European Tech Wire - April 25, 2005

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EUROPEAN TECH WIRE - April 25, 2005
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To Subscribe: http://www.techwiremedia.com/europe

o Report: European Venture-Capital Market Is Back on Track
o Gemplus Agrees to Acquire Setec for 96.5 Million Euro
o mobilcom AG Shareholders Decide to Sue France Telecom
o Advent International Closes New VC Fund at 2.5 Billion Euro
o Report: Storage Management Software Industry Grows by 12%
o Nokia VC Division Invests 2.3 Million Euro in India's Sasken
o Briefly Noted: European Commission-Radianz-BT Group Plc,
Telkonet-Conformite Europeene Certification, eBay-Polish
Auction Website, Buena Vista Games-European Portfolio
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o Report: European Venture-Capital Market Is Back on Track

London -- According to a new report by Go4Venture, a fund-raising
specialist for European technology companies, a sudden jump in the
company's proprietary industry activity indicator shows that the slump
in the European venture-capital market has come to an end. Although
Go4Venture said it would take at least another year for the market to
recover fully, it said the fact that its European VC Investment Activity
Index increased year-on-year by 35% in March 2005 showed that the
fund-raising slump was ending. "After a strong start in Q1, 2004 was
ultimately a disappointing year, with activity falling back to 2003 levels
by the end of the year," said Ian McLoughlin, Go4Venture's director in
charge of the Index. "It is comforting to see that 2005 started at the
same level as 2004, and it is now well ahead of where we were in
March last year."
http://www.go4venture.com/
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o Gemplus Agrees to Acquire Setec for 96.5 Million Euro

Paris -- Gemplus International S.A., a France-based smart card
company, announced that it has agreed to acquire Setec, a privately
held Finland-based secure ID and document firm, for as much as 96.5
million euro. The French firm said the deal would particularly
strengthen its expertise in the security printing business. "The
acquisition of Setec is an important step forward to increase our
business portfolio and obtain new technologies, while complementing
our existing structure," said Gemplus CEO Alex Mandl. "We expect
that the alliance of the two companies will add to the strong organic
growth in this market sector and the financial results that we are all
working towards." Under the terms of the acquisition, Gemplus will
initially pay about 30 million euro and 19 million Gemplus shares
worth approximately 36.5 million euro, plus an additional 30 million
euro depending on Setec's order backlog at the end of this year.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?B4F6124FA
http://makeashorterlink.com/?B5E6224FA
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o mobilcom AG Shareholders Decide to Sue France Telecom

Frankfurt -- mobilcom AG, a Germany-based mobile-phone provider,
announced that its shareholders have decided to sue France Telecom,
mobilcom's largest shareholder, in a bid to seek damages over the roll-
out of 3G services. Two years ago, France Telecom assumed about 7
billion euro in mobilcom debt, a move that led to the resignation of
founder Gerhard Schmid and the suspension of 3G activities, which,
according to shareholders, has stood in the way the mobilcom's growth.
mobilcom shareholders made the decision to sue notwithstanding the
fact its board of directors argued against legal action. The board said
the suit would be "fruitless", adding that France Telecom, which holds
a 29.1% stake in mobilcom, had not inflicted any damage on the
German company. http://www.mobilcom.de
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o Advent International Closes New VC Fund at 2.5 Billion Euro

London -- Advent International, a global mid-market buyout firm,
announced the final close of its most recent global private equity fund,
Advent International GPE V, at 2.5 billion euro. Advent said the fund
would focus on three categories: international expansion (companies
operating or seeking to expand internationally), strategic restructuring
(companies enhancing earnings by refocusing on core competencies)
and high-growth sub-sectors (companies exploiting organic market
growth or new product/service models). Furthermore, the fund will
invest in primarily European and North American companies in the
following sectors: business and financial services, technology, media
and telecommunications, retail and consumer, healthcare and life
sciences.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?E317214FA 
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o Report: Storage Management Software Industry Grows by 12%

Hopkinton, Massachusetts -- Worldwide storage management software
revenue increased by 12.3% in 2004, driven by strong sales in storage
resource management, according to a new report from technology
market research firm Gartner. The storage management software
market totalled 4.3 billion euro (£3 billion) in new license revenue, up
from 3.8 billion euro (£2.6 billion) in 2003. The storage resource
management segment, which includes products that monitor and
manage capacity and performance across multiple storage and server
platforms, grew by 30.8% to reach 468 million euro (£320 million) in
2004. "Storage resource management was the second smallest segment
in 2004, but it is expected to continue to record fast growth as
enterprises look to better manage storage capacity utilisation and begin
to automate some of the management functions," said Gartner Research
Vice President Carolyn DiCenzo.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050422/225210.html?.v=1
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o Nokia VC Division Invests 2.3 Million Euro in India's Sasken

Finland -- Nokia Growth Partners, the venture capital arm of Finnish
mobile phone giant Nokia, announced that it has invested 2.3 million
euro in Sasken Communication Technologies Ltd., an India-based
telecommunication research and development firm, for an undisclosed
equity stake in the company. With the news, Sasken, which received
7.6 million euro from Canada-based Nortel just last month, becomes
Nokia Growth Partners's first portfolio company in India. Sasken said it
would use the funds from both Nortel and Nokia to make a number of
acquisitions.
http://www.sasken.com/home/ie.html
http://www.brv.com/
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o Briefly Noted:

(Brussels) The European Commission announced that it has approved
the proposed acquisition of Radianz, a U.S.-based financial services
extranet provider, by BT Group Plc. The Commission ruled that the
acquisition would not significantly impede effective competition in
Europe, as the companies' activities do not overlap. The Commission
also found that there would be no negative impact either on the market
for the provision of extranet services to the financial community or on
the upstream telecommunication services market. An extranet is a
secure private network for sharing business information using Internet
technology in conjunction with the public telecommunications system.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?C196254FA

(Germantown, Maryland) Telkonet, a U.S.-based maker of devices that
provide broadband access over the existing electrical wiring in
buildings, announced that it has begun shipping its broadband Internet
access products to Denmark, France and the U.K. The company's
system received the "Conformite Europeene" (CE) certification in
March, approving it for sale within the EU. Telkonet also said it had
signed deals with five resellers in five EU member states. "The
potential for Telkonet to sell our system into Europe rivals the potential
of the American market for us," said Telkonet CEO Ron. "Because the
Continent's infrastructure is so much older than America's, traditional
connectivity is not always economically or technically feasible."
http://makeashorterlink.com/?L259363FA

(San Jose, California) eBay, a U.S.-based online auction giant,
announced that it has launched a new site in Poland offering online
trading in Polish with item prices listed in the Polish zloty. People and
businesses will be able to list and sell goods and services on the site at
no charge. "Now is the right time to come to Poland," said eBay
European Director Philipp Justus told a news conference. "The scale of
use of the Internet in Poland is growing at a phenomenal pace, so we
are sure that the eBay community will grow quickly." eBay said it
would use the new operation as a trial for the Eastern European market,
but added that it currently had no plans to launch other sites in the
region.
http://www.ebay.pl/home

(Frankfurt) Buena Vista Games, the interactive entertainment division
of the Walt Disney Company, announced that it plans to launch a
portfolio of high-profile video games in Germany, France and the U.K.
this summer. "Our goal is to become a leading player in the global
video game industry by providing compelling game experiences to the
mass market on all major platforms by combining the wealth of IP that
exists within the Walt Disney Company as well as the creation of new
IP that we can leverage back into the rest of the organisation," said
BVG Europe Vice President Thierry Braille.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?W2DA523FA

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> AeA High Tech Government Dinner - Connecting Gov't and Industry

June 8, 2005 5:30-9pm. This is the largest gathering of our industry's
Federal Agency CIO's, CTO's, and acquisition officers with the new
novel technology industry leaders. It's also an opportunity to network
with our Congressional Appropriation leaders and senior decision
makers within the System Integrator community. Details for the
evening at: http://www.aeanet.org/governmentdinner  or call 202-682-
9110. Send inquiries to Greg_Poersch@aeanet.org
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