Thames Tech Wire - June 27, 2005

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THAMES TECH WIRE - June 27, 2005
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o PartyGaming IPO Values Company at More Than £4.6 Million
o Creative Broadcast to Buy BBC Broadcast for £166 Million
o Scotland's Adventi Completes Acquisition of Rival Scotsys
o U.K.-Based WILink Sticks with Lincoln for New Acquisitions
o One in Three CDs Sold Worldwide is Pirated, Report Says
o Briefly Noted: EURid-IE Internet, WeeWorld-Celia Francis,
cVidya Networks-U.K. Office, Nexans Intelligent Enterprise
Solutions-U.K. Office, XM Satellite Radio-Live 8 Broadcasts
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o PartyGaming IPO Values Company at More Than £4.6 Million

London -- PartyGaming Plc, a Gibraltar-based online gambling firm,
announced that it has successfully floated on the London Stock
Exchange, a move that values the company at more than £4.6 billion.
The initial public offering (IPO) was London's largest in more than five
years. "We are delighted that the (IPO) has received an excellent
response from major U.K. and international institutional investors,"
said PartyGaming CEO Richard Segal. "The listing will reinforce the
group's position as one of the world's leading online gaming companies
and enhance the group's profile as we seek to expand internationally."
PartyGaming operates under three main brands: PartyPoker.com,
StarluckCasino.com Online and PartyBingo.com. The company now
accounts for about half of the global online gambling market.
http://www.partygaming.com/
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o Creative Broadcast to Buy BBC Broadcast for £166 Million

London -- The BBC announced that it has signed a contract with
Creative Broadcast Services Ltd., which is owned by the Macquarie
Capital Alliance Group and Macquarie Bank Ltd., for the sale of its
digital media division, BBC Broadcast, for approximately £166
million. With the news, Creative Broadcast beats out a group of bidders
that included Advent International, Apax Partners, Bank of Scotland
Corporate, Barclays, Bridgepoint, Exponent, HgCapital, Kleinwort
Capital, Montagu, Palamon Capital Partners LP and the Carlyle Group.
"Creative Broadcast Services made the BBC a great offer and showed
real capabilities in managing a contractual long-term partnership with a
commitment to growing and investing in the business," said BBC Chief
Operating Officer John Smith. Completion of the sale is still subject to
approval from the U.K. Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?C27E3255B
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o Scotland's Adventi Completes Acquisition of Rival Scotsys

Edinburgh -- Adventi, a Scotland-based IT and computer-services firm,
announced that it has acquired local rival Scotsys. Although financial
details were not disclosed, Adventi said the newly merged company
would have a combine turnover of approximately £16 million. Under
the terms of the acquisition, Scotsys Managing Director John
McAleenan will become the new company's managing director, while
Adventi founder Graham Bucknall will become strategy director. "We
are looking to grow both sides of the business, and there are no major
redundancies planned," Bucknall said. "We have already identified
acquisition targets south of the border."
http://makeashorterlink.com/?W2BF1255B
_____________________________________________

o U.K.-Based WILink Sticks with Lincoln for New Acquisitions

London -- WILink, a U.K.-based provider of online investor relations
services and web-based communications tools, announced that it has
retained Chicago-based Lincoln Partners to help it find new financing
for acquisitions. One of the options, WILink said, may be taking the
business private. "We are pleased to be working with Lincoln Partners
to secure a financing plan to fund our growth," said WILink CEO J.
Patrick Galleher. "We have identified key strategies to exploit our core
competencies in new markets, and appointing Lincoln Partners is an
excellent next step in executing those strategies." The company also
said that Lee Godfrey, an executive director and currently its chief
operating officer (COO) for Europe, would become its new COO.
WILink's clients include Hewlett-Packard, Deutsche Telecom and BP.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/050624/245294.html?.v=1
_____________________________________________

o One in Three CDs Sold Worldwide is Pirated, Report Says

Madrid -- One in three CDs sold worldwide is a pirated copy, according
to a new 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, though the growth of disc piracy
slowed to its lowest level in five years. Sales of pirated music exceeded
legitimate music sales in a record 31 countries last year, including 10
countries where the IFPI called for urgent government intervention:
Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, Paraguay, Russia,
Spain and the Ukraine. The IFPI launched the report in Spain, which it
considers Europe's most serious piracy problem country, "where
rampant street CD piracy has shrunk the legitimate market by one third
in the last three years".
http://www.ifpi.org/site-content/press/20050623.html 
_____________________________________________

o Briefly Noted:

(Dublin) EURid, the registry appointed by the European Commission
to manage the new .eu domain name, announced that it has appointed
IE Internet, a Dublin-based Internet service provider (ISP), as its first
registrar in Ireland. With the news, IE Internet will become one of 27
registrars in 15 European countries responsible for issuing the new
domain name to public and private organisations. "There are only
47,000 registered .ie domain name holders in this country," said IE
Internet Managing Director Phelim O'Connell. "We expect that the
availability of .eu will stimulate more activity in the Irish industry and
encourage more businesses to take advantage of the Internet."
http://www.ieinternet.com/
http://www.eurid.eu/

(Glasgow) WeeWorld, a Scotland-based mobile/online content and
social networking firm, announced that it has appointed Celia Francis
as its new chief executive officer. Francis has worked in the mobile
sector for a number of years, most recently as executive vice president
of business marketing for T-Mobile International. Prior to joining T-
Mobile International, Francis headed T-Mobile's Product Marketing in
the U.K. and worked with IDEO, a product and services development
consulting firm. Outgoing CEO Mike Kinsella will remain with the
company to spearhead its mobile strategy, WeeWorld said.
http://www.weeworld.com/

(London) cVidya Networks, an Israel-based provider of next generation
revenue assurance (RA) technologies, announced that it has opened an
office in London to support its customer base and future sales
expansion in the U.K. The office, headed by Steve McNickle, will offer
local support to the U.K. telecommunications carriers. "Opening an
office in London is a natural move as our customer base and
prospective customer opportunities in the U.K. are growing, and also as
operators are more and more deploying next generation network
services and seeking proven automated RA tools," said cVidya CEO
Alon Aginsky.
http://www.cvidya.com/

(Paris) Nexans, a France-based supplier of cables and cabling systems,
announced that it is planning to create a new business unit called
Nexans Intelligent Enterprise Solutions (IES) based in Basingstoke,
England. The new unit will specialise in the development of products
and services under the LANsense brand and supply a range of products
under the LANConnect, UTP, ISCS, FTP and GIGAPath brands. "The
new unit will not only enhance the range of Nexans products and
solutions, but will also significantly increase Nexans's presence and
capabilities in the U.K. market," said Nexans IES Manager Tony
Rossiter.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?J11E2555B

(Washington) XM Satellite Radio, a U.S.-based provider of
subscription radio programming with 4 million subscribers, announced
that it plans to broadcast live every performance from every artist from
all Live 8 concerts next month. The company plans to offer seven
stations devoted to covering the global poverty and debt relief charity
concerts on July 2, taking place in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome,
Philadelphia, and Toronto.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050624/dcf017.html 
http://www.xmradio.com 

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