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Horizon press release: Presenter.com Raises $6M from Softbank
1. Contact: Jonathan Hirshon FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Horizon Public Relations
(408) 969-4880 x110
jh@horizonpr.com
www.horizonpr.com
Presenter.com Raises $6M From SoftBank, John Sculley and Trans Cosmos
First-round investment validates market vision of first Web-based forum for expert presentations
San Jose, CA (Nov. 1, 1999) – Presenter.com (www.presenter.com), the Web’s first
online exchange and forum for presenters and consumers of expert-knowledge content, today
announced $6 million of initial venture-capital funding from Japanese media conglomerate
SOFTBANK Corporation, former Apple Computer Chairman and CEO John Sculley, and
Trans Cosmos, Inc. The company did not disclose individual investment amounts.
Presenter.com, which debuted in November 1999, was founded by Eric Chen, the co-
inventor of Apple® QuickTime® VR and a leader in the development of interactive video
technologies. The company provides Web audiences with online presentations from experts
around the world, covering a diverse array of topics relevant to the business world, by rede-
ploying existing videotape presentations in a platform-neutral, Web-optimized format.
The company will use the new capital to expand its operations and staff, implement an
international marketing campaigns, and to develop additional applications of its expert-
knowledge, online-exchange model.
“We’ve created a unique service, and staked out a leading position in a huge, untapped
market,” said Presenter.com President and CEO David Hancock. “SoftBank, John Sculley and
Trans Cosmos have a tremendous track record in identifying successful, fast-growing tech
companies. This investment validates our market strategy and opportunity, and puts us well on
our way to becoming the premier, streaming-media resource for expert knowledge on the Web.”
Presenter.com’s proprietary encoding technology transforms videotaped events into
iPresentations™, a new form of dynamic media that combines streaming audio synchronized
with transitional video or still slides. iPresentations, viewed in industry-standard media players
such as RealPlayer™ G2, Windows® Media Player and QuickTime® (Mac® OS support is
expected by April 2000), turn successful, one-time events into reusable assets capable of
reaching a global audience over the Web.
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2. Presenter.com Raises $6 Million
Nov. 1, 1999
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Presenter.com’s online forum provides a suite of turnkey services for corporations,
organizations and individuals with expert content they want to distribute via the Web. Customers
include individuals who come to the Presenter.com site to research and view content; owners or
generators of presentation content; and the network of companies that license Presenter.com
products and technology to deliver production, hosting and syndication services to content
owners and/or generators.
The company plans to generate revenue from the licensing and sale of services to create,
host and resell online presentations; from banner advertising and content sponsorship by
companies; and from content usage on either a pay-per-view or subscription basis.
“Presenter.com has built a compelling scenario for what we think will be a very suc-
cessful new kind of service on the Web,” said SOFTBANK Corporation Executive Vice Presi-
dent and CFO Yoshitaka Kitao, a member of Presenter.com’s board. “We fund many Internet
companies, but we are impressed with Eric Chen’s vision and the technology he has developed.”
“They’re uniquely positioned to capitalize on the expanding demand for broadband
streaming-media content,” said John Sculley, a self-described "venture catalyst” who is also on
Presenter.com’s board and is chairman of Live Picture, Inc., another California-based Internet
company. “I expect Presenter.com to dominate this new market.”
About Presenter.com
Headquartered in San Jose, CA, Presenter.com (www.presenter.com) is an online
exchange and forum for presenters and consumers of expert knowledge content. Presenter.com’s
proprietary encoding technology quickly turns live presentations or videos into iPresentations,
enabling companies, organizations and individuals to distribute and access expert knowledge
from around the world using Presenter.com’s high-quality, platform-neutral Web presentations.
Eric Chen, the co-inventor of Apple® QuickTime® VR and a leader in the development of
interactive video technologies, founded Presenter.com in 1998. The company’s major investors
include the Japan-ese media conglomerate SOFTBANK Corp., Trans Cosmos, Inc., and John
Sculley, former CEO of Apple Computer. Presenter.com plans an IPO in 2001. Editors Note –
Presenter.com screen shots, logos and images are available at www.horizonpr.com/clientimg.html
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3. Presenter.com Raises $6 Million
Nov. 1, 1999
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About SOFTBANK Corporation
SOFTBANK Corp. (www.softbank.com) has emerged as one of the world's leading
Internet-market forces. Through its ownership positions in more than 100 Internet companies,
including SOFTBANK Technology Ventures and SOFTBANK Capital Partners, it is able to
create market synergies for its family of companies on a global scale. In Japan SOFTBANK’s
activities encompass distribution, publishing, Internet-media platforms, a broad range of e-
commerce businesses, and joint ventures with companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, Yahoo!,
NASDAQ, and many other market leaders. In the U.S., SOFTBANK is the largest shareholder in
leading Internet companies such as Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), E*Trade (NASDAQ: EGRP),
and ZDNet (NYSE: ZD), and in Europe has established Internet joint ventures with News
Corporation and Vivendi. Headquartered in Tokyo, SOFTBANK is traded on the First Section of
the Tokyo Stock Exchange under Symbol 9984.
About John Sculley
John Sculley is the chairman of Live Picture, Inc. (www.livepicture.com) and former
chairman and CEO of Apple Computer, Inc., where he was responsible for making Apple No. 1
in worldwide PC market share by 1992, growing the company’s revenues from $600 million to
more than $8 billion. Mr. Sculley was President and CEO of Pepsi for six years before joining
Apple. Mr. Sculley is best known as a marketing executive who brought big-brand marketing to
Silicon Valley in the early 1980s and led major brand-building campaigns such as Pepsi
Generation, Pepsi Challenge, Macintosh 1984, Apple desktop publishing, the launch of the
PowerBook, the launch of QuickTime, and the launch of Apple CD-ROM home computers.
Mr. Sculley graduated from Brown University with a degree in architectural design and
later earned a master's degree in business administration from the Wharton Business School at
the University of Rhode Island. He also holds degrees from Johns Hopkins University and the
Royal College of Art, as well as an honorary doctorate from the University of Genoa.
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4. Presenter.com Raises $6 Million
Nov. 1, 1999
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About Trans Cosmos, Inc.
Established in 1966 as the Marui Keisan Center, Trans Cosmos (www.transcosmos.com)
is an independent information-service company that has since grown to eight offices in Japan,
four in the U.S. and one in China. Trans Cosmos is publicly traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange
where its average share price and net income-per share lead the Japanese information-technology
services industry. Trans Cosmos serves 680 clients in the information-services, construction,
retail-sales, computer-manufacturing and precision-instrument sectors. Trans Cosmos USA,
founded in 1989, assists U.S. clients seeking expansion opportunities in the Far East.
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