New platform offers complete coverage of global financial regulation and compliance information

LONDON – Wolters Kluwer Financial Services today announced the launch of its Compliance Resource Network (CRN). CRN consolidates financial services laws, regulations and commentary from around the world into a single research platform.

CRN gathers financial services regulation and legislation into a single platform and delivers insightful commentary and analysis to help compliance teams stay up to speed with compliance issues. Searching, managing and understanding compliance information becomes easier and more cost efficient.

The Compliance Resource Network offers a comprehensive library of UK regulatory and legislative materials and executive summaries that explain and provide practical guidance on important industry and regulatory developments affecting the banking market. Additionally, the Compliance Resource Network provides access to a variety of financial services regulatory information, commentary and analysis for other jurisdictions, including the US, EU, Canada, Australia and Asia.

“We are helping the industry to access regulation information, as well as helping compliance officers to understand how various rules affect the way they conduct business in different countries,” said Mark Coronna, managing director, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, Europe. “Compliance and legal professionals can rely on trusted information solutions that are backed by Wolters Kluwer, one of the largest global information services companies in the world.”

For more information about Wolters Kluwer Financial Services’ Compliance Resource Network, visit www.complianceresourcenetwork.com.

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Note: Photography available on request, please contact mark@rostrumpr.com

About Wolters Kluwer Financial Services
Wolters Kluwer Financial Services provides best-in-class compliance, content, and technology solutions and services that help financial organisations manage risk and improve efficiency and effectiveness across their enterprise. Wolters Kluwer Financial Services is part of Wolters Kluwer, a leading global information services and publishing company with annual revenues of (2009) €3.4 billion (£3.0 billion) and approximately 20,000 employees worldwide. Please visit www.wolterskluwerfs.co.uk for more information.

Contact
Mark Houlding
Rostrum Communications
mark@rostrumpr.com
+44 (0)7773 782 520

Innovative new forms of finance emerging from the City are driving UK growth but there are mounting fears that impending regulatory reforms could damage the country’s competitiveness, according to a new report from City law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner.

The Driving UK Growth: Review, Reform, Revive study, launched today (14 June), reveals equity providers are responding to demand for finance from corporates when traditional bank lending is costly, and in short supply, by developing ‘new equity’ solutions that will be vital to driving UK growth over the next 12 months.

In a move which highlights the innovation of the equity markets, lenders such as hedge funds, private equity houses and large investment funds are increasingly offering debt for equity funding as an alternative to traditional rights issues and IPOs.

At the same time, the urgent need for corporates to restructure debt packages, particularly those agreed before the financial crisis, will continue to be the major driver for corporate finance activity in the coming year.

However, despite cautious optimism about GDP growth, widely anticipated regulatory reforms are a cause for concern among leading figures in the City who fear that a decision to go it alone could leave the UK isolated and damage competitiveness.

With the Chancellor’s Mansion House speech on Wednesday expected to outline plans for changes to banking regulation, the report confirms that the City has yet to be won over by some of the options put forward in order to bring stability.

For example, almost two thirds (63%) of respondents do not believe that the private equity industry should be subject to regulation while nearly half (49%) oppose the introduction of a financial stability levy.

The study is based on extensive client work by Berwin Leighton Paisner and backed by a survey of 50 C-suite figures from UK blue chips and major global financial institutions with a combined market capitalisation of £400bn.

Tamara Box, head of international structured finance at Berwin Leighton Paisner, said: “Major corporates and their financial institution lenders are under enormous pressure to amend and extend current debt packages against a backdrop of continuing liquidity constraint which means that the options available for refinancing are painfully limited.

“However, the credit crisis is stimulating innovation by the debt and equity markets alike and as a result we’re seeing new sources and forms of debt and equity emerging that are helping to rebalance the pre-crisis dependence on cheap debt and meet the need for finance to support growth as the UK economy recovers.”
Key statistics include:

• More than four-in-five respondents (85%) anticipate continued growth in UK GDP during 2010, with a significant minority of 33% confident it will match or outperform official targets
• A third (33%) of those surveyed believe the need to restructure debt will be the major driver of corporate activity in the coming 12 months
• Equity rather than debt will be the most popular form of raising finance for corporates over the same period according to 61% of respondents
• There is strong opposition to the UK going it alone on regulatory reform, with 84% favouring close cooperation with G20 partners

Regulatory reform and the future of the FSA
Two days ahead of the Chancellor’s Mansion House speech announcing how the Government intends to reform the banking industry, the report reveals that half of respondents (51%) oppose plans to scrap the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

However, a significant number (37%) support moves to give the Bank of England macro-prudential supervisory powers, the approach favoured by George Osborne, demonstrating that this remains a divisive issue for the City.

The need for a global approach to preventing another financial crisis was an area which attracted greater agreement.
In total, 84% of respondents are convinced that working alongside G20 partners is the best approach while only one in five (20%) support the creation of new EU-wide statutory bodies to coordinate rules on banking, insurance and securities.

Furthermore, two thirds (65%) of those surveyed believe credit rating agencies should be regulated and 53% reject calls for a separation of retail and investment banking functions.

Sidney Myers, head of financial services regulation at Berwin Leighton Paisner, said: “Whilst there is widespread recognition of the need for new regulation in the wake of the financial crisis, our clients are acutely aware that a regulatory overhaul which places an excessive compliance burden on financial institutions must be avoided.

“Above all, our report sends a clear message – any regulatory reform must be carefully judged in order to protect UK competitiveness.”

To view Berwin Leighton Paisner’s Driving UK Growth: Review > Reform > Revive report in full, click here

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Mr John Farrell is nominated to join the Supervisory Board of LBi International N.V. as of the effective date of the merger of LBI International AB and Obtineo Netherlands Holding N.V., to be renamed LBi International N.V. The cross-border merger was announced in February 2010 and approved by the LBi shareholders in April 2010. The merger is expected to be completed in July 2010.

John Farrell, a UK citizen, has over 20 years of business and change leadership experience at CEO level in marketing and communications agencies around the world. His most recent role was President and CEO of the Specialised Agencies and Marketing Services Worldwide division of Publicis Groupe and a member of the Publicis Groupe Worldwide Executive Team. Prior to this John was the Global Chief Executive of D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles one of the world’s top 10 advertising and communication networks. He currently holds corporate board positions at Huntsworth Plc, Media Equals Ltd, Albermarle & Bond Holdings Plc and Albion Brand Communication Ltd., as well as several other senior consultancy roles.

Fred Mulder, Chairman of the Board of Directors of LBi, commented: “We are very pleased to have John joining us as a Supervisory Board member. In the marketing and media industry John is widely respected; his wealth of experience will be of great value to LBi, as we are meeting growing demand of global blue chip companies looking for one agency providing services across geographies. We are looking forward to work with him as we continue to develop LBi as the global leader in digital marketing and technology services and as we continue to capitalise on the structural shift in spend from offline to online channels.”

LBi International N.V. is anticipated to obtain a new single listing on NYSE Euronext Amsterdam in July of this year in conjunction with the completion of the merger process.

As of the effective date of the merger, the Supervisory Board of LBi International N.V. will further consist of Mr Fred Mulder (Chairman,), Mr George William Fink, Mr Joost Tjaden and Mrs Nazo Moosa.

User community discusses evolution of risk management strategies, risk convergence and proactive compliance

OpenPages, the leading provider of integrated risk management solutions for global companies, today announced an extremely successful sixth-annual OpenPages User Symposium (OPUS), which included growth in attendance, global representation, top-tier partners, and key discussions that advance the practices of risk management and compliance to drive business success.

The annual three-day user forum included sessions led by a variety of customers and partners – American Express, Barclays, Carnival Corporation plc, Duke Energy, IBM, PwC and Williams Companies, representing a range of industries.

Keynote addresses focused on the future of risk management and best practices for risk managers. In the opening keynote address titled “From Risk to Performance,” OpenPages President & CEO, Michael J. Duffy, shared with attendees his vision for how risk management must adapt to the economic, regulatory and political pressures facing all companies today.

Mr Duffy said, “This is an exciting time for risk managers, as companies are looking to increase their investment in risk management infrastructure technology and to focus their efforts more than ever on enterprise risk as a critical success factor in business performance. We were thrilled to see such an impressive turn-out at OPUS from global customers across a range of industries, and are looking forward to working with our customers in the coming year as they adapt to the changing risk landscape.”

In the second keynote address, Harry Markopolos, Independent Financial Fraud Investigator & Analyst and author of No One Would Listen: A True Financial Thriller, explained the red flags and warning signs that allowed him to uncover the infamous Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme.

In addition, the day two OPUS keynote speaker, Julian Parkin, Group Privacy Programme Director at Barclays, discussed how his organisation leveraged OpenPages for risk management initiatives across the enterprise to drive sustainable improvements across evolving risk types.

In an effort to better-understand behaviour and trends related to risk management, OpenPages conducted a survey of more than 140 strategic risk, compliance and financial professionals in attendance at the show. The survey results revealed the following:

More than half of the respondents reported that the SEC’s increased focus on enterprise risk is impacting their company’s focus thinking and strategy on risk management. Of that group, nearly 60% noted increasing the priority of enterprise-wide risk management, strengthening current risk management programs and putting risk management in the spotlight for the C-level and/or Board as reactions to the increased scrutiny.
Nearly 90% of the respondents reported that risk management and compliance technology investments would increase or remain the same in the coming year.
OPUS attendees were also able to go social with OpenPages, as in social media. During the event, OpenPages captured several customer video testimonials, published live blogs about conference highlights and promoted event highlights via the company’s Twitter handle, @openpages. Attendees were also encouraged to tag and share photos, Twitter updates, videos and other multimedia content on the event site. All of the content is available at: http://www.openpages.com/opus/.

Supporting Resources

Link to OPUS 2010:

http://www.openpages.com/opus/

Link to OpenPages blog:
www.openpages.com/blog
Follow us on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/openpages

London, 19 May 2010: The dotDigital Group PLC today announces the acquisition of Netcallidus Limited, a Northamptonshire based digital marketing agency, which provides premium search engine marketing services to enterprise organisations throughout the UK. Netcallidus will join dotDigital’s roster of digital marketing brands including dotMailer and will sit alongside the Group’s existing search engine optimisation brand, dotSEO.

“The focus for our customers across the entire dotDigital Group is on acquiring traffic rather than buying data,” said Peter Simmonds, Chief Executive, dotDigital Group PLC. “SEO fits neatly alongside email marketing as an effective way for brands of all sizes to get targeted traffic to online destinations. We aim to dispel the myths that surround the practice of SEO, offering our customers a transparent and trustworthy approach.”

Founded in 2002 by Stuart Haining and joined in 2006 by Mark Furber, Netcallidus is an SEO agency based in Northampton, which initially offered SEO services through a range of resellers and partners. Since 2006, the company has also been selling direct to enterprise brands. This combination suits dotDigital’s business model of providing first class products and services both to end users but also as white-labelled services to a range of leading UK agencies.

Netcallidus will aim to attract new customers to the dotDigital Group as well as focusing on offering a full portfolio of services to larger brands and agencies. The Group’s existing SEO brand, dotSEO, which has seen phenomenal success since launching earlier this year, will continue to offer unparalleled SEO support to existing dotDigital customers and smaller businesses.

“We’ve seen unbelievable interest in SEO since the launch of dotSEO. Netcallidus allows us to better manage this huge demand and give us an efficient way to scale our offerings. Netcallidus is a first class company that will bring continued growth and expertise to the dotDigital Group through sustainable, transparent and ethical services. We are looking to further expand and grow the entire Group and are always on the look out for exciting and talented companies like Netcallidus that can offer something extra to our customers and partners,” concluded Peter Simmonds, Chief Executive, dotDigital Group PLC.

“As a combined entity, it is our ambition to become the leading provider of search marketing services in the UK,” said Mark Furber, Managing Director, Netcallidus Ltd. “We share the same aims and objectives as the dotDigital Group, which makes this feel like a perfect fit. With dotDigital’s infrastructure and support, Netcallidus can accelerate its planned expansion without compromise to quality of service for our existing and future customers.”

Over the last four years, the dotDigital Group PLC has transformed itself from a niche website design agency and email service provider into one of the UK’s leading full service digital marketing agencies. In that time, a series of new business units have been created and the Group is now made up of five main brands: dotMailer, dotCommerce, dotEditor, dotSEO and dotAgency. Netcallidus will sit alongside dotSEO as a separate brand and business entity offering search engine optimisation services.

The Group is listed on the PLUS market. More information can be found at http://www.dotdigitalgroup.com/

…British success story emerges amidst the normal gloomy news resulting from the difficult economic climate…

Windsor, 18 May 2010 – Haulfryn Group, one of the UK’s largest owners of prestigious holiday and residential parks, today announced that it is celebrating 75 years as a successful British company. Haulfryn has gone from strength to strength in recent and has invested £30 million in its parks around the country during a time of economic misery for many companies.

Rod Tucker
Rod Tucker, CEO, The Haulfryn Group, said: “I am proud to be associated with such a successful and dynamic company. Haulfryn wants to celebrate its 75 year milestone in a variety of ways during the remaining 8 months of 2010. You will see us donating holidays to charities, running local and national competitions and organising local events in and around our park locations. We want our residents and owners around the country to get as involved in these events as they can to make this a very special year for us.”

Starting from small beginnings in 1935 by the Minoprio family in Abersoch, Haulfryn has steadily grown to become a wonderful British success story. Winning awards such as the best holiday park in the UK from Hoseasons and a Conservation Award; selling the first £500,000 luxury holiday lodge in the UK; and endorsement from celebrity owners, Haulfryn is, quite simply, a great success. It has built its reputation on high quality products and services and is justifiably proud that it employs over 400 local people across its parks. In fact, over the last 18 months Haulfryn has bucked the downward trend and continued to employ forward thinking and visionary people, as Tucker says, “We recruit people with the right attitude and we train them to have the right skills to help us drive our business forward.”

Haulfryn’s focus on delivering quality products and services to its customers is much appreciated as Tony Hodgkiss, an owner of a Haulfryn lodge at Praa Sands Golf and Country Club in Cornwall, confirms: “The lodge is first class. And the Haulfryn park manager and his team made the whole thing run so smoothly. Everything he said would happen, did happen. Even though the recession hit, Haulfryn kept to its stated plans and completed the superb new leisure facilities.”

All of Haulfryn’s 21 holiday parks are located in stunning settings in North Wales, the South West and the South East of England, whilst the 15 residential parks are located in pretty, peaceful surroundings throughout the South West and South East of England.

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Note to Editors:

The Haulfryn Group, (www.haulfryn.co.uk) one of the largest holiday park operators in the UK, is a 75-year old family owned company renowned for the quality and style of its holiday homes. The company runs 21 holiday locations in some of the most desirable parts of Britain, with 11 in North Wales and 10 in the South of England. Haulfryn also owns and operates a further 15 residential parks in England. The company’s holiday homes range from luxury lodges to contemporary homes with prices to suit. All homes are built for easy maintenance, to the highest specification and many are exclusively designed for Haulfryn. A variety of finishes are available, from timber cladding to the latest in contemporary finishes.

For more information and hi-res images, please contact:

Amanda Stalham
Haulfryn PR
Tel: 01753 836235
Email : amanda.stalham@haulfryn.co.uk

Andrea Burton
Indigo River Limited
Tel: 01985 850320
Email: andrea@indigo-river.co.uk

LONDON, 13 May 2010 – An improving global economy has triggered a renewed sense of optimism in UK hiring plans over the next year. Thirty-nine per cent of UK employers reported they plan to hire full-time workers in the next 12 months. Twenty-six per cent plan to add part-time help while 21 percent expect to employ contract or temporary workers. The study was conducted by from 29 April to 7 May on behalf of CareerBuilder.co.uk and included more than 100 UK business leaders across industries.

“Companies are starting to change their focus from cost cutting to growth and they’re bringing back those areas most closely tied to revenue first,” said Farhan Yasin, President of CareerBuilder EMEA. “We expect to see gradual improvements in hiring in the second half of 2010 and into 2011, rather than a dramatic shift. Employers will remain cautious as they respond to new market dynamics.”

Top Functional Areas for Hiring
Sales is the top area where UK employers said they will add jobs first with 46 per cent planning to recruit new sales employees in the next 12 months. Other key areas include:

Customer Service – 22 per cent

Information Technology – 22 per cent

Administrative – 22 per cent

Accounting/Finance – 16 per cent

Marketing – 14 per cent

Compensation
More than half of UK employers (57 per cent) reported that pay will be the same for new employees in the next 12 months compared to the previous 12 months. Twenty-eight percent expect it will be higher while 2 percent anticipate it will be lower than the previous 12 months. Others declined to answer.

Skills Shortage
Despite having an abundant labour pool to choose from, 28 per cent of companies reported they currently have open positions for which they can’t find qualified candidates. Sixty-two per cent believe there is a national skills shortage.

“As the country’s financial health improves and the labour market recovers, you may see an even bigger gap between talent supply and demand in specialized areas,” said Yasin. “Employers are taking measures today to improve their talent benches and retain top performers through investing more in training, flexible work arrangements and new recruitment strategies.”

Seven Mid-Year Employment Trends

1. Hiring across borders – One-in-four employers (25 per cent) have hired someone from outside their country in the last 12 months. More than half (55 per cent) said they had not hired someone from outside their country, but would be willing to do so. The functional areas for which employers are primarily recruiting outside of their country are in business development, accounting/finance, information technology and communications.

2. Rehiring laid off workers – Of employers who reported they had layoffs in the last 12 months, nearly one-third (32 percent) said they have already begun or are in the process of hiring back employees.

3. Freezing compensation – Forty-five per cent of employers have instituted a pay freeze in the last 12 months to manage through a tough economy.

4. Upgrading talent – Nearly one-in-five employers (19 per cent) are taking this time, when there is a larger pool of available talent, to strengthen their teams by replacing lower-performing employees with top performers.

5. Offering more flexibility – In an effort to retain and attract workers, 61 per cent of employers said they will be offering flexible work arrangements for employees this year. Alternate schedules (ex: start and leave early) and compressed workweeks (work the same hours, but in less days) are among measures being employed.

6. Investing in professional development – Nearly two-in-five employers (39 per cent) are investing more in outside training for employees to sharpen skill sets and provide learning opportunities that are in demand.

7. Postponed start dates – employers are securing talent early while postponing expenses associated with additional headcount. One-in-ten (11 per cent) have offered jobs with start dates later in the year.

Survey Methodology
An online survey of more than 500 business leaders in the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden was conducted in a range of organizations between 29 April and 7 May. Business leaders included C-level executives, directors and senior managers with recruitment responsibilities. The survey was conducted online by Shape the Future (http://www.shape-the-future.com), a market research agency based near London which specialises in high speed online research.

The total sample size in the UK was 106, giving a margin of error of 9.52 per cent at 95 per cent confidence. The survey was conducted strictly according to the code of conduct of the UK’s Market Research Society.

New name. Same team. Same high quality advice.

London – Close Brothers Corporate Finance, one of Europe’s leading corporate finance advisers, has been renamed DC Advisory Partners.

DC Advisory Partners currently has nine European offices (in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and Poland), employing over 200 practitioners. It remains committed to offering high quality, independent, conflict free advice through its pan-European offices and its sister companies in Asia and the United States.

DC Advisory Partners is consistently ranked in the top five European advisers in the M&A mid-market league tables, having advised on more than 240 acquisitions and disposals since the start of 2007. In Q1 2010 it completed 12 transactions valued at €3.1bn. Recent deals include advising Triton on its €850m acquisition of Nordic Hospitals Group, Ambea; ICG on its acquisition of CPA, the IP and legal services business; Warburg Pincus on its acquisition of Survitec; Advent International on its acquisition of Xafinity; and Advent International on the sale of Poundland.

DC Advisory Partners’ debt advisory and restructuring team is one of the largest in Europe. With 46 dedicated practitioners across Europe, it is currently advising on over 21 mandates for both borrowers and lenders.

The change in the company name follows the sale of Close Brothers Corporate Finance to Daiwa Capital Markets in July 2009. DC Advisory Partners remains an independent advisory business, with the capacity to draw on the resources of its parent operations in Asia and the United States.

Stephen Aulsebrook, European Chief Executive of DC Advisory Partners commented:
“Our new name, DC Advisory Partners, marks the start of an exciting new stage for our business. Not only do we have the same team committed to giving the same high quality, independent advice, but we also have a parent company, Daiwa, that understands how important this independence is for our clients. Our extensive network of sister companies throughout Asia and the United States, enables us to give clients greater access to a global network of relationships and opportunities.”

Acquisition will help retailers and manufacturers reduce costs and waste in the supply chain

UNITED KINGDOM, – Aldata Solution Oyj ( NASDAQ OMX Helsinki ALD1V) and Cosmic Solutions Ltd today announces the signing of a definitive agreement for Aldata to acquire all shares and assets of Cosmic, a specialist UK provider of category management software, for an enterprise value of approximately 3 million GBP, helping retailers better respond to changes in customer demand, reduce waste, and increase shopper satisfaction.

The combination of Aldata, which provides world leading retail space and supply chain management solutions that optimize the placement and replenishment of products in the store, and Cosmic, which provides innovative analytical software that calculates the optimum mix of products to meet shopper, supplier and retailer objectives, creates a world leading Integrated Category Management solution. This new solution will allow manufacturers and retailers to have the right product, in the right place, at the right time, and in the right quantity on supermarket shelves.

“This announcement is important for the retail and CPG industry as it combines best of breed technology to help reduce waste and costs in the supply chain, increase customer satisfaction, and optimize product profitability at a time when competition for customers is at an all time high and economic recovery is creating major changes in buying behavior,” said Allan Davies, Chief Marketing Officer of Aldata. “It is now even more critical than ever to ensure products are available to meet customer demand.”

Aldata and Cosmic have already cooperated on joint customer engagements and have carried out collaborative marketing, and training activities based on their combined capabilities. Some of Cosmic’s current customers include many of the world’s leading consumer goods companies such as, Unilever, Diageo, Johnson & Johnson, Glaxo-Smith-Kline, United Biscuits, Heinz, Kimberley Clarke, Carlsberg, and Constellation Wines, plus regional brands including Kerry Foods, Findus, John West, Britvic, and Aunt Bessies.

Global Retail CIO Survey 2010 (Martec International)
(Survey of 109 Retail CIOs representing over $500 billion in revenues and 62,000 stores)
Optimizing the product / place / promotion offer remains key, with retailers upgrading or implementing new systems for Automated Replenishment (52%), Assortment Optimization (58%), Promotions Optimization (56%), Promotions Management (54%).

“The acquisition of Cosmic represents the second step in our Integrated Category Management strategy following the acquisition of Apollo Space Management in 2008,” said Bertrand Sciard, President and CEO of Aldata. “Combined with our best of breed retail Space, Replenishment and Supply Chain suites it will provide our customers with unique capabilities to plan and deliver accurately across multiple store sizes and formats.”

On completion of the transaction, Cosmic staff will join Aldata in a discrete business unit headed by Cosmic Managing Director, David Wilkins. Aldata’s global marketing, sales channels and support network will add depth and breadth to Cosmic’s international distribution while maintaining the high levels of flexibility and service which Cosmic customers are accustomed to receiving.

“We are very excited to be joining a business with the same focus, dedication, and values that Cosmic has held for 18 years. Our long and trusted relationships with CPG suppliers reflect Aldata’s similar relations with global retailers,” said David Wilkins, Managing Director of Cosmic. “Together we can deliver new levels of effective category management optimized for both sets of customers.”

New investor leads $10M growth round to build on Aepona’s leading market position in mobile applications enablement and Network as a Service

Belfast, UK – 6th May 2010 – Aepona, the software company that enables a new era of profitable collaboration between mobile operators and application providers, today announced that BlackBerry Partners Fund, a Toronto-based global fund focused on applications, services and supporting infrastructure for mobile platforms, has led a new $10M investment round in the company. Existing Aepona investors Amadeus Capital Partners, Polaris Ventures, Innovacom, Nordic Venture Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures also participated in the round.

Aepona, whose revenues grew 50% year-on-year from 2008 to 2009 with positive EBITDA, will use the new round of funding to accelerate its commercial growth. It will invest in additional sales and business development resources to take advantage of the market opportunity that the growing global demand for mobile-enabled applications presents for both the company and its mobile operator customers.

Aepona provides the software engine that powers the “Network as a Service” (NaaS) business model for mobile operators. With Aepona’s solution, a mobile operator can monetise important assets and functionality within its network – such as billing, location, messaging and voice communications – to open up new revenue opportunities. It can expose and share these assets as Web Service APIs, for third-party application developers, enterprises and media companies to incorporate into new and existing mobile-enabled applications.

Aepona is a market leader in the NaaS marketplace through its deployments with more than 20 Tier One mobile operators around the world, together with its pioneering work on the GSM Association’s OneAPI initiative and the launch of the Canadian OneAPI commercial service, which is at the forefront of the Mobile Cloud Computing market.

Commenting on its decision to invest in Aepona, Marc Faucher, Partner at BlackBerry Partners Fund said, “Aepona’s proposition is constructively aligned with the strategic goals of mobile operators, and the company is ideally positioned to capitalize on the major trends that are shaping the future of the mobile industry.”

Among these key trends are:

- Mobile operators looking for ways to re-assert themselves in the applications value chain to address increasing competition from web-based service providers.
- The proliferation of high-end smartphones enabling a new generation of applications and services that combine advanced device functionality with core mobile network functionality, creating significant additional value for the end-user compared with the device-only applications that are prevalent today.
- The arrival of Cloud Computing into the mobile domain meaning that application providers can now quickly and easily access mobile network capabilities across multiple operators. This reduces market fragmentation and is vital for driving mass adoption of applications on a global scale.

“Aepona’s solution directly addresses these trends, and it’s for this reason that BlackBerry Partners Funds believes the company is poised for significant growth. We look forward to working with Aepona, and providing insight and support that will help the company realise its full potential in the mobile eco-system,” continues Faucher.

“We are delighted to welcome BlackBerry Partners Fund on board as a new investor in Aepona,” said Al Snyder, CEO of Aepona. “The Fund shares our vision for the future of the mobile industry – one in which mobile operators can adopt a two-sided business model, delivering differentiated, network-enabled applications through their retail channels as well as directly monetizing their network and billing assets to open up new wholesale revenue opportunities from the Mobile Cloud. We especially look forward to leveraging the relationships that BlackBerry Partners Fund shares with the handset and application developer communities, to develop new propositions that combine the unique capabilities of the mobile device with the power of the mobile network.”