============================================
EUROPEAN TECH WIRE - Nov. 19, 2004
============================================
To Subscribe: http://www.europeantechwire.com
o EU Calls for Increase in IT Research and Development
o Oxford Innovation Unveils New Business Angel Network
o Airwide Solutions Raises £8.7 Million in Third Round
o Sofia Digital Acquires Mobile-to-TV Firm Outer Rim
o PacketExchange Raises £1.6 Million from Bank of Scotland
o U.S.-Based Avaya Acquires Germany-Based Tenovis
o Briefly Noted: IBM-Maersk Data-DMdata, Soflow Limited-
Martin Clifford-Mel Morris, Irish Third-Quarter Venture Capital
Investment, Microsoft-European Hotmail, Yahoo!-Microsoft
_____________________________________________
o EU Calls for Increase in IT Research and Development
Brussels -- Presenting its IT strategy for the next five years, the
European Union emphasised the need to increase research and
development (R&D) spending on IT technologies and to promote the
take-up of IT throughout the European economy. The EU also said that
IT should be more closely tailored to citizens' needs and expectations.
"(IT) still has huge untapped potential to enhance Europe's economic
competitiveness, social inclusiveness and cultural creativity," said EU
Enterprise and Information Society Commissioner Olli Rehn. "There
are signs that the next 'wave' in the take-up of (IT) throughout the
economy will have a big beneficial impact on growth, wealth creation
and welfare, and we need the right mix to ensure to ensure that Europe
derives the maximum possible benefit." According to the EU, the main
challenges facing Europe's IT programme are social inclusion, content
and services, public services, skills and work, IT as a key industry
sector, interoperability of IT networks and applications, trust and
dependability and IT for business processes.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?L1AC622D9
http://makeashorterlink.com/?P5CC242D9
_____________________________________________
o Oxford Innovation Unveils New Business Angel Network
Oxford, England -- Oxford Innovation, a U.K.-based provider of
services to entrepreneurs and innovative start-up companies, has
launched a new business angel network called Oxford Early
Investments (OEI) that will focus on innovative companies at the very
early stages of technical and commercial development. The OEI will
help companies to raise investment capital of up to £150,000. Oxford
Innovation said it patterned OEI on one of its other investment
networks, called the Oxfordshire Investment Opportunity Network
(OION), which regularly closes deals of between £200,000 and £2
million. Alastair Cavanagh, manager of Oxford Early Investments, said
the OEI provides a unique service for very early stage companies that
typically need investment capital of between £20,000 and £150,000 to
develop their products beyond an initial "proof of concept". "Oxford
Early Investments (OEI) complements OION by providing investors
with opportunities that are at an earlier stage than those selected to
present to OION," he said.
http://www.oxin.co.uk/news/newsitem.php?newsid=71
_____________________________________________
o Airwide Solutions Raises £8.7 Million in Third Round
Reading, England -- Airwide Solutions, a U.K.-based messaging and
content delivery management firm, announced that it has raised an
additional £3.4 million, bringing its third-round total to £8.7 million.
Artiman Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, led
the round, with existing investors Key Venture Partners, Kodiak
Venture Partners and Axiom Ventures also participating. Airwide
Solutions said it would use the funding to finance growth in new
regions and invest in new products in the mobile messaging and content
delivery area. "We view multimedia messaging and content delivery as
the next big revenue generator for operators and are enthusiastic about
the opportunities it will bring to the mobile networks," said Artiman
Ventures partner Farrokh Billimoria. Airwide Solutions was founded in
July following the acquisition of Schlumberger Messaging Solutions by
Taral Networks.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?J168262D9
_____________________________________________
o Sofia Digital Acquires Mobile-to-TV Firm Outer Rim
Helsinki, Finland -- Sofia Digital, a Finland-based digital TV
technology company, announced that it has acquired Outer Rim, a
Finland-based mobile-to-TV services firm. Financial terms were not
disclosed. "Sofia Digital is the number one in Multimedia Home
Platform based interactive TV application market," said Sofia Digital
CEO Petri Martikainen. "Now we can offer interactive TV services
which work on analogue as well as digital platforms." The Finnish firm
said Outer Rim would be incorporated into Sofia Digital as two
separate units: SMS TV Products and Service Operations. Sofia
Digital, which announced earlier this week that it closed an investment
round with Sentica Partners, provides technologies for interactive TV
services, SMS TV games and cross-media content management
products for broadcasters, operators, receiver manufacturers and service
providers.
http://www.sofiadigital.com/showitem.php?id=101
_____________________________________________
o PacketExchange Raises £1.6 Million from Bank of Scotland
London -- PacketExchange announced on Friday that it has raised £1.6
million from Bank of Scotland Equity in exchange for a minority equity
stake in the U.K.-based connectivity firm. PacketExchange develops
and implements communications services for organisations in order to
minimise the inefficiencies of the Internet. "The important factors for
us were the strong management team and the proven track record of 7%
growth month on month over the last two years," said Bank of Scotland
Equity Director Neil Ross. "PacketExchange has a strong financial
base, a robust business model, and, with our investment, we believe it
has real growth potential." PacketExchange clients include Microsoft,
Telewest, Yahoo! and Blue Square.
http://www.packetexchange.net/cgi-bin/home
_____________________________________________
o U.S.-Based Avaya Acquires Germany-Based Tenovis
Basking Ridge, New Jersey -- Avaya, a U.S.-based provider of business
communications technology, announced that it has completed its
acquisition of Tenovis, a Germany-based provider of communications
systems and services. Tenovis was sold to Avaya by affiliates of
investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. for an undisclosed
sum. Tenovis provides technology for telephony, call and contact
centres, customer relationship management, messaging, networking and
services to companies and government agencies across Europe. The
acquisition adds more than 5,400 employees to Avaya's operations
across Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland
and the Netherlands.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/041118/nyth089_1.html
_____________________________________________
o Briefly Noted:
(Brussels) The European Commission on Friday approved IBM's
proposed acquisition of Denmark-based IT services providers Maersk
Data and DMdata. The Commission said its investigation showed that
the local IT services sector would remain competitive and that end-
users would continue to have access to multiple supply sources. "Given
the significant number of global viable competitors, as well as the
presence of local or regional competitors to IBM in the IT service
market, the increase of IBM's market shares through the acquisition
does not give rise to any competitive concerns," the Commission said.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?V36E242D9
(London) Soflow Ltd., a U.K-based online business network firm,
announced that it has appointed Martin Clifford as its new chief
executive officer and Mel Morris as non-executive chairman. Prior to
joining Soflow, both Clifford and Morris worked for uDate.com, an
Internet firm that was sold last year to IAC Corp. for £81 million.
"Having spent the last six months studying the market and investigating
prospects, Soflow leapt out as an outstanding opportunity to create
value," Clifford said. "I am looking forward to steering Soflow through
the next phase of its development to a market leading position."
http://makeashorterlink.com/?F21B162D9
(Dublin) According to the European Venture Capital Report published
this week by Ernst & Young and VentureOne, Ireland bucked a trend of
declining venture-capital investment across Europe in the third quarter.
In the quarter ended Sept. 30, Ireland reported 13 deals and 33.5
million euro (£23.5 million) invested, increases of 18% and 55%,
respectively, compared to the same period last year. VentureOne
collected the figures by surveying professional VC firms, and its
statistics are for equity investments into early-stage companies, the firm
said.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?N56C220D9
(London) Software giant Microsoft announced that it has expanded its
MSN Hotmail Internet email service to include Germany, France, Italy
and the U.K. The news means that, if you live in England, for instance,
your email suffix will now be @hotmail.co.uk instead of
@hotmail.com. "The new domains will allow for Hotmail customers to
more easily find desirable email names within their country," said
Microsoft Vice President Brian Arbogast. Separately, Microsoft also
announced plans to increase free storage for email accounts to 250Mb
for new Hotmail customers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the
U.K.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/
(Pasadena, California) Yahoo's Overture Services online advertising
unit announced that it has extended its contract to provide sponsored ad
links to Microsoft's MSN service in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia
through June 2006. The previous contract was due to expire in June
2005. While Microsoft is thought to be developing its own sponsored
ad placement technology to compete with industry leaders Overture and
Google, the extension of its MSN contract with Overture indicates that
technology will not likely be ready to replace Yahoo's service until at
least 2006.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/041118/175947_1.html
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
> Reach Beyond Your Local Metro Area for Event Attendees
Hosting a webinar or seminar with a broad geographic appeal? Post
your event announcement on all of the Tech Wire publications for one
price. Reach 80,000 subscribers from technology and emerging growth
companies, many of whom attend seminars and networking events on a
regular basis. A 5-day ad across all 7 Tech Wires is $750. For more
info, go to http://www.potomactechwire.com/Event_Form.html
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
===================================================
To subscribe, go to:
http://www.europeantechwire.com
Questions, comments, news tips, press releases. Send email to:
jim@europeantechwire.com
Copyright: CapWire Inc. 2004
--
To unsubscribe/change profile:
http://www.mailermailer.com/x?u=00000f-e6d0b9bf
To subscribe:
http://www.mailermailer.com/x?oid=08429o
