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Technology Stocks : Innovacom (MPEG), [announced single chip MPEG-2 encoder] -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nutbuster who wrote (5920)	9/28/1998 1:48:00 PM
From: Nutbuster	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6297

Frank also stated that he is going to see this through,good or bad the co. will live or die with him at the helm

To: Nutbuster who wrote (5920)	9/28/1998 9:30:00 PM
From: DiViT	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6297

Maybe the financial institution was confused... and evaluated the wrong Innovacom? ;-) French Look To Invest More Abroad Alan Tillier, Contributor 09/28/98 CMP TechWeb Copyright 1998 CMP Media Inc. PARIS -- Innovacom, the venture capital arm of France Telecom, launches a major investment fund this week to support more Internet, networking, software, and micro-electronic start-ups in Europe and the United States. More than 240 French technology companies have received funding from Innovacom over the past 10 years, including Gemplus, now world leader in chips for smart cards, and Com One, Europe's leading modem manufacturer. Innovacom will make the 250 million French francs ($44.5 million) fund available to ventures in Europe, but from its new San Francisco offices will also look for American companies to invest in. Last year, Innovocom saw one $100,000 investment bear fruit following the sale of a Californian search engine company, Four 11, to Yahoo for $5 million. Partners in the latest fund include IAI Ventures, of Palo Alto, Calif., a leading U.S. IT venture capital company; French banks and insurance companies; Capcom, the Quebec savings institution; plus the family interests of French aircraft manufacturer Serge Dassault. Within three years, Innovacom has doubled the investments it manages to $178 million, according to the company's director, Denis Champenois. The latest fund raises Innovocom's total fund available for future investment to around $89 million, he said. "I think we are disproving the idea that France is behind in the venture capital field," said Champenois. "We have a different definition of venture capital and don't take [leveraged buy-outs] and a lot of private equity into account. In IT and bio-technology, we are on the same level as Germany and ahead of Spain and Italy. "There's lot of public and private capital available in France for start-ups. The government set aside $107 million from the latest partial sale of France Telecom to help newcomers. The problem is France does not have sufficient teams to manage the investments," said Champenois. But Champenois said he wants his investments to remain fairly small by U.S. standards "so we can stay close to creators. But if necessary, we are prepared to invest 2 to 3 million dollars along with, say, three other partners," he said. In the United States, Innovocom has invested $5 million in 10 projects over the past three years. This is due to be stepped up, according to Champenois. One example was the $1 million invested in e-Fusion of Portland, Ore., which works in IP telephony, a France Telecom priority. E-Fusion's concepts have been tested at France Telecom's main labs in France and are now undergoing field tests. Innovacom will now liaise with T-Venture, the venture capital branch of Germany's Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom's main international partner. Outside this Franco-German partnership, Innovacom has invested in Micronas, a German maker of components for cellular phones, and in Intershop, a creator of business websites, a company that moved from Germany to California and back and which is now quoted on the Neue Markt stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany. With one-third of its business now outside France, Innovacom has also forged links with British, German, and Israeli venture capital companies.