is a smart extension of Whisher’s service offering; Nokia has been including Wi-Fi chipsets in many of its smartphones and has built a strong market share. To integrate the client (and further lock users into using the Whisher service), the company has introduced a feature called Automatic Connection. When enabled, Automatic Connection scans all Wi-Fi networks within range and connects to the one with the strongest connection. (It’s unclear at this point whether the client would prefer a Whisher network over an open-access network if the two network strengths are equal.) If you’d like to try the Whisher Wi-Fi sharing system and the associated Symbian client, there are two steps. First, visit Whisher’s web site and download the software appropriate for your home networking set-up (the company has both Windows and Mac clients). Once it’s installed, you’ll be “sharing” on the Whisher network of global Wi-Fi hotspots. Then point your mobile browser to http://nokia.whisher.com and install the Symbian application. After the app is installed, available Whisher hotspots will have a designated “W” icon attached, as pictured on the right. To see whether the Whisher service has hotspots in the areas you frequent, be sure to view its global map. The Wisher Wi-Fi network isn’t as far-reaching as the Fon network, but moves like this Nokia agreement — which capitalizes on the E Series and N Series wireless networking capabilities — are proof the company is working to stay competitive. What Wi-Fi roaming service do you use? Would you recommend it?

News technology firm Daylife launches aggregation

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

News software specialists Daylife rolled out a recession-friendly service today that will help publishers aggregate relevant content from the rest of the web. Daylife Select provides one central management page that lets publishers choose relevant YouTube videos, Twitter conversations, Flickr photos and text news stories to supplement their own content. Daylife's own site claims around 3m unique users each month, but the real value is in its technology. Daylife has its own database of content, all classified by genre and keyword, and uses this to feed content through to its partner sites. The benefit for publishers is that they don't need any development skills to use Daylife Select - so that elusive and expensive good developer talent is provided by Daylife. Publishers can customise the appearance of their aggregation pages with their own site design, and cut and add types of content as appropriate. The portal is hosted by Daylife, which again means less technical responsibility for the publisher. The cost is bundled with Daylife's API, ranging from $4-$5,000 per month for a smaller publishers and smaller implementation to $20,000 for a larger site. Daylife has been quick to pitch its products as way to help fight the recession, saying staff can be more productively employed on original content rather than aggregating by hand. For a struggling news industry, this kind of automation will be very appealing but it has to be combined with human editorial judgement. Daylife is very highly regarded in the industry, creating some extremely compelling and well-executed products in the often conservative space between news content and technology. Backers include Craig Newmark and Jeff Jarvis, and current clients include Telegraph.co.uk, Huffington Post and Washington Post. The Daylife Enterprise API launched two weeks ago does a similar thing but for an API. The white-label service does the 'heavy lifting' in converting content into standardised feeds and formats that can be used either by external or internal developers to build new features and applications around that site. I interviewed chief executive Upendra Shardanand recently and asked him to explain what the Daylife Enterprise API offers and how news publishers will be able to differentiate themselves in a world where everyone aggregates everything.

Elevator Pitch: Rebtel's answer to those sky-high mobile costs

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Collectively, we spend billions on mobile roaming rates, international calls and data and there are several companies trying to combat that with clever technologies. Rebtel launched in May 2006, is based in Stockholm, Sweden, and now employs nearly 40 staff.Serial entrepreneur Hjalmar Winbladh founded the firm with Jonas Lindroth with their own money and later scored $20m in venture funding from Index and Benchmark. Winbladh tells us why it's a market ripe for disruption - and that the only obstacle is our own inertia. Explain your business to my Mum. 'Rebtel lets you use your mobile phone to call friends and family abroad for pence per minute, instead of mobile operators' rip-off rates.' How do you make money? 'We make a small profit on every call we carry.' What's your background? 'I'm a serial entrepreneur. Before Rebtel, I was a strategy consultant and entrepreneur-in-residence at Investor AB, where I provided counsel for investments in the mobile/fixed convergence arena. Before that, I co-founded and spent seven years as president and CEO of mobile technology innovator Sendit AB, which we successfully took public in Sweden before it was acquired by Microsoft for $150 million USD.''But my first company was a bicycle delivery service company in Stockholm, called Pedal AB, which I started in 1990, and served as managing director for four years. In addition to all of that, I've been a member of the board of directors of Startup Factory AB, as well as Ericsson Microsoft Mobile Ventures.' How many users do you have now, and what's your target within 12 months? 'We are getting very close to the 1m mark with a healthy conversion to paying users.' What's your biggest challenge? 'Focusing on short-term business opportunities while figuring out what and when to our next services. People spent $63bn on short text messaging last year - that's 61m times more expensive than instant messaging over broadband. Mobile operators will not let the internet business model, where the customer is king, into the mobile world that easily.'Name your competitors. 'Our largest competitor is inertia. People can spend hours surfing the web to save a few dollars on a flight, but seem to have given up on the idea they can be smarter when it comes to mobile communications.' Are we in the middle of a new dot com bubble? 'I don't think so. However, we have a lot of start-ups that don't have a clue how to make money and are only focused on getting internet eye-balls. That works fine in an upbeat market where you have a lot of venture capital money floating around, and big companies afraid they're going to miss the next thing. But in a slower market, things tend to dry up pretty quickly, closing the window for companies without revenue.'If you had £10m to invest in another web business, what would you invest in? "Not another social network, that's for sure. Probably really good local, niche internet services that have global potential, and which actually solve a real problem or issue for an end-user - and, that doesn't rely on ads as its sole revenue stream. Some of the mega-businesses beyond mobile-telecom that need to be disrupted are banking and insurance." What's the weirdest business experience you've had so far? 'Hmmm... probably the meeting I had with Microsoft back in 1999 when I was running the mobile internet company Sendit, and was struggling with its too early bet on Windows NT as the underlying platform. We went to Microsoft to get their cooperation and support, because it was difficult to engage Vodafone, France Telecom and the rest. They were very nice and polite and the next day they called me up and asked if I could stay in Seattle until Monday to meet Steve Ballmer. The rest is history...' Where do you want the company to be in five years? 'With our recent expansion into China, Central America, the Middle East, Asia and Central Europe, we now operate in 45 counties - but it also means we still have another 150 countries to go.' Are you the next big thing? 'Compared to world peace or solving world hunger - no way. But we like to think that we're doing our part - standing up and doing something good for people. We really do believe the world will be a better place if people talk more with one another, and it's great to give people a smart alternative for making international calls with their mobile for free or a fair price.'

Elevator Pitch: Adjug matchmakes publishers with advertisers

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Adjug launched in January last year as a more niche, tailored marketplace for publishers and advertisers. Funded by Balderton Capital, the London-based site employs 20 people and is hoping to improve the online ad experience for web publishers. If that doesn't work, founder Michael Stephanblome has a great tip for a recession-friendly finance site... Explain your business to my Mum. 'Adjug is a marketplace for online advertising where advertisers and website owners can buy and sell directly from each other.'How do you make money? 'We take a commission when ad space is bought or sold.' What's your background? 'Managing director of Gumtree and marketing director of eBay. I have spent pretty much all of my professional life in online.'How many users do you have now, and what's your target within 12 months? 'A couple of thousand. We measure ourselves more in ad impressions - a couple of billion per month would be nice.'What's your biggest challenge? 'Focus. In a start-up there are thousands of things shouting at you every day, but you're facing time constraints constantly. It is important to decide what's most important on daily basis, and this can sometimes be very overwhelming.'Name your competitors. 'No one is doing exactly what we are doing, but our competitors are probably everyone helping publishers to make more money from their inventory and everyone trying to make online advertiser campaigns work harder.' What's the weirdest business experience you've had so far? 'When I was working at eBay, unsatisfied customers used to come to the office every day to make complaints about transactions they'd made. I was frequently dragged into bizarre conversations where a customer would be ranting to me about their problem, expecting me to know off the top of my head the details of their purchase." 'To put in context, at eBay we were processing millions of transactions every day, and so without a six-digit item number I had no way of knowing what the customer was talking about. It was weird to be working for a global large-scale business, but being spoken to as if we were a cornershop.'Are we in the middle of a new dot com bubble? 'It might feel a bit bubbly here and there but generally, no.'If you had £10m to invest in another web business, what would you invest in? 'Wonga.com, which is a new site where you can get same day credit approved in 20 minutes, with no questions asked! I believe this could be really big with the forecast recession that the UK is facing.' Where do you want the company to be in five years? 'Be a global media trading place.'Are you the next big thing? 'If you are an online publisher or advertiser in Europe and want to make more money or run an efficient campaign, yes.'

Icera Challenges Rivals With Sirific Buy

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Several months after raising a $40 million equity round, semiconductor company Icera Inc. will merge with onetime rival Sirific Wireless Corp. The acquisition makes Icera a viable competitor against Qualcomm Inc. and other companies offering a full chipset for wireless devices. 'Now we've got all three' necessary chips for modem chipsets, said Stan Boland, chief executive of Icera. 'Next we are going to look at how to put them all together. We're working on a roadmap that gets us to LTE.' LTE, or long-term evolution, is a method of broadband delivery that makes use of existing cellphone towers, rather than building a new network from scratch, and is endorsed by companies including Motorola Inc., Nokia Corp. and Alcatel-Lucent. The terms of the merger were not disclosed, but Sirific Chief Executive Russ Johnson said it was an all-stock deal. Johnson will not join the 42 Sirific employees who are now a part of Icera. 'This was a deal I personally helped to structure,' Johnson said. 'I'm not disappointed with the outome at all. I'm a general manager, and [Icera] doesn't need two CEOs.'Johnson said Sirific's venture backers, which retain a stake in the new company, are pleased with the deal. Sirific raised more than $55 million in several rounds beginning in 2001. Investors in the company include Agilent Ventures, BDC Venture Capital, Celtic House, Hunt Ventures, Intel Capital, Tech Capital Partners, Waterloo Ventures, and Working Ventures. Many of the firms are in Canada, where Sirific has a design facility. Attempts to reach Sirific's investors were not successful. Sirific is based in Richardson, Texas. The company's employees will stay in their current offices. Icera is based in Bristol, U.K., and now has 260 employees. Until the acquisition, Icera produced baseband chips and power-management chips, two of the three components needed for a full wireless chipset. Sirific makes the third type, radio-frequency chips, which allow wireless devices to tune in different frequencies. Founded in 2002, Icera has raised about $140 million in venture funding. The $40 million round, which closed in September, was led by newcomer Tudor Investment Corp., with participation from previous backers Accel Partners, Atlas Venture, Amadeus Capital Partners, Balderton Capital and 3i Group PLC.Boland said Icera could seek another round in the coming year, and was not immediately aiming to go public. With a full chipset to offer - which Boland said would be cheaper and better than the competition's - the company would seek to get its technology installed in various devices, beginning with data cards and ending with phones.

3G chipset firm Icera swoops on Sirific

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

British silicon chip developer Icera will today step up plans to take on US semiconductor giant Qualcomm with the acquisition of Canadian rival Sirific Wireless. Icera is Europe's best-backed semiconductor company, having raised $142m (£71m), and is seeking to become a challenger to $65bn Qualcomm in the burgeoning market for chipsets to support mobile broadband communica tion. It supplies the core processor that carries out the billions of calculations needed to transmit data over 3G networks. Sirific, which has raised $63m from backers including Welsh telecoms billionaire Sir Terry Matthews, supplies the radio chips that are a key component in devices including datacards for laptops and mobile phones. Industry analysts expect the mobile broadband market to grow from 90m subscribers to 1.3bn by 2012. Bristol-based Icera is also hoping to capitalise on demand from some mobile companies for alternative sources of supply to Qualcomm, which is facing legal challenges from Nokia and others over patents. Icera, whose backers include Balderton Capital, Tudor Investment Corp and Accel Partners, is mulling a potential flotation in 2010 and believes it has the potential to become a multi-billion dollar company within five years. As a result of Icera's all-share offer for Sirific, Sir Terry's private equity house Celtic House will become a shareholder in the combined group along with Sirific's other investors, which include Intel Capital.

Twinity metaverse wins Balderton backing

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Berlin start-up Metaversum , the developer and operator of the virtual world Twinity , has won a new investor in the form of Balderton Capital. The exact amount has not been released but it’s understood to be in the ‘multi million Euro’ range. Metaversum is adding to investment from VC Grazia Equity . Balderton, better known in its previous incarnation as Benchmark Capital Europe, is the fund that invested in and exited from Bebo and MySQL, the former to the tune of $140 million.Twinity, currently in its private beta phase, is positioning itself as a virtual world 'linked closely with reality.' You can get an apartment in New York, for example.Reviewers of Twinity’s beta are thin on the ground but Maria Bäcke, a PhD candidate in Digital Games at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden - said the beta version of Twinity is 'a very nice environment' and avatar customization tools 'pretty good', but another felt the world is pretty locked-down and feels like it’s 'on rails', which may well be the intention.

Balderton Capital Invests In Metaversum

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Metaversum, the developer and operator of the virtual world Twinity, attracts Balderton Capital as investor. Berlin, 1st April 2008 Metaversum GmbH, developer and operator of the upcoming 3D virtual world Twinity, is pleased to announce a significant multi million Euro investment from Balderton Capital. Balderton Capital, formerly Benchmark Capital Europe, is one of the leading European venture capital firms, and recently sold its stakes in both Bebo and MySQL – both deals being amongst the most successful European internet/technology transactions of recent years. Added to existing investment and support from founding VC Grazia Equity, the new relationship with Balderton Capital positions the Berlin start-up Metaversum for the global launch of its virtual world, Twinity. Klaus Hommels, Balderton Capital’s representative on the Metaversum board, comments: 'Virtual worlds linked closely with reality will significantly influence the future of the Internet. Twinity is one of the most promising projects in this exciting and competitive space and we look forward to accompanying Metaversum in this endeavor.' Jochen Hummel, CEO of Metaversum, adds: 'We are very glad to have won the support of an experienced international player in Balderton Capital. As we gear up to release our virtual world Twinity, the addition of our new partner puts us in a great position.' The virtual world Twinity is currently in its private beta phase. Twinity offers its members the ability to move through the digital world using personal avatars, design their own 3D homes, communicate with friends, work or simply have fun. For additional information, visit www.twinity.com.

Whisher: Metered Wi-Fi made easy

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I’ve been meaning to post about Whisher for a while but they just launched some nice beta software so it seems like the right time. The company is based in Barcelona and they showed me their alpha code back in February. Now, however, they’re ready to go live. Whisher is essentially a metered hotspot system. You use their plug-in and see various hotspots on the screen. Instead of seeing an encrypted hotspot called “FARGLEBOXR” you will see a useful name and a price per minute or hour. As a consumer, you know exactly what you’re paying and as a Wi-Fi provider you’ve got an easy-to-use system for allowing folks to hop on without buying secret code numbers at the counter. They’re offering white-box services to providers who can rebrand a Whisher hotspot or simple pay-as-you-go accounts for cybercafes, etc. You can also share your Wi-Fi for free and then pick up other hotspots anywhere in the world, similar to FON. This, combined with micropayments model, makes for an interesting product. The product is available now for OS X and Windows. You can download it here. Coverage is fairly sparse in the U.S. but it’s considerably more robust overseas.

3V to launch new retail partnerships

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Virtual credit card company 3V Transaction Services is about to launch a number of new partnerships with a range of well-known retailers.The company’s chief executive, Kieron Guilfoyle, said the firm had secured strategic partnerships with online retailer CD Wow, catalogue firm Freemans and high street chain Dorothy Perkins. 3Valready has a number of retailer partnerships in place, including a partnership with eBay and PayPal, which was set up last October. The deal enabled 3Vcustomers to open PayPal accounts, fund Paypal purchases on eBay and register as an eBay.ie seller. More than 200,000 people have used the system since it was launched in Ireland in 2005, according to 3V. The firm launched in Britain in 2006 and will launch in Germany in the coming weeks. Guilfoyle said it would launch in the Netherlands and Spain later this year. 3V vouchers provide an alternative online payment method for people without credit cards and those worried about online fraud. Guilfoyle said many people were afraid of 'leaving a financial footprint online.' He said some 38 per cent of 3V’s customers also have a credit card, but decided to use 3V vouchers for certain online purchases if they 'were not comfortable using their own card.' Guilfoyle said the firm was also planning on introducing a mobile channel toward s the end of this year. This would allow customers to purchase 3V vouchers via their mobile handset. The firm was set up in 2004 and, in late 2006, raised €20 million in funding from two international venture capital firms, Benchmark Capital Europe and Atlas Ventures. The firm has no immediate plans to raise more funds, but Guilfoyle added that 'we would never say never.' Currently, 3V employs 31 staff, with a six-person commercial team based in London and a technical team of 25 staff at its headquarters in Dublin. Guilfoyle said he anticipated the need for a European office in the future.

Upwardly mobile

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Being first out of the blocks with a new idea is a recipe for success, but chief executive of NewBay Software, Paddy Holahan, is careful to maintain a structure that will endure in the long term, writes Gavin Daly. NewBay Software expanded so fast last year that the firm had twice as many people as expected at its Christmas party. That meant the venue for the party - which had been booked last June - was 'pretty cosy', according to NewBay’s founder and chief executive, Paddy Holahan. He hopes to avoid the same thing happening this year, although his plans for 2008 include hiring another 100 staff, bringing NewBay’s total to about 270 people. Holahan founded NewBay in September 2002 after recognising that developments in mobile phones would allow people to create their own internet content, such as pictures and blogs. His view that every mobile phone owner in the world could one day have their own website seemed futuristic at the time, but not any more. Some of the biggest mobile phone operators in the world - including Vodafone, O2 and T-Mobile - now use NewBay’ s software to allow their customers to create online content.As social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo have developed, so too has the market for the Dublin firm’s software. NewBay started out with a product called FoneBlog, which allowed mobile phone users to create blogs using their phones. With early revenues from FoneBlog, the firm continued development of a range of products. Holahan started to see demand really taking off in the second quarter of 2006. 'The first phase of this trend towards content systems was blogging and we latched onto that as our calling card,' he said. 'But it was never just about blogging. Anything related to the digital lifestyle is in our domain or our future domain.' Holahan said the market NewBay was targeting had developed in a similar way to many new technologies - going through a period of hype, followed by a levelling-off and then a large take-up in demand. The firm now has a range of products under the name LifeCache, which allows phone customers to create so-called ‘user-generated content’, such as pictures and videos. 'We are not in the hype game any more,' Holahan said. 'Last year was a massive pressure year in terms of delivering - our people worked very hard, we retained all our customers, delivered on contracts and got paid.' Revenues at NewBay trebled last year, rising to about €13 million from€4.4million in 2006. Revenues are split almost evenly between the US and Europe, and NewBay has built a network of international offices, with more in the pipeline, according to Holahan. Despite the investment in expansion, the firm is profitable and cash flow positive. Holahan said 'a lot of structural work' was done last year to ensure that NewBay could continue to grow and meet demand from its customers. That included a 'strategic review' that led to a decision to seek more external funding. Holahan said that NewBay had talked to a number of venture capital firms before agreeing to an investment from Fidelity Ventures, a heavyweight US venture capital fund. Fidelity typically backs well-established firms and has previously invested in Irish software firms Curam Software and Qumas. NewBay last week announced details of the €6.5 million funding round, led by Fidelity and backed by Balderton Capital, an early investor in the firm. Simon Clark, a partner in Fidelity, is joining the board of NewBay, which already includes Balderton’s Barry Maloney and former Yahoo! executive Mark Opzoomer. Clark said NewBay had built ‘‘an impressive roster of clients, such as T-Mobile, Orange, Vodafone and Telefonica O2,with proven products that are generating meaningful new revenues for these operators’’. Holahan would not comment on the valuation placed on NewBay in the recent funding deal, but said he was satisfied with the terms. ‘‘We did a deal - and we didn’t have to do a deal," he said. ‘‘The funding demonstrates a plan to grow.'We are taking a long-term view. There is a large business out there and we are well-positioned in it,' he said. 'There is a pretty large-size opportunity - this could be a billion euro market and you could have all the big names of tech chasing it. We’re a late-stage start-up or an early-stage large company, so it’s a pretty exciting stage." Holahan said NewBay was in its third stage of development, which he described as 'NewBay 3.0'. 'In the first stage, we had no customers, no contracts and no revenues. In the second stage, we w ere making adjustments to the products and getting sales. Last year, we delivered on projects, retained all our customers and got paid. 'The third stage is about getting the structures in place for growth and executing on that. If we execute on the opportunities in 2008 and hit our revenue target and our profit target, we will have been successful." Holahan said the company had no plans for an early exit, and his long-term plan was to build a large, profitable Irish technology business. While he said it could be difficult and time-consuming to win contracts with large mobile phone groups, the deals are lucrative, with operators using the software in several markets. 'There has been consolidation in the [mobile] industry and we’re dealing with the same customers around the world,' he said. 'It’s harder to get in [to win deals], but because it’s hard, it’ s valuable. They’re not just looking for a transaction - it’s a relationship and you can build on that relationship with revenues over a number of years. We did a lot of work in ’06 that led to revenues in ’07 and will contribute in ’08." Before founding NewBay, Holahan was an executive vice president of Baltimore Technologies, which was valued at several billion euro during the dotcom boom, but was ultimately broken up and sold off after a series of profit warnings. 'In Baltimore, there was rapid growth, but it wasn’t as coupled to reality,' said Holahan. 'That was the game in those days, but now it is about growing in a structured fashion with good customers and a strong balance sheet.' Outside NewBay, Holahan has other technology interests, notably as a non-executive director of Web Reservations International (WRI), the highly-profitable internet firm. Holahan was chairman of WRI for more than six years and stepped aside last month, when the firm appointed a new chairman and chief executive. WRI has been linked to a trade sale or flotation that could value the company at more than €500 million. That would make it the most valuable Irish technology company by some measure, and would boost the Irish technology sector, which is dominated by small companies. 'One thing that is missing [in the Irish technology industry] is the big company, and that is of concern,' Holahan said. 'We have everything except the big company - there are good small companies and there is a good pipeline of new companies. It is just a matter of delivery.'

AOL buys networking site Bebo for $850m

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

AOL, the internet arm of Time Warner, has agreed to buy Bebo for $850m in cash as it gears up to entice advertisers to the popular social networking site. Bebo, sometimes regarded as the UK’s version of MySpace, is one of the world’s largest social networks. It is second largest in the UK, behind Facebook, and the third largest in the US behind MySpace, owned by News Corp. The deal is likely to result in a large payout for British entrepreneur Michael Birch and his American wife Xochi, who launched the site in July 2005 from California. It also generates a spectacular return for Balderton Capital, a venture capital group spun-off from Benchmark Capital, which invested $15m in Bebo in May 2006. It stands to receive about $140m from the deal – more than nine times its original investment. Bebo’s success has attracted the interest of US media groups in the past – Viacom considered making a bid in 2006. 'Bebo is the perfect complement to AOL’s personal communications network and puts us in a leading position in social media,' said Randy Falco, chairman and chief executive of AOL. He added AOL was drawn to Bebo because of its substantial and fast-growing worldwide user-base and the opportunity to monetise Platform A, its online advertising network which has been revamped and enlarged by an $1bn investment. 'This positions us to offer advertisers even greater reach and marketers significant insights into the desires and needs of consumers,' he said. Social networking sites such as Bebo and Facebook are among the highest profile sites and have grown rapidly by offering networking opportunities and a forum in which to watch and share user-generated video and music. However, internet sites and media companies alike are still having problems working out how to monetise the ads placed on social networking sites. Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, last month cited problems monetising MySpace ads as one reason for slowing growth at the search engine. Joanna Shields, president, will continue to run Bebo and will report to Ron Grant, AOL’s chief operating officer. AOL was advised by Bank of America and Deutsche Bank, while Allen & Co advised Bebo.

Next New Networks Hits $15M, Plans More Video Channels

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Looking to expand its base of online "micro channels" and boost ad revenue, video production and distribution service Next New Networks Inc. has raised $15 million in a Series B funding co-led by Goldman Sachs and Velocity Interactive Group. Previous investors Bob Pittman, Saban Media Group and Spark Capital also joined in the funding round. The start-up raised $8 million in a Series A financing one year ago. The company has 12 micro channels, or video-focused sites, each of which focuses on specific topics and has one or more video programs. The most well-known channel is Barely Political, which created the 'Obama Girl' video praising presidential candidate Barack Obama. Other sites focus on fashion, animation and automotive, among other topics. The company produces many programs in-house and solicits some outside productions. Next New Networks will use the funding to expand to at least double the number of channels and hire an advertising sales force, according to Chief Executive Herb Scannell, who previously was an executive with MTV Networks. The company has done some advertising deals but expects to ramp up with the new funding, Scannell said 'Advertisers understand that speaking to communities is valuable,' Scannell said. 'That is what the Internet does better than anyone else: create communities united by a common interest.' The company has had an increasing audience and had 100 million views in 2007, Scannell said. Despite the need for big viral hits to gain visibility in this crowded space, Scannell said, the company is broadly positioned in a number of different topics to be less reliant on individual hits. The company, with about 30 employees, is also attempting to get its content distributed as widely as possible, having just announced a deal to distribute about 2,000 episodes of shows to AOL LLC'S AOL Video.

AOL to Acquire Global Social Media Network Bebo NEW YORK

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

AOL to Acquire Global Social Media Network Bebo NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AOL announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Bebo (http://www.bebo.com), a leading global social media network. Together with its AIM and ICQ personal communications network, the acquisition will give AOL a premier position in the fast growing world of social media with a network of approximately 80 million unique users. With a total membership of more than 40 million worldwide, Bebo is a global social media network which combines community, self-expression and entertainment to enable its users to consume, create, discover and share content. Bebo is one of the leading social networks in the UK, and is ranked number one in Ireland and New Zealand, and number three in the U.S. Its users are heavily engaged and view an average of 78 pages per usage day. Bebo has approximately 100 employees operating in offices in the UK, San Francisco and Austin, TX. The deal comes just one week after AOL's launch of Open AIM 2.0, an initiative that allows the developer community greater freedom to access the AIM network and integrate AIM into its sites and applications, and the announcement by Apple of a downloadable AIM application for the iPhone. Under the terms of the agreement, AOL will acquire Bebo for $850 million in cash. 'Bebo is the perfect complement to AOL's personal communications network and puts us in a leading position in social media,' said Randy Falco, Chairman and CEO, AOL. 'What drew us to Bebo was its substantial and fast-growing worldwide user-base, its vision of a truly social web, and the monetization opportunities that leverage Platform-A across our combined global audience. This positions us to offer advertisers even greater reach and marketers significant insights into the desires and needs of consumers.' 'AOL understands the shifting dynamics of the Web and has clearly demonstrated its commitment to leveraging the ever-increasing power of social networks,' said Bebo President, Joanna Shields. 'With one and the same vision in this area, it was a natural progression for Bebo to join AOL, and we look forward to working together to continue to expand the online social experience globally.' 'Bebo's dynamic management team recognizes that the Internet is less about destination and more about connecting people, culture and lifestyles,' said Ron Grant, President and COO, AOL. 'This acquisition supports our key objectives - accelerating the growth, engagement and monetization of one of the world's most engaged online communities.' Upon closing the transaction, current President Joanna Shields will continue to run Bebo and will report to Ron Grant. Analyst eMarketer predicts that by 2011, $4.1 billion will be spent worldwide for social network advertising - a dramatic increase from the $480 million spent in 2006. In 2008 alone, global ad spend in the social networking arena is expected to increase 75% year over year, amounting to $2.1 billion (eMarketer, Social Network Marketing: Ad Spending and Usage, December 2007). In recent months, AOL has moved aggressively to bolster its position in areas critical to its emergence as a leading advertising-supported Web media and marketing company. Building on its number one position in third party display with Advertising.com, AOL has spent nearly $1 billion on online advertising acquisitions, including market leaders like ADTECH, buy.at, Lightningcast, Quigo, TACODA and Third Screen Media to create Platform-A. Platform-A is the top display ad serving network focused on helping marketers build brands that perform online.* In Web content, AOL's revitalized network of sites has experienced five months of consecutive page view growth and key categories like Music, Television, Moviefone, TMZ, Money & Finance, News, Living and Body are all in the top four in their respective categories. As part of its international growth plans, AOL has launched 17 international web sites over the last year and has plans to expand to 30 countries outside the U.S. by the end of 2008. In addition, AOL teamed up with HP last September to include localized versions of the AOL.com portal and other AOL services as the default setting on HP computers shipped in the United States and around the world. Bebo, which has announced plans to launch in five countries this year, will be featured prominently in AOL's international expansion efforts after the deal is closed. Since its inception, Bebo has established a radical new vision for online media and engagement marketing, combining community, self-expression and entertainment, enabling its members to consume, create, discover, curate and share digital content in entirely new ways. Bebo global users have high engagement levels spending an average of 33 minutes a day on the site. Its groundbreaking Open Media platform ushered in a new way for Bebo users to experience content online, while giving global media companies like MTV, CBS, BBC and more than 400 others, a new way to promote, distribute and monetize their programming. 'Engagement Marketing,' is Bebo's initiative for brands to build long-term relationships with their target audience. Today, brands from Apple to Nike use Bebo as a platform to establish ongoing conversations with consumers. Bebo pioneered the blending of Web-native original content with interactivity in the social networking environment by co-producing 'KateModern,' the most successful TV show on the Web, now in its second season, followed by the soon to be premiered 'Sophia's Diary,' and the upcoming 'Gap Year.' In December 2007, Bebo opened its platform to external application developers becoming the first social network to embrace both Facebook and OpenSocial APIs. To date, more than 1500 applications have joined the network. AOL was advised by Banc of America Securities LLC and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. Bebo was advised by Allen & Co. AOL and Bebo senior management will host a conference call beginning at 9:00 am ET to discuss the day's news. The dialing instructions for the call are: In the United States: 888-730-9143 Outside the U.S.: 210-839-8553 Passcode: AOL Update Please dial in at least ten to fifteen minutes before the call's scheduled start to ensure you are connected in time for the beginning of the call. Note to Editors: Photos, logos and video from today's announcement are available on the AOL Corporate Site at http://corp.aol.com. About AOL AOL® is a global Web services company that operates some of the most popular Web destinations, offers a comprehensive suite of free software and services runs one of the largest Internet access businesses in the U.S., and provides a full set of advertising solutions. A majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE:TWX), AOL LLC and its subsidiaries have operations in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. Learn more at AOL.com. About Bebo Bebo, founded by Michael and Xochi Birch, is the world's leading global social media network. Building on the notion of traditional social networking websites, Bebo combines community, self-expression and entertainment to enable its users to consume, create, discover and share professional and user-generated content through the Bebo website. Bebo has 11.4m unique users in the UK and a total membership of more than 40 million worldwide. Bebo also ranks as the UK's most engaging social network with users spending an average of 33 minutes on the site per usage day.** *According to comScore Media Metrix February 2008 data, Platform-A continues to be the number one advertising network with 167 million unique visitors and a domestic reach of 90%.

Balderton Capital to sell its stake in Bebo

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Proceeds of $140 million represent nine times original investment BALDERTON CAPITAL, the leading European venture capital firm, is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement to sell its 15.7% stake in Bebo (www.bebo.com) to AOL, which is to acquire the global social media network. The proceeds of the sale due to Balderton Capital are approximately $140 million, more than nine times the original sum invested.. These returns make Bebo one of the most successful European internet investments of recent years. Another Balderton investment, MySQL, the fast-growing open source database company, was recently sold to Sun Microsystems for a price of approximately $1 billion. Balderton Capital is the only institutional investor in Bebo.It provided first-round financing of $15 million in May 2006 to assist Bebo to develop its business model. Balderton has been Bebo’s strategic partner, assisting the company to become the leading networking site in the UK and Ireland and one of the largest social networks worldwide. Founded in 2005 in California, Bebo has 11 million unique users in the UK alone, and more than 40 million members in total. Barry Maloney, one of the partners in Balderton Capital, and a director of Bebo since May 2006, said: 'We got involved in an exciting and competitive investment in Bebo because we believed in the social networking space and the fact that Bebo was positioned for exponential growth. Our expectations for Bebo have been exceeded in a relatively short period of time, and today’s transaction with AOL has delivered an exceptional return on our original investment in 2006. 'We wish the company continued success under its new ownership, and would like to congratulate the founders Michael and Xochi Birch, Joanna Shields, President of Bebo, and her management team. We are pleased that Joanna will continue to run the business for AOL, one of the world’s great media companies. “This investment is what Balderton does best: back entrepreneurs with cash and expertise, working in partnership to help to develop the founders’ dreams and to deliver great returns for stakeholders.'For more information, please contact UK and international media Powerscourt (PR adviser to Balderton Capital) Rory Godson/Paul Durman/Keith Brookbank Phone: 44 207 250 1446 Irish media Drury Communications Paddy Hughes/Billy Murphy Phone: 353 1 260 5000 About Balderton Capital Balderton Capital is one of Europe’s largest venture capital firms, committed to finding and helping talented entrepreneurs build great companies. Based in London, it manages approximately USD 1.5 billion in committed venture capital. Since 2000, Balderton has invested in over 70 companies across a wide variety of technology sectors and geographies, including throughout Europe, and in the US and China. Notable investments include Bebo (the leading social networking site), Betfair (online betting exchange), Codemasters (video games developer and publisher), Habbo Hotel (teen social networking site), MySQL (open-source database business) and Setanta Sports (the European sports broadcaster).

Next New Networks, AOL Ink Distribution Deal

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Next New Networks will begin distributing over 2,000 episodes of its shows via AOL Video. Niche video content distributor Next New Networks has inked its first deal with a major portal, as the startup firm plans to begin distributing over 2,000 episodes of a host of its shows via AOL Video. The company, which launched roughly a year ago with plans to launch over 100 narrowly focused Web video channels, has embraced a wide open distribution strategy in its early stages, posting content on its own channels, as well as major social network video hubs like YouTube, MySpace and Bebo. Now, the company, which features channels aimed at animation fans, car junkies, pet lovers and political satire seekers, will deliver content from 12 different networks to AOL Video’s various channels. In addition, AOL will establish a stand-alone Next New Networks category on its video site. Among the channels set to receive placement on AOL Video is Barely Political- the genesis of the popular I Got a Crush … on Obama music video clip. Also joining AOL’s lineup are the comic book themed Pulp Secret and the independent film lover-aimed Indy Mogul.

AdJug Collects Strategic Funding

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

AdJug Ltd., an online-advertising marketplace where advertisers and publishers can buy and sell ads directly, has received a strategic investment from Tomorrow Focus AG, one of Germany's leading digital sales and content companies. As a part of the deal, Tomorrow Focus will provide access to a portion of its advertising inventory - initially 100 million ad impressions - via AdJug and help to build the online-advertising marketplace in Germany. The investment was part of a $6.5 million second round in which AdJug's prior investor Balderton Capital also participated. Tomorrow Focus's Chief Marketing Officer Christoph Schuh will join AdJug's board. The company previously raised $2 million. In contrast to the way online ads are bought and sold through Google Inc. or Yahoo Inc., AdJug's advertisers have the ability to choose the location where ads ar e displayed on a Web page and determine the exact price they will pay for traffic. Publishers also benefit from features that enable them to define how much an advertiser pays per click. Founded in February 2007, the London-based company plans to focus its efforts in the United Kingdom and eventually move into other parts of Europe. Calls to the company were not immediately returned.

German media company joins AdJug

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

German media company Tomorrow Focus AG has acquired a stake in digital advertising network AdJug that will enable it to enter the growing marketplace of international online advertising. As a part of the deal, Tomorrow Focus AG will provide access to a portion of its advertising inventory (initially 100 million ad impressions) via AdJug and hopes to build the online advertising marketplace in Germany. Since its launch in August 2007, AdJug’s UK business already achieves more than 250 million advertising impressions per month and growing. AdJug aims to offer advertisers greater choice, transparency and control on how online ads are bought and sold. Today's announcement signals a significant development into Germany, Europe's largest economy. Michael Stephanblome, co-founder and CEO, AdJug, said: 'This deal represents an important step in the development of AdJug in Europe. We are already experiencing a high level of demand for our transparent marketplace in the UK, and Tomorrow. Focus AG is the perfect strategic partner to allow us to strengthen our offering and break into the lucrative German market.'Tomorrow Focus AG and existing investor Balderton Capital, the leading venture capital firm behind Bebo, Codemasters and Setanta, have invested $6.5 million dollars (£3.3 million) in a second round of funding. The German media company’s chief marketing officer Christoph Schuh will be joining AdJug’s board along with existing board members Klaus Hommels, Seb Bishop (Founder Espotting) and Rene Rechtman (VP International Tradedoubler) Schuh said: 'As one of Europe’s biggest internet marketing companies, we are extending our reach to include an innovative online advertising marketplace. We are confident that our advertisers, agencies and marketing partners will benefit greatly from our partnership with AdJug and that the platform will be a major success in the German advertising market.'

ITV signs Bebo video deal

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

ITV is to make its TV shows available via Bebo in a deal that aims to tap into the young internet generation increasingly attracted to social networking websites. The deal is a milestone for ITV, which has the ambitious aim of growing digital revenues to £150m a year by 2010, as it is the first time it has agreed to provide full-length programming via a third party online. ITV is joining Bebo's Open Media service that will see the broadcaster's profile on the website developed in the form of content channels that will promote individual TV shows.The first ITV show to be made available on Bebo will be US acquisition Gossip Girl, which airs on ITV2, starting from today at www.bebo.com/gossipgirl. This will be followed by shows from ITV2's comedies including Keith Lemon, featuring Bo Selecta star Lee Francis. The broadcaster intends to offer flagship programming from ITV1 in the future but it was decided that the younger demographic appeal of ITV2 shows would be a better initial fit with Bebo's 13- to 24-year-old fans. 'This is a targeted move to promote specific ITV2 shows to the Bebo audience whilst ultimately driving traffic to itv.com to watch more and proves true 360 commissioning,' said Annelies Van den Belt, the managing director of broadband at ITV.Bebo users can become 'fans' of particular programmes so they can be notified when new content is available. Each ITV channel on Bebo will feature content including blogs, galleries, teaser clips, a fan forum and polls. Users can also embed the broadcaster's video player into their Bebo profile pages and share clips and content. ITV and Bebo will share revenue from advertising that runs around the programming as well as ads that run before and after shows. A range of broadcasters - including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, BSkyB, Endemol in the UK and CBS, Turner, MTV and ESPN in the US - joined Bebo's Open Media service at launch in November. However, Michael Grade, the executive chairman of ITV, has always expressed caution in rushing to strike deals that could see the broadcaster lose control of its content online.

Zopa launches in Japan

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Social lending site Zopa is to launch in Japan, following its expansion to the US and Italy from its UK base. The site, three years old today, brings on board a new Japanese team in the form of chairman Takeshi Yoneda and CEO Tatsuya Kuboi, both experienced in Internet financial services. Zopa has attracted over £18 million of funding, including that from VCs Benchmark Capital, which has also invested in US competitor Prosper. Zopa is an online marketplace where people meet to lend and borrow money. With no bank in the middle, both parties can get better rates. Since March of 2005, Zopa has handled more than £20m in unsecured personal loans in the UK. It recently launched Listings, allowing individual borrowers to post their own specific requests for loans for individual lenders to review and then bid against them. However, although Zopa was the first, there are now more than 20 person-to-person online social lenders around the globe. Gartner predicts that by 2010 social banking will make up 10% of the banking market. Zopa says the current credit crunch is driving customers to them as banks tighten their lending criteria. Borro wers can get lower than they can get from the banks, with the low default rate set at less than 0.1%. In the UK it has 190,000 members. Its peer to peer lending service differs from US rivals by working with credit unions to offer person-to-person loans instead of a loans coming directly from lenders on the service. In the US interest rates on five year loans can range from 8.75% to 16.99%, depending on their credit risk. GlobeFunder is a US competitor which launched in January this year.