Intel Boosts Investment In The Digital Home

December 29, 2004

Intel Corporation today announced that its venture investing organization, Intel Capital, has made three additional investments in companies developing innovative technologies for the digital home.
The new investments, made from the $200 million Intel Digital Home Fund, include a first-time investment in Gteko Ltd., an ease-of-use networking and support software company, and follow-on financing for Synacor Inc., a provider of portals and technology for delivering bundled online services, and Zinio Systems Inc., a digital magazine distributor.

Financial terms of the new investments were not disclosed.

"These new investments were made to support widespread adoption, use and sharing of digital entertainment and information - including music, games, news and video - among multiple devices in the home and elsewhere," said Scott Darling, Intel Capital vice president and director of Enterprise and Digital Home sectors. "We plan to continue to invest next year in companies that enable PC and CE devices to work together easily and in companies that deliver premium content services over IP networks."

Gteko, based in Ra'anana, Israel, provides software and support services for leading technology companies, including HP, Cisco-Linksys and Canon, to automate certain technical support functions, such as first-time set up of a home network, for millions of computer users worldwide.

Synacor, based in Buffalo, N.Y., provides portals and technology to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) enabling them to easily bundle a wide variety of free and paid subscription-only entertainment, educational and other services into their Internet portals. The company has integrated over 30 content and service providers into its product platform, Portelus™. Applying the cable TV business model to the Internet, Synacor offers ISPs one of the largest catalogs of subscription service providers available from one source today. The company's ISP network currently comprises over 5 million broadband subscribers. Intel Capital first invested in Synacor in 2003.

Zinio converts magazines to a digital format, replicating the printed version's look, and electronically delivers it to subscribers. The San Francisco company has delivered more than 26 million digital magazines from 200 popular titles, such as BusinessWeek, Motor Trend, Popular Science and U.S. News & World Report, to more than 1.6 million customers in 232 countries. According to the latest Audit Bureau of Circulation and BPA Worldwide publisher statements, the company has captured 61 percent market segment share for audited digital magazine circulation. Intel Capital first invested in Zinio in 2002.

"Since we created the Intel Digital Home Fund one year ago, we've now announced 12 investments," Darling added. "The companies we've invested in have contributed significantly to industry progress connecting PC and CE devices together, ensuring their ease-of-use, and paving the way for new services to deliver digital entertainment and information."

Intel Digital Home Fund investments announced earlier this year include BridgeCo AG, Cablematrix Inc., Digital 5, Inc., Envivio Inc., Mediabolic Inc., Pure Networks Inc., Staccato Communications Inc., Trymedia Systems Inc. and Wisair Ltd.

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.