European Tech Wire - April 28, 2005

============================================
EUROPEAN TECH WIRE - April 28, 2005
============================================
To Subscribe: http://www.techwiremedia.com/europe

o Cleantech Venture Network Launches European Organisation
o Report: Dutch Private Equity Climate Looks "Favourable"
o Report: 2005 Online-Content Revenues to Reach 3 Billion Euro
o European Commission Announces Winners of IST Awards
o BT Group Selects Eight Suppliers for 21st Century Network
o IGA Forms Global Media Group for In-Game Ad Networks
o Abiomed to Acquire Germany-Based Medical-Device Maker
o Briefly Noted: Siemens AG-Mobile Devices Division, Reuters-
Mobile News Service, BT Rich Media-SPORTFIVE-Fifa
World Cup 2006, Nokia N91-Mobile Music Phone, Vertical
Communications-New European Headquarters
____________________________________________

o Cleantech Venture Network Launches European Organisation

Paris -- The Cleantech Venture Network LLC, an organisation that
connects private equity, corporate and institutional investors with
"clean technology" entrepreneurs, announced that it has launched
Cleantech Europe and named the new organisation's 16 founding
investor members. "While Europe has always provided the cleantech
segment with strong public support and world-class technology, private
equity investment in this area has lagged behind North America," said
Cleantech co-founder and Chairman Nicholas Parker. "With the
combination of rising commodity prices, including oil, along with
declining returns derived from traditional private equity investment
categories, now is the time to begin building a vibrant cleantech
venture community in Europe." Cleantech's first European event,
Cleantech Venture Forum VII, will be held May 17-19 at the
Intercontinental Hotel in Paris.
http://www.cleantech.com 
____________________________________________

o Report: Dutch Private Equity Climate Looks "Favourable"

Amsterdam -- According to a new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers
Corporate Finance on behalf of the Dutch Private Equity and Venture
Capital Association (NVP), investments by Dutch private equity firms
increased from 1.1 billion euro in 2003 to more than 1.7 billion euro
last year. The report attributed the increase mainly to the buy-out
market, which posted more than 100 deals in a single year for the first
time ever. The report also found that Dutch private equity firms were
involved in exits valued at 1.2 billion last year, an increase of about
25% compared with 2003. "Private equity plays an increasingly
important role in the Dutch economy," said NVP President Robert
Schipper. "Given the current situation in the stock markets and the low
interest rates, we expect a favourable climate for private equity
investments in 2005."
http://www.nvp.nl/
http://makeashorterlink.com/?B21314BFA
____________________________________________

o Report: 2005 Online-Content Revenues to Reach 3 Billion Euro

Frankfurt -- According to the latest report by the European Information
Technology Observatory (EITO), Western European revenues for
consumer online content will nearly double this year, reaching more
than 3 billion euro. EITO also predicted that revenues would continue
to increase over the next few years, reaching more than 16 billion euro
by 2008. More than a third of the current consumer online-content
market is based on online video, generating more than 1 billion euro in
revenue this year alone. EITO said broadband access -- both wireline
and wireless -- was the main driver of the booming Western European
market. "We are creating very powerful broadband highways, and we
have to fill them with real content and value-added services," said
EITO Chair Bruno Lamborghini. "Online content is leading the way."
http://makeashorterlink.com/?G44E21AFA
____________________________________________

o European Commission Announces Winners of IST Awards

Brussels -- The European Commission announced the three Grand
Prize Winners of this year's Information Society Technologies (IST)
prize. Let It Wave, a France-based image compression technology firm;
Praxim Mediavision, a France-based computer assisted surgical
systems firm; and Cypak, a Sweden-based pin-on-card technology
company, were the top three winners, with each company earning a
200,000-euro prize. The European IST Prize recognises the best of
European IT innovation. The Grand Prize Winners were selected from
a total of 430 entries from 29 European countries. The Prize is
organised by Euro-CASE, with the sponsorship and support of the
Information Society Programme of the European Commission.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?S30023BFA
____________________________________________

o BT Group Selects Eight Suppliers for 21st Century Network

London -- BT Group Plc, the largest telecommunications company in
the U.K., announced on Thursday that it has selected Fujitsu, Huawei,
Alcatel, Cisco, Siemens, Lucent, Ericsson and Ciena as preferred
suppliers to build its 21st Century Network Programme (21CN). 21CN
is BT's £10-billion plan for transforming its existing network into an IP
network. Fujitsu and Huawei have been chosen in the access domain,
while Alcatel, Cisco and Siemens have been selected as preferred
suppliers for metro nodes. Cisco and Lucent will be 21CN's preferred
suppliers for core nodes. Ericsson has been selected in the i-node
domain, and Ciena and Huawei have been chosen in the transmission
domain. Shares in Marconi, a U.K.-based telecommunications
equipment maker, plummeted by as much as 40% in afternoon trading
on Thursday after the company failed to win a single contract.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?P48E26AFA
____________________________________________

o IGA Forms Global Media Group for In-Game Ad Networks

London -- IGA Worldwide, a provider of in-game advertising services,
announced that it has created a global media group that will focus on
the planning, serving and tracking of targeted ads within PC and
console video games. The company also announced that it has acquired
U.K.-based game advertising firm Hive Partners, which will form part
of the media group that will also include IGA Partners North America,
IGA Partners Europe and IGA Technologies. The game advertising
group will have offices in New York, London and Berlin, with plans to
expand to Paris, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Benelux in the coming
months. IGA's announcement follows the recent launch of in-game ad
networks by IGN Entertainment and Massive Inc.
http://www.ingameadvertising.com/press/05_04_22_IGA.pdf 
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=8309 
http://www.hivepartners.com 
____________________________________________

o Abiomed to Acquire Germany-Based Medical-Device Maker

Danvers, Mass. -- Abiomed, a U.S.-based maker of products for
circulatory care and support, announced that it has agreed to acquire
Impella CardioSystems, a privately held, venture-backed company
based in Germany. Impella reportedly makes the world's smallest blood
pumps with integrated motors and sensors for use in interventional
cardiology and heart surgery. These circulatory-assist devices are used
by cardiologists in the catheterisation lab and are inserted
percutaneously into patients, similar to a standard balloon pump
procedure, in order to help restore blood flow. Terms of the acquisition
include 4 million shares of Abiomed stock and about 1.4 million euro
in cash.
http://tinyurl.com/dsge9
____________________________________________

o Briefly Noted:

(Frankfurt) Siemens AG, a Germany-based industrial group, announced
that it plans to spin off its mobile devices business. Siemens CEO
Klaus Kleinfeld said the move would affect not only mobile handsets,
but also terminal equipment and devices. Kleinfeld also announced that
the company would outsource cordless DECT phones, set-top boxes
and other consumer appliances from the new group, which will keep
the Siemens brand name. Siemens said it was looking for an
international partner to strengthen the competitive position of the new
venture. It declined, however, to identify potential partners, saying only
that there were "several options".
http://makeashorterlink.com/?M1D152BFA

(London) Reuters announced on Thursday that it has launched a mobile
news service in the U.K. and the U.S. Reuters said the free service
would deliver the agency's Top 10 news stories, complete with photos,
from more than 200 bureaus around the world. "As information and
images on mobile phones become more popular, there is a real
opportunity for a news brand like Reuters to expand our audience," said
Reuters Media Vice President Stephen Smyth. Reuters said the service,
which can be downloaded by typing in "mobile.reuters.co.uk" on a
phone's Internet browser, will be available on more than 70 different
Web-enabled mobile handsets, including LG, Motorola, Nokia,
Siemens, Panasonic, Sharp and SonyEricsson.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/rss/mobile.aspx 

(London) BT Rich Media, a division of U.K. telecommunications
bellwether BT Group Plc, announced that it has teamed up with
SPORTFIVE, a France-based sports marketing group, to stream
qualifying games for the 2006 World Cup, as well as international
friendly games, over broadband on the Internet. Under the terms of the
agreement, SPORTFIVE, which has the largest portfolio of European
qualifying games, will use the BT Rich Media platform for publishing
and distributing the video content. Live games will cost 9.95 euro for a
250k or 500k stream, while users will be able to download games and
save them to their PCs for about 6.95 euro.
http://www.qualifiers2006.com 
http://www.soccernet.com

(Amsterdam) Finland-based mobile-phone maker Nokia this week
introduced the Nokia N91, billed as a mobile-music phone with a 4GB
hard drive with room for as many as 3,000 songs. The phone will allow
for easy transfer of songs from a PC using a USB 2.0 port, or purchased
and downloaded through a carrier's mobile-music store. It will also
allow for playlist sharing using Bluetooth. Nokia said the N91 would
ship worldwide by the end of 2005. "What sets the Nokia N91 apart is
the fact that it is always connected," said Music at Nokia Vice
President Jonas Geust. "You can download new music while on the
move, add it to your favourite playlist and then share your playlist with
friends."
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050427/ukw006.html 
http://www.nokia.com/nseries 

(Cambridge, Massachusetts) Vertical Communications, a U.S.-based
provider of Internet-based phone systems and applications, announced
that it has established a new European headquarters at its German
subsidiary. The company said it created Vertical Communications
GmbH in an effort to expand its international presence and meet an
anticipated increase in demand for products and services in Europe, its
fastest-growing market outside the U.S. Vertical's new European
headquarters will be located in the city of Kirchheim.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050427/275637.html?.v=1

|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

> AeA Micro Cap Financial Conf. For Public Tech Companies, May
15-17

Meet executives from 120 high-tech companies, gather information and
network with peers at the AeA Micro Cap Financial Conference held in
Monterey, CA from May 15-17. If you are an investor interested in
growing public technology companies with up to $200 million market
cap or revenues, then this is the conference to attend. For more
information, visit http://www.aeanet.org/MC05  or call 408.987.4236.
_____________________________________________

> 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
_____________________________________________

> 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.techwiremedia.com/europe

Questions, comments, news tips, press releases. Send email to:
jim@europeantechwire.com

Copyright: CapWire Inc. 2005