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HarperCollins’ William Morrow division will launch Witness, a digital-first imprint for mysteries and thrillers, this October, the company announced Tuesday. Witness is part of HarperCollins’ “Impulse” line of books, which also includes digital-first romance, sci-fi/fantasy and young adult books.

The idea behind digital-first lines is that they let publishers take a chance on unknown or new authors, they allow for a faster publishing process and they let authors release more types and lengths of books throughout the year. In many cases, the books are eventually released in print; HarperCollins says that “to date, more than 60 percent of Impulse titles have a print format, with thousands of printed copies sold for each of those books” (though in many cases this means print-on-demand books that don’t make it into bookstores).

Ten books will be released in October, and the company says it’s already acquired over 100 full-length titles for Witness. The imprint will also sell digital editions of Agatha Christie’s short stories, starting with the Hercule Poirot stories, which will be available both as e-singles and as a collection.

HarperCollins also announced that as of August 1, authors who sign with Impulse will receive monthly royalties. “There is a true financial benefit to signing with our Impulse imprints,” said Liate Stehlik, SVP and publisher of William Morrow. With the monthly royalty payments, HarperCollins aims to compete with Amazon Publishing, which recently started offering monthly royalty payments to its authors.

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Jawbone acquired BodyMedia Inc, the maker of weight-monitoring arm bands, for more than $100 million, Reuters reported Tuesday. The deal will help Jawbone’s efforts to bolster its position in the wearable technology market, with nearly 300 pending and issued patents. Pittsburgh-based BodyMedia’s 60 employees will join Jawbone as part of the deal. Jawbone, which is based in San Francisco, did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction, but a person close to the company said the deal was for “north of $100 million.” Jawbone, which also makes wireless headsets for mobile phones, has raised more than $210 million in funding to date. In its most recent funding round, in December 2011, the company raised $40 million from Deutsche Telekom, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and private investor Yuri Milner.

(Reuters) – Jawbone acquired BodyMedia Inc, the maker of weight-monitoring arm bands, for more than $100 million, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The deal will help Jawbone’s efforts to bolster its position in the wearable technology market, with nearly 300 pending and issued patents, the company said on Tuesday. Pittsburgh-based BodyMedia’s 60 employees will join Jawbone as part of the deal.

Jawbone, which is based in San Francisco, did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction, but a person close to the company said the deal was for “north of $100 million.”

Jawbone also announced a program on Tuesday to allow third-party software developers to create apps for its UP wristband, which tracks daily activity such as steps taken or hours slept. Jawbone will initially allow a limited group of 10 developers to create applications that enhance the wristband with features such as logging a bike ride or delivering workout reminders.

Jawbone, which also makes wireless headsets for mobile phones, has raised more than $210 million in funding to date. In its most recent funding round, in December 2011, the company raised $40 million from Deutsche Telekom, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and private investor Yuri Milner.

Wearable computing is increasingly attracting the attention of large and small technology companies. Google Inc is preparing to release Google Glass, a small screen attached to a pair of eyeglass frames that offers various smartphone-like features. Apple Inc is widely reported to be working on a wristwatch with a variety of high-tech features.

(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Ken Wills)

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Verizon said on Tuesday it plans to invest $100 million in solar power and fuel cells at 19 facilities in seven U.S. states to cut its carbon footprint and make its operations more resilient to storms and other disasters, Reuters reported. The energy project should be complete by next year, with installations at corporate offices, call centers, data centers and central offices of the telecommunications giant in Arizona, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and North Carolina. The fuel cells will be powered by natural gas, which emits less climate-warming carbon dioxide than diesel or petroleum when burned, said James Gowen, chief sustainability officer for Verizon Communications Inc.

(Reuters) – Verizon said on Tuesday it plans to invest $100 million in solar power and fuel cells at 19 facilities in seven U.S. states to cut its carbon footprint and make its operations more resilient to storms and other disasters.

The energy project should be complete by next year, with installations at corporate offices, call centers, data centers and central offices of the telecommunications giant in Arizona, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and North Carolina.

The fuel cells will be powered by natural gas, which emits less climate-warming carbon dioxide than diesel or petroleum when burned, said James Gowen, chief sustainability officer for Verizon Communications Inc.

Gowen declined to say how much money the telecommunications company would save with this investment, but did say it would be good for the bottom line.

“I have a CFO and a CEO who are telling me quite often, ‘We are not going green for green’s sake.’ So we absolutely have a positive return on investment based on a 10-year net present value,” Gowen said in a telephone interview.

Like many other U.S. companies, Verizon aims to be more environmentally sustainable and beef up its green credentials, but another key reason for the energy shift was to bolster reliability.

When Superstorm Sandy battered the U.S. East Coast last year, the fuel cells at the company’s Garden City site on Long Island kept operations running when parts of the conventional power grid went down, Gowen said.

ClearEdge Power will install fuel cell systems at Verizon sites in California, New Jersey and New York, the company said. Sunpower Corp. has a multi-year agreement with Verizon to put in rooftop and ground-based solar cells and solar parking canopies in Arizona, California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and North Carolina.

Together, these changes are expected to generate some 8 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually and cut the company’s annual carbon footprint by more than 5,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide.

(Reporting by Deborah Zabarenko; Editing by David Gregorio)

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Shutterfly Inc., the publicly traded maker of personalized photography products and services, has snapped up MyPublisher, a maker of photo book software. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

PRESS RELEASE
Shutterfly, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFLY), the leading manufacturer and digital retailer of high-quality personalized products and services, announced today that it has acquired MyPublisher, one of the pioneers in the photo book industry and creator of easy-to-use photo book-making software. The acquisition will combine MyPublisher’s photo book technology and highly specialized manufacturing capabilities with the Shutterfly platform to deliver a superior customer experience.

“Shutterfly photo books continue to delight customers, bringing more consumers online to tell their stories and connect with friends and family in creative ways”

“Shutterfly photo books continue to delight customers, bringing more consumers online to tell their stories and connect with friends and family in creative ways,” said Jeffrey Housenbold, president and CEO of Shutterfly. “By combining MyPublisher’s best in class software client with Shutterfly’s industry leading cloud based platform, we will continue to drive growth and set the standard for design, choice and quality in the personal publishing and social expression category.”

“Shutterfly and MyPublisher share a common vision of enabling customers to create premium products that share their most precious memories,” said Carl Navarre, founder and CEO of MyPublisher. “Together, our teams will chart the course for the next generation of photo book creation, while enabling our customers to take advantage of Shutterfly’s industry-leading solutions for other personalized products.”

Financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed. Shutterfly will discuss this transaction as part of its Q1 2013 financial results conference call on May 1, 2013 at 2:00 PM PT (5:00 PM ET).

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes certain forward-looking statements related to Shutterfly, Inc. within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management’s current estimates, assumptions, expectations or beliefs and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. These forward-looking statements are estimates reflecting the judgment of our senior management and actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements herein due to changes in economic, business, competitive, technological and/or regulatory factors, and other risks and uncertainties affecting the operation of the business of Shutterfly, Inc. For a list and description of risks and uncertainties which may cause actual results to vary from forward-looking statements, see our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov. All of Shutterfly’s forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, are expressly qualified by this safe harbor statement and any other cautionary statements that may accompany such forward-looking statements. Shutterfly is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions or otherwise.

About Shutterfly

Shutterfly, Inc. is the leading manufacturer and digital retailer of high-quality personalized products and services offered through a family of lifestyle brands. Founded in 1999, the Shutterfly, Inc. family of brands includes Shutterfly, where your photos come to life in photo books, cards and gifts; Tiny Prints, premium cards and stationery for all life’s occasions; Wedding Paper Divas, wedding invitations and stationery for every step of the planning process; and Treat, personalized greeting cards that really stand out. For more information about Shutterfly, Inc. (NASDAQ:SFLY), visit www.shutterflyinc.com.

About MyPublisher

Since its founding in 1994, MyPublisher has established itself as one of the leaders in custom photo book software, bookstore quality printing and superior customer service. MyPublisher has sold and shipped more than five million photo books since 2002. In 2009 alone, MyPublisher experienced 10 million visitors to its website and more than 2 million downloads of its software. MyPublisher’s philosophy is simple–provide customers with intuitive, easy-to-use photo book-making software, give them end-to-end customer support, and deliver a finished book of superb workmanship.

The post Shutterfly Buys MyPublisher appeared first on peHUB.

A newborn baby girl was found naked and crying in the sand on a beach in Honolulu on Sunday, having just been born possibly moments earlier.

The baby was discovered by a woman who had just arrived at the beach and heard screaming down by the water. As she got closer, the screaming stopped and she could hear a baby crying, but there was no one else around. The infant was taken to the hospital, where she was closely examined and declared healthy at 8 pounds, but as of now no one has come forward to claim her. According to Hawaii law, prosecution can be avoided if an infant is left in the care of a hospital or with fire/police services. Since the baby was left on the beach, officials are investigating and will prosecute if the mother is found.

If the child isn’t claimed within a week, the Department of Human Services will file a petition to ask for custody and will eventually release a photo of her in the hopes that family will come forward.

Judge Lucy Koh on Monday set a new trial date to determine the proper damages due to Apple in its ongoing patent battle with Samsung, Reuters reported. Koh determined that a new trial was needed because the jury had incorrectly calculated part of the damages. Apple was originally awarded $1.05 billion, however the federal judge slashed the amount by more than 40% to $450.5 million in March. The final ruling will likely see that award adjusted again, however. Koh ruled that Samsung and Apple will not be permitted to seek additional damages based on new sales data, products or theories, and the trial is must focus around the 13 Samsung devices that were found to infringe Apple’s technology in the original trial. The two companies are now set to face off in court beginning on November 12th.

Intel Capital, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, and Telefonica Digital have made a strategic investment in San Francisco-based Expect Labs, the company announced Tuesday. The company, which is making a platform for “intelligent digital assistants,” will use the money for development. Expect Labs was formed in 2011.

PRESS RELEASE
Expect Labs, a San Francisco startup that is developing a platform to power a new generation of intelligent digital assistants, today announced a strategic investment from Intel Capital, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation (SVIC), and Telefonica Digital. Expect Labs’ technology platform, the Anticipatory Computing Engine, is the first commercial solution designed to analyze and understand conversations in real-time and proactively find related information. This new strategic investment will accelerate Expect Labs’ efforts to extend their technology platform across different industry verticals and geographic markets.

Founded in 2011, Expect Labs has pioneered the development of technology that enables our computing devices and applications to pay attention continuously and better anticipate the information that we need. Over the past two years, Expect Labs’ team of PhDs and research experts have developed a new class of technologies to understand the meaning of continuous conversations. Based on this understanding, Expect Labs’ platform can model the context of your interactions in real-time, and proactively find information you may want before you need to search for it. As part of this new strategic investment, Expect Labs will begin working to enable new types of context-aware, predictive intelligence in a wide variety of applications and devices.

Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment organization, has been investing in a wide range of hardware and software technologies to both make computing devices more intelligent and context-aware and to help create new types of user interfaces driven by voice, touch, and gesture.

“We are entering an era where the computing devices in our lives will not only be able to understand what we say, but they will also do a much better job anticipating the information we may need, “said Dave Flanagan, Intel Capital. “We look forward to working with Expect Labs to explore ways to achieve this vision.”

Samsung Venture Investment Corporation (SVIC) is the global investment arm of Samsung, the leading global manufacturer of mobile devices and flat-panel displays. Through this partnership, SVIC expects to empower Expect Labs to enable new types of intelligent, voice-driven and context aware behavior across a wide range of devices including smartphones, tablets and smart TVs.

“Expect Labs has taken a unique approach to modeling context using sensor signals, such as GPS and audio, that are available in the new generation of computing devices, ” said Brannon Lacey, Principal at Samsung Venture Investment Corporation. “We think this approach is an important step toward creating a new layer of application and device intelligence.”

With over 315 million customers, Telefonica is one of the largest telecommunications operators worldwide. As part of its investment, Telefonica intends to utilize Expect Labs’ technology and expertise to enhance several product lines including next-generation communications applications and advertising initiatives.

Tracy Isacke, Head of Telefonica Digital Ventures, commented: “Expect Labs is at the cutting edge of the future of search, developing solutions that will change the way we discover and share information. We see huge potential for its technology across all areas of our business, and this investment opens the door to close collaboration between our technical teams.”

“In just a few years, we will live in a world where the connected devices all around us will know who we are, understand what we say, and be far more capable of interpreting our intentions and anticipating our needs, ” added Timothy Tuttle, Expect Labs CEO and founder. “We are delighted that leading global companies like Intel Capital, Samsung Investment Venture Corporation and Telefonica Digital share this vision, and we are looking forward to exploring ways to work with them to create a new generation of intelligent applications and devices.”

Intel Capital, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation and Telefonica Digital will join Expect Labs’ existing investors, including Google, Greylock, Bessemer, IDG Ventures, KPG Ventures, Quest Venture Partners as well as several well-known angel investors.

Since emerging from stealth mode in 2012, Expect Labs has been widely recognized as a leader in the fast-emerging field of Anticipatory Computing and has received numerous accolades. Expect Labs was selected as a finalist at the 2012 TechCrunch Disrupt startup competition, the 2013 CES Mobile App Showdown, and the 2013 SXSW Innovative Technology Accelerator. Expect Labs’ iPad app MindMeld was also selected as “Best in Show” at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show and was featured by Popular Science as one of the “hottest gadgets” of 2013.

About Expect LabsExpect Labs is a technology company based in San Francisco that is building a platform to power a new generation of digital assistants that can understand continuous conversation and find the information you want before you need to search for it. Expect Labs is also the creator of the iPad app called MindMeld, which is the first intelligent assistant that can actually understand your conversations in real-time to make it easy to find and share related information as you talk. Expect Labs was founded in early 2011 by successful, repeat entrepreneurs who have built and sold large-scale Internet businesses. The team includes PhDs and world-class researchers from places like the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, Carnegie Mellon University, Bell Labs and HP Labs. The company is backed by Google, Samsung, Intel, Greylock Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, IDG Ventures, KPG Ventures, Quest Venture Partners and several prominent angels. For more information on Expect Labs, visit www.expectlabs.com or follow @ExpectLabs and @GetMindMeld on Twitter.

About Intel CapitalIntel 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 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.

About Samsung Venture Investment CorporationSamsung Venture Investment Corporation manages investment and investment-related activities for Samsung affiliate companies. The investment mandate for Samsung Venture Investment Corporation tracks closely to the strategic priorities of Samsung affiliate companies’ core operating divisions, and encompasses investments in semiconductors, displays, telecommunications, and consumer electronics.

About Telefonica DigitalTelefonica Digital is a global business division of Telefonica. Its mission is to seize the opportunities within the digital world and deliver new growth for Telefonica through research & development, venture capital, global partnerships and digital services such as cloud computing, mobile advertising, M2M and eHealth. It is also driving innovation in over the top communications under a new umbrella brand called TU and in Big Data through Telefonica Dynamic Insights.

Telefonica Digital will deliver these new products and services to Telefonica’s 315 million customers as well as entering new markets. It is headquartered in London with regional centres in Silicon Valley, Sao Paulo, Spain and Tel Aviv. Jajah, Terra, Media Networks Latin America, 48 and giffgaff are all managed under the Telefonica Digital umbrella.

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The HTC One is one hell of a smartphone— but its premium build and cost may be a bit out of reach for many customers. So with that in mind, HTC is quietly working on a stripped down version the device behind the scenes called the 608t. Design-wise, this mysterious new toy certainly mirrors One features including dual-stereo speakers on the front of the device, as well as a similar button layout. Of course the similarities end there as this Jelly Bean-powered smartphone features “modest” guts including a quad-core chip + 1GB of RAM, a 4.5-inch LCD display with a 960 x 540 (qHD?) display and an 8MP camera. Not too shabby HTC. Not too shabby.

Now for the part that you all want to know— the pricing and availability. While we don’t know the cost as of yet, the leak certainly suggests that this device will at least be headed for Chinese markets in the near-future. For those of us out in the States, there’s no word on if the 608t will ever make it out to our shores, maybe HTC will surprise us and unveil this device in the US at some point sooner than later.

source: Ameblo (Jp)

Come comment on this article: HTC 608t smartphone outed, brings a whole lot of One in a more affordable package

While Facebook has recently been losing members in the U.S. and U.K., it has seen growth in developing countries such as India. While its worldwide membership growth is currently offsetting its membership losses, the loss of 6 million U.S. members this month does point to increasing competition in the social media space.

One of Facebook’s largest competitors, LinkedIn, has been slowly building up its user base worldwide as well. The social network for professional networking celebrated 200 million members in January, and one year ago hit 15 million members in India.

This week, LinkedIn announced that it now has over one million members in Singapore. The country is home to the social network’s Asia Pacific headquarters, which opened in 2011. Hari Krishnan, Managing Director at the headquarters, announced the milestone in a post on the LinkedIn blog. From the post:

I’m especially excited about this milestone because I moved to Singapore earlier this year to take on the role of Managing Director, Asia Pacific and Japan, and it’s been a transformational experience so far. The energy and spirit among the professional community in Singapore is palpable. It’s been an honor to watch Singapore professionals turn to LinkedIn to build their professional identity, grow their networks and find the insights they need to be great at what they do.

To celebrate, LinkedIn handed out coffee and cupcakes to commuters in Raffles Place.

Well I guess Samsung didn’t have all their ducks in a row like they thought they did. Back in March, analysts were concerned that Samsung could have production issues that would cause a loss of sales during the first month after launch. Last year’s issue with the Galaxy S III was from a defect, but we are not sure what is going on this year. It seems to be delayed all over and now it appears that customers who pre-ordered the Sprint version at Best Buy are going to have to wait another 2 to 3 weeks. Below is an email sent to customers:

“We’re sorry, but the fulfillment of your recent pre-order is taking longer than expected. We expect it to arrive between May 9 and May 20. To keep you informed of its delivery, we’ll send tracking information once the item has shipped.

If you prefer, you can cancel this order at any time. To do so, please call us at 1-888-BEST BUY (1-888-237-8289). If possible, please have your order number handy.

If we don’t hear from you before the order is shipped, we’ll assume you still want this item and accept this delay.

Once again, we’re sorry for this inconvenience, and we’ll do our best to make things right.”

Sales of the Galaxy S 4 were expected to hit 10 million during the first month, but with delays like this, don’t expect that target to be reached.

source: PhoneArena

Come comment on this article: Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 4 pre-orders now delayed 2 to 3 weeks at Best Buy

Shazam, maker of the smartphone music app, has named Rich Riley Chief Executive Officer. Andrew Fisher, who has led Shazam as CEO since 2005, will now take a newly created position of Executive Chairman. John Pearson who has been Chairman of the Board since 2006 will become a Non-Executive Director and remain on the board, the company said. Shazam investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, DN Capital, Institutional Venture Partners and Acacia Capital.

PRESS RELEASE
Shazam®, the world’s leading media engagement company, today announces that Rich Riley has joined the company as Chief Executive Officer. Shazam further announces that Andrew Fisher, who has dynamically lead Shazam as CEO since 2005, has been appointed to the newly created full-time position of Executive Chairman. John Pearson who has been Chairman of the Board since 2006 will become a Non-Executive Director and remain on the board.
With Riley and Fisher in their new positions, and the recent hire of the BBC’s Daniel Danker as Chief Product Officer joining the existing executive team, Shazam now has put into place an executive leadership team that will accelerate the company’s growth trajectory while continuing to deliver innovation for Shazam’s products and services as the company pursues new market opportunities. Shazam now has more than 300 million users in over 200 countries worldwide.
“I am extraordinarily excited to be joining the Shazam team. Andrew Fisher has assembled a world-class organization that has made Shazam a global consumer brand that provides an exceptional consumer experience and has set the stage for the company’s next phase of growth,” said Rich Riley. “I look forward to extending our dominance in media engagement, from our roots in music to our leadership position in second-screen TV and want to ensure that Shazam is the company that helps people recognize and engage with the world around them.”
“I couldn’t be more pleased to welcome Rich Riley as Shazam’s new Chief Executive Officer,” said Andrew Fisher. “Rich brings a tremendous amount of experience both as an Internet executive where he has rapidly scaled global businesses, to establishing strategic relationships with advertisers and partners, as well as his entrepreneurial approach and skills. Whilst Rich will run our business I will now spend more time focusing on our corporate development and future strategy including our ambitions to deliver a successful IPO for our shareholders as we look to become an increasingly important part of people’s everyday lives, helping them engage with content and brands in the most efficient way possible.”
“I would like to thank John Pearson for his tremendous support as Chairman of Shazam over the past seven years,” continued Fisher. “John has worked tirelessly on behalf of our shareholders and I am delighted he will continue to help the company sustain its success as a board member and Non-Executive Director.”
Featured by Fortune as one of their 40 Under 40: Ones to watch for 2011, Rich Riley joins Shazam with more than 17 years experience as an entrepreneur and leading Internet executive. Most recently, Riley was EVP Americas for Yahoo! where he was responsible for billions of dollars of revenue and managed a team of thousands, overseeing sales, account management, ad operations, B2B marketing, research and business development across the US, Canada and

LatAm. Prior to that, Riley held a variety of roles including MD & SVP of the EMEA Region, SVP of the Small & Medium Business Division as well as corporate and business development roles.
Prior to his more than 13 years with Yahoo, Riley was co-founder and Managing Member of the Internet start-up Log-Me-On.com that developed and patented what is today the Yahoo! Toolbar, which counts hundreds of millions of users and was sold to Yahoo! in 1999. Prior to joining Yahoo! and starting Log-Me-On.com, Riley worked as a Financial Analyst at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in New York City. He graduated Wharton with a BSc. in Economics with Majors in Finance and Entrepreneurial Management. He lives in Connecticut with his wife and four children and will be based in Shazam’s New York office.
Andrew Fisher has served as CEO of Shazam since 2005, leading the company to its current status as a global brand. Fisher has grown the user base since the launch of the app in 2007 to over 300 million users currently – consistently adding more than two million new users every week. The Shazam App is a top 10 app of all time on iOS in terms of installs, is used by over 60 million monthly active users, and drives $300 million in digital sales per year through affiliate partnerships like iTunes and Amazon. Andrew joined Shazam from InfoSpace Inc where he was European Managing Director. At InfoSpace Andrew led the company’s significant European growth focusing on music and entertainment services for mobile operators and portal solutions for many leading online service providers. Andrew has led the successful growth of a number of technology-focused enterprises, founding and serving as Managing Director of TDLI.com, which was acquired by InfoSpace Inc, with an enterprise value of $400m after being set up 18 months previously.
The Shazam for TVTM service, launched in 2011 in the United States for advertising and select television programmes, was expanded in September 2012 to include all US nationwide programming on 160+ channels, essentially every show on every channel. In the last year, over 10 million people in the U.S. have used Shazam as a TV companion app with TV shows and live events, gaining instant access to a blend of show-specific mobile-optimized content and social features, conveniently in one place. Features include the music in the broadcast, cast photos, gossip, tweets about the show, links to official sites, IMDB and Wikipedia, and commerce links to buy show-branded merchandise and previous episodes or renting or buying the movie. Shazam produces custom second-screen experiences for select tent-pole TV events such as the GRAMMY® Awards, the Super Bowl, and the Olympic Games, as well as popular programs such as “American Idol” and “Girls.”
In the last year, Shazam for TV Advertising, which started in North America, was expanded to the UK, Western Europe and Asia Pacific. Shazam for TV is already generating double-digit millions in revenues, with Shazam for TV Advertising integrated into over 250 TV ad campaigns since launch, including those for A-list global brands such as Pepsi, Toyota, Barclays, Sony Entertainment and many more. Shazam is making TV advertising interactive, essentially “clickable”; people can tap one button and in just a few seconds, instantly arrive at a rich experience for the brand within the Shazam App, extending the 30-second TV ad into several minutes of engagement, getting more information and special offers, and even shopping from the sofa.
Shazam investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, DN Capital, Institutional Venture Partners and Acacia Capital
ENDS
About Shazam

Shazam is the world’s leading media engagement company with more than 300 million people in 200 countries and adding another 2 million new users each week. With the industry’s unlimited fastest tagging in the Free and premium Encore Apps on iOS and Android devices, Shazam is the best way for people to discover, explore, buy, and share more music, TV shows and branded content they love.
Shazam makes it easy for people to share their discoveries with their friends on Facebook using the Shazam Friends feature, as well as on Twitter and Google+. For people who don’t yet have the Shazam application on their smartphone, it is available for FREE on every major platform and can be found on iTunes App Store, Google play, Amazon App Store, AT&T’s AppCenter, Verizon VCast app store, Nokia Store, Windows Phone Marketplace, BlackBerry App World, and GetJar..
For further information about Shazam Entertainment visit www.shazam.com and @ShazamNews. You can also follow us on Facebook or Google+. For daily music updates follow the Shazam Blog and @Shazam. Shazam Media enquiries: [email protected]
The Shazam, Shazam Encore, LyricPlay, Shazam for TV names and icons are trademarks of Shazam Entertainment Limited.

The post Shazam Names Rich Riley CEO appeared first on peHUB.

Last year, Microsoft introduced an entirely new Outlook.com in an attempt to revitalize its email client. Early results (from Microsoft) say its working, and now it’s adding even more functionality to tempt more people over to its side.

Microsoft announced that it’s rolling out a preview of Skype for Outlook.com to those in the UK today. It already integrated Skype into the latest enterprise Outlook software, but now the same functionality will soon be available to regular users on the Web version of Outlook.

The preview version of Skype for Outlook.com will be available soon as a plugin for Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox. The plugin will ask you to connect your Microsoft account with your Skype account, and then you can start video calling people in Outlook. Just look for the usual Skype icons when mousing over a friend’s contact details.

Skype for Outlook.com is just the latest in Microsoft’s mission of integrating Skype into pretty much all of its services. It already merged the old Windows Live Messenger client into Skype, and a rumor emerged earlier this year saying that Xbox chat would be replaced by Skype in the next Xbox.

Skype for Outlook.com is available in the UK starting today, but what about everyone else? Microsoft says that its latest Skype integration will be available to users in the US and Germany in the coming weeks. Everybody else will have to wait until Summer.

Clean Power Finance, an online marketplace for distributed solar financing, has named Michael Pope as chief financial officer. He joins from MarketTools.com, where he was COO and CFO. Prior to MarketTools.com, Michael served as VP for the office of the CEO of BearingPoint and as president and COO of Network General.

PRESS RELEASE
Clean Power Finance, the online marketplace for distributed solar financing and provider of solar sales and design software, today announced the appointment of Michael Pope as chief financial officer (CFO). Michael brings deep experience managing the financial strength of fast-growing public and private companies to Clean Power Finance.

“Michael has helped build great businesses for twenty years and has led the finance organizations of many successful public companies,” said Nat Kreamer, CEO of Clean Power Finance. “He also understands how to manage traditional technology businesses. We are very excited for him to help build Clean Power Finance.”

Before joining the company, Michael was the COO and CFO of MarketTools.com, which was acquired by Texas Pacific Group (TPG). Prior to MarketTools.com, Michael served as VP for the office of the CEO of BearingPoint and as president and COO of Network General, which was acquired by NetScout Systems NTCT -1.04% . Before that, he was president and CEO of DigitalThink , EVP and CFO of Dionex , and a bank examiner at the New York Federal Reserve. Michael has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley.

“CPF has all the ingredients for success,” said Michael. “It combines the business model of a Silicon Valley tech company with the sophisticated products and services of a finance company, and is led by a great team. I’m excited to help take it to the next level.”

Clean Power Finance’s management team includes solar finance pioneer and SunRun co-founder Robert “Nat” Kreamer; former IBM global sales executive Robert Prigge; Clean Power Finance co-founder and CPF Tools creator Adam Marsh; former Tioga Energy executive Kristian Hanelt; residential solar experts and Sungevity veterans Kirstin Hoefer and Nick Mack; venture capital veteran Micah Myers; Discover bank leader Steve Olszewski; and former Burnham Energy president Greg Sellers.

About Clean Power Finance

Clean Power Finance is driving the mass-market adoption of residential solar with the CPF Market(TM), its online business-to-business marketplace connecting the solar industry and the capital markets, and CPF Tools(TM), the leading solar sales software-as-a-service platform. Clean Power Finance provides solar professionals, including marketers, installers, manufacturers and distributors, with access to a variety of 100% third-party owned, non-exclusive, white-label residential finance products and an easy-to-use solar sales quoting and design tool. The company’s makes it easy for institutional investors and lenders to invest in residential solar projects that provide reliable rates of return.

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People pining for Skype video calls directly in the browser have something to look forward to today, provided they use Outlook.com for their email. On Tuesday, Skype announced a preview of web support for its audio, video and instant messaging services in Firefox, Internet Explorer and Chrome. The service is integrated directly with Outlook.com, making it easier to make and receive Skype calls directly from your inbox.

Skype is rolling out the new service Tuesday in the U.K., with the U.S. and Germany to follow in the coming weeks. Worldwide availability is expected over the next four to five months.

Being based in the U.S., I can’t test Skype over the web just yet, although I’d like to since I use a browser-based Chromebook Pixel as my full time computer. In the meantime then, I’ll have to be satisfied with this Skype demonstration video:

Note that in order to get Skype in Outlook.com you’ll have to install a browser plug-in. That tells me that Microsoft likely isn’t using the WebRTC protocol to enable Skype in the browser even though last year it signaled support for it. Firefox and Chrome already support WebRTC, which natively allows for audio and video calls in browsers without any plug-in required.

It would be nice to see Microsoft eventually open up Skype to browsers without requiring Outlook.com. I doubt it will; at least not for a long while. Kudos to Microsoft from a business perspective, however: it’s a smart play  to make the company’s email service more attractive to the millions that already use Skype around the world..

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San Jose, Calif.-based RetailNext Inc. has raised $15 million in Series C financing. The company, a provider of analytics that enable retailers and manufacturers to monitor, collect, analyze, and visualize in-store data, is backed by StarVest Partners, August Capital, Nokia Growth Partners and Commerce Ventures. StarVest Partners led the latest round, with General Partner Laura Sachar joining the company’s board. John Gardner, a managing partner at Nokia Growth Partners, joins as board observer. This round brings the total capital raised by RetailNext to $29 million.

PRESS RELEASE
RetailNext Inc., the leader in Applied Big Data for brick-and-mortar retail, today announced the completion of $15 million in Series C financing led by new investor StarVest Partners. All existing investors, including August Capital, participated in the round, which also added strategic investments from Nokia Growth Partners and Commerce Ventures. Timed with the new investment, Laura B. Sachar, General Partner, StarVest Partners, joined RetailNext’s Board of Directors and John Gardner, Managing Partner, Nokia Growth Partners (NGP), joined as Board Observer. This round brings the total capital raised by RetailNext to $29 million.

“RetailNext offers StarVest a winning combination for a growth equity investment: proven and smart management, a growing roster of customers and a unique and timely offering. The retail sector continues to embrace the RetailNext platform because there is clear value in improving performance of brick-and-mortar stores, particularly by measuring and testing myriad data sources within those walls. It’s a clear fit for our data-as-a-service practice,” stated Ms. Sachar.

The first technology platform to bring e-commerce style shopper analytics to brick-and-mortar stores, RetailNext enables retailers to collect and correlate data from the broadest available set of sources including video cameras, point-of-sale (POS) systems, Wi-Fi devices, and time and attendance applications. More than 60 retailers have adopted RetailNext to glean the insights necessary to increase same-store sales, reduce theft, eliminate unnecessary costs, and improve the customer experience.

“Considering that ninety-five percent of purchasing still takes place in the brick-and-mortar channel, it is not surprising that we’ve seen a strong appetite among retailers to collect the factual knowledge about shopper behavior that can directly lead to bottom-line improvement. This rapid adoption is driving more than triple year-over-year revenue growth for the company,” said Alexei Agratchev, CEO of RetailNext.

Recognized by Fast Company as one of the “Ten Most Innovative Companies in Big Data,” RetailNext will use the additional investments to:

– Expand engineering resources to maintain product superiority as the market’s most robust, versatile and feature-rich in-store analytics platform

– Deliver advanced new technology components in response to customer demand, including new detection and predictive analytics capabilities

– Grow global operations in Europe, Asia/Pacific and Latin America

– Promote the category throughout the retail industry.

“RetailNext’s unique combination of video, Wi-Fi and mobile data collection enables a real breakthrough in how both offline and online sources will improve ROI for retailers,” said Mr. Gardner. “By combining the NGP local everywhere approach and Nokia’s location expertise, we will help RetailNext drive its international expansion.”

“At this stage for RetailNext, we chose investors who can truly partner with us to expand into new markets and continue delivering unmatched in-store analytics innovations. Each of our capital partners values the business impact and growth potential that our world-class team and platform bring,” added Mr. Agratchev.

About Nokia Growth PartnersNokia Growth Partners invests in companies that are changing the face of mobility, communications and the internet. NGP offers industry expertise, capital and an extensive network, enabling entrepreneurs to build disruptive, industry-changing companies and take them to the global market. With offices in the US, Europe, India and China, NGP extends the reach of companies making their products and services local everywhere. Visit www.nokiagrowthpartners.com for more information.

About StarVestStarVest Partners is a New York-based venture capital firm with $400 million under management, which funds technology-enabled business services companies throughout the U.S. The firm’s value-added partnership maintains a focus on emerging technology and services sectors including: Cloud-based companies, eCommerce services, Ad Tech and Data Analytics. StarVest was an early investor in the software-as-a service trend: in 2000, it invested as the only venture firm in NetSuite N +3.44% . Other noteworthy exits include MessageOne, acquired by Dell computer; Connected, acquired by Iron Mountain; iCrossing acquired by Hearst; Insurance.com acquired by QuinStreet; and Fieldglass acquired by Madison Dearborn. Recent investments include: Host Analytics, Switchfly, The Receivables Exchange, Veracode and Xignite. More information is available at www.starvestpartners.com.

About RetailNext RetailNext is the leader in Applied Big Data for brick-and-mortar retail, delivering real-time analytics that enable retailers and manufacturers to monitor, collect, analyze, and visualize in-store data. The patent-pending solution uses best-in-class video analytics, Wi-Fi detection, on-shelf sensors, and data from point-of-sale systems and other sources to automatically inform retailers about how people engage with their stores. The highly scalable RetailNext platform easily integrates with promotional calendars, staffing systems, and even weather services to analyze how internal and external factors impact customer shopping patterns – providing store operations executives with the ability to identify opportunities for growth, execute changes, and measure success.

RetailNext tracks more than 400 million shoppers per year by collecting data from more than 30,000 sensors in retail stores and analyzing trillions of data points annually.

The post RetailNext Adds $15M appeared first on peHUB.

In light of the recent hacking attacks that have hit news organizations around the world, Twitter has warned news outlets that they expect the attacks to continue.

“There have been several recent incidents of high-profile news and media Twitter handles being compromised. We believe that these attacks will continue, and that news and media organizations will continue to be high value targets to hackers,” said Twitter in a memo obtained by BuzzFeed. “These incidents appear to be spear phishing attacks that target your corporate email. Promoting individual awareness of these attacks within your organization and following the security guidelines below is vital to preventing abuse of your Twitter accounts.”

As you may remember, the Associated Press’ Twitter account was hacked last week, and it sent out a false tweet claiming that there had been an explosion at the White House and that President Obama was injured. This tweet, though only visible for minutes before the AP took down the account, sent the stock market into a dive. Earlier this week, The Guardian also fell victim to a hack.

Twitter’s warning to news organizations suggests many of the things you would expect: change your passwords, make them strong, and keep your email accounts secure, since Twitter uses email to verify. Twitter also asks hack victims to contact them immediately so they can work on finding the problem as soon as possible.

But there is a pretty strange and severe request from Twitter: make sure you have a single computer that’s just for Twitter. Don’t do anything else on it. What?

“Designate one computer to use for Twitter. This helps keep your Twitter password from being spread around. Don’t use this computer to read email or surf the web, to reduce the chances of malware infection. Minimize the number of people that have access. Even if you use a third-party platform to avoid sharing the actual Twitter account password, each of these people is a possible avenue for phishing or other compromise.”

Interesting. Twitter is obviously taking this very seriously, and thinks you should too. If you operate an account that you think would be a high target of hackers, it’s time to up the concern a little bit.

Recent reports indicated that Twitter was working on two-step verification (finally) to make it a bit harder for attackers to compromise accounts. Although that wouldn’t totally fix the problem, it would be a start. It’s interesting that although we heard that this two-factor verification is on the horizon, Twitter is suggesting in this letter that organizations seek out help from a third-party two-step verification provider.

Sure, today Google is dominant in search, but it may not always be. And while Microsoft is doing its best to hammer on the search giant on privacy-related issues, the threats to Google’s search business, such as the one posed by Apple’s Siri technology, which bypasses search pages entirely, are far more disruptive than an ad campaign.

That is what Kansas City, Mo.-based startup Leap2 hopes its new search site that combines the web, location and social in a way that delivers detailed results while allowing for serendipitous discovery, will be: Disruptive in a way that draws search market share from Google. The startup launches its site Tuesday on mobiles and also said today it had raised $1.6 million in first round funding. The round was led by Dundee Venture Capital, with support from OpenAir Equity, Linseed Capital and the Wichita Technology Corporation.

Mike Farmer, the CEO of Leap2, is no stranger to search, having tried seven years ago with a web site called Kozoru. But this time he thinks that focusing on mobile, as well as bringing in social elements to a search gives end users better results as well as a few nice surprises.

For example, when the app opens, you see a home screen that offers the day’s news as a slate of pictures. Some are self-evident and others are perhaps a mystery. Clicking on a picture offers you one of the day’s top news stories. Once you enter a search term, the screens splits in half with the top half showing Twitter results related to the search and the bottom half showing images of the web sites that match your search.

Here’s where it gets dicey. Searches for “the best brunch in Austin” or “tacos and tequila Austin” (it’s a restaurant) worked well. I saw relevant websites, pictures of places, and even tweets from people who were there and a tweet promising me a discount next weekend at a brunch locale. But when I searched for my name and other people’s names, I started running into what is the bane of the mobile web — requests to download apps.

My people searches drew up magazine and LinkedIn results that I couldn’t see without clicking through to the “no thanks” button on the screen that pops up asking me to download a mobile app. I, like the rest of the population, hate those screens. Farmer is hoping that the mobile web becomes less about apps and more about the web soon, but I’m not holding my breath.

Things like the discovery of discounts or even insights from Twitter, (Farmer wants to integrate FourSquare, Yelp and Facebook eventually for the social aspects) plus the integrated location and directions, help make this a contender against Google Now, which I adore for its ability to read my calendar and tell me when to leave the house to make a meeting. Leap2 can’t offer that, and it’s going to face the same challenge that all search engines face, which is enticing users to click on it as opposed to going with the already-integrated search functions.

As for monetization, Farmer said that some time in the future Leap2 will integrate sponsored search results, initially among the social cards on the top half of the screen. The goal will be to play relevant results based on the location, the search or other information gleaned. Farmer gave the example of real-time deals. He plans to have the same image-filled-card-like interface that spans the app now, be the same interface for showing sponsored search ads as well.

The mobile app for iOS and Android launches Tuesday, with the website launching on Wednesday. Give it a try. I thought it was worth using, especially when I’m on the go, as it gives a much richer picture on the small screen than I might otherwise get.

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There is no shortage of confidence in the Hadoop space, and market leader Cloudera bolstered its own on Tuesday with the general availability of its Impala SQL query engine for Hadoop. And if CEO Mike Olson’s comments are any indication, we’re in for a long ride of competitive jockeying and oneupmanship as Cloudera and its peers go all Microsoft or Google and create myriad new data-processing engines to turn their Hadoop distributions into bona fide platforms.

Launched as a private beta in May 2012 and made public in October, Impala is Cloudera’s attempt to address the growing demand for interactive SQL analytics on Hadoop data. It’s essentially a massively parallel database designed to share the same storage platform and metadata as Hadoop MapReduce, only it’s its own separate processing engine.

Impala actually uses the same “nearly ANSI” version of SQL as does current standard bearer Hive, but that technology (created by Facebook in 2009 as a data warehouse layer for Hadoop) doesn’t run nearly fast enough to sate many users’ demands for interactive analytics. This is because Hive transforms SQL queries into MapReduce jobs, meaning every one is processed against the entire corpus of data in the Hadoop Distributed File System.

Sizing up the competition

Only Cloudera isn’t the first to do have the idea, nor is it alone in trying to sell interactive SQL on Hadoop. The idea was first commercialized by Boston-based startup Hadapt in 2011, and is now being pushed by numerous startups and larger Hadoop players. Among them: Pivotal (formerly EMC) Greenplum, MapR (with Drill), Hortonworks (with Stinger), Drawn to Scale, Splice Machine, Jethro Data and Citus Data.

But Cloudera is arguably the biggest name pushing SQL on Hadoop, and CEO Mike Olson thinks Impala stands out for a variety of reasons — not the least of which is that it exists as a product. “Nobody else is shipping production-grade SQL query support on Hadoop,” he told me during a recent call. “At least not in open source.”

He seems content to let the startups do their things, instead focusing his competitive attention on Cloudera’s big three Hadoop-distribution competitors in Pivotal, MapR and Hortonworks. Greenplum and Pivotal SVP Scott Yara was full of confidence — and R&D budget– when the company announced the Pivotal HD distribution and HAWQ technology in February, but Olson claims the approach requires a siloed DBMS within HDFS and is a “rearguard defensive strategy” to protect the company’s sunk costs in its database technology.

As for Hortonworks, Olson questions the wisdom of its Stinger initiative to boost Hive’s speed, noting that “Hive never got good while it was running standalone on MapReduce.” Hortonworks is also partnering with vendors such as Teradata to let their platforms access Hadoop data in its native format, but those approaches still require sending data over the network. “It’s not the way you would build it if you woke up in the 2000s and were building this anew,” Olson said.

Olson acknowledged that the MapR-led Apache Drill project is cut from the same cloth as Impala (that is, being a Google Dremel clone designed specifically for Hadoop), but “the difference is we’re shipping code,” he said. Being generally available and ready for production workloads means Cloudera can lock down users and market share before many even have a chance to experiment with Drill.

He all but dismissed questions over the readiness of Impala, spurred by rumblings in the Hadoop space that Cloudera rushed it into public beta in order to get on the scoreboard against more fully baked offerings. “I don’t feel we’re under the gun competitively to pull it out of beta because no one else has product in the market,” Olson said. “I have no problems … calling this GA quality.”

He did, however, acknowledge that Impala is shipping with a “minium viable feature set” that the company has plans to build on in the near future. Impala Senior Product Manager Justin Erickson noted a few issue of concerns, including around the number of concurrent users Impala can support, but said they have been addressed during the beta period.

One piece of a larger platform

Really, though, the whole point of Impala and all of its competitors is to turn Hadoop from a tool for batch analytics and mass storage into a platform that can handle nearly all of companies’ data-processing needs. In that regard, it appears we’re just getting started. Cloudera, MapR, Pivotal Greenplum and Hortonworks are already pushing their own products and projects, and Olson said “it’s absolutely our intent” to enhance Cloudera’s platform with even more open-source products — perhaps even more database technologies — that will let users do more stuff with more types of data.

Over time, this strategy could result in Hadoop displacing the current breed of databases and data warehouses and becoming the single data store atop of which users run whatever applications they so desire. For now, though, especially when it comes to Impala and the data warehouse incumbents, Olson is taking a measured approach. “The likelihood that we’re going to knock them off in the near term,” he said, “… it would be a tough fight to win.”

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Kantar released their U.S. smartphone market share numbers for the 1st quarter 2013, and other than Android’s continued domination, there was some interesting news regarding carriers. It’s no surprise that the majority of smartphones are either on Verizon or AT&T. Verizon’s share is at 37.2%, while AT&T was at 27.9%. That’s a combined total of 65.1%. Sprint came in third at 12.3%, but the biggest news is T-Mobile’s decline of 3.2% down to 9.5%. In fact, T-Mobile was the only carrier to show a decline.

T-Mobile recently launched their UnCarrier plans that probably won’t change things for them since it doesn’t deliver what they are promising. The prices themselves are fine for those that bring their own phone, but the promise of buying phones off contract is simply not true. All they did was spread out the payments of the full retail price which you are obligated to pay, and is just another form of the traditional subsidized contracts that Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint offer.

source: Kantar

Come comment on this article: T-Mobile loses market share while Verizon and AT&T continue to dominate

M-Files Inc. said it raised $7.7 million of Series A funding in a round led by DFJ Esprit and joined by the Finnish Industry Investment. The company said DFJ Esprit’s Mikko Suonenlahti joined the board along with Jim Geary and Bob Suh.

PRESS RELEASE

M-Files Secures $7.7M Series A Funding Led by DFJ Esprit
 to Fuel Global Expansion and Continued Growth

Metadata-Powered Enterprise Content Management Provider to Rapidly Accelerate US Market Growth for Quality-Intensive and Regulated Industries

DALLAS, TX, April 30, 2013: M-Files Inc., the developer of M-Files metadata-powered cloud, on-premise, and hybrid enterprise content management (ECM) solutions, today announced the closing of a $7.7 million round of Series A funding led by DFJ Esprit, with participation from Finnish Industry Investment.

As part of the transaction, M-Files also announced that Jim Geary and Bob Suh, proven technology leaders with backgrounds at companies such as Accenture, Perot Systems and Pedestal Software, as well as Mikko Suonenlahti of DFJ Esprit, have joined the company’s Board of Directors. EOC Partners, a technology investment banking firm, acted as the financial advisor to M-Files in the transaction.

M-Files is a uniquely flexible solution that puts an end to the outdated folder structure for enterprise-wide document management that dates back to the 1980s. M-Files technology is based on a unique metadata-based approach, which manages information based on what it is rather than where it is stored. This has enabled the company to successfully expand beyond its native Finland by acquiring leading customers including AstraZeneca, SAS, Pandora, United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Northrop Grumman Corporation, Charles Schwab, Hecla Mining, Elekta, Hill + Knowlton and many others.

“One way to understand the M-Files metadata-powered approach is to look at the iPhone,” said Greg Milliken, president of M-Files Inc. “When you put music on the iPhone, you don’t put it in a music folder, the device just knows it is music and it shows up where and how you expect it, grouped by artist, genre, date, etc. This is what M-Files does for information management, and when companies experience it, the effect is a revolutionary change in their business. Think Enterprise Document Management 2.0, or the combined power of Dropbox AND Documentum but for enterprise scale businesses.”

The infusion of new capital will accelerate and further fuel M-Files’ rapid growth plans in the US market and bolster its sales and marketing footprint through a worldwide partner channel, while also deepening its focus on compliance in select vertical industries. M-Files is built upon a truly revolutionary metadata-powered platform that forms the basis of a variety of targeted solutions for document management, quality management, enterprise asset management, contract lifecycle management and more.

“We’re ecstatic to have earned the confidence of the team at DFJ Esprit, part of the DFJ global network,” continued Milliken. “The access to additional growth capital will give us the resources to take a big step toward our vision to become the global leader in information management for quality and compliance.”

DFJ Esprit Managing Partner, Stuart Chapman, said, “At DFJ Esprit, we’ve always been firm believers that world-class intellectual property exists in Europe – the kind that can easily succeed in the global market if given the right growth support from day one. Our partnership with Finnish Industry Investment is strong and Finland is a leading technology country that we are proud to invest in. We are looking forward to supporting M-Files continued growth and success in the global market with investment and solid experience on how to build out their international reach.”

M-Files spans the chasm between lightweight file sharing tools that are perceived as easy to use but lack important features, and large entrenched “dinosaurs” that have lots of features but are extremely expensive and complicated. By leveraging a more precise and configurable “folder-less” architecture with seamless support for on-premise, cloud and hybrid deployments, M-Files resonates with customers and partners. The recognition of M-Files as a player in the global ECM and document management markets has been further validated by the company’s inclusion in the 2012 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Content Management.

About DFJ Esprit
DFJ Esprit is a leading cross-stage venture capital firm that invests from seed to late stage in European technology and media companies. Members of the DFJ Esprit team have experience of investing in over 200 companies and generating strong returns for investors through building valuable companies alongside the founders and management teams. DFJ Esprit is the exclusive European partner for the Silicon Valley-based DFJ Network with offices in over 30 cities around the world. www.dfjesprit.com

About M-Files Inc.
M-Files enterprise content management (ECM) solutions transform how businesses manage, secure and share information with a unique metadata-driven approach that organizes and processes content based on what it is, rather than where it resides. Thousands of businesses in over 100 countries use M-Files on-premise, in the cloud or in hybrid environments to improve productivity and quality, and to ensure compliance with industry regulations and standards, including companies such as AstraZeneca, SAS and EADS. For more information, visit www.m-files.com.

M-Files is a registered trademark of M-Files Inc. All other registered trademarks belong to their respective owners.

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