Alenty has developed a tool enabling it to measure the visibility of advertising banners online, a visibility which varies according to the format used, the location but above all the sites. In analysing the structure of the page, Alenty scripts make it possible to find out where a campaign banner is, and which part of the web page is displayed on the user’s screen. The presence of the user in front of the screen is measured by computer activity. Put another way, the tool measures whether the banner has been seen, how long it will be see for, what proportion of it, etc.

The scheduling of Alenty campaigns is now much easier, and partly automated in Smart AdServer. Advertisers can measure the impact of their campaigns in terms of visibility, and plan their investments, using the same indicators as those for television, purchasing a display period. For their part, ad networks offer advertisers guaranteed visibility, and can thus be sure of selling their space according to real exposure to campaigns.

“We feel that this collaboration with Alenty, a leader in the market of measuring advertising visibility, is essential”, says Cyrille Geffray, Managing Director of Smart AdServer. “This interface will allow our joint clients such as Canal+Régie to guarantee that their advertisers receive optimum visibility from their campaigns, and thus make better use of their advertising inventory.”

“The system of refreshing only when there has been a guaranteed view could be a way of getting better returns from sites having extremely long display times (game sites, video, ajax, flash, etc), and which generate less pages viewed than others”, says Laurent Nicolas, founder of Alenty. “In fact, it has been found that when adverts are refreshed after a fixed time (every minute, for example), this leads to advertising displays not being seen as there is nobody in front of the screen. With the system of refreshing only when  there is a guarantee that the advert has been seen, Alenty and Smart AdServer guarantee that advertising will not be refreshed until it has been viewed for enough time”.

Canal+Régie, a client of both Smart AdServer and Alenty, now benefits from this interface.

“We feel that to be fully used as a “branding” advertising media, the Internet must allow the objective measurement of the quality of its advertising contacts.”, says Roger Coste, Managing Director of Canal+Régie. “As with other audiovisual media, the measurement of the display time of the advert is the most relevant indicator for reporting both the reality and quality of engagement of advertising contacts. By allowing extremely precise measurement and control of the duration of advertising displays distributed on canalplus.fr, the interfacing of Smart AdServer and Alenty allows us to offer the market an extremely innovative and strong solution. Also, since the beginning of February, the visibility and display period of all campaigns delivered on canalplus.fr have been managed and guaranteed, in both video and classic display format (leaderboards and MPU banners).”

About Smart AdServer (www.smartadserver.com)

Smart AdServer SAS develops and markets one of the main adserving technologies for the management of online campaigns for media agencies and publishers. Created in 2001, the company Smart AdServer has soon become a key player in France, posting the fastest growth in Europe in terms of customers compared with its competitors, thanks to the innovative and unique functionalities offered by its product, and its ease of use. Smart AdServer has 150 customers for 1200 sites spanning four continents.

Among its clients are large media agencies such as Zed digital, Starcom, Mindshare, Mediacom, Mediaedge:cia, Universal McCann, Brilliant Media … as well as a large number of sites and companies, including PIXmania, Reed Business, Axel Springer Hungary & Poland, Radio Canada, MSD Global, Wolters Kluwer, La Vanguardia, Canal+, Curse Gaming, Amiado…

About Alenty (www.alenty.com)

Alenty’s founders have been experts in online statistics since 1998. Notably they are behind the NetValue and NetRatings statistic systems. Alenty’s unique technology makes it possible to analyse the visibility of each element of a website (text bloc, image, advertising), and to detect the presence of users thanks to mouse and key activity. Alenty technology thus allows sites to improve their ergonomics or reduce their quit rate (shopping baskets or registration forms). For community sites, Alenty provides unique information on the interest of contributions and influence of visitors. Advertisers can find out the duration for which each banner was effectively viewed during their campaigns. Media sites can also install these sites to check the visibility period of advertising banners on their pages, and thus make better use of advertising space.

About Canal+Régie

Canal+Régie sell TV and Web advertising spaces for channels from the Canal+ Group.

Online, Canal+Régie sells space for www.canalplus.fr, www.cuisine.tv, www.infosport.fr, www.teletoon.fr and www.piwi.fr

As with television, for this media Canal+Régie has developed an innovative strategy to assist with the qualitative differentiation of its offer (targeting, emergence and visibility, exposure, guaranteed of media performance.)

ATLANTA – Media Commerce Systems launched StandBuyMedia for Radio last month and is adding more stations and agencies daily. The web-based platform streamlines the entire remnant advertising process making it possible for agencies to handle a larger volume of business and enabling radio stations to sell more of their unsold inventory without disrupting or compromising their current business practices.

StandBuyMedia is a turn-key platform that will enable radio stations to increase revenue as they market and sell more of their advertising inventory with greater efficiency. Stations simply register, enter their rate card information and begin receiving e-mail notifications when offers to buy their inventory have been posted. Once offers are accepted, StandBuyMedia automatically delivers them to the stations’ traffic and billing systems.

Registered agencies can quickly search for remnant avails, make offers, upload ads and pay for the campaigns right from their desktop. Through a single application, the platform also enables agencies to evaluate and manage their direct response remnant buys with powerful tools such as ROI graphing, mapping and reporting, as well as invoice management.

“StandBuyMedia is a complete platform that directly connects agencies and stations and it is very different from all the other electronic services that have emerged over the last few years,” said Joe Fabiano, Chairman of Media Commerce Systems. “The benefits of StandBuyMedia are that agencies can search for stations meeting the specific demographic requirements of their advertisers and stations don’t have to surrender control of their inventory or rates to a radio automation system or an online auction.”

Media Commerce Systems designs products to fit the media business – not the other way around. StandBuyMedia for Radio is the first of the Media Commerce Systems products to launch. Additional platforms and applications in both remnant and traditional ad sales will be coming soon. Stations and agencies can register at: www.standbuymedia.com to begin using the platform.

Media Commerce Systems will be showing its StandBuyMedia platform at the upcoming RAB Conference, March 16-18 in Orlando

About Media Commerce Systems

Media Commerce Systems (www.mediacommerce.com) provides efficient, dynamic and easy-to-use Internet applications for the entire ad sales process including; the purchase, sale, management and distribution of advertising media inventory. Its platforms interface with existing systems and enable media outlets to market their inventory more efficiently and sell more advertising while allowing agencies to quickly access, evaluate and purchase advertising space. Its specialized applications for media outlets and advertising buyers enable them to conduct business electronically, saving time and increasing their cash flow. Media Commerce Systems is a Bright Sky Holdings (www.brightskyholdings.com) company.

TUCSON, Ariz. – YP Publishing, home of the Movers Yellow Pages, announced the launch of a pay-per call advertising program for national accounts in an attempt to help top national brands remain in the public eye.

Historically large companies with a nationwide footprint have purchased Advertising Space from Yellow Page Publishers with payment up-front in exchange for a discounted rate. The new Pay-Per Call program does not have an up-front fee. Advertisers only pay when they receive a call.

“Due to the poor economy, many companies have been forced to cut back on advertising. National Companies that bought full-page ads in the past are forced to buy smaller ads. As a result, they are hurting the brands that many have spent decades building. We know that offering premium ad space on a pay-per call basis will help these companies with; cash flow today, plenty of customers tomorrow, and a solid brand to build on for the future,” said Gary Sadowski, Pay-Per Call Director, Movers Yellow Pages.

The Movers Yellow Pages is scheduled to offer the pay-per call programs for national companies in over 100 cities over the next 12 months. National companies interested in this exciting new program should visit www.yppublishing.com or call 1-800-456-0122.

About YP Publishing:

YP Publishing is a national publisher of Yellow Pages and is the home of the Movers Yellow Pages. The Movers Yellow Pages targets new homeowners. New Homeowners are a valuable demographic that are often in instant need of goods and services.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Smaato Inc., a pioneering provider for mobile advertising solutions announced the winner of the Smaato Mobile Advertising Award 2008. San Diego based DialPlus won over the jury with its application that is showing visual information from the web for a phone number before, during and after a call.

“Congratulations to DialPlus for their outstanding product and thanks for the jury to select the winning companies. With more than 100 entrants in its first year we could not ask for more positive feedback. We think this is a clear indicator that there is a lot of creativity and positive energy in the mobile ecosystem. The best is yet to come!” stated Harald Neidhardt, CMO & Co-Founder of Smaato Inc.

108 companies participated in the Smaato Award and in the quest for the coolest ad-enabled mobile application, website or game. Smaato organized the award together with Silicon Valley based vator.tv and with the support of the INmobile.org community.

“We are honored to be selected by the judges as the winner of the Smaato Mobile Advertising Award. This is a strong validation of the DialPlus product vision and mobile advertising capabilities,” said Lisa LeVasseur, CEO of DialPlus. “In a very short time, DialPlus has gone from concept to product and become a world class advertising partner.”

As the winner of the Award, DialPlus will receive free booth participation at the 2009 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and introductions to four first-class VC partners from the U.S. and Europe.

“DialPlus is the type of company that provides a very simple and useful solution for a problem that is common for cellphone users. I believe this company has the opportunity for wide acceptance, and I personally will be trying out the application,” comments jury member Bambi Francisco (Co-founder & CEO of vator.tv)

Finalist company Aka Aki will receive a special prize for participating with a free booth at the M-Days taking place in January in Munich, Germany – selected by the events organizer. The other finalist companies are: Buzzd, FISHLABS, fring, FunkySexyCool, Peperoni, Qeep, Skout, Tourspot and Vayyoo.

“We are honored to help grow the recognition of young and innovative startups in the mobile advertising space. Together we can make the mobile advertising ecosystem better and enhance the customer experience significantly,” said Ragnar Kruse, CEO & Co-Founder of Smaato Inc.

About DialPlus:

DialPlus (www.dialplus.net) enriches the standard phone call experience by automatically and simultaneously providing dynamic, contextually relevant visual information about the called or calling party before the call is answered, during the call and after the call is over. DialPlus makes it easy for users to engage in mobile social networking or to get information about a business they’re speaking with, such as directions, menus and reviews.

About the Smaato Mobile Advertising Award:

The award honored mobile publishers or developers with an outstanding mobile ad-enabled solution either in-app or mobile web app/widget. Developers should provide a video pitch of about 1 min 30 sec. and upload it to the award section at vator.tv (http://www.vator.tv/competition/show/smaato-inmobile-and-vatortv). In addition they might provide up to 3 PDF pages of screenshots and supporting materials.

For further information and to download a brochure please visit www.smaato.com/award.

The jury members 2008: Adam Zawel (INmobile.org), Bambi Francisco (vator.tv), Bena Roberts (GoMoNews), Caroline Lewko (WIP), Giselle Abramovich (Mobile Marketer), Jim Cook (MobiAdNews), Lubna Dajani (Mobile Monday, NYC), Mark Wächter (Mobile Monday, Germany & BVDW), Michael J. O’Farrell (dotMobi MAG), Ragnar Kruse (Smaato Inc.) and Tim Draper (Draper Fisher Jurvetson).

The Venture Capital partners introduced to the winning company are: Frédéric Veyssiere, (Innovacom Venture Capital, France / San Francisco), Howard Hartenbaum (August Capital, Menlo Park), Niall Davis (aeris CAPITAL, Switzerland / San Francisco) and Tim Draper (Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Menlo Park).

About Smaato Inc.

Smaato Inc. is a leading mobile advertising technology company that provides the open mobile advertising platform called SOMA (Smaato Open Mobile Advertising) and partners with mobile publishers, developers, ad sales networks and operators.

SOMA’s unique feature is the aggregation of multiple leading ad sales networks globally to maximize mobile advertising ARPU. SOMA can be easily integrated with ad sales networks, ad inventory owners (developers, publishers and operators) and 3rd party ad technology providers.

Smaato is an active member of the Mobile Marketing Association, the dot.mobi Advisory Group and the German Digital Media Association BVDW. Smaato received a Top 100 Private Company Award by AlwaysOn Media (2007) and was an Andrew Seybold Choice Awards finalist at CTIA 2008 for best Newcomer, among other awards.

Smaato Inc. is based in Redwood Shores, California. The privately held company was founded in 2005 by an experienced International management team. The European headquarters are in Hamburg, Germany.

BURLINGTON, Mass. – Burst Media, a leading provider of online advertising services, announced the signing of The Arts Ad Network as a new client of its adConductor ad management technology and services. The Arts Ad Network has recently formed the world’s premier vertical content network serving fine and performing arts sites. adConductor will provide ad serving and ad management support across this network.

The Arts Ad Network offers brand advertisers an efficient way to reach an affluent, educated audience online, and offers web publishers the opportunity to monetize their ad inventory with high quality targeted advertising. adConductor will allow The Arts Ad Network to coordinate in a single system the various aspects of ad sales, delivery and campaign management. It will also enable the Network to target and optimize ad campaigns to its highly engaged, affluent and educated visitors while minimizing advertising waste.

“Meeting the transparency and control requirements of the publishers in our Network and exceeding the performance expectations of our advertisers are key components of our vertical network strategy,” said Andy Horvitz, Vice President and General Manager of The Arts Ad Network. “adConductor, with its hosted offering and top notch professional services team, best meets our needs both for the launch of the network and as our organization and business grows.”

adConductor helps leading online companies deliver the advertising they sell on behalf of their publishers through a rich suite of targeting, campaign management, campaign reporting and billing tools. adConductor is one of the largest independent vendors of ad network management technology, serving billions of ads every month on behalf of thousands of websites, ad networks, and other online publishing entities.

“There is an ongoing transformation of the advertising space and sophisticated vertical networks like the one built by The Arts Ad Network are taking part in this evolutionary process,” said Sean Keaveny, SVP of adConductor. “Advertisers are asking for the content-rich collection of sites that consumers visit and use. Advertisers who capitalize on the opportunities provided with this new approach will break through media clutter and reach the most interested consumers for their offer.”

About The Arts Ad Network

The Arts Ad Network is the world’s premier fine and performing arts content vertical ad network. The company represents a portfolio of content-rich arts web sites, with an audience of over 3,000,000 unique visitors monthly. The Arts Ad Network sells online advertising and sponsorship programs to brand advertisers and works closely with its publisher and agency partners to build successful campaigns. The Arts Ad Network is a division of Artfact.

Founded in 1989, Artfact.com is the largest global marketplace of fine and decorative arts, antiques, collectibles, and estate auctions and includes live online bidding with audio and video. The Artfact database now includes more than $101/£67 billion in unabridged auction results, including works by over 500,000 international artists. Artfact’s RFC Systems software manages the entire business of prestigious auction houses in seven countries and four languages. In 2007, Artfact purchased Invaluable.com, the leading provider of auction marketing services and databases to the United Kingdom market.

About Burst Media

An online media and technology company founded in 1995, Burst Media (www.burstmedia.com) is a leading provider of advertising representation, services and technology to independent Web Publishers. Burst Media enables advertisers to reach finely segmented, engaged consumers as they visit Burst’s extensive number of interest-based sub-channels. Through its Burst Network and Burst Direct units, the company represents one of the broadest and deepest offerings of interest-based websites online. Burst also markets its ad management platform, adConductor ™, which empowers content web sites, online ad networks, and web portals to manage the complete process of ad sales and service. Burst Media is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, with offices throughout the United States and in London, UK. For more information, visit www.burstmedia.com or call 781.272.5544.

ATLANTA/CAMBRIDGE, MA – November 24, 2008 – EyeWonder, Inc., a leading innovator in interactive digital advertising technologies and services, and Akamai Technologies, Inc., the global leader in powering rich media, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online, announced today that they delivered the first in-stream advertisements via Microsoft Silverlight for New York Magazine’s “Where’s Rogan?” interactive campaign.

The “Where’s Rogan?” series aired in eight weekly segments on New York Magazine’s Website at www.nymag.com/rogan/ and is a tongue-in-cheek expose of eco-conscious fashion designer Rogan Gregory, who goes missing during New York’s Fashion Week. During the Webisodes, viewers can control the advertising experience by interacting with product placement bugs and tickers from three advertisers involved with the project: Olay, TRESemme and Continental Airlines. During one episode, a ticker advertisement for Continental Airlines runs across the bottom of the screen. When a viewer clicks on it, a separate window opens to the airline’s main booking page, allowing users to book a flight while watching the video. Another episode features an Olay product placement bug which, when clicked, pauses the video to show the viewer a mini commercial. When the ad finishes, the video resumes playing.

“New York Magazine’s use of the Universal In-Stream Ad Framework (UIF) for this campaign highlights EyeWonder’s continued innovation in the video space,” said Chief Information Officer Ricky McClellen. “Viewers benefit because they decide which advertising they want to see and the length of time they want to see it without disrupting the video they’re watching. Advertisers benefit because their ads drive higher interaction rates, creating product awareness in consumers. Publishers are able to monetize their content and create new advertising space.”

EyeWonder integrated its UIF, an open standard platform that enables a “create once, play anywhere” ad solution to drive scale within the in-stream advertising industry, with Akamai’s open source code media player framework. This integration gives New York Magazine’s Silverlight-based video player the ability to deliver interactive in-stream advertising. The video player application impacts the way consumers experience video content and enables business models by controlling how and when ads are delivered. To support this movement, Akamai and industry leaders launched Openvideoplayer.com to facilitate open standards and best practices for video player applications that support a wide range of advertising technologies.

“New York Magazine’s project is a great inaugural example of the power of Akamai’s Media Framework, showcased through Microsoft Silverlight,” said Tim Napoleon, Chief Strategist for Digital Media at Akamai. “The Media Framework enabled EyeWonder to quickly and easily develop a dynamic and interactive advertising experience that lent itself to increasing brand awareness for the companies involved. The ability to deliver a high-quality experience for consumers and brands is the ultimate goal of Akamai’s open Media Framework. We look forward to watching how users interact with the ads interspersed throughout the video as well as giving advertisers a vehicle to monitor how their ads are received.”

“The ‘Where’s Rogan?’ project is another great example of how the robust technology behind Silverlight can create unique online media experiences that engage audiences in a very powerful way,” said Brian Goldfarb, Director of the Developer Platform Group at Microsoft Corp. “This project, in collaboration with Akamai and EyeWonder, opens up new doors for advertisers to present their brands in dynamic and interactive ways.”

Viewers must download the Silverlight player plug-in to watch “Where’s Rogan?” episodes. The first installment aired October 27, and the final aired November 20.

About Akamai
Akamai provides market-leading managed services for powering rich media, dynamic transactions and enterprise applications online. Having pioneered the content delivery market one decade ago, Akamai’s services have been adopted by the world’s most recognized brands across diverse industries. The alternative to centralized Web infrastructure, Akamai’s global network of tens of thousands of distributed servers provides the scale, reliability, insight and performance for businesses to succeed online. Akamai has transformed the Internet into a more viable place to inform, entertain, interact and collaborate. To experience The Akamai Difference, visit www.akamai.com.

About EyeWonder, Inc.
EyeWonder, Inc., is the pioneering interactive digital advertising provider, extending the reach of online rich media and interactive video ads to digital device displays. Through its superior technology, products and services, EyeWonder empowers advertisers, advertising agencies and content publishers with the ability to create, build, deliver, track and optimize interactive advertising campaigns proven to drive industry-leading results. EyeWonder’s Universal In-Stream Ad Framework supports Microsoft Silverlight and Adobe Flash. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A., EyeWonder, Inc., has domestic offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Los Angeles and Miami. International offices are located in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Australia. For more information on the company’s interactive digital advertising solutions or its global office network, please visit http://www.eyewonder.com.

Silverlight is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation and is used for descriptive purposes only.

The release contains information about future expectations, plans and prospects of Akamai Technologies, Inc.’s management that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including those relating to future benefits arising from the Akamai Media Framework. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including, but not limited to, failure of Akamai technologies to be or remain compatible with offerings of other companies and other factors that are discussed in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and other documents periodically filed with the SEC.

ACTON, Mass. & LONDON – Virgin Media (Nasdaq: VMED) announced the first ever dynamic advertising trial on its on-demand TV platform. Leading brands including Kellogg’s, John Lewis and Royal Mail, will have their ads broadcast around selected on-demand programs from Virgin Media TV, Channel 4 and Warner TV. The three month trial will take place across north London from this week.

The ad insertion technology, SeaChange’s AdPulse On Demand system (Nasdaq: SEAC), inserts ads before and after on-demand content in real time, allowing campaigns to be kept up-to-date and specific to time of day or region. Virgin Media’s trial will match ads to program genres, test a range of ad lengths, including single 30 second pre-rolls, consecutive pre-rolls and end rolls, and update campaigns weekly. The number of ads will be capped and there will be a limit on the volume of programs that will have ads placed around them.

Virgin Media is also working with On Demand Group (ODG) for content aggregation and both Rentrak Corporation and ODG to measure content performance throughout the trial and better understand the impact of on demand advertising on viewer behaviour.

Mark Schweitzer, chief commercial officer at Virgin Media said: “Virgin Media has pioneered on-demand TV in the U.K. and we continue to innovate with new content, interactivity and functionality. As consumer usage of on-demand continues to build, this trial will help us explore the best ways to reach a large and growing audience with engaging and relevant advertising.”

Simon McGrath, chief marketing officer, SeaChange said: “We expect this groundbreaking effort will provide the overwhelming evidence that programmers, operators, agencies and leading brand advertisers have long anticipated about the remarkable revenue-generating value of on-demand advertising.”

Virgin Media is the U.K.’s leading on-demand TV service with 4600 hours of content. 50 percent of Virgin Media’s 3.5 million TV customers watch on-demand regularly and access to this service is provided for free*, regardless of what TV package they subscribe to. Usage continues to grow with 45 million views in August, up from 34 million views in January. This is an increase of 33 percent in less than a year and takes total views of on-demand content to 314 million this year.

ids and Channel 4 Agency Sales are managing the advertising space for the trial with advertisers including: Kellogg’s, Lurpak, O2, John Frieda, COI Army, Alberto, General Motors, Royal Mail, Littlewoods, Bodyform, John Lewis and Anchor.

About Virgin Media

Virgin Media is an innovative and pioneering UK entertainment and communications business. As the UK’s first quad-play of TV, broadband, phone and mobile, plus the most advanced TV on demand service, all delivered through its unique fibre-optic cable network, consumers can get everything they need from one company. Virgin Media launched the UK’s first high definition TV service, is the only TV platform to carry BBC iPlayer, and offers a high-specification, HD-ready V+ personal video recorder. Virgin Media is one of the UK’s largest residential broadband providers, the largest virtual mobile network operator and the second-largest provider of pay TV and home phone.

Virgin Media owns two content businesses – Virgin Media Television (VMTV) and sit-up. VMTV owns seven entertainment channels – Virgin1, Living, Living 2, Bravo, Bravo 2, Challenge and Trouble – and is a 50% partner in UKTV which consists of nine channels including Dave, G.O.L.D, Watch and UKTV History. Sit-up runs retail TV channels bid tv, price-drop tv and speed auction tv.

Virgin Media is the largest Virgin company in the world and has almost 10 million customers. To find out more visit www.virginmedia.com/presscentre.

*Customers have to pay to view movies and depending on what package they are on, may have to pay for music videos and long-running series.

About SeaChange and ODG

SeaChange International is a leading provider of software applications, services and integrated solutions for video-on-demand (VOD), digital advertising, and content acquisition monetization and management. Its powerful open VOD and advertising software and scaleable hardware enable cable and telco operators, as well as broadcasters, to provide new on-demand services and to gain greater efficiencies in advertising and content delivery. www.schange.com.

On Demand Group (ODG) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SeaChange specializing in the development and management of transactional television services. ODG provides customers such as Virgin Media, Kabel Deutschland, Unity Media, Telekom Austria and others with end-to-end content solutions, combining services management and technology with speed to market.

SeaChange AdPulse On Demand delivers revenues with on-the-fly, real time insertion of pre- and post-roll ads into on-demand program streams, including on-demand video games and DVDs. Making ads independent of the shows in which they run allows each to be trafficked separately, at long last reducing lead times for ad copy and enabling ad rotation, targeting and message refresh throughout a campaign. AdPulse further elevates targeting capabilities through insertion of ads into internal program breaks within on-demand streams.

LOS ANGELES – The Rubicon Project, an advertising technology company focused on global ad network optimization, unveils the latest edition of the 2008 Online Advertising Market Report, the Q2: Ad Network Landscape, Trends and Outlook, detailing the state of the market in the second quarter of 2008 and beyond. Drawing on its unique third-party position between ad networks and website publishers, the Rubicon Project provides an insider perspective of the changing Internet advertising landscape based on a wealth of market data to provide a deeper understanding of the current industry climate and future trends. This market intelligence is based on analysis of 15 billion impressions served during Q2 alone across more than 130 ad networks.

“2008 has been a challenging year for the U.S. and worldwide economy. Fortunately, the online advertising market has been somewhat cushioned from the majority of economic blows,” said Frank Addante, CEO and founder. “The Rubicon Project is committed to helping navigate the tumultuous yet continuous growth and development of this market, in part, through education. Through this report, we are sharing billions of pieces of market intelligence we have combined with informed analysis of current and future trends.”

State of a Dysfunctional Industry

With nearly $370 million invested in ad networks in Q2, the market remained a good buy for private firms and holding companies. This indicates investors’ confidence in networks ability to innovate and increase monetization.

However, not all news was rosy. Big-name publishers such as ESPN, Forbes.com and CBS Sports discontinued their use of third-party networks in the second quarter, generating a slew of bad publicity for the ad network industry.

Sample Findings:

* Despite criticism, ad networks grew during the economic storm in Q2 – eCPMs increased by an average of 7 percent across all networks.
* Publishers and networks dysfunctional relationships are hindering growth – they need each other but don’t trust one other on issues such as inventory pricing, fee payment and collection or the quality of the ads and the sites they run on.
* Big publishers are both entering and navigating the broader network space – with several heavy-hitters becoming ad networks themselves.
* International traffic remains an untapped growth opportunity – some major U.S. Web sites draw more than half their traffic from outside the country but only a small fraction of ad revenue is able being monetized from that traffic.

Sample of Emerging Trends

* The Ad network role in the online advertising ecosystem will continue to grow – both publishers and media buyers need and want third-party support.
* Networks face obstacles to expansion – publishers need to diversify across many ad network channel opportunities to continue growth.
* Online advertising will continue to grow – overall ad spend may decrease but a natural reconciliation will occur to even out the discrepancy between Internet usage (33 percent) and percentage of ad budgets dedicated to online spend (8 percent).
* In a recession, efficient models prevail – online advertising is more efficient than other forms of advertising such as broadcast and print.

The complete 2008 Q2 Online Advertising Market Report is available as a free download at: http://www.rubiconproject.com.

About the Rubicon Project

The Rubicon Project is a group of industry-experienced, aggressive and passionate renegades dedicated to bringing a new level of efficiency to the fragmented Internet advertising space. The founders of the Rubicon Project shook up the online advertising industry in 1998 when they created L90/adMonitor, one of the most successful Internet advertising platforms that served over 3,000 of the web’s most recognized sites, reaching 65 percent of the Internet population before DoubleClick acquired it. $27 billion was spent advertising online in 2007, yet it’s still too hard for Web sites to sell their ad space online. The Rubicon Project’s web-based, self-serve solution gives any size Web site the most complete access to the total available advertising market and its smart matching technology does all the work to perfectly match each ad impression with the optimal money-making opportunity. The Rubicon Project is the new online advertising standard that makes it effortless for Web sites to generate the mad cash they’ve always dreamed of. And, it’s free to join. Web sites looking to make more money while doing less work should visit: http://www.rubiconproject.com.

Read Frank’s blog at: http://www.FounderBlog.com/

LOS ANGELES – the Rubicon Project, an advertising technology company focused on global Ad Network Optimization, offers solutions for publishers concerned about channel conflict between ad sales conducted by in-house sales teams and those sales made by third-party ad networks. The recent IAB/Bain research report on digital pricing re-enforces the opinion that channel conflict is one of the largest concerns facing large publishers.

“One of our concerns in working with ad networks is channel conflict,” says Greg Liberman, President and Chief Operating Officer of Spark Networks (AMEX:LOV), a leading provider of online personals services in the United States and internationally. “If ad networks are directly pitching our site for lower rates than our direct sales team is, it could hurt our pricing leverage. Working with the team and technology of the Rubicon Project, we are able to reap the benefits of monetizing unsold ad space across ad networks without constantly worrying about the channel conflict risk.”

Ad networks sometimes use a website’s specific name to entice advertisers. A dangerous practice is when a sales representative at an ad network lures the advertiser to buy through them rather than directly from the site by offering it at a lower price. While many ad networks have programs in place to reduce channel conflict, the problem continues to cause publishers pain. Over recent months several notable big-brand publishers have completely severed their ad network relationships, in part, due to concerns around channel conflict driving down CPM’s and the impact on direct sales efforts.

the Rubicon Project pioneered an intensive Ad Space Certification Program to provide independent verification of publisher inventory that ensures safety and accuracy for advertisers buying through ad networks. A key feature of this program, in addition to bringing more ad dollars online, is guarding publishers against channel conflict.

How the Rubicon Project tackles channel conflict:

* Certified Blind Sites: the Rubicon Project rates and classifies sites by quality, prominence and popularity so that a site’s value can be leveraged without specifying a name (e.g. top-tier news site)
* Certified Content Segments: e.g. Entertainment Channel, a selection of more than 300 entertainment sites, rather than a specific one
* Certified Audience & Geographic Channels: ad networks can safely re-sell high quality ad inventory by demographic information such as age, gender or ethnicity without having access to data on specific sites
* Restricted Information: since the publisher’s primary relationship is with the Rubicon Project, ad networks do not need to employ “Chinese walls” with information because they do not directly interact with the publisher

“Channel conflict is a real problem for big publishers,” said Frank Addante, CEO and Founder of the Rubicon Project. “As a result, many publishers have disabled their ad networks from effectively selling their ad inventory by preventing them from using information such as their site name and other critical data such as demography and context. Our job is to help websites become effective ad network channel managers. With this program, we are re-enabling this important channel to generate the highest possible rates for publishers while protecting their direct sales efforts.”

Because the Rubicon Project is addressing channel conflict head on, there’s hope these issues will soon be a thing of the past. Until then, publishers can’t afford to ignore the opportunities ad networks provide – anywhere from 40 to 80 percent of the average publisher’s inventory goes unsold by a publisher’s direct sales team – and ad networks obviously need publishers to place their ads. With the help of the Rubicon Project, both parties can move beyond fear and distrust toward their common goal: making money.

To learn more about channel conflict and other issues affecting online advertising, visit www.rubiconproject.com

About the Rubicon Project

the Rubicon Project is a group of industry-experienced, aggressive and passionate renegades dedicated to bringing a new level of efficiency to the fragmented Internet advertising space. The founders of the Rubicon Project shook up the online advertising industry in 1998 when they created L90/adMonitor, one of the most successful Internet advertising platforms that served over 3,000 of the web’s most recognized sites, reaching 65% of the Internet population before DoubleClick acquired it.

$27 Billion was spent advertising online in 2007, yet it’s still too hard for websites to sell their ad space online. the Rubicon Project’s web-based, self-serve solution gives any size website the most complete access to the total available advertising market and its smart matching technology does all the work to perfectly match each ad impression with the optimal money-making opportunity. the Rubicon Project is the new online advertising standard that makes it effortless for websites to generate the mad cash they’ve always dreamed of. And, it’s free to join. Websites looking to make more money while doing less work should visit: http://www.rubiconproject.com.

Read Frank’s blog at: http://www.FounderBlog.com/

BURLINGTON, Mass. – Burst Media, a leading provider of online advertising services, today announced that its ad management technology and services platform, AdConductor, has been selected by MTV Networks to power “MTVN Tribes,” the company’s vertical ad networks initiative. MTV Networks (MTVN), a division of Viacom (NYSE: VIA), recently announced MTVN Tribes, a series of demographic-focused vertical ad networks built around the company’s core online properties, including MTV.com, VH1.com, CMT.com, Spike.com and ParentsConnect.com. Tribes will use AdConductor for ad management, ad serving and publisher relationship services.

AdConductor enables centralized management of advertising operations across large networks of owned and affiliated websites. The technology platform coordinates the various aspects of ad network management including: inventory management and forecasting; ad sales; campaign setup, delivery and optimization; campaign reconciliation; and state of the art publisher reporting and management. As a result, AdConductor enables its publisher clients to offer advertisers highly engaged audiences with maximum advertising efficiency. Tribes extends the vertical reach of MTVN’s online presence, offering advertisers an efficient avenue to reach targeted consumer segments.

“There is an ongoing transformation of the advertising space, and sophisticated vertical networks like the ones built by MTV Networks are catalysts in this evolutionary process,” said Sean Keaveny, Senior Vice President of AdConductor Sales. “The portal mentality is losing ground and advertising is finally moving toward focused, content-rich websites that consumers visit and use. Advertisers that capitalize on the opportunities MTV Networks’ Tribes provide will break through the media clutter and engage finely targeted consumer segments on high quality, branded web properties.”

“Integrating a complete solution for the management of advertising distribution over many sites is a critical component of our vertical network strategy,” said Heather Hopkins, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Tribes for MTV Networks. “Tribes is about leveraging the power of the Web to connect the right marketer to the right consumer – at the right time and place. AdConductor helps us deliver on our commitment to always offering relevant advertising to consumers with an array of passions and interests.”

About Burst Media

An online media and technology company founded in 1995, Burst Media (www.burstmedia.com) is a leading provider of advertising representation, services and technology to independent Web Publishers. Burst Media enables advertisers to reach finely segmented, engaged consumers as they visit Burst’s extensive number of interest-based sub-channels. Through its Burst Network and Burst Direct units, the company represents one of the broadest and deepest offerings of interest-based websites online. Burst also markets its ad management platform, AdConductor™, which empowers content websites, online ad networks, and web portals to manage the complete process of ad sales and service. Burst Media is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, with offices throughout the United States and in London, UK. For more information, visit www.burstmedia.com or call 781.272.5544.

The new feature doesn’t seem to have propagated in all DFP accounts yet, and the knowledge base doesn’t seem to include any new entries about streaming Silverlight. I’ll let you enjoy the feature announcement in full, below.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (August 05, 2008) –Today, DoubleClick, a premier provider of digital marketing technology and services, announced the new capability to serve video ads into Microsoft Silverlight 2 video environments. The move is part of DoubleClick’s ongoing effort to help clients maximize the yield on their advertising inventory as they deliver content into emergent online, video and mobile channels.

With this new feature of DoubleClick In-Stream, DoubleClick clients such as NBC Universal Digital Media are able to monetize video content played within the Silverlight 2 player. NBCOlympics.com, a division of NBC Universal, will be one of the first sites to open Silverlight 2 content up to advertisers with DoubleClick In-Stream. The solution carves out new video inventory across 2,500 hours of video content running as part of NBC’s Olympics coverage.

“Microsoft has always had a strong commitment to working closely with partners and the industry to enable them to leverage our tools and platform to deliver great user experiences. With Silverlight, we’ve extended that commitment to the advertising space,” said Scott Guthrie, Corporate Vice President, .NET Developer Division. “We’re pleased to see the investment DoubleClick has made to enable customers such as NBCOlympics.com to take advantage of Silverlight to offer compelling packages to their advertisers.”

DoubleClick In-Stream is a video ad serving solution used by online publishers to deliver exciting new advertising experiences into Flash, Real Media, Windows Media and now Silverlight 2 video players. As part of the DoubleClick Revenue Center, the product is completely integrated into DoubleClick’s core ad serving platform, DART for Publishers. The combined DoubleClick solution enables trafficking, targeting forecasting and reporting for video advertising. By working with DoubleClick to serve ads into Silverlight 2, NBCOlympics.com is able to leverage their existing ad operations workflow and staff to package video ads with other opportunities, such as online display and mobile ads. One platform for online display, video and mobile has made it possible for NBC to create compelling cross-channel packages for advertisers who want to reach the Olympics-viewing audience.

“With hundreds of advertisers, multiple platforms and large site traffic spikes, we needed to work with a partner that could provide an integrated, scalable, robust solution,” said Steven Gold, Vice President, Sales Planning and Operations, NBC Universal Digital Media. “Thanks to DoubleClick In-Stream’s new support for Silverlight 2, we are able to monetize our groundbreaking online video coverage on the same platform we already use for display and mobile advertising. This lets our sales and operations teams work together really efficiently.”

“DoubleClick’s vision is to help publishers grow their revenues by creating great user experiences and providing compelling value to advertisers,” said Google Group Product Manager Ari Paparo. “By expanding the capabilities of DoubleClick In-Stream to work with Silverlight 2, we can make it possible for clients to create unique entertainment and advertising experiences without increasing their workload or creating new complex processes.”

For more information on DoubleClick In-Stream, please visit http://www.doubleclick.com/instream

To learn more about the entire DoubleClick Revenue Center, please visit http://www.doubleclick.com/revenuecenter

About DoubleClick
DoubleClick is a premier provider of digital marketing technology and services. The world’s top marketers, publishers and agencies utilize DoubleClick’s expertise in ad serving, rich media, video, mobile, search and affiliate marketing to help them make the most of the digital medium. From its position at the nerve center of digital marketing, DoubleClick provides superior insights and insider knowledge to its customers. DoubleClick is a division of Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). Learn more at www.doubleclick.com.

The highlights:

- limit on alcohol advertising to 25% of advertising space in any media at any time;

- advertising drinks on media where more than 25% of the audience is under 18 is banned;

- sponsorship by drink companies of sports events where participants are under 18 is banned;

- alcohol advertising on television between 6am and 10am is banned;

- alcohol advertising per viewing in cinemas has been reduced by 15%.

Neither The Drinks Industry Group of Ireland (DIGI) or the Irish Department of Health provide any methodologies as to how exactly would one measure these parameters, even though the restrictions are supposed to be taken into consideration immediately.

For an online content publisher, the rules are confusing and may halt alcohol advertising campaigns until clarifications are given.

What constitutes “25% of the advertising space at any time”? This requirement must have been written in the absence of anybody from the advertising industry, as it opens doors to tons of interpretations.

I have contacted DIGI about clarifications and measurement methodologies – will publish an update as soon as I get a reply.

As part of a multi-faceted campaign that crosses multiple borders, the widgets leverage Eyeblaster’s digital expertise and technology to enhance user experience and brand integration for one of the most well-known brands on the planet.

“We’re excited to launch one of the largest global video widget campaigns ever,” said Mike Cookson, content and media director at Nike EMEA. “AKQA’s creative ability, MindShare’s leading distribution strategy and Eyeblaster’s targeting technology is enabling Nike to distribute content in ever-smarter ways.”
NIKE’s new campaign uses ad-unit content distribution (ACD) to extend the reach of NIKE branded football films found on its groundbreaking NIKEFootball website. AKQA designed the NIKE widget to showcase video using well known sporting and media celebrities to deliver NIKE branded content directly from a video banner ad to social networks, homepages, blogs, etc.

“NIKE’s new campaign breaks the traditional online advertising model,” said Chris Hancock of AKQA. “We wanted to invent a way to push content out to users. Using Eyeblaster, we designed a campaign that uses advertising space on websites as a channel to distribute video from a site in conjunction with the added ability for consumers to ‘grab’ the content.”

“The widget represents fresh thinking that adds value to consumers’ experiences of the brand. It allows us to sustain a 3-way dialogue between Nike and consumers and amongst themselves, throughout the campaign and beyond, by continually refreshing our messaging and the functionality of the widget,” added Hani Mahdi, account director at MindShare WorldWide.
To maximize ad spend and add a viral aspect to the campaign, AKQA integrated seeding technology with the video widget. The seeding technology is powered by Gigya in cooperation with Eyeblaster. Users can “grab” the widget from the website they are looking at and install it on their social networking page. This opens a direct, permanent communication channel with users where NIKE can update video content at anytime.

“NIKEFootball’s new widget campaign revolutionizes the way any brand has ever used ad serving technology,” said Gal Trifon, CEO and co-founder of Eyeblaster. “Eyeblaster makes it possible to fully execute MindShare’s and AKQA’s creative strategy and we are confident that the campaign will generate great results.”

The campaign is being served and measured using Eyeblaster’s Ad Campaign Manager (ACM) platform. With ACM, AKQA and Nike can access data consolidation and manage geo targeting, dynamic content and global distribution from one platform.

You can get the widget at: http://demo.eyeblaster.com/AKQA/NIKE/NIKEFOOTBALL_Widget.html

About Eyeblaster

In 1999, Eyeblaster was among the pioneers in rich media communication. Today, Eyeblaster extends its inventive heritage in digital advertising through Ad Campaign Manager (ACM). ACM enables interactive agencies, advertisers and publishers to manage campaigns across digital media channels, including online, mobile and in-game, and a variety of formats, including rich media, in-stream video, display and search. ACM is a robust, integrated and easy-to-use platform that allows customers to focus on campaign strategy, creativity and media efficiency without having to worry about the technical complexities associated with managing global advertising campaigns online.
In 2007, Eyeblaster delivered campaigns for nearly 7,000 brand advertisers serving approximately 2,500 ad agencies across over 2,700 global web publishers in over 40 countries worldwide throughout North America, South America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. Learn more at http://www.eyeblaster.com.

Media Contact:
Jamie Fishler
Mortar
T: 415.772.9907 ext. 117
C: 727.492.5548
jamie@mortarpr.com

Over the past three years, ADTECH has seen its client base increase by more than 50%, with more than 350 active customers using ADTECH’s ad management solutions to optimize their digital marketing initiatives.

“In the past several months, we’ve seen a steady increase in the demand for mobile, video and online ad management solutions, especially in our core European market and throughout the United States,” said Dirk Freytag, CEO of ADTECH. “More and more companies are utilizing ADTECH’s robust, scalable technology that delivers customized services. In addition, we guarantee customers sovereignty over their data and complete control over their advertising space.”

Some of ADTECH’s new customers include: international .Fox Networks, Nicker Network and Wi-Fi Guys from the United States; TotallyMoney.com in the UK, Irish Generator ISS, Deutsche Telekom and Stellwerk3 GmbH from Germany, OmniMedia AG from Switzerland, Sweclockers.se and DagensPS.se in Sweden and www.sharenet.co.za from South Africa.

About ADTECH
ADTECH is a leading international supplier of digital marketing solutions. The company’s flagship product, Helios IQ ad serving platform, enables web publishers to manage, serve and evaluate virtually any kind of online advertising campaign including display, video and mobile formats. Helios IQ differentiates itself via its scalable, enterprise-class infrastructure and publisher-friendly tools, providing publishers with increased efficiency, reliability and ROI for their online advertising business. ADTECH is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Platform-A’s Advertising.com.

Founded in 1997, the DIEMEDIAFABRIK grew rapidly in Germany and posted turnover of €76.1M in 2007. Today it has 60 customers including Berlin GmbH (Exhibition Centre in Berlin), VNG Verbundnetz Gas AG, the political party SPD Bundesvorstand and the environment ministry, Bundesministerium für Umwelt. DIEMEDIAFABRIK is currently the representative of the Media Mondiale Network in Germany – the leading international independent network.

DIEMEDIAFABRIK chose the Smart AdServer agency online advertising server for its user friendliness, its tracking and reporting capabilities but also because it offers a flexible and reliable response to the various needs of German advertisers and publishers.

Smart AdServer develops and sells an advertising campaign tool for agencies, advertising departments and publishers. After establishing a market leading position in France, the company is continuing its development with the opening of offices in the UK and Canada and the signing of new contracts, in particular in Germany, Spain, Canada, Belgium and Switzerland.
“We are delighted to announce this first agreement with a German agency”, said Cyrille Geffray, Managing Director of Smart AdServer. “The second ranking European country in the e-advertising sector, Germany is an extremely demanding market in which innovation is particularly fast. It is also a highly concentrated market which few players have managed to penetrate. Thus, this represents a major stage in the development of Smart AdServer in Europe.”

About Smart AdServer
Smart AdServer SAS develops and markets one of the main adserving technologies for the management of online campaigns for media agencies and publishers. Created in 2001, the company Smart AdServer has soon become a key player in France, posting the fastest growth in Europe in terms of customers compared with its competitors, thanks to the innovative and unique functionalities offered by its product, and its ease of use. Smart AdServer has more than 100 customers for 1000 sites spanning four continents.
Among its clients are large media agencies such as Zed digital, Starcom, Mindshare, Mediacom, Mediaedge:cia, Magna … as well as a large number of sites and companies, including Boursorama, Allociné, 01Net, Reed Business, Groupe Express-Expansion, NRJ Global, MSD, Wolters Kluwer…

Founded in 2003, and with turnover of €160M in 2007, the Smart&Co Group specialises in the organisation and design of trips, leisure activities and original gifts. It has introduced to France a concept already familiar to Belgium and the Netherlands – themed gift packages, which it markets to companies, but also individuals, through on line sales or its distribution network. With the creation of this new generation of gift vouchers and the diversity of its offers, the company is now a leader in the gift package market, under the Smartbox® trademark, and online trips, under the Weekendesk trademark.

It is with a view to continuing its expansion in Europe that Smart&Co sought to equip itself with a reliable and innovative technological solution managed by a team of experts, enabling it to easily manage its advertising online on its websites, to analyse performance, to rapidly measure return on investment, with the aim of optimising sales. After having examined all leading technologies in the adservers market, Smart&Co finally chose the Smart AdServer solution.

Smart AdServer develops and markets a tool for the management of advertising campaigns for agencies, advertising departments and publishers. A new generation Adserver created in 2001, Smart AdServer has grown rapidly to become a key player in the French market, and one of the main European players with more than 100 clients and 1000 sites across 4 continents.
“We are delighted to include Smart&Co among the increasing number of advertising companies and publishers we rely on”, says Cyrille Geffray, Managing Director of Smart AdServer. “This new international contract, with a highly regarded company, has strengthened our position in Europe.”

About Smart AdServer
Smart AdServer SAS develops and markets one of the main adserving technologies for the management of online campaigns for media agencies and publishers. Created in 2001, the company Smart AdServer has soon become a key player in France, posting the fastest growth in Europe in terms of customers compared with its competitors, thanks to the innovative and unique functionalities offered by its product, and its ease of use. Smart AdServer has more than 100 customers for 1000 sites spanning four continents.
Among its clients are large media agencies such as Zed digital, Starcom, Mindshare, Mediacom, Mediaedge:cia, Magna … as well as a large number of sites and companies, including Boursorama, Allociné, 01Net, Reed Business, Groupe Express-Expansion, NRJ Global, MSD, Wolters Kluwer…

In recent months, three year-old Adconion, which has existing operations throughout Europe and Australia, has assembled its North American management team from a roster of industry veterans responsible for creating and managing some of the world’s most-recognized Internet advertising companies including DoubleClick, MSN, Yahoo, IAC and Avenue A (now Avenue A/Razorfish). Adconion CEO and Founder, Tyler Moebius was himself a Series A investor and early employee of Avenue A. An undisclosed minority percentage of the total capital raised during this $80M round will fund Adconion’s continued global expansion throughout North America and Asia. The strategic decision by Index Ventures, which counts Skype, MySQL, Last.fm, Netvibes, Joost and Spot Runner among its portfolio of successful technology companies, to invest in Adconion was informed by the company’s unique value proposition to marketers seeking not only domestic, but global ad distribution through a single, independent network that reaches nearly 200 million unique Internet users worldwide (ComScore January 2008).

“At the risk of sounding cliché, the modern business landscape is irrefutably global in scale and that is due primarily to the opportunities created by the Internet,” said Moebius. “Agencies choose to partner with Adconion because their clients are likely in a position where doing business internationally is either business as usual or a strategic opportunity for growth. This generous investment from Index and Wellington will position Adconion alongside the portals on marketer’s short-lists for global distribution partners.” “Adconion has the relationships, the industry expertise and the best-in-class technology becoming of a future market leader in technology’s hottest growth sector,” said Dom Vidal, Partner, Index Ventures. “Our experience as investors in the advertising space enables us to support Adconion in continuing its rapid expansion throughout North America and to further build its global presence.”

“Tyler and his team have done an outstanding job building a truly global online advertising network,” said Frank Boehnke, Wellington Partners. “We are very excited to continue to work with Tyler and Adconion on one of the most exciting growth stories in the global marketplace.”

About Adconion
Adconion Media Group is an international, independent Advertising Network. Since its founding in 2005 the company has focused on the realization of performance-driven branding campaigns that deliver massive global reach. Adconion’s clients consist of advertising agencies and direct advertisers as well as its partner base of premium websites from a wide range of sectors. Adconion combines its in-house technology and high touch client service with quality media to exceed its partners campaign objectives. Adconion has offices around the world in London, Munich, Hamburg, Paris, Melbourne, Sydney, New York, Toronto and Santa Monica. Adconion is member of the International Advertising Bureau (IAB) and a founding member of IASH Europe. Visit Adconion at www.adconion.com.

About Index Ventures
Index Ventures is a leading European venture capital firm active in technology venture investing since 1996. The firm is dedicated to helping top entrepreneurial teams in the Information Technology and Life Science sectors build their companies into market defining global leaders. The firm has offices in Geneva, London and Jersey and focuses on investments from seed through growth stage companies. Recent exits include Skype (the pioneering communications company acquired by eBay); MySQL (the world’s most popular open source database recently acquired by Sun), Last.fm (the world’s largest social music platform, recently acquired by CBS) and BioXell (BIOX, floated on the SWX in 2007). For more information, please visit www.indexventures.com.

About Wellington Partners
Wellington Partners ranks among the most successful pan-European venture capital firms. With € 800 million under management and offices in London, Munich and Zurich, the firm invests into opportunities throughout Europe that have the potential to become global leaders, mainly in the areas of Information Technology, Media Convergence and Life Science. Wellington Partners has invested in more than 100 companies in Europe and Israel, including now publicly traded Actelion, SAF and XING, successful privately held companies like Alando (acquired by eBay) and ImmobilienScout24 (acquired by Deutsche Telekom) as well as current portfolio companies like Adconion Astaro, Questico and Truphone. For more information, please visit www.wellingtonpartners.com.