SkillPod Media, a Convergence Partners’ investee, has put a lot of recent effort into developing games for Apple iTunes and Android Market.

SkillPod’s motto is ‘Play Anywhere, Anytime, Playtime’. In the words of SkillPod CEO, Mark van Diggelen: “The name of the game is convergence. Players don’t want to be restricted as to when they play and what device they play on. We’re concentrating on making sure that players can play their favourite games wherever they are, with whatever they have in their hands.”

This is the latest element in the company’s all-encompassing strategy that has seen it roll out its casual and skill game platforms for entertainment websites and portals, and on social networking sites like Facebook.

Skillpod Press Statement

The Convergence Partners stand was a hive of activity for the duration of the event (especially when our gorgeous ladies served up some great cocktails at the end of day 1). Companies in the Convergence Partners stand that were formally exhibiting at AfricaCom included Seacom, Convergence Wireless Networks (comprising WiA and Intra), Intelsat New Dawn Satellite Project, Plessey, Comsol, Integrat, Skillpod Media, Bloodhound, Inala, Convergence Border Management Solutions, as well as the Convergence Partners Foundation.

AfircaCom also coincided with the media launch of Convergence Partners’ latest project, FibreCo (see below blog).

The main themes discussed at the conference this year centred around:

• infrastructure sharing and managed services – in light of declining ARPUs, operators are seeking significant cost reduction models;
• rural connectivity – the next major untapped market, although sustainable, scalable models remain challenging; and
• the continuing shift from voice services (still the majority of the industry revenue base) to data and VAS, driven by the proliferation of broadband hungry smartphones.

Skillpod Media CEO Mark van Diggelen said: “AfricaCom was SkillPod Media’s first exposure to a mobile / telco trade event, we used it to showcase our new online and mobile platforms and experienced resoundingly positive feedback from the industry, resulting in a number of key contacts been met, with whom discussions have started. Further to this the professionalism of the Convergence stand drew in a plethora of delegates, all interested in better understanding the services on offer by SkillPod, again resulting in a lot of contacts being made with industry players, wishing to provide services to our overall offering and make use of a number of our services for their solutions. Overall the event was a resounding success, in that our new solutions were warmly received, we managed to network with key contacts, either at the stand or at the various networking events and more so we interacted with a number of key industry players that highlighted a number of opportunities, that we’d previously never considered.

According to Darren Morgan, Head of Sales at Comsol, “AfricaCom was a wonderful experience this year, it’s always great to be under one roof with all the peers of your industry. It’s rare to have all vendors, suppliers, integrators and customers from a certain industry in the same place at the same time and this certainly makes the event a memorable one. This year we were lucky enough to share a stand with fellow companies involved with the Convergence Partners family and that certainly added to the event for us.  A fantastic experience all round”.

Integrat Director, Leonard Cremer said: “The Convergence stand was a great initiative and Integrat will definitely be joining again next year. Integrat not only benefited by exhibiting at the show but also believes it extracted real value from the networking between the Convergence companies”.

We look forward to seeing everyone again in 2011!

See attached pics

African Satellite Program will Launch Intelsat New Dawn by Late 2010

Pembroke, Bermuda, and Johannesburg, South Africa, 9 December 2008.

Intelsat, Ltd., the world’s leading provider of fixed satellite services, today announced a joint venture with a South African investor group led by Convergence Partners that will utilize project financing to build and launch a new satellite into the 33 East orbital location, ideally positioned to serve the African continent. The satellite, to be called “Intelsat New Dawn,” will feature a payload optimized to deliver wireless backhaul, broadband and television programming to the continent and is expected to enter service in early 2011. The satellite will be operated and marketed as part of the global Intelsat fleet.

Africa has been one of the fastest growing regions for fixed satellite services in recent years, fueled by demand for critical infrastructure from communications providers and television programmers. Wireless telecom operators, broadband service providers, corporate network service providers and direct-to-home television operators have experienced growth along with the economic development of the region. The New Dawn joint venture was established to provide solutions for African communication needs, and is expected to deliver new capacity for voice, wireless backhaul, Internet and media applications.

View the full Statement

Convergence Partners increases exposure in digital media market; takes 25.55% stake in South African online gaming business SkillPod Media

9 September 2008 – Convergence Partners Investments, a Black Economic Empowerment investment company focusing on the Technology, Media and Telecommunications sector, today announced that it had taken a 25.55% stake in SkillPod Media (SkillPod), a pioneering South African online casual gaming company.

Established in 2003 by Mark van Diggelen, SkillPod began developing a dynamic proprietary content management system for online games. Over the past five years, the company entrenched itself as a major player in the South African market whilst concentrating on developing world-class supporting systems. A major differentiator for SkillPod is their ownership of the games’ source code that they purchase thereby allowing them to create a turnkey solution for clients including branding and customisation. This has seen them successfully develop games to support marketing campaigns for a number of well-known brands including OUTsurance, KTV and Golf Digest.

The transaction will see SkillPod issue new shares resulting in Convergence Partners owning 25.55% of SkillPod while the existing shareholders, Mark van Diggelen and Brabys Media Holdings, will jointly own the remaining 74.45%. Brabys is a long-established specialist business directory publisher and owner of brabys.com and Ananzi.com.

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Convergence Partners Investments, a Black Economic Empowerment investment company focusing on the Technology, Media and Telecommunications sector, announced today that it had taken a stake in Integrat, a major South African Wireless Applications Service Provider (WASP) Aggregator with related interests in digital content, online platforms and other ancillary activities.

WASPs are companies that connect to the cellular operators to provide services to the networks’ clients, usually in the form of premium-rated Short Message Services (SMS). As an Aggregator, Integrat supports its WASP customers with best-of-breed, locally developed, solutions offerings to seamlessly connect into SA’s highly regulated mobile networks in a matter of days, rather than months. Integrat’s offerings are globally competitive and have evolved over the years to include various Value Added Services, such as content manager, campaigns manager, mobile payment systems and other mobile handset-focused services. These products allow customers to deliver services within a very short time and without having to take responsibility for any development.

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The funders, Nedbank Capital and Makalani Holdings Limited, have committed to contribute R125m and R75m respectively. This brings Convergence Partners’ total capitalisation value to around R600m.

The funding has been structured by way of a drawdown facility in the form of redeemable preference shares repayable in seven years. This allows Convergence Partners to invest equity into new projects and transactions but also into the refinancing of existing transaction structures. Convergence Partners will continue to leverage further on its equity injections into future transactions on a deal by deal basis.

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