GHS.L Regulatory News (GHS)

24 Jan 2007 07:02

NewMedia SPARK PLC24 January 2007 For Immediate Release 24th January 2007 NewMedia SPARK plc Investee Update MarketClusters announces $3m expansion funding NewMedia Spark plc (SPARK), is pleased to announce an investment inMarketClusters Limited, a developer of the 'StrategyWire' intelligence platformenabling corporate and financial clients to accurately filter - and put intocontext - expert opinions created in Blogs or News feeds. SPARK has joined otherinvestors including a well-known group of individuals active in both technologyinvestment and managing online information businesses. Jay Patel, a director ofSPARK, will be joining the MarketClusters' board. MarketClusters has raised a total of $3m in its first round funding. Theproceeds are being used to enhance its core StrategyWire product, expand itssales team and add further analysts to move into new sectors beyond DigitalMedia such as Clean Technologies. The explosion of end-user content in blogs and other online sources is startingto dramatically change the way professionals research and interpret opinions onindustry events - particularly as selected blog authors are now often absoluteauthorities on their subjects. MarketClusters' flagship product, StrategyWire,continuously and intelligently filters this expert commentary and presents it toclients through a highly intuitive interface that allows rapid and easyidentification of new trends and potential investment themes. MarketClusters client base includes global Corporates, Investment Banks, VentureCapitalists and other advisory professionals. Current enterprise subscribers toStrategyWire include AOL, Ask.com, BSkyB, Chrysalis, Disney, Flextech, HBO, ITV,Liberty Media, MTV, NTL, QVC, Rogers Communications, Virgin Mobile, Yahoo,Benchmark Capital, Atlas Venture, Wellington Partners and Close Brothers. Jay Patel, Director at NewMedia SPARK commented : "We believe MarketClusters' platforms for filtering Internet opinion and puttingthis into industry-wide context has put it at the forefront of a new wave ofresearch and publishing firms. We expect its services to be applicable tocorporate and advisory organisations across multiple sectors globally and we aredelighted to be backing the firm at this exciting stage of expansion." Nick Gregg, CEO and founder of MarketClusters, added: "We are extremely pleased to be supported by such a strong base of successfulinvestors, particularly given the background of many of them in developingonline information businesses. We very much look forward to working closely withour new shareholders as we build out our sales teams into both new sectors andterritories." For more information, please contact: MarketClustersNick Gregg, founder and CEO / Jeremy Phillips, co-founder and COO020 7376 5829 NewMedia SPARKJay Patel020 7851 7777 About MarketClusters Founded by a former technology equities analyst with a US investment bank,MarketClusters provides customized market intelligence solutions for majorcorporate, SME, investment banking, venture capital and other advisory clients. Our flagship product, StrategyWire, was launched in April 2006 and is a fullyhosted intelligence solution, initially focused on the complex and convergingTechnology, Media and Telecoms (TMT) sectors. StrategyWire tracks (real-time), thousands of analyst-ranked Blog and Newssources for opinions and deal flow stories (M&A, VC and Partnership) and indexesthese against a database of highly-defined public and private companies andindustry categories. All categories are linked within our system in a uniquevisual industry map allowing clients to put any event into its true industrycontext. Our analysis tools allow full dealflow report generation from ourarchive back to 2005. In addition to a highly filtered daily alert on sector activity, keyStrategyWire features include: * Blog / News Monitoring - 20,000+ Digital Media articles indexed daily from analyst-ranked business Blog or News sources * Company Tracking - 7,500+ public and private Digital Media companies defined for accurate Blog and News tracking * Category Tracking - 250+ industry categories defined for tracking and fully populated with Companies * Watchlist Alerts - Instant alerting to any mention of clients' watchlist Companies or Categories in articles tracked * Editorial Analysis - Analysts reviewing and summarising collective opinion on key stories and extracting deal data * Advanced Search Tools - Instant searching for opinion or deal articles by Company, Category or a combination * Deal Report Generation - Instantly generate historic M&A, Partnership and VC reports by Company or Category * Market Statistics - Instantly generate reports showing market statistics indexed accurately by Category * Industry Mapping - Visually navigate industry value-chains and 'plot' articles show relevant context and highlight trends Clients include AOL, Ask.com, BSkyB, Chrysalis, Disney, Flextech, HBO, ITV,Liberty Media, MTV, NTL, QVC, Rogers Communications, Virgin Mobile, Yahoo,Benchmark Capital, Atlas Venture, Wellington Partners and Close Brothers. MarketClusters now has a team of 27 people in UK, Australia and US. For further information, see www.marketclusters.com. About NewMedia SPARK plc NewMedia SPARK is a quoted venture capital organisation based in central Londonfocused on early stage investments in the technology, media and telecomssectors. SPARK's portfolio has a particular emphasis on digital media, softwareapplications, technology and communications. As an investor, SPARK expects toadd significant value to its investments through active support and strategicdirection. SPARK is listed on London's Alternative Investment Market. Recent successful exits for SPARK include the sale of Mergermarket to Pearsonfor £120m, the sale of Footfall to Experian for £36m and the sale of Elata toQualcomm for $57m. For further information, see www.newmediaspark.com. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange