Atlas On Demand, Concurrent, and Everstream Strike Video-On-Demand Advertising Alliance
Leading Technology Providers to Integrate Technologies and Market Solution Enabling Advertisers to Take Advantage of Emerging Digital Television
SEATTLE and DULUTH, GA – July 13, 2006 – Atlas, a provider of digital marketing technologies and expertise, and an operating unit of aQuantive, Inc. (NASDAQ: AQNT), Concurrent (NASDAQ: CCUR), a worldwide leader of on-demand technology that is shaping the future of television, and Everstream, a Concurrent company and industry leader of software for data collection, advertising, and reporting for the cable and broadband industry, today announced an agreement to integrate their respective technologies to market an end-to-end Video On Demand (VOD) advertising campaign management and measurement solution.
The companies will integrate Atlas On Demand’s automated campaign management technology with Concurrent’s VOD and Everstream solutions. The combined technologies will address the desire of cable operators and programmers to offer relevant and addressable TV advertising opportunities and will enable advertisers and agencies to more efficiently plan, buy, execute, and measure VOD campaigns.
“As cable’s vision of Video On Demand advertising comes into focus, Concurrent is committed to providing operators with the necessary tools to seamlessly insert, manage and track ad content,” said Gary Trimm, CEO of Concurrent. “Integrating the campaign management and reporting tools of Atlas on Demand into the Concurrent/Everstream suite of products enables accountable digital TV advertising and provides VOD operators with additional choices that will increase the value proposition of VOD. Targeted ad insertion and quantitative reporting of this data are critical to ensuring the prolonged success of VOD’s evolving advertising revenue model.”
The Atlas and Everstream technologies provide cable advertisers, operators and programmers with the tools they need for VOD ad placement, and addresses many of the technological constraints faced while buying and selling VOD advertising today. The complementary functions will enable advertising buyers and sellers to transact more effectively by providing the cable industry with a comprehensive solution for automated ad management, advertising decision logic, campaign optimization and reporting.
“We see this relationship as a key milestone towards enabling a seamless and frictionless network between the operators, content providers, cable networks, advertisers, and agencies,” stated Charlie Lougheed, Everstream President. “Bringing these stakeholders together by providing end-to-end campaign management, reporting, and forecasting will grow the market and introduce new revenue opportunities for our customers and partners, as well as better content selection for cable and broadband subscribers.”
"Our advertisers and ad agencies tell us that three key behind-the-scenes functionalities are required for marketers to begin to realize the full-potential of VOD advertising," said Atlas on Demand Senior Vice President and General Manager Scott Ferris. According to Ferris, "This partnership directly addresses all three priorities: scalability, creative optimization and data measurement." Ferris added, "While we are still in the early stages of establishing the infrastructure for the next-generation VOD advertising model, this agreement reduces technology hurdles, while directly addressing the digital needs of agencies and advertisers."
About Atlas
Atlas (www.AtlasSolutions.com) is a provider of digital marketing technologies and expertise. Atlas offers agencies and marketers integrated solutions for Video On Demand, online campaign management, rich media, search marketing, landing page optimization, reporting, and analysis to maximize their online ROI, and provides a highly scalable ad-serving platform to help online publishers increase revenue. Atlas delivers the industry's most complete service and support, serving its clients from offices in Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Denver, and London. Atlas is an operating unit of aQuantive, Inc (NASDAQ: AQNT) and is a member of the NAI, adhering to the NAI privacy principles that have been applauded by the FTC.
About Concurrent
Concurrent (NASDAQ: CCUR) is a leading provider of high-performance, real-time Linux software and solutions for commercial and government markets. For 40 years Concurrent’s best-of-breed products have enabled a range of time-critical solutions including: modeling and simulation, high speed data acquisition, visual imaging, low latency transaction processing and on-demand television. Concurrent’s on-demand television applications are utilized by major service providers in the cable and IPTV industries to deliver video-on-demand (VOD). Concurrent is a global company with regional offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia, and has products actively deployed in more than 24 countries. Concurrent’s products and services are recognized for being uniquely flexible, comprehensive, robust and reliable. For more information, please visit www.ccur.com.
About Everstream
Everstream serves the world-wide cable and telecommunications industry with software commercially deployed in ten of the largest broadband service providers, in 145 markets and covering over 14 million digital subscribers. Everstream’s domestic customers include Comcast, Time Warner, Adelphia, Cox and Echostar; international customers include J:COM in Japan. Everstream provides industry leading data collection, reporting, analytics, and advertising platforms, enabling universal data collection. Everstream technology empowers marketing, programming, advertising and operations teams to seamlessly analyze usage, revenue and quality of interactive services. This intelligence provides new ways to compete by quickly identifying opportunities for revenue growth, operational efficiencies and reduction of subscriber defection. For more information, visit www.everstream.com.
Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "forecasts," and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that the statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements also include any other passages that relate to expected future events or trends that can only be evaluated by events or trends that will occur in the future. The forward-looking statements in this release include, without limitation, statements regarding expected integration of Atlas On Demand technology with Concurrent and Everstream technologies. The forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the time the statements were made and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among others, the risk that product development and integration efforts may not be successful, may be delayed, or may be more costly than expected. More information about factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted is set out in aQuantive’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2005, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Concurrent’s Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Sept. 2, 2005 and subsequent filings with the SEC. The risk factors discussed in such Form 10-Ks under the heading “Risk Factors” are specifically incorporated by reference in this press release. Our forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and speak only as of the date of such statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon these forward-looking statements, which speak only as to the date of this release. Except as required by law, aQuantive and Concurrent, undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking or other statements in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.