Thames Tech Wire - June 24, 2005

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THAMES TECH WIRE - June 24, 2005
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o Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Cuts Kingston Stake by £70 Million
o Survey: European Youth Ditching TV and Radio for Web
o Enterprise Equity VC Group Receives Additional 6 Million Euro
o Namesco Ltd. Acquires U.K. Internet Service Provider NDO.com
o Blogging Software Team Wins Microsoft's Imagine Cup for U.K.
o One in Three CDs Sold Worldwide is Pirated, IFPI Claims
o Briefly Noted: Apple-European iTunes Song Sales, Forrester
Research-European Mobile Report, Wombat-Northern Ireland
Software Centre
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o Kohlberg Kravis Roberts Cuts Kingston Stake by £70 Million

Hull, England -- Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), a U.S.-based venture
capital firm, announced that it has offloaded the lion's share of its
23.7% stake in Kingston Communications, a U.K.-based alternative
telecommunications group. KKR said it sold about 114 million
Kingston shares to investment bank UBS for approximately £70
million, leaving the VC firm with a 1.5% stake. KKR acquired its stake
last year when it sold Omnetica, a data communications management
company, to Kingston for £169 million. "Since the acquisition of
Omnetica by Kingston, we have been delighted by the progress made in
exploiting the clear, strategic fit and differentiated service proposition
of the combined businesses," said KKR Europe Director Johannes
Huth. "Our decision to sell reflects the current needs of our financing
strategy."
http://www.kcom.com/news/articles/news_22_06_05_1.shtml
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o Survey: European Youth Ditching TV and Radio for Web

London -- European youth are spending less time watching TV and
listening to the radio in favour of surfing the Internet, according to a
survey of 15-24 year-olds conducted by the European Interactive
Advertising Association (EIAA). Of those surveyed, 46% said they
watch less TV as a result of using the Internet; 34% said they talk on
the phone less; 33% said they read fewer newspapers; and 22% said
they listen to the radio less often. In terms of overall media
consumption, European youth still spend the most time watching TV
(31%), compared with radio (27%), the Internet (24%) and newspapers
(10%). "The 15-24 age group is the holy grail for most advertisers, and
the EIAA research conclusively demonstrates the extent to which the
Internet now represents an essential media for this audience,
increasingly replacing other media including TV and radio," said EIAA
chairman Michael Kleindl.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?P56F2515B
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o Enterprise Equity VC Group Receives Additional 6 Million Euro

Dublin -- The Enterprise Equity VC Group announced that it has
received an additional 6 million euro (£4 million) in venture-capital
funding from Enterprise Equity and Enterprise Ireland, which
contributed 3 million euro each. The group also announced that the 22-
million-euro regionally based fund, which had focused on the Border,
Midlands and Western regions, has extended its remit to include the
South-West region of Ireland as well. Enterprise Equity VC Group said
the fund would invest in new or existing companies in the
manufacturing, IT and life science sectors. "In the past, Enterprise
Equity investments have traditionally levered 1 million euro or more of
the funding from other sources for every 1 million euro invested by
Enterprise Equity," said Enterprise Equity VC Group Chairman Denis
Rooney. "As a result, we believe our joint venture with (Enterprise
Ireland) will result in at least 44 million euro of investment for these
regions."
http://www.enterprise-ireland.com/
_____________________________________________

o Namesco Ltd. Acquires U.K. Internet Service Provider NDO.com

London -- Namesco Ltd., a U.K.-based Internet service provider (ISP),
announced that it has acquired local rival NDO.com Ltd. for an
undisclosed sum. "Following our other recent acquisitions, this one
stands out, as it gives us a tenfold increase in the number of active
ADSL accounts we manage, which we have recognised, for some time,
as a growth area with huge potential," said Namesco CEO Kevin
Savage. "Now we have our own specialised ADSL and Connectivity
Network, we are now not only a true ISP, but one that can now both
enhance and reinforce the Internet services offered to both businesses
and consumers." Namesco said it would continue to use the NDO
brand.
http://www.names.co.uk/cms_news_item92.html
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o Blogging Software Team Wins Microsoft's Imagine Cup for U.K.

London -- Adrian Collier from Bournemouth University, Andrew
Webber from City University in London and Joseph Wardell from
Aberystwyth University have won the U.K. finals of the Imagine Cup,
an innovation competition organised by software giant Microsoft. The
team of students won the competition after developing location-aware
blogging software called OneReach that gives travellers access to blogs
specific to an area in order to find useful information and tips. Using
GPS (Global Positioning System) and smartphones, the software also
creates a map that allows family and friends to follow travellers' exact
progress. The team will now compete in the Imagine Cup finals in
Japan at the end of next month.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?V2C56415B
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o One in Three CDs Sold Worldwide is Pirated, IFPI Claims

London -- One in three CDs sold worldwide is a pirated copy, part of a
3.8-billion-euro (£2.5 billion) global market for pirated music,
according to a report from the International Federation of the
Phonographic Industry (IFPI). A total of 1.2 billion pirated discs were
sold in 2004, or 34% of all discs sold worldwide. However, IFPI added
that the growth of disc piracy has slowed to its lowest level in five
years and said that sales of all pirate recordings actually fell slightly to
1.5 billion units. The value of the pirate music market was flat overall,
compared with 2003. Sales of pirated music were found to exceed
legitimate music sales in a record 31 countries in 2004, including
Greece, India and the Czech Republic. The IFPI identified ten
"priority" countries where piracy is at unacceptable levels and urgent
government action is needed: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico,
Pakistan, Paraguay, Russia, Spain and Ukraine.
http://www.ifpi.org/site-content/press/20050623.html 
_____________________________________________

o Briefly Noted:

(Paris) Apple announced that its European iTunes music stores have
sold more than 50 million songs in their first year in business.
However, Apple said the U.S. was still by far its largest market in the
world, with U.S. consumers buying nearly six times as many songs as
Europeans did since June 2004. Apple launched iTunes in Europe in
the U.K., Germany and France last June. Since then, it has opened
branches in most other European countries, including Austria, Belgium,
Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands,
Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
http://i-newswire.com/pr26902.html

(Brussels) A new report by market analysis firm Forrester Research
shows that mobile penetration in Western Europe has reached a high
saturation level. The report, which surveyed more than 18,000
consumers in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the U.K., also found
that Europeans prefer basic phone features to more advanced services
like video messaging and mobile Internet. According to Forrester, SMS
messaging is still king: While more than 60% of mobile users between
the ages 16 and 24 own an Internet-capable mobile phone, less than
20% actually use the services.
http://www.forrester.com/my/0,7179,2-0,00.html

(Belfast) Wombat, a U.S.-based financial services group, announced
plans to establish a global centre for software engineering excellence in
Belfast, Northern Ireland. Wombat said the centre would allow it to
focus on product development and customer support, with the site
becoming a base for European sales in the longer term. "Wombat
intends to develop a world class engineering centre of excellence in
Belfast to support our growing customer base both in Europe and the
financial centres in the North East U.S.," said Danny Moore, Wombat
chief operations officer.
http://www.investni.com/develop-news.htm?newsid=18543

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