Category: News

Tumblr founder and CEO David Karp took part in our recent paidContent Live show earlier this month, and spoke about his company’s evolving role in the media world. In this Q&A with Mathew Ingram, Karp talks about some of the success Tumblr-ers have found on the platform, including the 70 book deals that have sprung from its digital pages.

Listen in to the full interview from the session, and check out all of our coverage from the event.

(Download this episode)

Subscribe to the GigaOM Podcasts RSS

iTunes

Stitcher Radio

SHOW NOTES:
Host: Mathew Ingram, Sr. Writer, paidContent/GigaOM
Guest: David Karp, Founder and CEO, Tumblr

PREVIOUS pC LIVE SHOWS:
Blogging Elite with Andrew Sullivan, Maria Popova, Tim Ferris and Andrew Ross Sorkin

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The fourth quarter of 2012 in mobile
• Work media tools in 2012 and beyond
• Flash analysis: future opportunities for Pinterest

It seems Google has a habit of using its European data centers as keys to the local startup community. Having already used its Belgian data center as a springboard for local jobs events and cultural tie-ins in that country, the firm is now doing much the same in south-eastern Finland.

Google bought an old paper mill in Hamina several years ago, and converted it into a data center that is, interestingly, cooled by seawater. The company is now in the process of extending the facility at a cost of €150 million ($196 million) — design nerds should note that this is being done by converting a machine hall originally designed by the architect Alvar Aalto. And now Google has also struck a deal with Aalto University and regional development agency Cursor.

According to a Google blog post, Google’s backing will allow Aalto University to better support local startup accelerators, and also help “improve the use of the internet” by small businesses in the region. The university is already a backer of the Startup Sauna program and various other entrepreneurial initiatives, so we can now expect to see more in this vein.

Google’s push is supposed to “show the way from our industrial past to our digital future,” according to the post, and indeed both the Belgian and Finnish data centers are sited in areas left somewhat depressed after the death of older industries – mining in the case of the St Ghislain facility and paper milling in the case of Hamina.

It’s good PR for Google, of course, but there is validity to the conceit — and it’s also quite a clever way to keep an eye on the ideas that local developers and engineers are coming up with.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Google and the Ghost of Silicon Valley Past
• How tomorrow’s mobile-centric data centers will look
• The importance of putting the U and I in visualization

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of instant messaging is the sheer number of different services and clients that are available. While there has been a degree of convergence over the years, there is still a high chance that if you want to be able to communicate with all of your friends, family and colleague through instant messaging, you’re going to need to have a few clients installed. This might not be the case if you try out Miranda NG, though.

Out of the box there is support for a fairly impressive range of chat protocols — IM, GG, ICQ, IRC, Jabber, MSN and Yahoo — but this lit can be greatly expanded through the use of plugins. Amongst others, it is possible to add support for Facebook chat, Twitter, Skype and XFire.

Available in 32- and 64-bit varieties, Miranda NG is a portable app that can be run from a USB drive. Development may have stalled with the apps predecessor Miranda IM, but this new branch is being constantly updated.

But it is not just protocols that can be added through plugins — there are a raft of other features that can be bolted on. Just as with any IM tool worth its salt, there are also a number of skins available that enable you to personalize the look of the app.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the chant client by paying a visit to the Miranda NG review page — there are 32- and 64-bit versions available.

Photo credit: A1Stock/Shutterstock

Expect Labs’ mission to do away with the search box and put our computers to work for us just got three big votes of confidence: Intel, Samsung and Telefonica have invested, the company plans to announce on Tuesday.

The 12-person San Francisco startup, headed by CEO Tim Tuttle, already had $2.4 million in hand from investors like Google, Greylock Partners, Bessemer Ventures and others. Tuttle refused to give the total value of the trio’s new investment except to say it exceeds all previous funding.

The backing of leading companies from the consumer device, semiconductors and telecommunications worlds is a significant endorsement of the company’s vision.

“We’re still a small company, but we have the backers and team to make a serious run at solving a very hard problem,” Tuttle said in a phone interview. “Which is, how do we get computing devices and applications to understand everything we say and find stuff before we need to search for it?”

That vision — which is shared with others working in predictive computing — is that our computers should push information to us, instead of us having to constantly ask. Expect Labs’ videoconferencing iPad app, MindMeld, is a basic example of what it’s working on: as a conversation is taking place, the contents of it are being analyzed and relevant information pops up in response to what’s being said.

Expect Labs’ three new investors seem to be positioning themselves for the future of computing that’s defined by natural interfaces: touch, gesture and voice. Samsung is one of the biggest consumer electronics makers in the world and will probably want to be able to offer natural interfaces with its TV and mobile devices one day; Intel makes sensors that will pick up inputs like voice; and Telefonica could theoretically use something like what Expect Labs is offering and turn computers listening to phone calls into an additional service for individuals and businesses.

Expect Labs’ partnership deal with Nuance Communications, signed last year, will continue, Tuttle said.

With the fresh round of capital, Tuttle says he plans to grow his team with experts in machine learning and language analysis, and scale up the company’s current infrastructure.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM Pro
• CES 2012: a recap and analysis
• Connected world: the consumer technology revolution

If you want to buy a Galaxy S4 and are a clumsy person then you might want to invest in an aftermarket case (or rethink your decision). According to SquareTrade, a company that provides protection plans, Samsung’s latest Android flagship smartphone is easy to break, more so than the Galaxy S3 and the Apple iPhone 5.

SquareTrade pits the three smartphones against each other in eight key areas including front panel protection, grip, water resistance and drops. The Galaxy S4 scored badly in the slide and drop tests, grip-ability and size, giving it the highest breakability mark of seven out of 10 (lowest scores are best).

By contrast, its older brother, the Galaxy S3, managed to post a breakability score of 6.5 out of 10 while the iPhone 5 took the crown with the lowest mark of the three — five out of 10. So what led SquareTrade to this conclusion?

The test blames the Galaxy S4’s case, which does not protect the smartphone well enough against drops, the slippery back panel and the size of the case itself, which is too wide for a safe grip “especially” when the device is up against Apple’s narrow iPhone 5.

SquareTrade also says that the display on the Galaxy S3, which is protected by Gorilla Glass 2, fares better than the panel on the Galaxy S4, which comes with Gorilla Glass 3 — supposedly more durable than its predecessor. The Galaxy S3, however, is not as water resistant as its successor.

“Due to more breakable surface area” the iPhone 5 lost some points as well, but Apple’s smartphone is easier to hold (no surprise there). SquareTrade also says that the iPhone 5 has a lower friction coefficient which comes out as a rather contradictory statement when the video clearly shows that the handset slid for the shortest distance. It would, logically, be correct to say that it has the highest friction coefficient of the three.

SquareTrade crowns the iPhone 5 as the winner of this comparison, but your experience may vary depending on many factors such as the height and the angle of the drop, the type of surface on which the device falls, etc.

What do you do when you need to check your email? Fire up Outlook or Thunderbird? Launch Chrome and head over to the Gmail website? Having to do this throughout the day is a waste of time, and it’s a waste of time that Toasts&Tiles for Gmail aims to address. As you’d probably guess from the name, this is a Gmail client that includes support for toast notifications as well as live tiles.

With the app running constantly in the background, you will be notified whenever a new email hits your inbox. There’s no need to keep manually checking, breaking away from what you’re doing and losing your train of thought — if there’s something you need to know about, the app will let you know.

On the face of things this may seem like a very basic app, and in many respects it is. But the simple addition of toast notifications for up to three Gmail accounts can be a real productivity boost — and as there is support for Google Apps accounts, it’s something that’s likely to appeal to small businesses as well.

The app can also be run in a docked mode that shows a useful summary of what is happening in your inbox. If you have more than one Gmail account configured, this mode displays details for each of your accounts and enables you to jump to any of them with a quick click.

Simple but good-looking, this is a free email client that Gmail users should check out. Find out more and download a copy of the free app at the Toasts&Tiles for Gmail review page.

Photo credit: Gina Sanders/Shutterstock

Where is the Japanese money? Mostly it has been heading back to home shores as we wrote here yesterday.

The assumption was that the Bank of Japan’s huge money-printing campaign would push Japanese retail and institutional investors out in search of yield.  Emerging markets were expected to capture at least part of a potentially huge outflow from Japan and also benefit from rising allocations from other international funds as a result.  But almost a month after the BOJ announced its plans, the cash has not yet arrived.

EM investors, who seem to have been banking the most on the arrival of Japanese cash, may be forgiven for feeling a tad nervous. Data from EPFR Global shows no notable pick-up in flows to EM bond funds while cash continues to flee EM equities ($2 billion left last week).

But first, some good news. Retail investors are demonstrating some interest in emerging assets. Barclays says launches of toshin or investment trusts last week garnered $2 billion in subscriptions, with a Pacific Rim equities fund, partly geared to Asia, receiving $1.2 billion.  The previous week saw a $500 million ASEAN fund while an emerging equities toshin started in March took in $1.6 billion. There has also been net new uridashi bond issuance in the Mexican, Brazilian, Turkish and Russian currencies over the past few weeks, Barclays data shows.

The bad news is that Japanese  funds and insurers — and that’s where the big money is — have steered clear of emerging markets, and indeed foreign assets so far.   Barclays writes that could be bad news for markets such as Hungary and South Africa, which have poor fundamentals and have benefited from talk of Japanese cash:

Aggregate Japanese flows to EM have not yet been significant, suggesting a risk that position-taking in EM longs (in anticipation of Japanese flows) could be disappointed. This could leave EM local markets, where fundamentals are weak, at risk of a setback.

Barclays notes, however, that Japanese investors it has surveyed recently described the 3-month prospects for emerging bonds and equities as “promising”. That probably indicates:

Japanese investor interest for EM is there, but…these investors probably only buy EM aggressively during price dips.

There is also the question of what the BOJ will do next. Signs are that Abenomics is starting to work, yet core inflation continued to fall last month,  widening the gap with the central bank’s 2 percent inflation target.  If the BOJ is forced into further easing action, Japanese investment outflows may well materialise.

You might think that complex experiments involving particle accelerators would be enough to keep the people at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) occupied. But of course in between all that nuclear stuff a CERN team led by Sir Tim Berners-Lee found time to create the first ever website.

This must have been a somewhat frustrating experience back in 1993 when hardly anyone had access to a browser — rather like Bell inventing the telephone and not having anyone he could call. Now as we reach the 20th anniversary of the landmark event that gave birth to the Web, CERN has started a project to restore that first website.

You can browse the first site itself at http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html but don’t expect any impressive graphical content — or indeed any graphics at all. Ultimately the project team hopes to restore the NeXT computer that hosted the site and run it on the original hardware, even using the same machine names and IP addresses. Thus preserving as many digital assets as possible from the first site.

The Web has become such an essential of our everyday lives in recent years that it’s hard to imagine its very beginning was such a short time ago. This project will help preserve those humble origins for future generations so that they’re able to see just how far we’ve come. As Dan Noyes, Web manager for CERN’s communication group says on his blog, “The fact that they called their technology the World Wide Web hints at the fact that they knew they had something special, something big”.

Photo credit: amasterphotographer/Shutterstock

Law firm WilmerHale has appointed two high tech lawyers David Gammell and Edwin Pease as partners in the corporate group. Together, Gammell and Pease have more than 30 years of experience focusing on emerging companies, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions and related matters.

PRESS RELEASE

WilmerHale is pleased to announce that two leading high tech lawyers, David Gammell and Edwin Pease, have joined the firm as partners in the Corporate Group. Together, Mr. Gammell and Mr. Pease have more than 30 years of experience focusing on emerging companies, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions and related matters.
“We are pleased to welcome Dave and Ed to the firm,” said Susan Murley, co-managing partner of WilmerHale. “Each is an established figure in providing legal representation to entrepreneurs, and they will fit seamlessly into our full-service corporate practice.”
Mr. Gammell, who began his legal career 16 years ago, specializes in advising start-ups and venture-backed companies, venture capital firms, buyers and sellers in mergers and acquisitions, and both private and public companies in tech transfer and licensing matters, joint ventures and partnerships. Mr. Pease focuses his practice on advising start-ups and venture-backed companies, venture capital funds, and buyers and sellers in mergers and acquisitions. Between 1997 and 2005, he was an associate with Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, LLP. Mr. Gammell and Mr. Pease join WilmerHale from a Boston-based law firm, where they were co-chairs of the Emerging Technologies and Venture Capital Practices.
Mark Borden, chair of WilmerHale’s Corporate Group, added, “Dave and Ed have built impressive emerging technology and venture capital practices and we are excited that they have chosen to continue to grow their practices by leveraging our broad-based platform.”
WilmerHale’s corporate lawyers are renowned for their work in initial public offerings, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, corporate governance matters and the representation of emerging companies. These lawyers draw on the resources of WilmerHale’s intellectual property, tax, labor and employment, employee benefits, litigation, real estate, bankruptcy and antitrust practices to provide a one-stop solution to its corporate clients. The firm’s Corporate Group is consistently ranked by Chambers USA, having most recently been recognized in its 2012 edition as “superb” with “outstanding quality at all levels” and specifically acknowledged as a tier-one firm in the Corporate/M&A category in Massachusetts.
“WilmerHale is a leader in the start-up and venture capital market,” said Mr. Gammell. “Its deep corporate expertise, coupled with the breadth of practice areas it offers, are unmatched.”
Mr. Pease added, “Being able to leverage WilmerHale’s full range of services adds a significant amount of value to the work we do and the way in which we are able to meet our clients’ needs.”
About Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP
WilmerHale provides legal representation across a comprehensive range of practice areas that are critical to the success of its clients. The law firm’s leading intellectual property, litigation/controversy, regulatory and government affairs, securities, and corporate and transactional groups participate in some of the highest-profile legal and policy matters. With a staunch commitment to public service, the firm is renowned as a leader in pro bono representation. WilmerHale is 1,000 lawyers strong with 14 offices in cities in the United States, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit www.wilmerhale.com.
The following files are available for download:
Gammell Dave
Pease Ed
Contact Information
Contact information
Lauren G. Coppola
Senior Public Relations Specialist
WilmerHale
1 (617) 526 6998
[email protected]

The post High Tech Lawyers Join WilmerHale as Partners appeared first on peHUB.

Infinity Augmented Reality director, Moshe Hogeg, has co-founded a new venture capital fund, Genesis Angels. Led by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Kazakh industrialist Kenges Rakishev, the other co-founder behind Genesis Angels, and Israeli entrepreneur, CEO of Mobli, and Director of Infinity AR, Moshe Hogeg, this new venture capital firm will be focusing on early stage investment in startup companies in augmented reality, artificial intelligence, robotic innovations and similar cutting edge technologies.

PRESS RELEASE

Infinity Augmented Reality, Inc. (“Infinity Augmented Reality” or “Infinity AR”) (OTCQB: ALSO) — Infinity AR, the pioneers and developers of proprietary augmented reality software, is pleased to announce that our Director, Moshe Hogeg, has co-founded a new venture capital fund, Genesis Angels. Headed by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, leading Kazakh industrialist Kenges Rakishev, the other co-founder behind Genesis Angels, and Israeli entrepreneur, CEO of Mobli, and Director of Infinity AR, Moshe Hogeg, this new venture capital firm will be focusing on early stage investment in startup companies. The main focal point for the firm will be investing in augmented reality, artificial intelligence, robotic innovations and similar cutting edge technologies.
Israel has always been considered a hotbed for technology startups including computer firewall technology, Wi-Fi, and instant-messaging. In a recent interview, Hogeg said that, “It is clear to everyone that the next layer of technology will be augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and robotics. So we see a huge opportunity to invest in upcoming technologies in a very early stage right now.” According to the Associated Press, Rakishev stated that Genesis Angels has already raised “tens of millions” of dollars and that if a project is already strongly developed that the venture capital fund would act quickly toward funding it. “An investment in augmented reality technologies will only benefit the future of Infinity AR,” says Hogeg. “As a Director with Infinity AR, I know the incredible possibilities that exist with this technology.”
“This is incredibly exciting news,” says Avrohom Oratz, CEO of Infinity AR. “For this diverse group to put together a fund with the sole purpose of funding such dynamic new technologies speaks volumes for their foresight and business acumen. It only hastens the development of augmented reality products such as Infinity AR’s Augmented Reality Eyewear, online gambling, and image and facial recognition platforms, just to name a few. We know that a boost in any of the new augmented products under way will only benefit Infinity AR because of our focus on developing augmented reality platforms.”
About Augmented Reality
Augmented reality is a medium in which real sensory inputs are enhanced, or augmented, with relevant digital information from the Internet. Using specially equipped eyewear, virtual images, video, and sound are superimposed for the user over what is actually seen and heard, heightening the real-life experience with additional information that is pertinent, informative, practical, and/or entertaining. The individual user may also be fully immersed in a virtual world, temporarily blocking out real surroundings. With augmented reality, sensory inputs are no longer limited to what is within eyeshot or earshot, but may incorporate, in real-time, all that the network has to offer.
Augmented reality requires an interface, such as digitally-enhanced eyewear, that can instantaneously overlay virtual images and video on top of what is actually experienced. Companies like Google and Lumus are in the process of developing augmented reality glasses that will change the way users see and interact with the world. Infinity AR will utilize its augmented reality applications through these glasses and/or through other mobile devices such as smart phones. As the individual turns his or her head in various directions and looks at different people or objects through the eyewear, the sights that are overlaid change accordingly. The eyewear incorporates speakers that add virtual sounds to the overall experience, as well as microphones that capture and interpret the user’s spoken commands through speech recognition technology in order to summon desired information and actions. Further information on the Company is available at its website.www.infinityar.com.
Safe Harbor Forward-Looking Statements
Some statements in this release may be “forward-looking statements” for the purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “plan,” “potential,” “continue” or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements include risks and uncertainties, and there are important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors, risks and uncertainties are discussed in our public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made by us in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which attempt to advise interested parties of the risks and factors that may affect our business, financial condition, results of operation and cash flows. If one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if the underlying assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results may vary materially from those expected or projected. We undertake no obligation to update these forward looking statements.
Contact:
Contact Information
Infinity Augmented Reality, Inc.
Avrohom Oratz
President and Chief Executive Officer
(212) 201-4070
Email Contact

The post Genesis Angels is Founded appeared first on peHUB.

Resource Capital Corp. has closed a $44 million bridge loan secured by a 186,000 square foot grocery anchored retail center in Los Angeles, CA. Major tenants include a Ralph’s supermarket, Orchard Supply, CVS and Bank of America.

PRESS RELEASE

Resource Capital Corp. (NYSE: RSO) (the “Company”) announces that it has closed a $44 million bridge loan secured by a 186,000 square foot grocery anchored retail center in Los Angeles, CA. Major tenants include a Ralph’s supermarket, Orchard Supply, CVS and Bank of America. The Company has an agreement to sell an A-Note to a strategic partner and will retain a substantial mezzanine loan. The loan proceeds will fund the acquisition of the fee interest by the borrower that has held a leasehold for many years, as well upgrades to the property.
Dave Bloom, Senior Vice-President and head of the Company’s Real Estate Debt business, commented, “This loan demonstrates RSO’s ability to utilize its strong balance sheet and deep capital markets experience to continue to provide customized financing solutions for our clients in the larger loan space. The ability to underwrite and originate larger loans and sell off A-Notes provides RSO with access to the high-yield mezzanine loan space on a self-originated basis, and allows us to structure and price transactions and continue to control our borrower relationships. We look forward to the expansion of this aspect of our lending business.”
About Resource Capital Corp.
RSO is a diversified real estate finance company that is organized and conducts its operations to qualify as a REIT for federal income tax purposes. RSO’s investment strategy focuses on commercial real estate (CRE) assets, and, to a lesser extent, commercial finance assets and other investments. RSO invests in the following asset classes: CRE-related assets such as commercial real estate property, whole loans, A-notes, B-notes, mezzanine loans, CMBS and investments in real estate joint ventures as well as commercial finance assets such as bank loans, lease receivables, other asset-backed securities, corporate bonds, trust preferred securities, debt tranches of CDOs, structured note investments, and private equity investments principally issued by financial institutions.
RSO is externally managed by Resource Capital Manager, Inc., an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Resource America, Inc. (NASDAQ: REXI), a specialized asset management company that uses industry specific expertise to generate and administer investment opportunities for its own account and for outside investors in the real estate, financial fund management and commercial finance sectors.
For more information, please visit the Resource Capital Corp. website at www.resourcecapitalcorp.com or contact investor relations at [email protected].
This press release includes statements that may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond management’s control. Factors that can affect future results are discussed in the documents filed by Resource Capital Corp. from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Resource Capital Corp. undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement to reflect new or changing information or events.

Contact Information
Contact:
Resource Capital Corp.
Email Contact

The post Resource Capital Closes $44m Loan appeared first on peHUB.

U.S.-Israeli company SundaySky expects its sales to triple annually as companies increasingly use personalised videos to win over new customers and retain existing ones, writes Reuters. Founded in 2007 in Israel, SundaySky is headquartered in New York and has raised over $17 million from Carmel Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners and Globespan Capital.

Reuters – SundaySky expects its sales to triple annually as companies increasingly use personalised videos to win over new customers and retain existing ones.

The U.S.-Israeli company’s videos not only speak to a customer by name but take into account past history and present behaviour with a brand. SundaySky can generate millions of videos from a single template in real time, allowing the videos to always be up to date.

“The video covers all stages of a customer’s life cycle, from a customer’s acquisition, supporting them with bills and statements to expanding their relationship and developing a deeper level of loyalty,” said Jim Dicso, SundaySky’s president.

One of SundaySky’s flagship clients is AT&T, which has seen a reduction in inbound phone calls from its customers as well as in the length of the calls, Dicso said. SundaySky has expanded its services to the majority of U.S. phone companies.

Customer loyalty programmes are another focus. The objective is to maintain relationships with customers that can lead to added products and services over time.

“The videos can help reduce churn and in the case of telecom companies, increase average revenue per user,” he said.

Besides AT&T, SundaySky’s clients include Orange, Office Depot, AIG, Turkcell, eBay, Lenovo, Sears and Verizon.

Another use of the videos is advertising based on a customer’s behaviour while shopping on a company’s website.

For example, if someone looks at a printer on Office Depot’s website but does not buy it and a few days later watches a video on YouTube, SundaySky’s software will bid to show the user an ad. If SundaySky’s bid is accepted by an ad exchange it will show the user an ad for the printer with a promotional offer and an Office Depot brand message.

SundaySky has grown threefold in each of the past two years in revenue and bookings.

“We are confident we can execute at that pace in the coming years,” Dicso said.

SundaySky said it differs from competitors such as Israel’s Idomoo in that its platform can create an unlimited amount of videos that are always up to date. Also, its software has an analytics platform built in, allowing it to measure and optimise performance.

Founded in 2007 in Israel, where its development activities are located, SundaySky is headquartered in New York. It has raised over $17 million from Carmel Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners and Globespan Capital and employs more than 90 workers.

The post Reuters – SundaySky’s Personalised Videos Boost Sales Threefold appeared first on peHUB.

U.S. retailer Best Buy Co Inc is selling its 50 percent stake in a joint venture with Europe’sindependent mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse Group back to its European partner for about 500 million pounds (or $775 million), writes Reuters. Best Buy bought 50 percent of Carphone’s retail operations for about $2.1 billion in 2008 to tap the British firm’s expertise in mobile phones and to act as a springboard for expansion across Europe, writes Reuters.

Reuters – U.S. retailer Best Buy Co Inc (BBY.N) is selling its 50 percent stake in a joint venture with Europe’s biggest independent mobile phone retailer Carphone Warehouse Group PLC (CPW.L) back to its European partner for about 500 million pounds (or $775 million).

The move is the latest sign the world’s largest consumer electronics chain is scaling back its overseas ambitions to focus on its mainstay U.S. business, which faces cut-throat competition from the likes of Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O).

The deal will strengthen Best Buy’s balance sheet, simplify its business and improve its return on invested capital, CEO Hubert Joly said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that the timing and economics felt right for the deal.

Best Buy bought 50 percent of Carphone’s retail operations for about $2.1 billion in 2008 to tap the British firm’s expertise in mobile phones and to act as a springboard for expansion across Europe.

While Best Buy was able to use Carphone’s proficiency to boost its U.S. mobile phone business, the plans for a chain of European megastores fell apart due to weak consumer spending, low brand recognition and competition from local chains.

Ultimately, in 2011, Best Buy scrapped plans for the chain of European megastores and decided to focus on Carphone’s existing smaller format stores there. It also bought Carphone out of its U.S. mobile phone joint venture for $1.3 billion.

DEAL TERMS

On Tuesday, Best Buy said it had estimated its European unit to have sales of $5.5 billion to $5.6 billion, and “immaterial” diluted earnings per share, excluding items, in the current financial year.

Outside the United States, Best Buy currently operates in Canada, China, Europe and Mexico.

The sale of Best Buy’s European operations “should not suggest any similar action” in other overseas markets, Joly said in the statement on Tuesday.

The boards of both companies have approved the deal, which is expected to close by the end of June. Best Buy expects to take a related non-cash asset impairment charge of about $200 million.

The sale price of 500 million pounds (or $775 million)included 420 million pounds in cash and 80 million in Carphone’s stock.

Also, as part of the deal, Best Buy has agreed to pay Carphone 29 million pounds (about $45 million) to satisfy obligations under existing agreements.

Once completed, the deal will also mark the end of their “Global Connect partnership,” which was aimed at replicating Best Buy Mobile’s success in emerging markets like China.

(Reporting By Dhanya Skariachan; Editing by Michael Urquhart)

The post Reuters – Best Buy to exit Europe by Selling Stake to Carphone appeared first on peHUB.

Cloud-based network solutions company, Aepona, whose largest venture investor is Amadeus Capital Partners, has been acquired by Intel. Details of the transaction have not been divulged.

PRESS RELEASE

Cloud-based network solutions company, Aepona, whose largest venture investor is Amadeus Capital Partners, has been acquired by Intel. Details of the transaction have not been divulged.
Co-founded by Dublin entrepreneur Gilbert Little, Aepona has offices in Belfast, Bristol, Wicklow, Denver, California and Sri Lanka and employs some 70 people.
Amadeus first backed Aepona in 2003 and has supported the company since then, alongside Irish and French venture capital investors and corporates including Blackberry Partners and SAP.
Aepona was the original developer of the OneAPI technology currently being deployed worldwide by many mobile carriers to enable them to launch new services faster by providing application developers with direct access to their network key assets. This month, Aepona’s Monetization Platform was chosen by Vodafone India to connect the company’s network services across India, enabling Vodafone’s business partners to reach and bill its 147 million plus mobile subscribers.
Aepona is the third successful mobile technology business founded by Gilbert Little, previously involved with Aldiscon acquired by LogicaCMG, and Apion, acquired by Openwave.
According to Andrea Traversone, partner at Amadeus, “Aepona is one of the most innovative wireless technology companies founded in Europe and we are proud to have been part of its development during our investment period. I am sure the company’s technology will be key to Intel’s mobile strategy.”
END
For further details, please contact:
Chantal Ligertwood, PR for Amadeus, 07976 229 210

About Amadeus
Amadeus Capital Partners is one of Europe’s leading technology investors. Since its inception in 1997, the firm has raised over £500m for investment and backed more than 85 companies in communications and networking hardware and software, cleantech, medtech, computer hardware and software, media, and e-commerce. Major businesses built by Amadeus include CSR plc (LSE:CSR), the leading producer of single chip bluetooth radios for short range connections, Solexa Ltd, the developer of next generation genetic analysis systems, merged into Illumina, Inc. (ILMN) to create the world-leader in gene-sequencing technology and Transmode, a networking solutions business, which had an over-subscribed IPO on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm in 2011. For more information, please visit www.amadeuscapital.com

The post Amadeus’ Aepona Acquired by Intel appeared first on peHUB.

Singapore based-Armstrong Asset Management has appointed Yasushi Ujioka as investment director. Ujioka has 17 years’ experience as an engineer and investment professional in the water, power generation and energy efficiency sectors across Europe and Asia.

PRESS RELEASE

Singapore based-Armstrong Asset Management has appointed as Investment Director, Yasushi Ujioka, who has 17 years’ experience as an engineer and investment professional in the water, power generation and energy efficiency sectors across Europe and Asia.
Yasushi will be directly involved in the newly established US$150 million Armstrong South East Asia Clean Energy Fund which is set for final close in August 2013. He will have co-responsibility for deal management and origination across the Southeast Asia with a primary focus on Indonesia and will also lead the firm’s investment in the resource efficiency sector.

“As Armstrong’s investment strategy is to provide development capital to small-scale renewable energy and resource efficiency projects that help address the urgent energy needs of emerging markets in Southeast Asia, Yasushi’s engineering and project management experience makes him a valuable addition to the team operational capability and depth,” said Andrew Affleck, Managing Partner of Armstrong Asset Management. “He brings a good Euro Asian blend of cultural knowledge and is familiar with the multicultural business and investment environment in SE Asia.”

Yasushi has closed investments in Asia totalling US$240 million between 2007 and 2011. Most recently, he was the Investment Director at Swiss-Asia Financial Services Pte Ltd., the asset management firm of the China District Energy Fund.

When he was Business Development Director for Asia for the Dalkia Group, the energy division of Veolia Environnement, he spearheaded business development in new markets in North East and South East Asia in the field of energy efficiency, district energy and biomass CHP (Combined Heat and Power). Yasushi previously held a senior management position with Degrémont, the water treatment division of Suez Environnement, at its global headquarters in Paris.

With a BSc and MEng degree in Urban & Environmental Engineering from the University of Tokyo and an MBA from INSEAD, he combines a strong technical background in environmental technologies with hands-on experience in origination, development, execution and operation of energy projects in Asia.

About Armstrong Asset Management
Armstrong Asset Management is an independent asset manager, based in Singapore, focused on the clean energy sector in Southeast Asia’s emerging markets. Armstrong has announced its first fund will invest in small-scale infrastructure projects and is on track to achieve a final closing of US$150 million target by August 2013. Armstrong’s multidisciplinary team consists of 8 investment professionals with deep sector knowledge and cultural experience from a collective 80 years of Southeast Asia operating experience. As a responsible investor, Armstrong believes integrating sustainable, environmentally friendly practices into day-to-day activities delivers tangible benefits, creates additional opportunities, benefits society and reduces risk. Such an ethical approach leads to follow on opportunities and improved financial returns especially when the true costs of increasingly scarce natural resources are considered. www.armstrongam.com

Issued by H2PC Asia on behalf of Armstrong Asset Management.

More info in the attached file or contact us.

Thanks & kind regards, Beng Ai / 9767 9598

Beng-Ai Yap
H2PCASIA
Main: 65-6222 2937 | Mobile: 65-97679598 | Fax: 65-6222 3478
Email: [email protected] | 74B Pagoda St, Singapore 059233

The post Armstrong Appoints Investment Director appeared first on peHUB.

Intel Capital has boosted its investment team with the appointment of a new investment director, Tobi Oke, based in Lagos, Nigeria. Oke will focus on investments in Sub-Saharan Africa.

PRESS RELEASE

Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment and M&A organisation, has boosted its investment team with the appointment of a new Investment Director, Tobi Oke, based in Lagos, Nigeria. Tobi will focus on investments in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“We are pleased to welcome Tobi to Intel Capital. His local knowledge and expertise will help further strengthen our investment team,” said Marcin Hejka, Managing Director Intel Capital Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia/CIS, “Sub-Saharan Africa has become a source of an increasing number of innovative technology companies which venture capital backing can help to develop. With the help of Tobi, we hope to increase our investments in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Commenting on the announcement, Tobi Oke said: “There is tremendous opportunity to provide entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa with greater access to capital as well as growth resources including our global network and technological expertise. I look forward to building Intel Capital’s presence in the region and working closely with the local entrepreneurs.”

Tobi brings to Intel Capital a combination of investment and technology skills developed through solid experience. Prior to joining Intel Capital, Tobi was an Associate Director at Standard Chartered Private Equity in Lagos and Investment Associate at HSBC Principal Investments in London. Previously he worked as Senior Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton and Software Engineer and Product Development Manager at Motorola. Tobi holds an MBA from London Business School and a MEng in Information Systems Engineering from Imperial College in London.

Intel Capital has been investing in Africa since 2011 and has made investments in Allied Technologies Limited (Altech) and Rancard. Intel Capital is dedicated to facilitate further economic growth in the region by supporting the local Venture Capital ecosystem and offering entrepreneurs in the region value beyond equity. Our expertise, connections, programs, and overall brand value create a distinct advantage that helps entrepreneurs build their businesses, opening doors to new markets, customers, alliances, co-investors, and emerging technologies.

Ends
About Intel Capital
Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment and M&A organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, mobility, health, consumer Internet, digital media and semiconductor manufacturing.

Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than US$10.8 billion in over 1,276 companies in 54 countries. In that timeframe, 201 portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 317 were acquired or participated in a merger. In 2012, Intel Capital invested US$352 million in 150 investments with approximately 57 percent of funds invested outside North America. For more information on Intel Capital and its differentiated advantages, visit www.intelcapital.com or follow @Intelcapital.

Contacts

Fotini De Keizer
[email protected]

Marie Cairney

Associate Director

[email protected]

T : +44 207 413 3000

Dir : +44 20 7973 5954

The post Intel Capital Boosts Team appeared first on peHUB.

FF&P Private Equity, the private equity business of Fleming Family & Partners, has backed the buy-in management buyout of specialist energy efficiency business, FIT. The acquirer, Efficient Energy Management Group, majority owned by FF&P Private Equity, intends to capitalise on the demand for energy efficient commercial kitchens, as energy costs have more than doubled over the last 10 years.

PRESS RELEASE

FF&P Private Equity (‘FF&P’), the private equity business of Fleming Family & Partners, has backed the buy-in management buy-out of specialist energy efficiency business, FIT.

The acquirer, Efficient Energy Management Group, majority owned by FF&P Private Equity, intends to capitalise on the demand for energy efficient commercial kitchens, as energy costs have more than doubled over the last 10 years (source: Department of Energy and Climate Change).

Since 2001, FIT has designed and installed energy saving solutions for a large number of blue-chip customers, including major supermarket, hotel and leisure operators in the UK and Europe. FIT’s solutions offer compelling payback periods, with the savings being monitored and measurable for customers. The company’s Cheetah™ system, an energy management and safety control system for commercial food preparation, has been installed in over 2000 locations, for clients including Whitbread, Tesco and Sainsbury’s.

Commenting on the transaction, Simon Jarman, CEO of Efficient Energy Management Group, said: “We are delighted to have acquired FIT and are very excited about its prospects. It is an excellent, established business operating in a growing sector with a proven product and strong customer relationships. There is substantial opportunity to expand the customer base, diversify the product range and develop international markets. I am very much looking forward to working with FF&P to fulfil the significant growth potential that exists.”

Henry Sallitt, Co-Head of FF&P Private Equity, commented: “We are delighted to have invested in a sector with strong macro drivers for future growth. We are also investing in a management team which we believe can continue to provide a compelling energy saving product to its existing customers and to reach many new ones”.

“FF&P Private Equity has been successful in helping a range of family owned and entrepreneurial companies to grow their businesses. We look forward to working with FIT and to helping the company reach its full potential.”

FF&P was advised on the transaction by Speechly Bircham LLP, Grant Thornton UK LLP and CIL Ltd.

ENDS

For further information, please contact:
For FF&P PE: Cubitt Consulting
James Isola +44 (0)20 7367 5100

FF&P Private Equity is focused on investing in dynamic, growth companies in the UK lower-to-mid market. It invests between £3m – £15m in companies valued from £5m to £50m in a variety of situations including minority investments, management buyouts / buy-ins, development and replacement capital. Through its extensive network of contacts and working in partnership with its investors and portfolio companies, it aims to create market-leading companies that deliver superior returns to all shareholders.

FF&P Private Equity Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Food Industry Technical Limited (FIT) provides leading energy saving solutions for operators of commercial kitchens. Combining airflow measurement, data logging through remote access, energy monitoring and energy control, FIT is able to offer a number of solutions to customers which enable them to improve efficiency of their kitchen, monitor and meter their energy usage, reduce equipment failure and help them meet their environmental targets and improve profitability. The unique and patented Cheetah™ system has been installed in over 2000 locations throughout the UK and Europe. It works in all areas of commercial catering and clients include hotel groups, restaurant chains, supermarkets, department stores, government institutions and commercial organisations.

The post FF&P Private Equity Acquires FIT appeared first on peHUB.

Nokia’s investment arm is set to back Pelican Imaging, a Californian company that takes an unusual approach to smartphone cameras, according to a report from Bloomberg.

We’ve covered Pelican before. The startup has designed an “array camera” that is essentially composed of multiple smaller cameras, all organized in an array. Why do this? Because when you get to the tiny form factor required of handset cameras, the sensor is so small that you’re highly limited in terms of the number of megapixels you can squeeze out of it before image noise becomes unbearable.

Of course, if using many tiny cameras was that easy, we’d see it done in smartphones already. The secret sauce lies in the software used to bring the multiple resulting images together, and it’s that part of Pelican’s work that seems to have attracted the interest of Nokia Growth Partners.

“It’s very complicated to do this algorithmically and Pelican is one of the companies that has mastered this technology,” partner Bo Ilsoe was quoted in the piece as saying.

Imaging is central to Nokia’s current handset strategy, from its top-end Lumia Windows Phone smartphones down to its cheap Asha phones — all these devices have clever photo-taking features of one kind or another. The standout model there, so far, is the Symbian-toting 808 PureView, which uses a technique called oversampling to create a 41-megapixel image (the same technology is apparently coming to the Lumia line, too).

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM Pro
• What the Google-Motorola deal means for Android, Microsoft and the mobile industry
• Analyzing the wearable computing market

Microsoft has announced that it is rolling out a preview version of Skype for Outlook.com in the United Kingdom that will allow users to make audio and video calls directly from their inbox.

Available from today, Skype for Outlook.com requires a one-time download of a browser plugin for Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome. Once installed, users simply connect Skype to Outlook.com and merge their contacts.

You can then launch a Skype window by hovering your mouse over a contact’s picture and clicking on the audio or video call buttons that appear. There are also call buttons that show during an IM conversation.

“With Skype for Outlook.com, you can choose the right medium for your message, whether it is an email, call, video call or instant message,” Simon Longbottom, Senior Director, Product Marketing Skype said.

The service will be arriving in the United States and Germany in the coming weeks, with worldwide availability expected in the coming months.

Opera is continuing to make inroads in the connected device space: Samsung is going to start shipping Blu-ray players powered by the Opera Devices SDK soon, the company announced Monday night. Opera didn’t go into details about which of Samsung’s 2013 Blu-ray players are going to be powered by its SDK, but the company said that the devices will ship globally.

One interesting thing about this partnership is that Samsung has its own Smart TV platform, which it has been promoting aggressively to app developers. So why get a third party to power your devices? One likely answer: Samsung’s platform has been evolving from an all-purpose app platform towards a more TV-centric approach for high-end TV sets.

At CES in January, Samsung unveiled a new UI for its 2013 Smart TVs that comes with voice control, a live TV guide and a remote control with an integrated touch pad. The company is offering owners of select 2012 TVs to upgrade to the new experience for $300 with the help of its Smart TV evolution kit; but that kind of premium pricing doesn’t really work for a $130 Blu-ray player.

In light of that disparity, Samsung has to make a choice: Either fork its Smart TV platform to work on both high-end and low-end devices, or use a different solution for lower-priced devices. It looks like the company may be ready to go for the latter — and Opera seems to be the company to benefit.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The Future of TV Can Bet on “Apps Everywhere”
• GigaOM Research highs and lows from CES 2013
• OTT technologies and strategies for broadcasters