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1

 

13 May 2000

FT: Geo issued a statement on Thursday saying there was no reason for the price drop over past few weeks. Just strong influence of the NASDAQ and sector volatility. Others in the sector have fallen 30% against GEOs fall of 80%. It has strong product range and £7.5m joint venture with Energis to distribute its products, including s/w to dispay high quality video clips over the internet.

One analsyt said: " The shares are trading at 116 x next years sales. The sector usually trades at 20 to 30 x next years sales for Co.s without earnings. So its quite expensive.

2.
10th Aug 2000
heresay: It seems that the Inland Revenue have declared that this stock is not allowed inside Equity or Self Select ISAs. Unfortunately, there are many people out there both private individuals and companies providing ISAs who were not told this until AFTER they had put this stock inside their ISAs. People with large profits don't want to sell or they will incur heavy CGT, and people who are currently in loss do not want to sell unless they can count the loss against gains for CGT purposes. This has not hit the headlines, but much lobbying has been going on by various finance institutions to get the mess sorted out. In the mean time, I am not sure what this will do to the share price.
3
10th Aug 2000.

GEO amongst others have had a problem with the Inland Revenue concerning ISAs. There now appears to have been a u-turn from the IR. See link:

http://www.citywire.co.uk/LatestNews/default.asp?section=0&vid=14501&fst=

4
10th Aug 2000.

Shares in Psion (PON:LSE) are getting a boost this morning both from solid half year figures and confirmation that Symbian will be floated, subject to market conditions. The stock is up 2.4%, or 16p, at 681p. However the news is not quite as good as it seems. First, the news of Symbian is not really all that new, and second the results are not quite as good as they appear on the surface. Despite today's announcement, Psion is not actually bringing the Symbian flotation forward. The company is merely saying that a flotation is the preferred option. In a statement this morning the company says: "Symbian shareholders have decided to float Symbian - subject to good progress in the establishment of volume products and to prevailing conditions in financial markets." See Also Psion Special: Cashing in On Symbian Up to now, Psion has consistently said it was looking at floating the unit but that was not thought likely until Symbian started to pull in significant revenues. Since Symbian is not expected to break even until the end of 2001 and won't be profitable until the year after that, the flotation is unlikely to happen in the near term. Indeed, Psion chief executive David Levin admits this morning that Psion has not even appointed a banker to the float. "What we've been saying to date is that flotation is one of the options open to us. Now we're saying it's the preferred option," he says. "As far as the timing goes, it remains the same. We're not in the business of floating this company until it's ready in terms of the markets for its products having been established."

THIS IS THE INTERESTING BIT:

Analysts have guessed that Symbian could be worth from £1-10 billion. At the mid point of that range, £5 billion, Psion's 28% stake in the venture would be worth £1.4 billion. Symbian is a venture between Psion, Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola and Matsushita. It was set up to try to make its EPOC operating system a standard for the mobile computing and phone industry. Sony and Philips also licence the technology but are not shareholders in the business. The above extract from The Street article of todays date relates to the following Geo announcement of 3rd August.

GEO Interactive Media Group Ltd 3 August 2000GEO to deliver wireless video solutions on Symbian platform

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August 3, 2000 - GEO Interactive Media Group Ltd ("GEO"), a leading-edgeprovider of wireless video solutions, today announced that it has developed a Symbian platform-based version of its Emblaze A2 MPEG4 decoder softwaresolution. Symbian has signed a non-commercial evaluation agreement to includethe technology on a showcase CD for 3rd party technologies running on theSymbian platform.Symbian, the leading technology provider for manufacturers of Smartphones andCommunicators, has licensed its platform to companies including Ericsson(NASDAQ:ERICY), Motorola (NYSE:MOT), Nokia (NYSE:NOK), Panasonic (NYSE:MC),Philips (NYSE:PHG), Psion and Sony.The offering of the Emblaze (trademark) Wireless technology for the Symbianplatform will enable all existing and future Symbian based devices to provide streaming audio and video services over existing (2G GSM, CDMA, TDMA) andfuture (2.5G, 3G) cellular networks. The Emblaze (trademark) solution willenable Symbian's software base with applications such as live video coverage,video on-demand applications (VOD), video messaging and two way full-duplexvideo conferencing. This effort will dramatically extend GEO's reach to mobilehandsets worldwide enabling MPEG-4 video transmission to mobile terminals viaits Emblaze (trademark) back-end systems.Sharon Carmel, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of GEO said: "TheSymbian platform combined with GEO's carrier grade end-to-end solution willprovide network operators with a critical mass install-base of video enabledhandsets and mobile terminals to which they can offer streaming videoservices. We are delighted to cooperate with Symbian as the leaders in mobileOS in bringing the next generation of mobile communication to the world."Stephen Randall, EVP of Design and Technology, Symbian said, "GEO's Emblaze(trademark) is an ideal solution for video streaming over wireless networks.Their compelling technology complements the multimedia capabilities of theSymbian platform, enabling our licensees to provide innovative wireless videoapplications."

5
10th Aug 2000
GEO Interactive Media Group Ld 9 August 2000 GEO Announces Acquisition Closure GEO Interactive Media Group Ltd announces today that it has reached a closure for the acquisition of Zapex Research the FABless chip design subsidiary of the Japanese corporation Brother. The acquisition was finalized as an all stock transaction where GEO has acquired 100% of Zapex Research shares in return for 3,055,556 common stock shares of GEO Interactive. An application to that effect was made to the UK listing authority and the London Stock Exchange.
6
21st Aug 2000

nwfusion.com:-

Tornado adds video to unified messagingBy Jason Meserve The Edge, 08/09/00 EL SEGUNDO, CALIF. - Tornado Development and GEO Interactive have partnered to add video messaging technology to Tornado Messenger service for carriers and telcos. Tornado will embed GEO's Emblaze streaming media product into Tornado Messenger, which will allow end users of the service to add video messages to their e-mails. Using a standard Web cam and microphone, a user can record a message and send it to any number of recipients. "The streaming video piece adds a more personal touch," says Duke Fonner, a product manager at Tornado. "It helps eliminate some of the vagaries of text-only e-mail." What is recorded by the VidMail component of Tornado Messenger is stored on an Emblaze video server located in the service provider's central office. Each recipient of the video message views it through a browser and does not have to download a lengthy file. Because the clip is stored and served centrally, it saves disk space by not sending out multiple copies of the same clip. Unified Messaging's Holy Grail is to allow users to receive and get messages from any device: phone, fax, e-mail, PDA or cell phone. With VidMail, users are not limited to just viewing video messages on a PC. They can also dial in to the service and listen to just the audio on a phone, Fonner says. This feature is also useful for those on low-bandwidth Internet connections, which are not suitable for streaming video. Tornado OEMs its Tornado Messenger product to telcos and other large service providers that want to offer unified messaging to their own customers. VidMail is available today at no additional cost to the service provider. Tornado Development: www.tornadodevelopment.com

7
5th Sep 2000
The Directors of GEO Interactive Media Group Ltd (^GEO^) will be announcing the Group's results for the six months ended 30th June 2000 on Wednesday 4th October 2000. The company will be hosting two presentations on the day. The presentations will include demonstrations of GEO's wireless applications, the technology and product offering of recently acquired Orca Interactive and Zapex Research, as well as an overview of the current trading position and future strategy of the company. It will conclude with an extensive question and answer session. Senior management will spend the remainder of the week conducting one-to-one meetings with institutional investors in the UK and Europe.
8
11 Sep 2000
RNS news: Shares down 16% and the following news came out ahead of next months results! GEO Interactive Media Ltd today confirmed that Eli Reifman, Board member and co-founder of the Company, has been appointed as Chief Executive today. The present Chief Executive Shai Schiller has announced his intention to retire to pursue other interests. No other changes to the board or the management are expected as a result of this announcement.
8a
28th Sep 2000
Geo Interactive moves into profit on 4000% sales increase By Jon Mainwaring Thu 28 Sep 2000 SEPTEMBER 28: As exclusively predicted by ShareCast yesterday, audio and video technology specialist Geo Interactive Media Group this morning announced a surprise move into profitability during the first half of this year. The company reported an operating profit of $1.3m on sales up 4000% to $12.6m - and ShareCast understands it may add telecommunications giant Ericsson to its clients in the near future. The move into profitability follows a $6m deal with Korean electronics group Samsung last May, and the completion of other deals described by chief executive Eli Reifman as 'highlighting our technological superiority'. Reifman added that the company continued to believe it holds an 18-month lead over competitors in the wireless data streaming market. Reifman said that further deals, along the same lines as that with Samsung, would be announced by the end of the year, and that Geo has a $6m backlog of orders. But he refused to comment on rumours reported by ShareCast on August 16 that the company was close to signing a deal with Ericsson, other than to say: 'We are in talks with all the major handset manufacturers in the world.' The deal with Samsung, for which Geo received $6m in licensing fees, involved Geo's Emblaze A3 ASIC chip, which enables two-way video streaming for applications such as video conferencing using mobile telephones. The company is currently talking to around 20 other potential clients among the world's leading mobile telecommunications companies, including Ericsson. ShareCast understands that an announcement is due in the near future. Reifman said that although Geo intends to carry on selling its video software for desktop computer-based internet applications - such as its video e-mail system Global Messaging - he expects that 'in the long run the wireless side of the business will represent the bulk of our revenues'. He added that while Geo is currently a FTSE 250 company, 'We see ourselves as building the company towards FTSE 100 status.' Reifman also confirmed that he intends to list Geo on New York's Nasdaq stockmarket. As indicated by ShareCast yesterday, Geo stated its first half results alongside results from both the first and second halves of last year in the hope that it will enable analysts in London to develop a clearer understanding of the company's finances following its explosive early growth and a series of acquisitions. The figures show that year-on-year sales were up 40 times, while the six-monthly increase was from $7.9m at the end of December to $12.7m at the end of June. The first half figure included a cost of $10.5m following last spring's acquisition of Israeli software group Orca. Reifman said Geo has now established sales channels in Europe and the Far East, and opened a New York office. Its shares are up 20p to 1252.5p.
9
1st Oct 2000

FT: Interim Results: Half year to June, Pre-tax profit £3.94m (-£7.4m), still no divi.

[ note that these results were purposely released early to try to calm the market of the loss of Schiller a couple of weeks ago - IRW ]

10
14th Oct 2000
FT:GEO INTERACTIVE MEDIA GROUP Directors Dealings: 1.1m SOLD by 6 directors for £11.770m
11
18 Oct 2000
newssource: RNS news: RNS Number:7397S GEO Interactive Media Group Ld 19 October 2000 GEO signs $1.2m deal with Commtouch 19 October 2000 - GEO Interactive Media Group Ltd. (^GEO^) announces today that is has signed an agreement with Commtouch (Nasdaq: CTCH), the worldwide leader in integrated email and messaging outsourcing services, that will enable Commtouch to provide audio and video messaging over standard Email and cellular networks. The new service will be available worldwide and will give both companies and their customers a competitive edge in the Internet messaging arena.
12
24th Oct 2000
Times: 24/10/00. GEO Intv. Media yesterday issued a statement saying it saw no reason why its shares should fall after they shed an alarming 62.5p to 997.5p by mid afternoon. The company said a claim for 50.1% of its capital by Malam Systems, an Israeli co. had "no legal merit". The announcement helped its shares back to £10.20, down 40p on the day. But dealing room chat suggested that, despite the company's bullish stance, it was a bid target and blamed its troubles on potential buyers talking it down ahead of a play.
13
28th Oct 2000 GEO Interactive - Stmnt re Malam Systems Claim RNS, Oct 23, 2000, 169 words Clarification About Malam Systems' Claim In response to a demand made by Israeli based Malam Systems, GEO Interactive Media Limited would like to state, after a thorough review of this demand by the company and its legal counsel, that this claim has no legal merits, it is totally baseless, legally wrong and is totally composed of false statements. It is our belief that the sole purpose of their claim is a pathetic and opportunistic attempt to extort GEO into a cash settlement via a massive public pressure. The Company would further like to state that it has no intention to succumb to such attempts and that we will do everything in our power to make sure that this particular case becomes a deterrent example for any future similar attempts. There is no change in the Company's business or prospects. It is on course with its business plan and we see no substantive reason for the decline in the company's share price. Enquiries: GEO Eli Reifman + 972 357 33288 Jennifer Nemirovsky
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9th Nov 2000
Copied with permission from www.watchitrise.com Mr Eli Reifman will be giving presentations in London (Lehman Brothers’ office) on 14 and 15 November 2000 to 50 (yes, fifty) institutions. At the presentations, he will be demonstrating, for the first time in Europe, the new Samsung (with GEO technology) phone. I shall be attending and will forward you a report of the proceedings the next day.
15
27 DEC 2000
27/12/00 09:59 GMT GEO Interactive, France Telecom running trials of Emblaze Wireless video LONDON (AFX) - GEO Interactive Media Group Ltd said it has begun to conduct multi-phase trials of its video streaming solutions over wireless networks with France Telecom OCISI, a division of the french operator of telecommunication giant France Telecom. During phase one, both companies tested the implementation of the Emblaze Wireless solution over existing GSM mobile networks. The next phase will include trials of live broadcasting, video on-demand and video messaging over upgraded GPRS networks, said GEO.
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9 JAN 2001
9/1/01 08:49 GMT Geo Interactive to change name to Emblaze Systems LONDON (AFX) - Geo Interactive Media Group Ltd said it plans to change its name to Emblaze Systems Ltd and will seek shareholder approval for the proposal at an extraordinary general meeting on Feb 5. The company said it intends to invest heavily in broadening its market reach and create a world brand and believes that "putting all marketing resources behind one compelling brand name will deliver the best results". It said all wireless products and technologies will go under the umbrella brand Emblaze "to convey the nature of this unique end-to-end solution". The Zapex Research unit, which contributes a major part of the Emblaze Wireless Technology, will be known as Emblaze Research. Chairman Naftali Shani said: "Our high end strategy of the Emblaze technology has opened the door to dramatic growth in our business and has given us the opportunity to partner with some of the best developers of technology in the world. The board concluded that merging the Emblaze technology name and our corporate identity would enable us to better leverage awareness of the Emblaze brand and further broaden our reach and mind share." He said the board remains confident in the strength of the business and looks forward to "further successes in 2001 and beyond as Emblaze Systems Ltd". ak/
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19 FEB 2001
19/2/01 07:43 GMT Emblaze Systems signs trial deal with Denmark's Sonofon LONDON (AFX) - Emblaze Systems Ltd, formerly GEO Interactive Media, said it has signed a trial deal for its video streaming solutions over wireless networks with Denmark's Sonofon telecommunications company. The trial is due to commence in mid-March and is expected to last through October 2001, it said. During phase one, Sonofon will conduct an internal trial focusing on the testing of the functionality of Emblaze in connecting with the Sonofon architecture. The second phase will be a testing of video streaming with selected business users, and the third phase will be a widening of the trial with a larger number of Sonofon consumers, the company said in a statement. The trial agreement was brokered through Xstream, Denmark's leading streaming media provider, which has been retained by Emblaze to initiate strategic alliances with companies in Denmark.
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27 FEB 2001
27/2/01 13:20 GMT Emblaze Systems, Energis to provide media streaming technology to mtv.co.uk LONDON (AFX) - Emblaze Systems and Energis PLC said they signed an agreement to provide Streamwave, their media streaming technology, to mtv.co.uk. Streamwave is co-marketed throughout Europe by Energis Squared, the internet and e-business arm of Energis, and Emblaze Systems.
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5 MAR 2001

3/5/2001 Emblaze opens up mobile 'walled gardens' -

video specialist drafts blueprint for mobile multimedia standard - Mobile users will soon be able to receive streaming video broadcasts from friends and colleagues regardless of differences in networks or handsets. Emblaze Systems (formerly GEO Interactive) and its wholly owned subsidiary, Emblaze Research (formerly Zapex Research), have taken a lead role in the development of the Wireless Multimedia Forum's (WMF) first recommended technical framework document. The document sets out a set of technologies and development practises that will lead to standardisation of the market. It will enable seamless,end-to-end delivery of streaming multimedia content across wireless networks. The WMF is an industry forum that includes major industry players such as Intel, Texas Instruments, Lucent, Cisco, Toshiba, Matsushita, Samsung, NTT DoCoMo, AT&T Wireless, Sprint PCS, Walt Disney and Warner Brothers. Emblaze Research's CTO, Dror Gill edited the document and Emblaze Systems' chief architect, Dror Ginzberg wrote the Media Description section. "The release of RTFD 1.0 marks an important step towards the world-wide standardisation of mobile multimedia delivery, which will enable this market to grow tremendously," said Eli Reifman, CEO of Emblaze Systems. "Emblaze Systems is committed to supporting these emerging standards in its product implementation, and to further advancing the standardisation activity in this area through active participation in forums such as the WMF, 3GPP,and others." "We are proud of our leading role as editors and co-chairs of the WMF," said Naftaly Sharir, CEO of Emblaze Research. "The enormous effort we have invested in the last year working with industry leaders to drive this standard forward has finally paid off with the official release of RTFD 1.0. Our involvement in this process will also benefit our customers, since the Emblaze ASIC product line already fully supports RTFD 1.0, and will continue to support advanced versions of the RTFD as they are defined. We believe that standard-based technologies are the only viable solution in the wireless space. We'll continue to implement these technologies while enhancing the overall media experience using our leading-edge video processing algorithms". The Recommended Technical Framework Document (RTFD) defines the streaming mechanism between multimedia distribution systems (servers) and wireless multimedia terminals (clients), and a file format which will enable content interchange between content creation systems and multimedia servers. There are plans to expand the paper to include additional media types, scene description, billing/accounting capabilities, digital rights management and quality of service attributes.

20
12 MAR 2001

Emblaze Systems Ltd Preliminary Results for the year ended 31 December 2000

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12 March 2001 -

The Directors of Emblaze Systems Ltd, formerly GEO Interactive Media Group Ltd, are pleased to announce the results for the year ended 31 December 2000. During this period Emblaze has greatly strengthened its position as the leader in its sector by continuing to make significant progress across all areas of its operations, and today reports that it has exceeded its expectations and those of the market.

Highlights -----------------

* Full year results are into the black with net income of $11.6m (1999: $7.5m loss) * Profitable business achieving operating profit of $1.6m (excluding non- recurring charges and goodwill amortization resulting from the acquisition of Orca Interactive and Zapex Research and excluding any interest income) * Turnover increased by 310% to $30.7 million (1999 $7.5m) * Continue to maintain positive cash flow position * Extensive M&A activity - acquired full ownership of Orca Interactive Ltd and Zapex Research and invested in Tornado Development, Inc. a leading developer of Unified Messaging solutions. Emblaze continues to look at a number of potential acquisitions * Further licensing and royalty deal with Samsung for implementation of A3 chip into next generation phone * Licensing agreement with Ericsson to OEM Emblaze technology for a combined Ericsson/ Emblaze solution for cellular operators Naftali Shani, Chairman of Emblaze, said: 'We are extremely pleased with the performance of the business over the last twelve months. Our strengthened business model and focus on the wireless market has put us in an excellent position to take advantage of the growth in the sector. The slow-down in the telecommunications sector has had no effect on our business. In fact, our market segment is booming and we believe this strong growth will continue for the foreseeable future.' Eli Reifman, Chief Executive Officer of Emblaze, said: 'We have seen unprecedented interest in our technology and have entered into a record number of deals. The Company is at various stages of progress with literally hundreds of potential telecoms clients and strategic partners and expects to close a significant number of deals as a result of its sales and marketing activities in 2001. We are rapidly becoming a recognised brand name in the telecoms market.'

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14 MAR 2001 Naftali Shani, the chairman of Emblaze Systems, says the slowdown in the telecoms sector has had no effect on the company's business. "In fact, our market segment is booming and we believe this strong growth will continue for the foreseeable future," he said. Chief executive Eli Reifman said Emblaze had seen unprecedented interest in its technology and had entered into a record number of deals. "The company is at various stages of progress with literally hundreds of potential telecoms clients and strategic partners and expects to close a significant number of deals as a result of its sales and marketing activities in 2001," he said. "We are rapidly becoming a recognised brand name in the telecoms market." The comments came as Emblaze unveiled results showing turnover had increased by 310% to US$30.7m in the year to December 31 from US$7.5m a year ago. Analysts at UBS Warburg and HSBC had been looking for revenue of US$28m and US$29m respectively. Emblaze said net income for the group rose to US$11.6m from US$7.5m. Diluted EPS was 8c, compared with losses per share of 6c in 1999.