|
UPOC Networks Names David Friedensohn, Former CEO of BigStar Entertainment, As Chief Executive Officer
NEW YORK, July 21 /PRNewswire/ -- UPOC Networks, the leading provider of mobile messaging applications, today announced the appointment of David Friedensohn, former Chairman and CEO of BigStar Entertainment, the leading filmed entertainment and e-commerce site on the Web, as Chief Executive Officer. Previously, David was also Chairman and CEO of SonicNet and Advaya.
In addition, the company announced the appointment of Barclay Knapp as UPOC's Chairman. Mr. Knapp is the former CEO and President of NTL, the UK's leading integrated cable television, broadband, and telecommunications company.
Separately, funds advised by Apax Partners, one of the world's leading private equity firms, and Advent International, co-led a $5 million investment round in the company. Other investors in the round included Allen & Company LLC and Arts Alliance.
UPOC Networks operates unique and innovative "mobile communities" connecting mobile customers with content and each other via today's new mobile text and data capabilities and its own proprietary systems.
UPOC Networks leverages this expertise to create integrated mobile marketing campaigns, connecting brands and their mobile consumers for long- term relationship building. The company also works with media companies to adapt their content for mobile applications, allowing them to gain new distribution channels and generate higher revenues.
Mr. Friedensohn noted: "The members of the UPOC communities represent a whole new class of mobile device 'Super Users,' consumers who utilize their cell phone as their primary media and communications device. The business we are crafting around this rapidly growing user base includes exciting new applications and services that will bring the future of mobile media to the U.S. market. Under our model, our mobile carrier partners will see increasing Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) and decreasing churn, as our rapidly expanding base of UPOC Super Users increase their reliance on their phones to provide them with information and services relevant to their lives. UPOC will be extremely active in the coming months as we introduce compelling new products and applications."
Alan Patricof, Co-Founder of Apax Partners and Board Member of Upoc Networks, noted, "The appointments of Messrs. Knapp and Friedensohn underscore UPOC's commitment to providing cellular phone customers the most technologically advanced applications to create a total user experience in this rapidly changing world of mobile telecommunications. We are confident that these two seasoned executives, who have earned formidable reputations in the commerce, telephone, cable and cellular communications industries, will expand the uses of advanced communications technologies and interactivity. We look forward to the future of UPOC Networks."
Mr. Knapp commented: "I am particularly excited about joining the UPOC board as Chairman. UPOC Networks is particularly well positioned to benefit as the worldwide explosion in mobile messaging and data applications continues. We have the tools, the people, the backing, and a great management team with the addition of David as CEO -- to build UPOC into a truly special enterprise.
About David Friedensohn
David Friedensohn, most recently Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Redwood Partners International and with the Redwood Technology Fund, was the founder, Chairman of the Board, and Chief Executive Officer of BigStar Entertainment, incorporated in March of 1998. David led the company from inception through its IPO in August of 1999 to its position as one of the top filmed entertainment and e-commerce sites on the Web.
He was also the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Advaya Inc., formed in April, 2000, a wholly owned subsidiary of BigStar, offering proprietary, state-of-the-art direct marketing services to companies searching to create a presence on the Internet. Advaya's online direct marketing tools and expertise are used by Grey Advertising's Direct Marketing Division, Warner Bros., Publishers Clearing House, Chase Manhattan Bank. In December of 2000, Advaya was sold to Expression Engines, a privately held company financed by Chase Capital Partners.
Before BigStar, David was the CEO of SonicNet Inc. which was sold in December 1997 as part of Paradigm Music Entertainment to TCI Music, a 90%-owned affiliate of TCI, for over $33 million in cash and stock. At SonicNet, he developed an ad sales capability that attracted such brands as Levi's Brand, Coca-Cola, the Gap, Sony and the Ford Motor Company. He also forged syndication agreements with Yahoo!, PointCast, AOL, Digital Garage of Japan, Swiss telecom company Swisscom, and Australian telecom Telstra.
Previously, he was Vice President, Business Development and General Manager of the Prodigy's Wildflower Partners Fund from 1995 to 1997, where he oversaw relationships with content and technology companies. He launched Prodigy International, and directed the spin-offs of Prodigy's SonicNet investment to Paradigm Music and the Electronic Classified Advertising division to Thomson Newspapers Inc. David was also instrumental in the sale of Prodigy by its owners Sears and IBM to International Wireless, an affiliate of Boston Technologies.
Earlier in his career, he was President of GB Investment Corp., an entertainment industry consulting company, with such clients as Viacom, BMG Entertainment, Sony Pictures, NBC International and National Geographic Television. He began his entertainment industry experience at Viacom where he created finance strategies, mergers and acquisitions, and launching new businesses for the entertainment conglomerate as Director of Corporate Development. At Viacom, David worked on the acquisition and sales of cable systems, cable networks, TV and radio stations, film and TV libraries, TV syndication companies and was instrumental in the acquisition of Paramount Communications, the development of Nickelodeon Pictures and Viacom New Media, and the expansion of MTV Networks International.
David received an AB from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Columbia University.
About Barclay Knapp
Barclay Knapp co-founded Cellular Communications, Inc. (CCI), serving first as CFO and later as President and COO. CCI became one of the largest independent cellular system operators in the US, growing from start-up to over 1.25 million customers by the time of its sale to Airtouch in 1996 for $2.5 billion.
In the late 1980's Barclay and his cofounders extended their cellular expertise to offshore markets, starting Cellular Communications of Puerto Rico (CCPR), Inc. and Cellular Communications International, (CCIL), Inc. CCPR became the largest cellular operator in Puerto Rico, and CCIL was an operating partner with Olivetti in the highly successful Omnitel cellular company in Italy. CCPR and CCIL were sold in the late 1990's at valuations totaling approximately $2 billion to SBC and Mannesman, respectively.
In 1992, as the British Government gave UK cable TV companies permission to offer telephony over their own networks, Barclay and his CCI co-founder, George Blumenthal, acquired cable franchises in Scotland, Wales, and suburban London. NTL's precursor, CableTel, was founded in 1993.
Revolutionizing the marketing of bundled cable TV and telephone services in the UK. CableTel achieved record penetration rates, all-time lowest churn figures and the highest ever percentage of dual TV and telephone customers. By 1998, CableTel, re-named NTL, was the industry leader, winning 1998's JD Power Service awards for best multi-channel TV operator and best telephone service operator, over both Sky and BT.
From 1998 to 2000 NTL became a prime consolidator of the fragmented UK cable industry and the UK's biggest inward investor, committing $15B to its future-proof, fiber-optic network passing 8.8 million homes and 600,000 business premises, and leading ultimately to the company's present position as the UK's largest cable operator.
By acquiring the former engineering arm of the IBA, NTL also became the number one broadcast transmission provider in the UK, and a top-five business telecommunications company in the UK. And in early 2000, NTL began extending its experience outside the UK, directly or indirectly owning the largest cable operators in Ireland, France, and Switzerland, and one of the largest in Germany.
By the end of 2001, with turbulence in the telecommunications market, Barclay had confirmed NTL's intention to re-finance its balance sheet. By May 2002 NTL had reached an agreement with its creditors on its recapitalization plan, converting approximately $12B in debt into equity of two newly formed companies -- NTL UK and Ireland and NTL Europe -- through a US Chapter 11 Bankruptcy process.
In June 2002, Barclay was named President and CEO to lead the newly formed NTL Inc. From June 2002 to August 2003, Barclay and his team restored NTL to customer and revenue growth, cut churn to its lowest level ever, and recorded four straight quarters of EBITDA and cash flow growth -- culminating in the company going free cash flow positive in the second quarter of 2003. From its emergence from Chapter 11 in January 2003, NTL's stock rose from a low of $8 per share to a high of $73 -- and was 2003's best-performing US stock. Barclay left NTL in August 2003, having completed the mission set out by the new board of NTL a year earlier than expected.
Barclay Knapp received a BA in Mathematics from The Johns Hopkins University (1979) and an MBA from Harvard Business School (1983), he is now a Senior Fellow in the Center for Financial Economics at The Johns Hopkins University, and has formed a new firm, Charles Street Partners, to pursue financing and management opportunities in the telecommunications industry.
About UPOC Networks
New York-based UPOC Networks was founded in 1999 with the vision of a service that would let an emerging breed of American mobile consumers communicate with the people and companies that are important to them. Since then, UPOC Networks has developed the most comprehensive mobile community solution for carriers, consumers, media companies and marketers to communicate via SMS (text messaging), WAP (wireless Internet), voice, MMS (multimedia messaging), BREW, Java, and more. Now in its fifth year, UPOC Networks has more experience than any North American company in the space, and currently is solely responsible for more than 4% of all text messaging traffic in the United States.
UPOC Networks
CONTACT: Barry Kluger of Kluger Media Group, +1-480-703-8135, orbarry@barrykluger.com, for UPOC Networks
[ Back To MobilityTechzone Homepage's Homepage ]
|
COMMUNITIES
Technology Marketing Corp. 1997-2011 Copyright. | Ph: 800-243-6002, 203-852-6800; Fx: 203-853-2845 | Contact us 