Mountain Views - December 2011

DIGITAL DOMAIN MEDIA GROUP (DDMG):
IPO accomplished as scheduled

digital-domain

On November 18, Mountain Partners Group accomplished the IPO of the Academy Award® winning digital production company together with Roth Capital Partners. Despite challenging market conditions, Mountain realized the public offering as scheduled. After having closed an excellent pre-financing round, the company is now listed at the NYSE. The world’s leading visual effects and animation studio is known for the production of animated content and visual effects of blockbuster movies, such as the Transformers trilogy, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Apollo 13 and Titanic.

Mountain Cleantech Fund II goes Austria: Collaboration with aws and office opening in Vienna

MCT_Cleantech_Logo

Austria Wirtschafts Service (aws) participates in Mountain Cleantech Fund II as a cornerstone investor with immediate effect. aws, as business development bank and investment arm of the Austrian government, has been supporting small and medium-sized companies since 2002. Mountain Cleantech Fund II won a tender process against other funds and was selected by the Ministry of Economy. Through the collaboration, the management team of Mountain Cleantech Fund II  – under the leadership of Juergen Habichler – will profit from intensive know-how transfer and local network access due to the strategic partnership. Mountain Cleantech Fund II aims for a target volume of EUR 100 million whereof EUR 23 million already have been raised at the First Closing in October 2011. In order to strengthen its presence within the Austrian Cleantech sector, Mountain Cleantech AG opened an office in Vienna on 1st of December.

Top player: Secusmart is ranked first among fast growing technology companies

secusmart

According to the annual Deloitte survey “Fast 50”, Secusmart is ranked first in the category “Rising Stars” which evaluates the fastest growing technology ventures in Germany. Located in Düsseldorf (Germany), Secusmart develops and distributes trend-setting solutions for secure communication. During the reference period, Secusmart was able to generate growth in sales of more than 2000%. Especially the market for mobile security solutions is a driver of the company’s superior growth rate. Secusmart became market leader for secure and highly secure voice communication in very short time. Mountain Super Angel (MSA) has been engaged in the company since 2008.

Sustainable success: Identive Group continues growth momentum in Secure ID market

identive

Increasing demand for Identive’s products and solutions for the Employee ID, Citizen ID and Consumer ID markets led to 30% growth year over year in the third quarter (Q3 2011). The company’s latest acquisition, polyright, realized strong sales of multi-function campus ID cards while investment continues in Identive’s cloud-based identity management service through its idOnDemand business unit. Recent product wins include 122,000 readers for the Spanish National e-ID program, $3.3 million in orders for RFID transponders for transit applications, and 3 million NFC tags for a major handset manufacturer. Mountain Partners Group is currently Identive’s biggest single shareholder.

New investments: Mountain Super Angel (MSA) engages in auspicious ventures

regio-heldenperalfaction

Mountain Super Angel (MSA) continues strengthening its portfolio due to investments in Pearlfection GmbH and RegioHelden GmbH. The online creative platform Pearlfection (www.pearlfection.de) provides individualized jewelry in Europe. The capital will be used for exploiting existing potentials and accelerating growth within the attractive jewelry market (see our Christmas promotion below). Together with Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, MSA also invested a seven-figure EUR amount in RegioHelden GmbH (www.regiohelden.de). RegioHelden plans to use the proceeds of this Series A financing round to scale its sales force, establish new offerings and further develop its technology platform. The company provides measurable online marketing services to small- and medium-sized business customers by placing ads on search engines such as Google as well as by optimizing websites.

Strategic partnership: Customer Alliance
collaborates with IHA

customer-alliance

Customer Alliance (www.customer-alliance.com), one of MSA’s portfolio companies, boosts its position within the German hotel market since the company enters into a strategic partnership with the German hotel association IHA. Customer Alliance provides an advanced rating system, which allows hotel managers to survey guests and publish reviews directly on the hotel’s website. Due to the innovative solution, hotels will be able to reduce their dependence from unauthorized portals and improve their direct bookings. IHA presents Customer Alliance as “Preferred Partner” as of now. MSA has been engaged in Customer Alliance since May 2011.

+++ Events +++

The Motto of the EntrepreneursDay 2012 is: “Next Stop: EXIT”.
Please wait for your personal invitation in January.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Learn more about one of our target companies, Pearlfection, and maybe you will find the perfect Christmas gift for your loved ones! By using the promotion code msaxmas you will receive 20% discount on the complete product range. Visit www.pearlfection.de and redeem the promotion code at the second payment step (payment method). Delivery only within Germany/ Austria. Valid until 24th of December 2011.

The Mountain Partners Group whishes you Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

 
 

  • BLUEHILL ID ANNOUNCES UNAUDITED PRELIMINARY FOURTH QUARTER AND FULL YEAR RESULTS

    St. Gallen, Switzerland – Bluehill ID AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: BUQ) a provider of products, services and solutions for the security, identification and RFID industries, today announced unaudited preliminary results for its 2009 fiscal fourth quarter (Q4) and year (FY) according to IFRS.

  • SYSCAN ID EXPANDS INTO THE UK MARKET

    PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT REACHED WITH ANIMALCARE GROUP PLC TO DISTRIBUTE EID WAND READER

    Montreal, Quebec – Syscan ID Inc., a leading producer of RFID readers used in animal identification and livestock tracking management, today announced its expansion into the UK market. The company announced it has reached a channel distribution agreement with Animalcare Group’s Livestock division which include the well established Ritchey and Fearing brands.

  • IDENTIVE GROUP ANNOUNCES PRELIMINARY FOURTH QUARTER RESULTS AND PREVIEW OF NEW BUSINESS STRUCTURE

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    SANTA ANA, Calif. and ISMANING, Germany – SCM Microsystems, Inc., d.b.a. Identive Group (NASDAQ: INVE; Frankfurt Stock Exchange: INV), a provider of products, services and solutions for the security, identification and RFID industries, today announced preliminary results for its 2009 fiscal fourth quarter (Q4) and year (FY) and outlined the Company’s cost reduction program following the completion of its combination with Bluehill ID.

  • IDENTIVE GROUP EXPANDS EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT TEAM

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    Melvin Denton-Thompson Named CFO/COO, Dr. Manfred Mueller Named CEO of SCM Microsystems Business Unit

    SANTA ANA, Calif. and ISMANING, Germany – SCM Microsystems, Inc., d.b.a. Identive Group (NASDAQ: INVE; Frankfurt Stock Exchange: INV), a provider of products, services and solutions for the security, identification and RFID industries, today announced that it has expanded its management team with the addition of three new executives in line with the announced reorganization of its management structure. All appointments are effective January 19, 2010.

  • SCM Microsystems and Bluehill ID AG COMPLETE Business Combination

    Combined Company to Adopt New Name: Identive Group

    Santa Ana, Ismaning, and St. Gallen – SCM Microsystems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCMM; Prime Standard: SMY), a leading provider of solutions for secure access, secure identity and secure exchange, and Bluehill ID AG (FSE: BUQ), a leading provider of automatic identification and RFID technologies, products, services and solutions, announced today that the transaction to combine their respective businesses has closed.