iSYNDICATE EUROPE ACQUIRES nFACTORY S.A.
CONTENT POWERHOUSE EXPANDS INTO ADDITIONAL MARKETS
Hamburg/Paris/San Francisco (ots)
iSyndicate Europe, the joint venture between Bertelsmann Content Network and iSyndicate, Inc., acquired today the French-Spanish content syndication company nFactory S.A., clearly positioning iSyndicate Europe as the pan-European content syndication market leader. iSyndicate Europe will take a majority share in nFactory S.A., including business units in France, Belgium, Spain and Morocco, complementing its existing operations in the United Kingdom and Germany.
nFactory S.A. was founded in 1999 and is the largest provider of syndicated content in France and Spain today, representing more than 600 European content providers including leading brands as La Tribune, VNU.fr and El Mundo. The company employs a staff of 85 and serves more than 50 customers including Cap Gemini, France Telecom and Banques Populaires.
With nFactory S.A.'s content providers, iSyndicate Europe will offer more than 1800 popular content providers in languages including English, German, French and Spanish. nFactory's French and Spanish business units will be structured into individual national companies. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
"Companies want an end-to-end solution for the best content, applications and technologies to manage content important to their business," said Joel Maske, president and CEO of iSyndicate, Inc. "This acquisition doubles iSyndicate Europe's ability to provide syndicated content and infrastructure services to the pan-European market. We look forward to building on nFactory's success in the French and Spanish region."
The Bertelsmann Content Network is the division of Bertelsmann that manages the company's syndication strategy. Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, CEO of the Bertelsmann Content Network, said, "The acquisition of nFactory is an important step towards the continued development of iSyndicate Europe. We complement each other in terms of strategy and geography. With this joint venture, we're the first to establish a pan-European platform for the syndication of content."
iSyndicate Europe was formed in September 2000 as a joint venture between Bertelsmann and iSyndicate, Inc. nFactory S.A. is iSyndicate Europe's first acquisition. Following the acquisition, more than 100 employees will work for iSyndicate Europe in six countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium and Morocco.
iSyndicate enables its customers to maximize the power of information distribution and exchange on the Internet. With iSyndicate's services, companies can boost their Internet traffic, build community and enrich their e-commerce services. iSyndicate's syndication infrastructure solutions enable companies to manage their information assets, so that mission-critical information is delivered to the right audience at precisely the right time.
iSyndicate content covers virtually every category, topic, and type found on the Web today, such as breaking news, feature articles, commentary, sports scores, stock quotes, comics, puzzles, games, weather, photos, and rich media including full-motion video, and music. European content providers include The Financial Times, dpa, Haymarket publications, Eurosoccer and the Golf Network among others.
For content providers, iSyndicate offers additional revenue opportunities through licensing and increased brand awareness by greatly increasing the potential audience for content.
The Bertelsmann Content Network encourages cooperation and networking across the company's divisions to speed the digital conversion of Bertelsmann´s diverse content assets and develop "communities of interest" from a range of content products and offerings. This includes establishing cross media brands of content, optimizing the commercial exploitation of content through syndication as well as taking shares in external companies in order to develop new businesses.
About iSyndicate (www.isyndicate.com) iSyndicate is a leading, global provider of Internet syndication infrastructure and application solutions. The Company develops, markets and supports a line of infrastructure and application software, technologies and tools that allow for the collection, distribution, exchange and management of digital content and information across the Internet and to any Internet-connected device. The Company's solutions allow its customers to maximize the power of information distribution and exchange on the Internet. Its partners and customers include some of the world's leading traditional and Internet brands including over 1,200 digital content and information providers such as ABCNEWS.com, The Associated Press, Business Week, CNBC, CNET, The Financial Times, The New York Times, Red Herring and RollingStone.com. iSyndicate's solutions are made available to 300,000 customers and affiliates, including Bacardi, Citibank, Major League Baseball, Nortel Networks, OmniSky, Unisys and Wells Fargo. iSyndicate supports the ICE (Information & Content Exchange) standard based on XML, among a variety of others, for all of its content. iSyndicate is based in San Francisco with offices in New York, London and Hamburg. iSyndicate is backed by venture capital firms Scripps Ventures and Labrador Ventures; investment bank Chase Hambrecht & Quist; Infospace.com; NBC (GE), Microsoft, News Corporation and Bertelsmann. iSyndicate Europe is a 50:50 joint venture between iSyndicate Inc. and Bertelsmann.
About Bertelsmann AG (www.bertelsmann.com) As the world's most international media enterprise, Bertelsmann commands leading positions in the global media and entertainment industries. The Bertelsmann Group consists of publishing and music companies, book and music clubs, magazines and newspapers, television and radio stations, print and media service providers, multimedia and professional information companies represented by such brands as Random House, BMG, Gruner + Jahr and RTL. Bertelsmann is the world's largest general-interest publisher and the biggest English-language publishing house worldwide. Bertelsmann book and music clubs are number one worldwide. Through RTL Group and Gruner + Jahr, the company ranks first in the European broadcasting and magazine sectors, respectively. Bertelsmann is the worldwide leading media company in the internet, and top ranking in its peer market in e-commerce with BOL in Europe and barnesandnoble.com in the US. The organization currently employs 76,000 people in 54 countries and posted DM 32,4 billion in total revenues in the 1999/00 financial year ended June 30, 2000.
About nFactory S.A. (www.nfactory.com) nFactory S.A., the European marketplace for vertical content, is a provider of high value-added, customised and aggregated multi-lingual digital content to the Internet and Intranet business communities. nFactory S.A. operates a digital content marketplace bringing together online content producers and companies requiring ultra-vertical European focused information to enhance and customise their web sites and intranets. Content provided by nFactory enables sites to increase stickiness and build e-commerce environments. nFactory S.A. has over 600 partnerships with leading European content providers and is currently serving relevant customised multi-lingual content to over 50 customers. nFactory S.A. is based in Paris, France and has offices in Madrid, Spain and operational facilities in Morocco.
For further information please contact:
Bertelsmann AG: Susanne Erdl Bertelsmann AG - Media and Financial Relations Phone: +49 - 52 41 - 80 25 35 susanne.erdl@bertelsmann.de
iSyndicate : Pat Reilly iSyndicate, Inc. Phone: +1 - 415 - 430 23 71 Cell phone : +1 - 415 - 990 31 84 pr@isyndicate.com
Kelly Scutt / Nick Morris Bite Communications Phone: +44 - 208 - 41 11 23 kellys@bitecomm.co.uk nickm@bitecomm.co.uk
nFactory: Michael Khoi NFactory S.A. Phone: +33 - 1 - 44 82 12 82 mkhoi@nfactory.com
Original-Content von: Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, übermittelt durch news aktuell