| Leading
Venture Capital Firms and Content Owners Support Joost's
Global Expansion
Index Ventures, Sequoia
Capital, Li Ka Shing Foundation, CBS Corporation and Viacom Participate
in Round
New York - May 9, 2007 - Joost™, the world's
first broadcast-quality Internet television service, today announced
that five selected parties have collectively invested approximately
$45 million in the company. Each party invested in a minority percentage
of the company. This funding will enable Joost (www.joost.com)
to accelerate product development, global expansion, localization,
and service offerings.
Founded in January 2006 by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, Joost
is powered by a secure, efficient, Internet platform that enables
premium interactive, advertising-supported, video experiences while
providing copyright protection for content owners and creators.
Joost can be accessed with a broadband Internet connection and offers
content to viewers for free.
"This funding represents a tremendous vote of confidence in Joost's
platform," said Janus Friis, co-founder of Joost. "We've carefully
selected these investors from a variety of interested parties, as
they are best-in-class in their respective arenas and bring unique
assets to Joost that will enable us to significantly accelerate
growth and development of the Company."
Index Ventures, a leading European venture capital firm, which
invests in impactful technologies that have global reach, led the
round with Sequoia Capital, the premier venture capital firm in
the world. Sequoia Capital has been the first investor and business
partner in companies that make-up 10% of the NASDAQ's value. In
combination, Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital bring unrivaled
expertise and alliances in Europe, Asia and North America.
Danny Rimer, general partner of Index Ventures said, "We are excited
to be working with Niklas and Janus once again as we see the same
ground-breaking potential in Joost that we saw in Skype. By leveraging
proven P2P architecture and assembling a world class management
team, they have made a powerful idea simple and brought new services
to market in record time. Our investment in Joost signals Index
Ventures continued commitment to investing in impactful technologies."
Roelof Botha, general partner, Sequoia Capital, added, "Feature
length video on the Internet has been long on promise and short
on delivery for some time. Full screen commercial content delivered
online has simply not been compelling for the viewer and has been
far too costly for the content owners. Joost allows content owners
to reach audiences of any size at any time where the viewer can
"lean back" to enjoy an immersive yet interactive video experience.
At the same time, Joost enables brand marketers to efficiently deliver
precisely targeted and measurable advertisements. This ability poises
the company to expand the video distribution business and capture
an enormous market opportunity."
Li Ka-shing, chairman of Hutchison Whampoa Limited and Cheung Kong
Holdings, invested in Joost through his charitable foundation, the
Li Ka Shing Foundation. Mr. Li is a valued partner in Asia. Joost
expects to work with Mr. Li and his respective affiliated companies,
to expand its distribution in China and other parts of Asia.
Mr. Li Ka-shing stated, "We were excited about the opportunity
to invest in Niklas and Janus. With the quality, content, speed
and usability of Joost's platform, and the community-targeted service
offerings, we expect Joost will revolutionize the Internet television
market."
As previously announced, CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS, CBS.A) and
Viacom and are also content partners, providing channels and programming
on Joost.
In addition to its investment, CBS has contributed more than 2000
hours of CBS entertainment, sports and news programming. Entertainment
programming offered includes the full CSI franchise, SURVIVOR, NCIS,
NUMB3RS and FAT ACTRESS, news content includes THE CBS EVENING NEWS
WITH KATIE COURIC, FACE THE NATION, clips form THE EARLY SHOW, 48
HOURS, and CBS SUNDAY MORNING and sports content includes COLLEGE
FOOTBALL HIGHLIGHT SHOW, NFL TODAY HOT TOPIC, GAME OF THE WEEK,
ONE2ONE and GO PRO OR GO HOME.
Also an investor in the round, Viacom is a "Key Launch Partner"
providing channels and programming from across all of its properties
including: Comedy Central, MTV, VH1 and Paramount Pictures. MTV
will offer popular shows, both past and present, including Laguna
Beach, Beavis & Butthead, Real World, Punk'd and My Super Sweet
Sixteen, while COMEDY CENTRAL will feature episodes from Stella,
CCP's and Freak Show. Also, Paramount Pictures will be providing
full-length feature films from its catalog of classics and recent
releases.
About Joost™
Joost™ provides a new way of watching TV that combines the
best of full-screen television entertainment with the interactive
and community benefits of the Internet to bring broadcast-quality
video to viewers anytime, anywhere. Based on a state-of-the-art,
secure, peer-to-peer streaming technology, Joost can be accessed
with a broadband Internet connection and offers video content to
viewers for free. Joost features more than 150 channels with programming
across all genres, including: cartoons and animation; entertainment
and film; sports; comedy; lifestyle and documentaries; and sci-fi.
Channels and programs available on Joost vary by geographic region,
based on copyright ownership. To learn more about Joost, visit www.joost.com.
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