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News
Intel Invests in Five Companies Developing Technologies
for the Digital Home (27/9/2004)
Intel Corporation today announced that its venture
investing organization, Intel Capital, has made five additional
investments in companies developing innovative technologies for
the digital home.
The new investments, made from the $200 million
Intel Digital Home Fund, include first-time investments in Cablematrix
Inc., a broadband network services software company, Mediabolic
Inc., a developer of embedded software for consumer electronics
devices, and Pure Networks Inc., a provider of consumer software
and services for the digital home. BridgeCo AG, a digital entertainment
networking solutions provider, and Envivio Inc., a broadcast and
streaming media tools and systems company, received follow-on financing.
Financial terms of the new investments were
not disclosed.
"The Intel Digital Home Fund investments
we're announcing today support Intel's initiatives to enable people
to enjoy digital content -- including music, games, photos and video
-- on multiple devices in the home and beyond," said Scott Darling,
Intel Capital vice president and director of Enterprise and Digital
Home Sectors. "Barriers, such as interoperability and ease of use,
must be overcome to accelerate digital home technology adoption.
We're investing in these five companies to help solve these technical
issues, making it simpler and more enjoyable for people to connect
their consumer electronics and computing devices and share content
around their homes."
In addition to investing, Intel is delivering
innovative products, technologies and specifications for a new generation
of connected devices that work together on a wireless home network,
helping to bring the PC and consumer electronics industries together.
Intel is also working with hardware, software, content and service
companies to enable the digital home experience.
BridgeCo, based in Zurich, Switzerland, designs
integrated chips and software that wirelessly link PCs to consumer
electronics devices so consumers can easily enjoy digital content
anywhere in the home. The company's network adapters are used in
a wide range of consumer products, such as wireless audio adapters,
audio/video receivers, DVD/AVR players and music instruments. Intel
Capital first invested in BridgeCo in 2002. For more information
about BridgeCo, visit http://www.bridgeco.net.
CableMatrix, based in Atlanta and Jerusalem,
provides a software platform, the On Demand Service Platform (ODSP(TM)),
based on the CableLabs(R) PacketCable(TM) Multimedia standard. ODSP's
technology enables broadband service providers to deploy multimedia-rich
applications, such as videoconferencing, online gaming, SIP telephony
and streaming media, with a high level quality of service. For more
information about CableMatrix, please visit http://www.cablematrix.com.
Envivio, based in San Francisco, develops
Moving Picture Experts Group Layer 4 (MPEG-4) and Advanced Video
Coding H.264 software compression solutions. This includes a rich
set of integrated broadcast and streaming media tools for broadcasters,
network operators, content developers and enterprises. Intel Capital
first invested in Envivio in 2002. For more information about Envivio,
please visit http://www.envivio.com.
Mediabolic provides an embedded software
platform for consumer electronics products, PCs and PC peripherals.
The San Francisco company's middleware solution aggregates, organizes
and distributes entertainment media within the home -- making it
possible for consumers to enjoy digital media anywhere in the home,
including the living room or entertainment room. The software platform
includes compelling music, photo and PVR applications that operate
in new and traditional categories of consumer electronics products,
such as DVD players and PCs as well as digital media servers, recorders
and adaptors. For more information about Mediabolic, please visit
http://www.mediabolic.com.
Pure Networks makes the digital home lifestyle
easier, more secure and useful for consumers. The Seattle company's
consumer software and services tie together the wide range of routers,
gateways, networked devices and PCs with multiple operating systems
found in the digital home, allowing users to more fully enjoy their
home networks. Pure Networks' consumer products are distributed
directly to consumers and to hardware manufacturers and service
providers. For more information about Pure Networks, please visit
http://www.purenetworks.com.
Previous Intel Digital Home Fund investments
include Digital 5 Inc., Entropic Communications, Musicmatch Inc.,
Staccato Communications Inc., Trymedia Systems Inc., Wisair Ltd.
and Zinio Systems Inc.
Intel Capital, Intel's strategic investment
program, focuses on making equity investments and acquisitions to
grow the Internet economy in support of Intel's strategic interests.
Intel Capital invests in hardware, software and services companies
in several market segments, including computing, networking, and
wireless communications.
www.intel.com/capital
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