Sewercash

New case, Libra Holidays UK, Tour operator

2008-03-18T21:30:00.000+01:00

LIBRA Holidays has taken millions of UK holiday makers to many destinations since 1973 and the company is known and respected by both the UK travel trade and consumers. LIBRA Holidays acquired recently two other tour operators and appointed the former managing Director of My Travel.

The aim is to grow the value of the company significant to reach a high valuation and prepare the company for a trade sale or public offering in a short time. One of the largest tour operator already owns 20 percent of LIBRA Holidays.

All the Advisory board members have given their "green light" for LIBRA Holidays as a very interesting business and opportunity.

The first round is a private placement of €2.5 million for Bridge members with a share price minimum 20-30 percent below the planned second round with the FSA approved prospectus.

The subscription date in the private placement is between 17 March and 30 March. If the Private placement is oversubscribed the majority owners will consider to make own shares available and transfer such funds to the company in order to grove the business faster.

In the second round LIBRA Holidays will raise additional € 7-10 million with an FSA approved Prospectus to be distributed only to the members of Bridge Investment Network.

In 2006/07 LIBRA Holidays had a 239,000-airline seat capacity, sold, and carried some 211,453 passengers to these destinations. As the UK leisure travel market has changed rapidly over the past 5 years with the growth of the low cost airlines, the internet and new competitors, so has the need for LIBRA to embrace those changes.

For this reason, a new management team has been put in place and a new business plan developed in order to set out the future strategic direction of the business and to take advantage of significant opportunities in the market.

In parallel, over the past months, an investment opportunity arose to acquire the business of a specialist tour operator Argo Holidays Ltd. and its two brands Argo Holidays and Jetlife. Argo Holidays targets the higher end of the market and specializes in package holidays to Cyprus, Greece and the Middle East (particularly the Arabian Gulf and Egypt) offering four and five star hotel accommodation. Jetlife targets the middle market and offers a mix of tailored and standardized holiday packages for long haul destinations in Asia, the Caribbean and the United States. This acquisition fits extremely well with the future
business plans of LIBRA Holidays.

LIBRA holidays appointed industry heavyweights Michael East and Eamonn Ferrin to its new management team. Both senior members of the team come with vast experience in the travel industry. Until recently, Eamonn Ferrin was the managing director of MyTravel - Owned BCT Travel Group. Michael East is extremely well respected throughout the travel industry, particularly in the UK and also abroad. Michael is the founder of a leading executive recruitment specialist company for the travel industry.

Sting Networks sponsors World Cup in Speed skiing.

2008-03-05T02:18:00.001+01:00

Sting Networks is sponsoring the World Cup Speed Skiing event in Sälen / Sweden. The cup is called “Väggen”, which means “The Wall” in English. It is a four day long event starting at 31 March and ending 3 April.

The competition will have TV coverage, so watch out for Sting logos on TV.

Sting are going to use the event to invite their VIP partners in Norway and Sweden.

Bridge invited to speak at the Stock Exchange in Zurich, Switzerland

2008-02-28T14:37:00.000+01:00

In response to a special invitation issued to Bridge to address the Zurich Stock Exchange, on 31st January Mats Jäderberg and Henrik Ericsson were guest speakers at an event attended by representatives of large venture capital companies, funds and investment banks. They spoke about the Bridge investment network and the success of its investment approach, and the audience was impressed at the pace at which the Bridge investment network is growing, with more than 7,000 independent investors in the community.
Bridge also announced potential future collaboration with Red Alpine, which is an early stage fund based in Switzerland, in order to provide an increased flow of cases for the bridge community, as its own investments move from start up into the growth phase. Following the meeting, Bridge management team members were invited to meet Mr. Farley Duvall, the Managing Director of Red Herring EMEA, over dinner to explore possible joint sponsorship opportunities in Europe during 2008.
Red Herring is a media company which aims to cover global innovation, technology, financing and entrepreneurial activities. Following the meeting, Mats Jäderberg, Head of Bridge European operations, commented: “I am very impressed with the numbers of investors that Bridge has already brought into this unique concept. The fact that we were invited to speak at the Stock Exchange in Switzerland and then sit with the Managing Director of Red Herring EMEA to discuss joint activities is a clear acknowledgement to all members of the Bridge investment community that we are building something quite unique, driven by a hardcore approach to the traditional venture capital market.

Bridge News

2008-02-20T16:02:00.001+01:00

Bridge looking into Wind Farm project in Romania
During the last weekend of February the Bridge European management team were in Romania with a number of wind farm project experts. Bridge has identified a potential investment opportunity involving the development of a wind farm on a 250 acre site on the shores of the Black Sea, which experiences good wind conditions for this type of project. We believe that this opportunity, with a 3 to 5 year lifespan, will return many times the original investment. “Since joining the European Union in 2007 Romania is experiencing a lot of pressure to develop wind energy”, says Mats Jäderberg Head of Bridge European operations. Romania currently has just eight operational wind turbines with a population of 25 million people, compared with Sweden that has over 750 wind turbines and a population of less than 9 million. Following these meetings and site visits, Bridge has decided to carry out further studies into the possibility of investing in this type of business. A group of experts from Spain, Sweden, Austria and Romania will be engaged to assess the risks and potential returns of a project like this. The initial scope would be to build between 4 and 6 turbines, with the aim of expanding to between 50 and 80 turbines, acquiring more land, expanding into more countries and ultimately taking the company public.

RavenPack´s first offering sucessfully completed
Bridge is pleased to announce that the recently closed subscription in RavenPack in association with their financial advisor McNamee, was oversubscribed. ACH Securities in Geneva has confirmed that all shares have now been delivered to members.
On 12th February, RavenPack’s CEO Mr. Armando Gonzalez met with Mats Jäderberg of the Bridge European management team to discuss plans for the second round of €4.5 million and possible dates for road shows and interviews, together with the subscription date.
Ravenpack’s financial advisor McNamee is now looking into the legal requirements for dealing with securities in Spain.

GPS Buddy´s road show in Europe expected in April
On 4th February, Bridge met with GPS Buddy and William Fry, GPS Buddy’s financial advisor, to discuss the delay in obtaining approval of GPS Buddy’s prospectus from the Irish Stock Exchange. William Fry will soon be making a formal statement to Bridge members as to the exact subscription date. GPS Buddy plans to include members of the Bridge Community in Sweden, Iceland and Latvia during their upcoming roadshow. This list of countries may be expanded.

Dow Jones and RavenPack to deliver Dow Jones News Analytics with API for Customer´s Proprietary Trading Systems

2008-01-07T23:44:00.000+01:00

Pressrelease September 2007

New Developer's Kit Enables Banks and Hedge Funds to Seamlessly Integrate News and Sentiment Data into Their Own Algorithmic Trading Models

NEW YORK (September 27, 2007) - Dow Jones & Company (NYSE: DJ) today announced the launch of a Dow Jones News Analytics Developer's Kit, an application programming interface (API) that seamlessly integrates Dow Jones News Analytics' enriched data directly into a customer's proprietary trading platform. The company also announced that Dow Jones News Analytics is now available in the U.S. and Canada, in addition to Europe.

Produced in partnership with RavenPack, a leader in computational linguistics, Dow Jones News Analytics provides a unique combination of Dow Jones real-time news and RavenPack's sentiment data. Now, firms can integrate this data into their automated trading systems while transforming the Dow Jones real-time news into actionable data within milliseconds of the news breaking in the market. Users can request and process historical and real-time news analytics directly from within their platform. Financial organizations can also choose a hosted solution to research and create new algorithmic trading models based on news.

"The algorithmic trading community is constantly searching for more ways to turn news into profits," said Joe Lanza, vice president and managing director, Algorithmic & Trading Products, Dow Jones Enterprise Media Group. "Dow Jones News Analytics translates the vast database of Dow Jones content into actionable trading data, in flexible formats to fit the customer's business and technological needs."

Dow Jones News Analytics is the company's first hosted solution to combine news, archives and analytics tools that allows users to transform Dow Jones' text-based archive into numerical data. Using RavenPack's computational linguistics technology and embedded statistical tools, Dow Jones News Analytics can identify trends and correlations in news and sentiment for most asset classes orinstruments. This data is graphically displayed and manipulated against streaming and historical price and volume data, enabling analysts and traders to design, develop and deploy proprietary models for trading, arbitrage and back-testing. RavenPack's systems are also scaled to allow the real-time, tick-by-tick analysis of large volumes of
news in Dow Jones News Analytics.

The new Developer's Kit can work with hundreds of third-party statistical and market analysis programs. It is fully compatible with the latest versions of Java. Application developers benefit from resources including testing systems, code samples, technical documentation and technical support.

Dow Jones News Analytics is the latest offering to draw on Dow Jones's award-winning news coverage and provide the depth and speed of information that algorithmic and quantitative professionals require.

The product provides sentiment analysis of each news story using various linguistic techniques. These involve classifying news by counting key words and phrases, training computer programs on the views of financial experts, and ultimately rating stories on how markets historically respond to news.

Using this hosted service, financial firms can enhance their proprietary models with leading-edge news analysis and overcome the professional, technology and cost constraints associated with text mining vast amounts of news. In addition to Dow Jones's comprehensive, real-time news, usershave instant access to more than 20 years of Dow Jones news and information represented numerically or as full text.

"We are pleased to respond to the demand for capability heard from both Europe and the U.S. by technologically and geographically broadening Dow Jones News Analytics," said Armando Gonzalez, president and CEO of RavenPack International. "We are leveraging the strengths of a leader in news with those of a leader in information analysis. This solution provides a competitive advantage to firms of all sizes in the financial markets."

About Dow Jones & Company

Dow Jones & Company (NYSE: DJ; dowjones.com) is a leading provider of global business news and information services. Its Consumer Media Group publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch and the Far Eastern Economic Review. Its Enterprise Media Group includes Dow Jones Newswires, Factiva, Dow Jones Licensing Services, Dow Jones Indexes and Dow Jones Financial Information Services. Its Local Media Group operates community-based information franchises. Dow Jones is co-owner with Hearst of SmartMoney. Dow Jones provides news content to CNBC and radio stations in the U.S.

Next case: RavenPack provides next generation of real-time information systems in partnership with DowJones

2008-01-07T23:41:00.000+01:00

Next case: RavenPack provides next generation of real-time information systems in partnership with DowJones 2007/12/14

RavenPack International S.L, located in Spain is a fast-growing provider in developing software solutions for analyzing, interpreting and delivering actionable information from large and complex datasets in the financial industry, has decided to offer Members in Bridge network to subscribe for limited shares in a “Private placement”, in december to 14 January 2008 of 2,5 million Euros.

Ravenpack´s financial advisor in this offering is McNamee Lawrence & Co, a licensed company, providing investment banking services to growth oriented companies and investors around the world. McNamee Lawrence & Co. have offices in Boston, London and San Francisco.

RavenPack intends to raise an additional €4.5 million in early 2008 in conjunction with the registration of the private placement securities on an appropriate stock exchange and filing of a prospectus. The aggregate funds raised of €7 million will fund the provision of services for Dow Jones subscribers, to further develop its technology and product lines and to extend its sales network beyond Dow Jones.

RavenPack business idea is to gathers information from any source to which it is connected (newswire, RSS feed, etc.) and is then able to read and interpret this information in real-time using proprietary semantic analysis tools.

The company has after many years of developing the software moved into the early growth stage with product and sales focus to generate revenues. In February 2007, RavenPack and Dow Jones International ("Dow Jones" or "DJ"), a recognized industry leader, at the forefront of an emerging industry, agreed to collaborate and provide a new service to Dow Jones customers.

On April 26, 2007, RavenPack and Dow Jones introduced the product Dow Jones News Analytics powered by RavenPack to the European market at the TradeTech conference in Paris. In 2008 RavenPack expects a strong growth in revnues from this partnership.

Potentially years ahead of any competitor, RavenPack is in a 'first-to-market' position, in partnership with Dow Jones, RavenPack further believes that its pipeline of products resulting from its ongoing R&D effort will capture exciting revenue opportunities in related, lucrative markets before a planned IPO within 12-36 months.

In July 2007, demand for the product in North America compelled RavenPack and Dow Jones to extend their commercialization agreement to geographically include the United States. In 2007, Dow Jones established a separate Algorithmic Trading Business Unit, with a separate P&L, run by the former head of Sales for the Americas. Dow Jones is investing heavily in this unit with personnel and marketing resources and has established aggressive revenue goals to dramatically grow this business unit over the next 5 years.

The service has been well received and has generated a lot of interest among prospective users and the financial press. Information about RavenPack’s technology has been published by hundreds of online and print media sources including such names as the Wall Street Journal, The Trade, Security Industry News, CNN Money, HedgeWeek, Financial Tech Magazine, Inside Market Data, and Wall Street & Technology.

RavenPack’s service has been showcased from London to New York, presented at all major tradeshows including TradeTech 2007 and the European Financial Summit in London, and currently gaining strong momentum across the financial industry.

Sting Networks enters the UK

2008-01-07T23:40:00.000+01:00

Sting Networks has launched its white label VoIP communication operations in the UK.

Sting Networks has entered the UK market and is now offering its “white label” VoIP communication system there. The official launch was on 22 November when Sting held a seminar, followed by a party at the prestigious SAS Radisson Hotel in central Birmingham.

As a leading provider of ready-to-market VoIP solutions, Sting Networks is now present in eight European countries and is already “The leading white label provider of IP-based communication solutions in Europe.”

Established in 2002, Sting Networks recognises VoIP as the communications solution of the future and is keen to build relationships with forward-thinking resale partners in the UK who want to offer VoIP services to their customers under their own brand and be in at the start of this new communications revolution.

The solution includes a full range of hosted IP-telephony services - targeted to residential, small and medium companies and large enterprises. All hosted IP-telephony services are provided as white label services, making it possible for Sting Partners to put their own brand and look-and-feel to the services and to the customer interfaces.

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is the future of communication and is about making calls over the Internet. All you need is a broadband connection and a phone. This gives companies a unique flexibility, lower costs, and great potential for integration.

The low investment, low installation costs and lower traffic costs are compelling benefits of VoIP and Sting has a number of prestige customers, using its services since many years.

Sting Networks are keen to develop a strong presence in the UK following its already established sales organizations in Sweden, Norway, Germany and Benelux.

At Stings Networks UK Launch Party on 22 November invited people had the opportunity to mingle with the senior management team and learning more about this exciting opportunity with live demonstrations.

Sting Networks - A word from the CEO

2008-01-07T23:28:00.001+01:00

To the Bridge Members which invested in Sting Networks AB.

It is a pleasure for me to write about our latest achievements since the Bridge members invested in Sting Networks and about what we are expecting for the future. Mine and the Board of Directors’ fambition is to develop Sting Networks into a successful company.

Since the spring of 2005, our aim was to build an organization with a clear view and strategy that will constantly look ahead and keep operating at the forefront of IP technology developments. It was then when we first took the decision to focus on IP Technology that our vision took shape. Today, Sting Networks is leading the technology shift from today’s telephony system where the technology is divided between different systems for handling Fixed telephony, Mobile telephony, Data as well as Video into one system that can handle it all.

Sting Networks Development & Results

After Bridge members’ investment in April 2007, Sting Networks engaged in a process to change from a more technical to a more sales oriented organization. As a result of that process Sting Networks acquired a company in Norway and boosted the sales teams in Sweden, England, Holland and Germany.

The company Sting Networks acquired in Norway, Connxion AS – now renamed Sting Networks AS, had the same business concept as Sting Networks, i.e, white-label provider of IP Based Communications Solution. Whit the purchase of Connxion, Sting Networks accelerated the expansion in Norway by adding Connxion’s 6 existing partners. Sting Networks AS already closed a very important new partner in the Norwegian Market, NTE Bredbånd AS. Other Partner Agreements are in a process of being closed in the next coming months. Sting Networks AS is very well positioned for a fast expansion in the Norwegian market increasing Sting Networks revenues and presence in the Nordic region.

The company’s staff demonstrated in 2006-2007 unrivalled expertise in all our fields of specialization. The excellent services we provide to our customers are delivered from a motivated and optimistic Sting Networks team. After Bridge Members’ investment, Sting Networks expanded the Sales Team as well as the Product &Marketing and technical teams as a preparation for our massive expansion.

Also, Sting Networks faced a faster learning process for adding new partners, new Contact Centers and larger corporations which are providing a solid base for further growth. The number of signed partner agreements and other special agreements have increased strongly since Bridge Members’ investment in Sting Networks.

Since Bridge Members’ first investment round, the following companies are now customers of Sting Networks: CarlLamm, Cubic Circle, Din Växel, Alltele, Teleproffs, Plustel, Anstar, S2 Communications, Anthill, Spray, Epitech, Streamtel, Televoip, NTE brådband, AHA, Congrex, Roknet, Connection IT, Datphone, Obrix, McXess and Anglo Communications. And the following companies extended their contract or purchased new services from Sting Networks: SCA, Universal and MedHelp.

We are confident that our business model is proven to be correct. The financial results for the Swedish market for the financial year 2006-2007 is of € K 2.500, higher than predicted in our prognosis for the Swedish market financial year 2006-2007, € K 2.048. Sweden is the market Sting Networks has been longest established and therefore we had time to build a successful business case. On the other hand, our overall financial result for the financial year 2006-2007 is of € K 2.560, lower than our prognosis for the overall financial year 2006-2007, € K 2.926. We believe there are two reasons for the lower results: (1) the investment necessary for our growth came later than what we needed to boost our sales in 2006-2007; and (2) the international expansion takes longer and consumes more resources than what we expected. Nevertheless, we are convinced that our business model is a successful and lucrative one, proven by the fact that our revenues in Sweden have exceeded our prognosis for the financial year 2006-2007 and our first quarter in 2007. Now our mission is to repeat the Swedish performance at the other European markets.

The Future

For the next financial year, our goal is to consolidate our position in Sweden and strengthen our position in the existing European Sting markets. Since the company has run the business on earnings and grown organically up until the end of the financial year 2006-2007, the expansion possibilities have been limited.

The IP-telephony market is today in a state of massive growth and it has reached a substantial size, since almost all telephony that we today recognize as fixed telephones at home or at work are being replaced by modern IP-based telephones and systems. Due to the significant cost advantage over traditional telephony, we believe that private persons will change their existing phone subscriptions to VoIP services offered by a large number of service providers and the same will happen for most contact centers and companies with thousands of employees, switching from traditional telephony to IP-based communication due to cost savings and easier system integration.

Sting Networks is very well positioned for a massive expansion and will now increase its efforts to take the lead in providing the next generation of telephony services in Europe. At the latest technology shift, when the mobile services were upgraded from analogue technology to digital GSM networks, a number of new operators managed to obtain a large portion of the market. We believe that the technology shift which is currently taking place, moving from analogue fixed telephony to IP-based, will have the same dramatic impact on the market and that Sting Networks and its partners will play an important role in the future.

Tommy Ekström

CEO and Founder Sting Networks AB

Sting Networks News

2007-11-28T22:35:00.000+01:00

UK launch for leading provider of IP-based telephony solutions.
Sting Networks is set to launch its white label VoIP communication system in the UK on 22nd November....

Stockholm-based Sting Networks is set to launch its “white label” VoIP communication system in the UK on 22nd November with a seminar, followed by a party at the prestigious SAS Radisson Hotel in central Birmingham.

As a leading provider of ready-to-market VoIP solutions, Sting Networks is now present in eight European countries and is already “The leading white label provider of IP-based communication solutions in Europe.”

Established in 2002, Sting Networks recognises VoIP as the communications solution of the future and is keen to build relationships with forward-thinking resale partners in the UK who want to offer VoIP services to their customers under their own brand and be in at the start of this new communications revolution.

The solution includes a full range of hosted IP-telephony services - targeted to residential, small and medium companies and large enterprises. All hosted IP-telephony services are provided as white label services, making it possible for Sting Partners to put their own brand and look-and-feel to the services and to the customer interfaces.

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is the future of communication and is about making calls over the Internet. All you need is a broadband connection and a phone. This gives companies a unique flexibility, lower costs, and great potential for integration.

The low investment, low installation costs and lower traffic costs are compelling benefits of VoIP and Sting has a number of prestige customers, using its services since many years.

Sting Networks are keen to develop a strong presence in the UK following its already established sales organizations in Sweden, Norway, Germany and Benelux.

Guests at Stings Networks UK Launch Party on 22nd November will have the opportunity of meeting the senior management team and learning more about this exciting opportunity with live demonstrations.

GPS Buddy news

2007-11-28T21:16:00.000+01:00

GPS Buddy receives additional growth capital trough loans from the co- founders.
In anticipation of this last Private placement, with William Fry Solicitors and BDO Simpson Xavier, GPS-Buddy are reporting the timely publishing of the Prospectus will come in February 2008. GPS Buddy has had two initial investment rounds in July and October 2007, based on the Information Memorandum. The both share offers was heavenly oversubscribed and limited to 2.5 million euros in order to comply with the EC Prospective Directive rules.

As a result either Bridge or its many members did not get full allotments at the current valuation of the company due to this high interest and need therefore to wait until the Irish Stock Exchange approves the company’s prospectus.

The two company founders has after consultation with William Fry Solicitors – decided to make personal shares available for ACH Securities to administrate those extra shares to certain interested members in Bridge within the EC Prospective Directive rules, to grow the GPS Buddy faster by giving out personal loans to the company from sold shares.

GPS-Buddy will therefore have capital to speed up the production of the GPS-Buddy CONNECT units at this very moment to meet surprising demand from Europe and the United States.

This will help GPS-Buddy manufacture and market especially its new product - the GPS-Buddy CONNECT - in great quantities across Europe and the United States. GPS-Buddy believes that this product will reshape the volume market of tracking & tracing solutions and will place GPS-Buddy as one of the leading providers of tracking and tracing solutions in the world.

The founders have last week, with help from William Fry, signed agreements that their loans will remain, until the company makes profit which means that the capital from Bridge investors can not be used to pay back any of the loans.

GPS Buddy winner of prestigious SEMA Award in Las Vegas.
In anticipation of the launch of the GPS-Buddy CONNECT during the 2008, International CES in Las Vegas next January, the GPS-Buddy CONNECT was introduced to the North American marketplace at the SEMA Show earlier this month. Here the audience was given a preview of what the GPS-Buddy CONNECT can mean to the fleet management and tracking & tracing industries.

The SEMA Show, which is not open to the general public, is the premier automotive specialty products trade event in the world and took place in Las Vegas. For four days, GPS-Buddy was engaged in countless discussions with distributors, resellers, potential customers, car manufacturers, and members of the media.

“Not only was the response overwhelming, the GPS-Buddy CONNECT also won a SEMA Global Media Award in the Best New Product category” says, Tjibbe Veenstra, GPS-Buddy’s CEO. “The SEMA Global Media Award winners are selected from over two thousand new products by a jury of 50 automotive journalists and editors from all over the world, and we are very excited and encouraged by the instant recognition we received. At this moment we are signing numerous distribution deals with leading Garmin distributors and retail chains”

The GPS-Buddy CONNECT is a unique, all-in-one solution that turns Garmin range of navigators into interactive fleet tracking solutions that enables two-ways communications between driver and operator.

This fully functional fleet tracking system is available for Garmin’s personal navigation devices (PNDs). These include the Garmin nüvi, Street Pilot and the motorcycle unit, the Zümo.

“Thanks to the real-time information transmitted through the GPS-Buddy CONNECT, you will always know where your vehicle is and be able to communicate with the driver 24 hours a day, 7 days a week” says, Dethmer Drenth, GPS-Buddy’s Co-founder and Director of Research and Development. “The GPS-Buddy CONNECT replaces the standard power cable of the Garmin navigator and at the same time provides customers with all tracking and messaging features, all in one. It even works when the Garmin PND is switched off! The GPS SIRFstar III receiver that comes with each GPS-Buddy CONNECT keeps providing uninterrupted vehicle activity data”.

Because of the fact that Garmin (the largest producer of GPS products in the world) has a market share of approx. 60% in the United States, GPS-Buddy has focused to launch the GPS-Buddy CONNECT in the United States earlier than anticipated.

Mindark Interim report Q3 is up

2007-11-04T21:07:00.000+01:00

Read the report here

Oil technology case put on hold

2007-11-04T21:02:00.000+01:00

The earlier announced company in the Oil technology industry is no longer a potential candidate for Bridge investors. Grant Thornton has during the last three weeks done a Due diligence of the Company and financial data to be compared with the facts given from the company based of their Information memorandum.

The Bridge Advisory board has been in contact with Grant Thornton this Tuesday and received additional information to re-evaluate the Company. The advisory boards recommendation is not to go ahead with an investment in the Company for the following reasons.

Today´s company structure is to complex with limited transparency. The current strategies are to unclear with inconsistent information about the ways of proving the success. Company knowledge transfer is crucial for the survival of the company and need to be addressed in a better way. The current management capability is to limited for a controlled growth strategy.

For this reason Bridge has decided not to give the company access to our investor community at this stage. The Advisory board strongly believe in the potential from the market and they think that the Company will have a very good chance to succeed if the shortcomings will be remedied. The Advisory board´s assessment is that the Company need to define it´s strategy better and prove the concept before they will be ready for meeting up with our Bridge community.

Grant Thornton in Berlin has together with our Advisory have made a deep and professional analyze in a very short time and we are very thankful for the recommendations they have been given to us and the Company. We now believe that the Company can concentrate to work with their weaknesses in order to get back to us and make our financial advsiors satisfied, says Mr. Mats Jäderberg, representative of Bridge Europe.

GPS Buddys oversubscribed more than 2,5 times

2007-11-01T00:09:00.000+01:00

ACH Securities in Switzerland reports on behalf of their Bridge investors that GPS Buddy´s second issue of 1,3 million Euros was also this time heavily oversubscribed more than 2.5 times.

Due to the over subscription, the available shares of 1,3 million Euro, will be allocated in a drawing process where members that did not receive any shares in the first issue will be prioritized. In January, GPS Buddys last issue will take place with a approved prospectus at a higher valuation together with their financial advisor William Fry in Ireland. Securities dealer based in Ireland. Bridge will in December announce the dates and places for the investment Road shows in Europe with the Co- founders of GPS Buddy Holding Ltd

The Bridge Advisory Board

2007-10-24T14:23:00.000+02:00

Anders Eriksson

Advisory board member since 2005

Anders Eriksson was born in Sweden and now lives in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He received his executive business degree at the Swedish Institute of Management and also studied at Harvard Business School.

Currently Anders is the CEO of MediaMall BV, based in Amsterdam. MediaMall is a leading interactive IPTV-Based provider that allows private and business customers to broadcast their own TV channels, and to receive additional services like TV banking, home care services and exclusive content from local communities, while they continue to receive their existing TV programs and services.

Previously Anders was the managing director of Priority Telecom AS (owned by Liberty Global) based in Oslo, Norway, and Amsterdam. During his tenure he was responsible for restructuring of the organization, improving productivity and by streamlining its product offering, allowing the company to become much more focused and cost effective. He also panned and managed the sale of the company to Norwegian energy company Hafslund AS, completed mid-2006.

Prior to that Anders was CEO of Active 24 - a pan-European provider of Internet hosting. He successfully introduced the company on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Active 24 has more than 200,000 customers in 14 countries and offices in the Netherlands, Norway, UK, Sweden and the Czech Republic.

Previously Anders had worked for Time Warner Inc. as managing director of Benelux BV and a member of the executive board of AOL Europe, responsible adding subscribers to create the company's first profitable subsidiary outside the US. He joined Time Warner from KPN Telecom and Telia, where he served as managing director of TeleMedia BV from 1994 to 2000.

Anders Eriksson has extensive experience in acquiring and trading companies, joint ventures and business investments in Europe, the US and Asia. Anders is owner and CEO of the Dutch private equity company Investera BV. He also acts as an independent venture capital advisor focusing on the European market. In addition to this he serves as advisory board member for several companies.

Koos Tesselaar

Advisory board member since 2007

Koos Tesselaar was born and lives in The Netherlands. After being educated in Construction Engineering and Civil Engineering, he later attended several courses at Nyenrode University, Stanford University and Harvard University mostly in the field of corporate governance and private equity.

Koos started his career in the building industry - first in South Africa and later in the Netherlands. Afterwards he founded a pan-European direct marketing business which he sold to Royal Dutch Post. Since 1998 he has been mainly involved in corporate recovery management and as a private investor. Until April 2007 Koos was the group CEO of De Boer Structures Holding, a global market leader in temporary housing. Koos has held board positions in ABN-AMRO Capital, Bridgepoint Capital, SNS Bank, NPM Capital and others.

Koos has business experience and a wide network of contacts in Europe, the Middle East and China and is an investor in private equity and real estate transactions.

He has held many board positions in organizations including The Dutch Employers Organization and the Dutch Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the advisory board of Oracle and the board of BAM Inframanagement.

Suresh Patel

Advisory board member since 2005

Suresh Patel is one of the founders of VERDEXUS – a company providing management and financial services, with a key focus on management buyouts, corporate divestitures and hands-on management. He is currently a European-based consultant of VERDEXUS. With a focus on corporate finance and emerging markets Suresh has more than 18 years experience of the IT, wireless, media and security markets.

Most recently, he was head of the European Investment arm of Compaq Computer Corporation based in Zurich, Switzerland. The remit included tech investments in all industry sectors, syndication of deals in technology and incremental sales models in 95 countries involving both small and large transactions. Previous to Compaq he was a director of Netscape Communications Europe, responsible for sales and marketing in emerging markets, based out of Paris. Prior to two years at Netscape, Suresh was general manager of Lotus Development Europe for seven years, responsible for sales and marketing in Eastern Europe/CIS, Greece, Turkey and Israel.

Suresh has served as an advisory board member of Ernst & Young European Technology group, helping the firm to understand the role of value added investments from the industry. Suresh lives in Munich but regularly speaks at industry events in Stockholm, Tel Aviv, London and Zurich. He received his technology diploma in England at the University of Brighton, specializing in artificial intelligence.

Björn Zikarsky

Advisory board member since 2007

Björn Zikarsky was born in Germany and holds an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania in the US and a Bachelor of Science in Entrepreneurial Management from University of Southern California, Los Angeles, also in the US. Björn has more than 10 years' experience of corporate finance, capital acquisitions and the investment banking business. He has held various positions as international investment advisor, analyzing companies prior to their initial public offering.

Previously, Björn worked for Robertson Stephens International - an investment banking firm specializing in growth companies. While there he worked with major investors from the US, Germany and other European countries. He has also served as investment manager for 3i - a world leader in private equity and venture capital. He was responsible for analyzing potential investments in emerging business and start-ups in many parts of Europe.

Today, Björn is an active investment advisor in the European market. Björn also won a bronze medal in swimming at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and he applies earlier experiences as a top-level sportsman in a career as a motivational speaker.

Entropia Universe was awarded "Best Original Game" at the E for All Expo

2007-10-22T23:50:00.000+02:00

Watch the video

China Plans Virtual World for Commerce - Mindark set to provide the technology!

2007-10-17T01:34:00.000+02:00

Read the news here

Some news for Mindark shareholder

2007-10-05T13:00:00.000+02:00

ENTROPIA UNIVERSE ENTERS
2008 GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS BOOK FOR
“MOST EXPENSIVE VIRTUAL WORLD OBJECT”
Entropia’s Real Cash Economy Model Proves its Commercial Viability by Attracting
Largest Real Cash Investments in Virtual Items

Virtual World Entropia Universe Selects State-of-the-Art CryENGINE
2(R) to Create the Future

2007 10 September Interim Statement Q2

Some nice news for the shareholders of Sting

2007-10-05T12:38:00.000+02:00

World Trade Center choses IP-telephony from Sting Networks
World Trade Center has signed a partner deal with Sting Networks to offer IP-telephony services to companies within the global organisation WTC.
To start with, 120 European WTC offices will be offered the service, but will in the future involve all 300 offices in the organisation, says Anders Berner, CEO for WTC Nice and WTC IT services, and WTCA coordinator for the north European market.

Sting Networks and Alltele signs an agreement
Sting Networks has signed an agreement with Alltele, the sixth biggest operator in Sweden.
The agreement involves the SME market, where Alltele is an important operator –bigger than one of the best known operators in Sweden, Telia Sonera.

Sting Networks has signed an agreement with Teleproffs
Sting Networks has signed an agreement with Teleproffs who is concentrating on the SME market in Sweden.
Teleproffs is the premier retailer of LG’s products in Sweden and Sweden’s second largest retailer of Ericsson PBXs. Now the company aims at becoming a prominent retailer of IP-telephony as well –with the help from Sting Networks.

New private placement in GPS Buddy

2007-10-04T08:39:00.000+02:00

Dear Investor,

GPS Buddy has decided to make a second Private placement according to the EU law and directives for an additional 1, 5 million euro from October 8, 2007. A third share issue will take place after the Irish Stock Exchange has given their approval for the Prospectus in January 2008 with a higher valuation.

In July, 2007 an investment opportunity was offered to from GPS-Buddy Holding Ltd to members in Bridge. The very successful July offering of 1 million euro was hugely oversubscribed.

As a second, larger investment round based on a Prospectus was scheduled in October 2007.

Being an Irish based company, GPS-Buddy’s Prospectus has to be approved by the Irish Stock Exchange. Although two of the largest and best-known solicitors and financial consultants in Ireland – William Fry Solicitors and BDO Simpson Xavier – have been engaged to produce this Prospectus, the approval process in Ireland takes much more time than anticipated. The final release of the Prospectus will be in January 2008 – far too late for our original October 2007 offering.

In accordance with EU law and directives, offerings till max. 2.5 million euro should be based on an Information Memorandum and offerings surpassing this limit, should be based on a Prospectus.

The reason to make an additional Private placement and not wait until January 2008 is because GPS-Buddy had earmarked the October round for financing the strong growth possibilities and – not wanting to spoil the opportunities. GPS Buddy is willing to offer a substantial amount of shares in October at the same value as in July 2007.

GPS Buddy´original scheme is to raise maximum 7 million euro in total and the remaining amount of maximum 4,5 million will be done in January 2008 after the Prospectus has been aproved by the Irish Stock Exchange, including road shows in various countries for Bridge members.

GPS will from Monday 8, 2007 introduce the following offering of new shares in the Company:

Private placement of 1.5 million euro
Share price of 5.75€ each.
The valuation based on the same 12.5 million euro valuation of GPS-Buddy as in last July 2007.
Subscription period from Monday 8 October till Sunday 21 October 2007

As next week’s upcoming Private placement is based on the same valuation as in July of 12.5 million euro and does not take into account GPS-Buddy’s achievements since then, those members who have been without shares during the first round in July will be prioritised from the second Private placement if oversubscribed.

With help of GPS-Buddy’s management is happy to provide an investment opportunity now with the second investment round with a starting date of Monday 8, 2007.

New case in pipeline, European Oil Technology Company

2007-09-10T22:03:00.000+02:00

Bridge enters into the technology part of the growing Oil industry, to diversify the investment portfolio.

Investment Capital Management (BZE) Ltd, an entirely owned subsidiary of Bridge Group has September 6, signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with a fast growing world wide Technology provider of advanced products to the drilling and production sector of the Oil & Gas industry. The company offers a number or proprietary technologies that focus on enhanced recovery of hydrocarbons (Oil and Gas) and has invested heavily in its technology development and into the build out of a large client and customer network. The company is now at an infliction point and has taken the first steps to accelerate the roll out of its products and services. The company has engaged with clients and pilot projects and is raising money to prepare for and further accelerate the impeding growth.
Management’s goal is to grow the company from a current valuation of about €20-30m to €1bn market capitalization. The target EBIT margin is 25-35% and the revenue goal is €100m per annum within four years.
The holding company is incorporated in Switzerland with offices in Germany and Norway with on going projects in Oman, Mexico, Peru, Kongo and Saudi Arabia.
The Companys aim is to raise between 6-8 millions EUR, exclusively to the Bridge network of high net individuals and to further list the company within 18-24 months internationally or merger with a global player. Investment Capital Management Ltd is responsible for signing agreements regarding realization of road shows were the companies and licensed stockbrokers can meet the Bridge members.
The Bridge Advisory board has rewieved the company´s Investment memorandum, financial targets and the markets growth potential. All the Advisory board members have given their strongest recommendations to go ahead with the project.
The goal is a Private placement of 1 million EURO in September to be followed up by a second offering when the neccecery approvals and the Prospectus is in place .
Both offering to subscribe for shares will be exclusive from the company to the Bridge global investment network together with some foregin private investors in Dubai.
More information and the companys name will come within 1-2 weeks togehter with the Investment memorandum.

William Fry will supervise GPS-Buddy 's prospectus

2007-09-10T22:01:00.000+02:00

William Fry has, after meetings with representatives of Bridge and GPS-Buddy in Dublin, accepted to supervise and be responsible for the drafting of the prospectus for GPS-Buddy.

This also includes activities to co-ordinate the approval with the Financial Supervisory Authority in Ireland and passport this into markets where the company will meet the Bridge members.
With significant involvement in mergers and acquisitions activity, William Fry is one of the leaders in the commercial, corporate and financial services sector. As one of Ireland's largest law firms, William Fry advises a substantial number of leading Irish and international companies, covering both the public and private sector. With a staff of over 300, the firm operates a large international practice across many countries.
BDO Seidman will perform the financial Due Dilligence of GPS-Buddy and assist William Fry with the financial assessments. BDO Seidman is a national professional services firm providing assurance, tax, financial advisory and consulting services to a wide range of publicly traded and privately held companies. BDO Seidman serves clients through 35 offices and more than 300 independent alliance firm locations nationwide. Deloitte Touche will be the financial advisor for GPS-Buddy and assist in tax and auditing issues.
"I am very positive of what we have achieved this week together with GPS Buddy. All the involved companies that now have accepted, will assist with their unique competences and knowledge and they all represents strong names in the industry with great experience in the financial market", says Mr. Mats Jaederberg, Head of Bridge Group in Europe.
"I am impressed over massive interest and fast execution from the Bridge network of investors to become shareholders in our company. GPS-Buddy has many interesting discussions right know and we will be focusing on the growth of the company into many new markets. I am also looking forward to meeting up with as many investors as possible during the Roadshows to be able to explain more about our fantastic company", says Tjibbe Venestra, CEO of GPS-Buddy.
As soon as the company has received a more detailed schedule from William Fry and initiated a first contact with FSA, William Fry will come back with an announcement of the expected date for the second round of the share issue.

GPS Buddys first issue oversubscribed

2007-08-13T11:00:00.000+02:00

ACH Securities S.A reports that GPS Buddy Holdings Ltd. first issue of 1 miilion Euros was successfully oversubscribed more than 2,5 times.

The huge interest from the member Community to invest in the booming GPS developing market, is confirmed from the numbers of participants in GPS Buddys pre IPO.
Due to the over subscription, the available shares of 1 million Euro, will be allocated in a drawing process August 14. Members receiving shares from this first issue will have those inserted on their personal depots within 7 days.

In October will GPS Buddys second issue take place together with a licensed Securities dealer based in Ireland.Bridge will soon announce preliminary dates and places for Investment Road shows in Europe with the co- founders of GPS Buddy Holding Ltd, Mr. Dethmer and Mr. Tjibbe.

New member plans and changed pricing model from September 1

2007-08-13T10:55:00.000+02:00

The new member plans will be Silver, Gold and Platinum and will also contains a new structure of pricing.The purpose of the new member plans is to better reflect the different needs from the increasing number of investors in our global community. We will also launch a more flexible way of changing between different member plans for both existing and new members in the future, says Mr. Jacinto Wong, CEO of Bridge Group.
Old members will have their current memberships transferred into the nearest similar member plan in the new structure. The current Expansion account will be divided into one (1) Gold and two (2) Silver. All Index account will be moved into Silver. The default price will also change to EURO.

Here is the new memberships and the new pricing model from September 1, 2007

SILVER, Basic level, Sign up 1 000 EUR, Annual fee 300 EURApply for a basic Custody account for investmentsNo minimum requirements in deposit
GOLD, Premium level, Sign up 2 000 EUR, Annual fee 300- 600 EURApply for a basic Custody accountApply for a Debit cardExtra assignment of shares if oversubscribedNo minimum requirements in deposit
PLATINUM, Advanced level, Sign up 3 000 EUR, Annual fee 300- 600 EURApply for an expanded Custody accountApply for Debit cardExtra assignment of shares if oversubscribedCustody account can be used for all other shares than part of Bridge offersVIP Travel pass (Exclusive resorts, discounted prices and easily paid from your deposits)Minimum requirement 50 000 EURO in deposit
----

A more detailed information about the new Member plans and prices will be launched September 1 st, 2007 at the Bridge public domain. www.bridgeltd.com

Bridge new site launches in September

2007-08-12T01:51:00.000+02:00

The new site is ready to launch in September, at the same time the membership fee will also go up from $850 to 1000 euro for the index accounts. The old accounts will also change to silver, gold and platinum. The index accounts will become silver and have the same features. The expansion accounts will become gold and from what I have heard gold members will also be able to get a cash card that can be used to withdraw money directly from their ACH account without the hassle to transfer it first(nice!).

If you have been waiting on the sidelines to join, now is the time to join. Before the fee goes up and in time for subscription of the "GPS Buddy" case.

Bridge moves into new office tower in Panama

2007-08-09T00:39:00.000+02:00

We are proud to inform you that we have completed our move into our new head quarter offices, located in the most modern business tower in Panama City

The corporate business tower OCEAN BUSINESS PLAZA is a 33 levels mega business building that was built with a sense and concept to allocate and serve Global level companies.

The tower was completed in 2007 and is located in the heart of the prestigious Financial and Banking District, which is one of the largest in the world today, with more than 120 Banks from more than 30 countries like HSBC, UBS and Citibank.

The Bridge offices are located in the tower at the 22 second floor and contains member support, administration and company directors.

The building has luxurious design, ultra-modern architecture and the bi-color glass facade of Ocean Business Plaza?s two Siamese towers evoke images of prestige, authority, and prosperity. The telephone services will of course be VoIP and elivered from our current portfolio investment, Sting networks in Sweden!

The Bridge office has spectacular panoramic views of Panama City. Access to the main arteries of the capital city, Balboa Avenue and 50th Street. Bridge global community leaders will have a special invitation from our CEO, Mr. Jacinto Wong to visit Panama later on this year.

Mindark - confirms Stock market listing

2007-08-05T01:49:00.000+02:00

Mindark prepares for a stock market listing and the London Stock Exchange is the most suitable choice.
Sweden s leading financial newspaper, (Dagens Industri) today published a two page interview with Mindark s, CEO & founder Mr. Jan Welter- Timkrans.
In which he reveals that a Stock market listing is in progress and that the London Stock Exchange is the most likely outcome.
Mindark, has been in negotiations with several Investment banks and will soon announce their decision.
Both investors and analysts on the London Stock Exchange posses the knowhow and interest in these kinds of companies.
First: Is of course completion of a promise made to more than 900 Bridge investors back November 2005.
Second: The huge access to the capital market for further growth and expansion.
Jan Welter Timkrans, also says that similar deals are under negotiation with large media companies for the European and American markets.
As soon as Mindark officially make their choice of which investment bank and set a date for the listing at the Stock Exchange; they will inform their entire current shareholders.
With this great news, Bridge investors, who took part in the Mindark s offering, will foresee exciting prosperous times ahead.

Exclusive offer for Bridge members

2007-08-05T01:46:00.000+02:00

5 % cash back offer for members of Bridge. The highly lucrative Cyprus property investment opportunity just got even better.

Members have a fantastic opportunity to take part in the very lucrative Cyprus property market. The property developer now has an exclusive offer to members of Bridge. You have the possibility to get a 5 % cash back on your investment.
As a Bridge member you have a unique opportunity to meet the senior management and other representatives from the company during your visit to Cyprus where they will guide you though the process of selecting and buying your property and also show you how your investment will grow.
The 5 % cash back will be deposited in your ACH Securities account or another account specified by you.

Big things is happening!! New case & Mindark goes public.

2007-08-05T01:32:00.000+02:00

I have been away on vacation for a while and when I get back I seem to have missed a lot of stuff.
A new case (GPS Buddy)has just closed(only the fisrt part), Elian group has added a 5% cash offer to their real estate deal, Mindark has confirmed that they are going public etc. I will post all the news below.

GPS-Buddys private placement on tour!
GPS-Buddy Holdings Ltd, will offer an exclusive investment opportunity in two steps, starting with a Private placement!

Dear Bridge Member,
GPS Buddy invites you to take part in their private placement of: EUR 1 million.
GPS-Buddy, is a fast-growing provider of vehicle tracking and mobile data solutions for motorized fleets, which consists at the forefront; of an easy-to-use business solutions for: tracking, managing, monitoring, messaging, navigation and routing from door to door.

GPS-Buddy, is factory installed in GARMIN GPS units.
GARMIN, is the world leader of portable navigation systems serving aviation, marine, outdoor recreation and automotive markets.
With both standard and large screen devices, Garmin offers a wide choice of options to suit every vehicle requirement - from small vans to big trucks.
In close partnership, GPS-Buddy and Garmin offer this easy-to-use, and very affordable tracking, messaging and navigation solutions offering smart and cheap two-way text messaging and planned navigation capabilities.
GPS-Buddy has its headquarters in Cork, Ireland and has offices in Belgium, the Netherlands and Sri Lanka.

The terms for this offering are as follows:
Price per share:(EUR) 5.75
Price per block of shares:(EUR) 1,026.38 (175 shares)
Subscription period:23 - 29 July 2007
Payment date:2 August 2007

The block price is inclusive of a 2% commission to ACH Securities S.A

Deloitte Fiduciaire BV, one of the leading audit and consulting firm, practices in Belgium; and part of the global Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu group have examined the quality of the books and the connection with the statement given to Bridge Group on 27 June 2007.

Subscription forms should be sent to ACH Securities S.A. who will administrate the offering.

A pre-requisition to participate in the shares acquisition is that, your account balance reflects availability for the total amount by 5:00 PM on August 2, in ACH Securities S.A.
If the issue, (case) becomes oversubscribed, GPS Buddy will draw lots to ensure a fair allotment to all participantes.
This private placement of (EUR) 1 million is the first offer of a two part offering.
In October a second offer will be made of (EUR) 4-6 million. Details will be presented in a prospectus.

Interview with Tjibbe Veenstra, CEO & Founder of GPS-Buddy
We had the opportunity too ask Tjibbe Veenstra, CEO & Founder, a few questions about GPS-Buddy?s business. The cooperation with Garmin has clearly put GPS-Buddy on the fast track for growth.

What does GPS-Buddy do?
GPS-Buddy is a professional firm that plans, designs, develops and sells vehicle tracking and tracing solutions for transport companies and service companies with field operations. Combining three of the most important innovations of the past few decades ? GPS, Wireless Data and Internet ? our strategic approach is to build intelligent Internet-based solutions that are flexible and robust to suit the dynamic nature of the Internet. With the GPS-Buddy software factory-installed on millions of Garmin GPS navigators, our devices can be combined with these Garmin GPS navigators for two-way text communication and navigation at your fingertips. As the world?s largest provider of portable navigation systems, Garmin offers a wide choice of devices ? to suit both trucks and vans. Any manager or dispatcher curious about the actual location of his fleet and status of his deliveries can now access this information instantly on the GPS-Buddy web page, from any PC, anywhere in the world, anytime.

Which are your main competitors?
Locally, the markets for vehicle tracking products are very fragmented with lots of small providers of various systems. As recent tracking developments focus on the combination of tracking, communication and navigation, we do not consider these local providers as their main competitors. Currently TomTomWork is considered the principal competitor, competing with us in a limited number of countries but likely to increase their distribution.

What are your advantages?
All our products and services are developed with a focus on their easy-to-install and easy-to-use elements ? always keeping a focus on the end-user experience. Another advantage is our highly scalable platform, where all servers are modular expandable ? easily serving tens of thousands of users simultaneously per module. Furthermore GPS-Buddy?s products and service are already for sale in 18 countries in Europe and operations will be expanded into the United States from 1 September. As a result of our early commitment to the vehicle tracking market and the high quality of the products and services, we believe we have built an extensive network in Europe that would require significant time, talent, and commitment to duplicate.

Where is GPS-Buddy today and where do you see the company in two years?
With our bespoke services already available in 15 languages, a distribution network in 18 countries and a close partnership with the world?s largest provider of GPS navigators, we are well positioned to capture market share rapidly. Research companies like Gartner, Canalys, ABI Research, industry partners and many others are predicting a highly lucrative market for vehicle tracking products in the coming years and in two years we would like to reap off the benefits of being at the forefront now.

What does the cooperation with Garmin mean for you?
Garmin is the world leader of portable navigation systems serving aviation, marine, outdoor recreation and automotive markets. With both standard and large screen devices Garmin offers a wide choice of options to suit every vehicle requirement ? from small vans to big trucks. At this stage GPS-Buddy is factory-installed on millions of Garmin GPS navigators. And to date we have already signed 14 Garmin distributors as our exclusive distributor as well. Combining Garmin and GPS-Buddy the excitement begins. In Europe Garmin is a strong runner up, but in the United States Garmin has a 60% market share. Our new product the GPS-Buddy CONNECT is an out-of-the-box add-on solution offering communication, tracking and fleet management facilities to every Garmin device ? not just the new ones, but also the Garmin devices already used by millions of users.

How do you predict the market to develop?
It?s my and our staff?s ambition to keep GPS-Buddy at the forefront of the vehicle tracking market. We believe, and many of the industry pundits concur, that the fleet and asset tracking market will grow rapidly and will even explode as soon as a few big names enter this business. No doubt, that TomTomWork will act as a catalyst for market transformation like they did within the market for GPS navigators as we all know. TomTom?s CEO Harold Goddijn summoned it up in a press release when TomTom acquired DataFactory ? a company similar to GPS-Buddy: ?TomTom believes that the vehicle tracking market has only just started to develop. Giving the growing demand to improve their efficiency and optimise the allocation of resources, service companies with field operations have started to use tracking and tracing solutions. This is expanding the market which traditionally served only large truck and logistic companies?

How will you use the money from the two share issues?
Since we have run the business on earnings and organic growth up to now, the expansion possibilities have been limited. At this moment we have a leading position in Europe and we would like to use your investment for building our company much faster than our actual pace. We want to cement our position as a leading force, capable of reaping off the benefits of this rapidly evolving market.

Do you want to say anything else to your potential investors?
GPS-Buddy is something completely different from the well known GPS navigators. A GPS navigator is calculating the perfect route from A to B. GPS-Buddy doesn?t do that. The GPS-Buddy device sends every moment of the day the exact location and status of the vehicle to the GPS-Buddy servers. Based on this data GPS-Buddy can tell you at any given moment when the vehicle started at A, who was driving the vehicle, which route has been driven, how it was speeding, when it stopped where for how long and when it arrived at B. This business is crucial for businesses that want to optimize the use of their fleet and mobile workforce. By connecting a Garmin GPS navigator to the GPS-Buddy device, the user is also able to send and receive messages and tasks to and from the dispatcher.

Sting Network News

2007-07-11T20:09:00.000+02:00

Sting Networks sign new contracts
Sting Networks is keeping a high tempo and signing new contracts at a constant rate.

There is great interest in following the exciting development of the Company among Bridge members.

Sting therefore presents a selection of the contracts that have been signed lately. It is interesting how broad the spectrum of customers is, everything from healthcare information to maritime communication.

Medhelp

Sting Networks, is responsible for the telephony technology behind the Healthcare information!
With Medhelp as a new customer, Sting Networks has tied up their first major customer to use the Colab system, the platform behind the Call Center solutions.
Previously: Medhelp, had purchased some traffic and minor specialist solutions, but have now, chosen to purchase a solution with 60 licenses; which is a big contract deal for Sting Networks.
This increases the possibility of Sting Networks into capturing sales and interest among other Call Centers.

Extenda

A small but strategically important Call Center solution
Extenda, is an international IT company that sells system solutions for supermarkets, fashion chains and retail chain stores.
Some of their customers are: ICA, H&M, Åhléns and Claes Ohlsson.
The Contract itself is in smaller scale, (12 licenses) but will be very important in Sting?s marketing communication.

Major manufacturing company
Sting Networks reviews their telephony costs.
Sting Networks has signed a contract to act as consultants to review the traffic costs for a major manufacturing company and present ways in which they can save money on telephony.
They will purchase the Sting Networks solution. The most economical way for routing.

Sat Point

Sting Networks, makes IP telephony at sea possible.
SatPoint is one of the world s leading suppliers of innovative marine communication solutions.
Sat Point has been a customer of Sting Networks before, but then purchased through our Partners.
Sting Networks will now offer them an Enterprise Solution, which is an IP, telephony solution that allows IP telephony to boats and ships.

Service Providers.
Among others:

Din Växel: Shared partnership with Koneo. Magnus Bengtsson AB and Telecom Valley AB.

AHA Maxtel: Has been active in the present and profile area for the last 15 years but also runs a consultancy operation within the IT sector and primarily in VoIP that is telephony over the Internet. These partners will purchase Sting Networks, most common module, Hosted IPPBX.

Cheaptel: Will purchase the Residential solution from Sting Networks and target end users with foreign backgrounds.

New case in pipeline, GPS Technology Company

2007-06-28T08:42:00.000+02:00

Bridge global investment network enters the fast growing market of GPS (Global Positioning System) devices and mobile technology to participate in the rapidly growing market.

Investment Capital Management Ltd, an entirely owned subsidiary of Bridge Group has June 21, signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with a fast-growing world wide GPS provider of vehicle tracking and mobile data solutions for vehicle fleets.

The company is at the forefront of easy-to-use business solutions for tracking, managing, monitoring, messaging, navigation and routing from door to door.

The companys software is factory installed in one of the world leader of portable navigation systems serving aviation, marine, outdoor recreation and automotive markets. The company has its headquarters in Ireland and has offices in Belgium, the Netherlands and Sri Lanka.

The Companys aim is to raise between 5 to 6 millions EUR exclusively to the Bridge network of high net individuals and to further list the company within 18-24 months internationally or merger with a global player. Investment Capital Management Ltd is responsible for signing agreements regarding realization of road shows were the companies and licensed stockbrokers can meet the Bridge members. The Bridge Advisory board has been looking into the company,prognoses and growth potential. All the members have given their strongest recommendations to go ahead with the next step.

Already this week Bridge European representatives, will meet the companys Directors and Majority shareholders in Amsterdam, to discuss the time frame, action points and meetings will be held with some well known licensed Securities firms to administrate the companys share issue for the Bridge members.

The goal is to first offer a Private placement of 1 million EURO during the late summer to be followed by a second funding of 4-5 million EURO. Both offers will be exclusive for the Bridge global investment network.

More information and the companys name will come during the summer together with the Investment memorandum.

About GPS , Global Positioning System
With more and more affordable GPS receivers and components flooding the market, the worldwide GPS market will reach a value of more than US$ 30 Billion approximately by 2008. The people tracking and handset market segments under GPS will have the largest growth rate, of approximately 9%, by 2008. The Market world leaders of GPS devices are Garmin Ltd, TomTom, Novatel, Rockwell, Trimble, XATA Technology, Raven Industries, Lowrance Electronics.

GPS-Buddy, is a fast-growing provider of vehicle tracking and mobile data solutions for motorized fleets, which consists at the forefront; of an easy-to-use business solutions for: tracking, managing, monitoring, messaging, navigation and routing from door to door.

GPS-Buddy, is factory installed in GARMIN GPS units.
GARMIN, is the world leader of portable navigation systems serving aviation, marine, outdoor recreation and automotive markets.
With both standard and large screen devices, Garmin offers a wide choice of options to suit every vehicle requirement - from small vans to big trucks.
In close partnership, GPS-Buddy and Garmin offer this easy-to-use, and very affordable tracking, messaging and navigation solutions offering smart and cheap two-way text messaging and planned navigation capabilities.
GPS-Buddy has its headquarters in Cork, Ireland and has offices in Belgium, the Netherlands and Sri Lanka.

Interview with Tjibbe Veenstra, CEO & Founder of GPS-Buddy
We had the opportunity too ask Tjibbe Veenstra, CEO & Founder, a few questions about GPS-Buddy?s business. The cooperation with Garmin has clearly put GPS-Buddy on the fast track for growth.

What does GPS-Buddy do?
GPS-Buddy is a professional firm that plans, designs, develops and sells vehicle tracking and tracing solutions for transport companies and service companies with field operations. Combining three of the most important innovations of the past few decades ? GPS, Wireless Data and Internet ? our strategic approach is to build intelligent Internet-based solutions that are flexible and robust to suit the dynamic nature of the Internet. With the GPS-Buddy software factory-installed on millions of Garmin GPS navigators, our devices can be combined with these Garmin GPS navigators for two-way text communication and navigation at your fingertips. As the world?s largest provider of portable navigation systems, Garmin offers a wide choice of devices ? to suit both trucks and vans. Any manager or dispatcher curious about the actual location of his fleet and status of his deliveries can now access this information instantly on the GPS-Buddy web page, from any PC, anywhere in the world, anytime.

Which are your main competitors?
Locally, the markets for vehicle tracking products are very fragmented with lots of small providers of various systems. As recent tracking developments focus on the combination of tracking, communication and navigation, we do not consider these local providers as their main competitors. Currently TomTomWork is considered the principal competitor, competing with us in a limited number of countries but likely to increase their distribution.

What are your advantages?
All our products and services are developed with a focus on their easy-to-install and easy-to-use elements ? always keeping a focus on the end-user experience. Another advantage is our highly scalable platform, where all servers are modular expandable ? easily serving tens of thousands of users simultaneously per module. Furthermore GPS-Buddy?s products and service are already for sale in 18 countries in Europe and operations will be expanded into the United States from 1 September. As a result of our early commitment to the vehicle tracking market and the high quality of the products and services, we believe we have built an extensive network in Europe that would require significant time, talent, and commitment to duplicate.

Where is GPS-Buddy today and where do you see the company in two years?
With our bespoke services already available in 15 languages, a distribution network in 18 countries and a close partnership with the world?s largest provider of GPS navigators, we are well positioned to capture market share rapidly. Research companies like Gartner, Canalys, ABI Research, industry partners and many others are predicting a highly lucrative market for vehicle tracking products in the coming years and in two years we would like to reap off the benefits of being at the forefront now.

What does the cooperation with Garmin mean for you?
Garmin is the world leader of portable navigation systems serving aviation, marine, outdoor recreation and automotive markets. With both standard and large screen devices Garmin offers a wide choice of options to suit every vehicle requirement ? from small vans to big trucks. At this stage GPS-Buddy is factory-installed on millions of Garmin GPS navigators. And to date we have already signed 14 Garmin distributors as our exclusive distributor as well. Combining Garmin and GPS-Buddy the excitement begins. In Europe Garmin is a strong runner up, but in the United States Garmin has a 60% market share. Our new product the GPS-Buddy CONNECT is an out-of-the-box add-on solution offering communication, tracking and fleet management facilities to every Garmin device ? not just the new ones, but also the Garmin devices already used by millions of users.

How do you predict the market to develop?
It?s my and our staff?s ambition to keep GPS-Buddy at the forefront of the vehicle tracking market. We believe, and many of the industry pundits concur, that the fleet and asset tracking market will grow rapidly and will even explode as soon as a few big names enter this business. No doubt, that TomTomWork will act as a catalyst for market transformation like they did within the market for GPS navigators as we all know. TomTom?s CEO Harold Goddijn summoned it up in a press release when TomTom acquired DataFactory ? a company similar to GPS-Buddy: ?TomTom believes that the vehicle tracking market has only just started to develop. Giving the growing demand to improve their efficiency and optimise the allocation of resources, service companies with field operations have started to use tracking and tracing solutions. This is expanding the market which traditionally served only large truck and logistic companies?

How will you use the money from the two share issues?
Since we have run the business on earnings and organic growth up to now, the expansion possibilities have been limited. At this moment we have a leading position in Europe and we would like to use your investment for building our company much faster than our actual pace. We want to cement our position as a leading force, capable of reaping off the benefits of this rapidly evolving market.

Do you want to say anything else to your potential investors?
GPS-Buddy is something completely different from the well known GPS navigators. A GPS navigator is calculating the perfect route from A to B. GPS-Buddy doesn?t do that. The GPS-Buddy device sends every moment of the day the exact location and status of the vehicle to the GPS-Buddy servers. Based on this data GPS-Buddy can tell you at any given moment when the vehicle started at A, who was driving the vehicle, which route has been driven, how it was speeding, when it stopped where for how long and when it arrived at B. This business is crucial for businesses that want to optimize the use of their fleet and mobile workforce. By connecting a Garmin GPS navigator to the GPS-Buddy device, the user is also able to send and receive messages and tasks to and from the dispatcher.

you can read the memorandum here

Starbreeze´s new game "The Darkness" in stores 29 June

2007-06-19T10:04:00.000+02:00

Here is how the stock has gone up recently.

I predict that the stock will go up some more when the game is released. The game is bound to be a hit for various reasons.

Watch the trailer

Starbreeze on the rise!

2007-06-13T09:19:00.000+02:00

Remember that stock I said bought? It has gone up 90% since I bought it :).
I just wish I hade bought more instead of throwing the money in the trash/HYIP :(
I think Starbreeze will go up some more so I think I will hold on to them for a while before I sell them.

Sewerstupid

Mindark financial report, Full steam ahead

2007-06-11T09:53:00.000+02:00

Mindark has reported another great year. The users brought 110 million PED with them into Entropia Universe during 2006, an increase of 134 % when compared with 2005.

Mindark has reported another great year. The users brought 110 million PED with them into Entropia Universe during 2006, an increase of 134% when compared with 2005. During the first quarter of 2007 the growth continued and Mindark has invested in a new server park to handle another great year with many new users.

The news about Mindark signing an agreement to launch Entropia Universe in China with the backing of the Chinese government really caught the attention of media around the world. During fall of 2008 hundreds of Chinese planets will enter the Entropia Universe and millions of new players are expected to join. And that is not all, Mindark is in negotiations with several other companies to do similar deals.

We are on a great journey together with Mindark and the future looks extremely bright!

Annual Report 2006
Interim Statement Q 1 2007

Mindark News

2007-05-31T10:14:00.000+02:00

Mindark One of the World's Largest Virtual Economies Partners With Chinese Cyber-Giant to Create a New Network Capable of Handling 7 Million Concurrent Users and $1 Billion in Commerce Annually.

GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN (MARKET WIRE) May 30, 2007 -- Entropia Universe, has been chosen by the Beijing Municipal People's Government supported online entertainment company Cyber Recreation Development Corp. (CRD) to create a cash-based virtual economy for China. The landmark deal was negotiated for almost a year and will bring an outside virtual world into China for the very first time.
Entropia Universe was chosen over several other proposals, including one by Second Life.
The new project will permit up to 7 million concurrent users logged into the virtual universe with an overall aim to attract some 150 million users from all over the world. Entropia Universe, a three-dimensional universe on the Internet intended for entertainment, work, commerce, community building, culture, and much more, is expected to generate over $1 billion annually in commerce from this partnership.
David Liu, the CEO of Cyber Recreation Development Corp., says, "It is estimated that the project will generate some 10,000 qualified job opportunities in China. An important aspect for this project is also the positive effects on our environment that we foresee. People will actually be able to work from home inside Entropia Universe, as many people do today, even from rural areas, thereby decreasing the amount of pollution generated by travel. Entropia Universe's highly secure system and open-ended approach is suitable for a variety of exciting developments, from trade to cultural exchange, to environmental saving and historic preservation. All in all, Entropia Universe is absolutely the best choice on the market for us to achieve the set goals."
Jan Welter Timkrans, the CEO of MindArk PE AB, says, "The scope that follows from this agreement is truly grand in vision but also great for the continual development of Entropia Universe. The ideas presented during our mutual talks with CRD are mind-boggling and show the potential that lies within Entropia Universe as a safe, stable and trusted platform, both for real cash commerce, as well as gaining culture and education for Entropia participants. On the technical side, the server structure running the Entropia Universe will be one of the fastest on Earth. I am also very pleased that MindArk has been able to quickly come to a mutual agreement, as this journey began when MindArk joined the delegation surrounding the East-India ship Gotheborg's arrival in Shanghai in August 2006, and the celebrations around this. The Swedish Royal family and esteemed members of China's upper political echelon were present at the celebrations."
The technology introduced with this project will enable other companies within media, film, music and gaming industries, or other content providers, to acquire their own planet within Entropia Universe. In turn, this will provide a diverse, entertaining and interesting three-dimensional virtual universe of vast proportions for participants to explore. A number of the world's largest corporations within the aforementioned business sectors are currently in negotiations to purchase their own planet within Entropia Universe.
The heart of Entropia Universe today lies in a distant planet named Calypso, encompassing two continents with large expanding cities that offer a variety of entertainment and social interaction for its citizens. The cooperation agreement with China will generate hundreds of new planets and open up space for travel between the planets.
Entropia Universe offers opportunities in numerous professions which are unique and completely different from that of the members' real life occupations. Entropia uses a system based on skills and experience which allows for occupational proficiency in areas ranging from event promotions and store ownership to hunting and mining. Entropians have the chance to buy and sell property, become financially successful, and even find a mate in their virtual world.
Entropia Universe is the only virtual gaming community that actively supports sales of virtual products with actual cash value within its real economy system. The economy offers the user a secure and safe way to make purchases, sales and exchange real-life currency into PED (Project Entropia Dollars) and back again into real money, at a fixed exchange rate to the US Dollar, guaranteed by MindArk PE AB. PED allows members to invest in personal development and growth through the acquisition of goods, buildings, and land in the virtual universe.
About Cyber Recreation Development Corp.
Cyber Recreation Development Corp. is a leader of cyber entertainment in China. Beijing Municipal People's Government has selected CRD as the source for culture and digital entertainment and as part of the "the Eleventh Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development in Beijing." By combining digital entertainment with recreation facilities, CRD brings out new opportunities for traditional economy and will stimulate the economic development of the growing Beijing capital area. More information about CRD is available at: http://www.crd.gov.cn.

MindArk and Global Gaming Factory X AB announced the launch of Entropia Universe as the first virtual universe and software to use the Smartlaunch Direct digital distribution platform to reach millions of gamers at thousands of internet cafes and gaming centers all over the world.

GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN (MARKET WIRE), May 22, 2007, We are pleased to announce Entropia, the world's most popular virtual world, as the first software to be delivered to café owners using Smartlaunch Direct," Global Gaming Factory X AB chief executive Hans Pandeya states.
Gaming at internet cafes and gaming centers is a rising social phenomena, as these venues are ideal places for gamers to meet and share information. Smartlaunch Direct is being fully integrated with the Smartlaunch server and café administrator, displaying popular games from cafes around the world. The cafe owner can easily download and install a game on all computers in the café with a single click using Smartlaunch Direct.
In addition to being convenient for gaming hubs, Smartlaunch also provide publishers a convenient way of reaching millions of online gamers who visit thousands of cafes in the Smartlaunch network every month.
Entropia Universe has been expanding rapidly with over 580,000 registered users, and now we will be able to reach more of our audience without the lag of individual download time, states MindArk CIO Marco Behrmann. This new partnership with Global Gaming Factory X AB will allow us to share the Entropia experience with new players who will have the software as an easily accessible option in their own environment. We look forward to a prosperous future using Smartlaunch Direct.

About Global Gaming Factory X AB
Global Gaming Factory X AB has the largest network of internet cafés and gaming centers in the world with an unprecedented access to the gamer audience. Global Gaming Factory X AB owns Smartlaunch www.smartlaunch.com and Celco Software www.cybercafepro.com, the leading European and North American publishers of cafe management software. Global Gaming Factory X AB has developed a platform for digital distribution of software, advertising and services to reach millions of gamers that visit gaming centers every month.
Global Gaming Factory X AB is listed on the Aktietorget stock exchange in Stockholm, Sweden. For more information please visit www.globalgamingfactory.com

Source: Mindark

Koos Tesselaar joins the Advisory board

2007-05-22T15:12:00.000+02:00

Koos Tesselaar has extensive experience as a serial entrepreneur as well as being a supervisory board member for several companies.
He started his career in the building industry, first in South Africa, later in the Netherlands. Later he founded a Pan European direct marketing business which he sold to Royal Dutch Post. Since 1998 he is mainly involved in corporate recovery management and as an investor. Till April 2007 Koos was the Group CEO of De Boer Structures Holding, Global market leader in temporary housing.

Koos has held several board positions for investments of ABN-AMRO Capital, Bridgepoint Capital, SNS Bank, NPM Capital and others.

Koos has business experience in Europe, Middle East and China and is an investor in Private Equity and Real Estate.

Koos was Born and lives in The Netherlands. After being educated in Construction Engineering and Civil Engineering, he later attended several courses at Nyenrode University, Stanford University and Harvard University mostly in the field of corporate governance and private equity.

Koos has a wide network and International experience in Europe, Middle east and China.

He has held many board positions in organizations as, Young Presidents Organizations, Young Management, The Dutch Employers Organization, and the Chamber of Commerce.
Koos is member of the advisory board of Oracle and the board of BAM Inframanagement.
He is married and has two children.

Mindark & Sting related news

2007-05-22T14:59:00.000+02:00

Sting Networks expands to the Benelux Economic Union, and Germany
Sting Networks has established sales offices in Germany and in the Benelux Economic Union. With local sales forces in both markets, strengthens the Swedish company s position on the European IP telephony market.

Three sales managers with a solid background and experience of the VoIP market have joined the company team.Telemotio b.v. will be Sting Networks, partner in Benelux with Albert Kerstholt, as the managing director, established in Assen, Netherlands.
Michael Schalk, and Michael Meyer, will concentrate their efforts in the German market, with their sales office in Frankfurt, Germany.

We strongly believe that the VoIP industry in Europe will explode, comments Tommy Ekstrom, CEO of Sting Networks.
Our goal is to become the leading operator in the European white label market, and establishing sales forces in Germany and the Benelux is of strategically importance for Sting.

DFC Intelligence about MMOG
The Research company DFC Intelligence, has written a two page article about the factors that could separate the handful of winners from the many losers in the MMO, market.
After reading such article, you will conclude with our experts that Mindark, is on the right track for success.

Success in MMOGs:
Careful Planning Vs. Wildcat Drilling

MindArks Management Accept the Gothenburg Company Award

2007-04-25T16:07:00.000+02:00

MindArks accept the Gotheburg Company Award by the Mayor Goran Johansson. MindArks Marketing Director Carl Uggla, CEO Jan Welter and Business Development Director David Simmonds accept the Gotheburg Company Award at Hotel Radisson in central Gothenburg from Gotheburgs Mayor Goran Johansson. The Company Award was introduced by the Trade and Industry Group in January 1994, and has so far been won by over 40 companies.

The award is aimed at supporting industrial development in the Gothenburg region and rewarding positive enterprise. Positive enterprise benefits customers, employees, business owners and society. at Hotel Radisson in central Goteborg from Gothenburgs Mayor Goran Johansson.

Share issue heavily over-subscribed

2007-04-23T09:43:00.000+02:00

We want to inform the community that the new share issue of Sting Networks, was heavily over-subscribed. The share issue was for 31 Million SEK with an over-subscription option of a further 10 Million SEK. Bridge members subscribed for a total of: 45.1 Million SEK.

The Board of Directors of Sting Networks announced today, that they have decided to use the over-subscription option of 10 Million SEK. This means that the total issue will be for a total of 41 Million SEK. The result of this is that a significantly larger number of Bridge members will have the opportunity to participate in this exciting investment.

It is great that there was so much interest in the new share issue. I am looking forward into taking the next step, on Sting s development, together with the new owners. Now we can set our expansion; full steam ahead, says Tommy Ekstrom.

I met around 2,000 potential investors at the road shows and I was impressed by the positive atmosphere that I experienced. In addition to the capital that we have raised we have also had a number of inquiries about our services from Bridge members and their networks of contacts. We have had a number of meetings that carry the potential into partnership agreements, and new customers, Tommy Ekstrom continues.
Bridge members demonstrate, that there is strong placing power when thousands of investors organise themselves together. Now, we can be part of the exiting new journey; as Sting expands around Europe.

Please note, that the funds for the subscribed shares, must be available in your deposit account by April 25th, at the latest.

Time for an update

2007-04-17T14:41:00.000+02:00

Hi

I haven´t been so active lately so I guess it is time for an update.

The subscription for the "Stingnetwork" Pre-IPO is now closed, I have bought 1 block of shares and I bought 1 block of shares in "Mindark PE" from another Bridge member that wanted to sell his shares. After some research I have also bought some stocks in a swedish game-developer company called "Starbreeze" that is quoted on the Stockholm Exchange. They are releasing a game this summer that is based on a succesful american comic book called "The Darkness" and the game looks ace and is going to be a hit(I hope). Their stock is valued very very low right now so I will make a nice profit when the stock goes up, atm it is up 3%. Time will tell.

Sting Networks Share Subscription

2007-03-19T10:15:00.000+01:00

We are proud to announce that, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, (FI) gave on Wednesday March 14, the approval to Stings Networks AB (publ.) Prospectus.

Sting will now together with Erik Penser fondkommission offer the Bridge community to buy shares directly from the company. The share subscription period will be between March 26 and April 16 and last payment day will be April 25.
The Sting Networks prospectus together with the subscription form will be mailed in hard copy, to all Bridge members in either English or Swedish before the subscription starts. Members will also be eligible to download the document from the back office portall, which will be presented on a PDF (Acrobat Reader) format.
Due to high interest received from our road shows, we suggest our members to process payments to ACH Securities S.A as early possible, to assure their participation. An updated payment instructions from ACH Securities S.A. will be aviable at your back office from next week (Tuesday, March 21).
More detailed information about the share issue will be presented within the prospectus.

Bridge Advisor appointed to the Sting Networks Board of Directors

2007-02-27T11:24:00.000+01:00

Bridge Advisory Board member Mr. Anders Eriksson, from the Netherlands, will join Sting Networks board of directors.

We are very pleased; he has accepted this new venture. His broad expertise in this type of business will catapult Sting Networks, to the next level. Anders, has a clear perspective of this business, and a lot of experience to transmit directly to the company, explains Mr. Mats Jäderberg, Head of Market development in Europe.
To explore a little more about his opinion; we requested Mr. Eriksson to grant us a small interview, which he gladly aaccepted. Here are some of his key ideas, that he shared:

Q: You have been asked to join Sting Networks board of directors and I understand that you have accepted. Is that correct?
A: Yes, I am very pleased to join the Sting Board when the company now enters a very exciting phase. Not least with the support of the Bridge investment and as I understand with as well Viesturs Vucins as new board member to further support the company going forward. Lennart Lübeck which has been a Sting board member for some time has as well accepted the Chairman position of the company.

Q: Do you have any background in the Telecom or VoIP industry?
A: I have worked a long time for Telia as well as for KPN Telecom in The Netherlands. However my last assignments has been as MD for AOL Time Warners internet operations in the Benelux, as CEO for Active24 and then my last assignment as MD for Priority Telecom in Norway, which I think is relevant when Priority Telecom had its own fibre network and also acted as a infrastructure facilitator to all main VOIP operators in Norway, a market that is more mature then in Sweden and hence I hope to be able to pass on my know how to Sting.

Q: Besides from your telecom background, what kind of knowledge and experience you think, you will bring to the Sting Company?
A: I would hope that my international experience could be useful when Sting has clear international ambitions as well as having experienced and managed the listing on the Oslo stock exchange.

Q: You have previously successfully taken Active24 public on the Oslo stock exchange. Will that come in handy with your engagement in Sting?

A: A listing is of course up to the owners to decide on however I firmly believe that a listing needs to be considered to provide the stock liquidity for the Bridge investors. I would like to say that a listing is a large undertaking where a lot of resources needs to be committed however I will be more then willing to do what I can should this become a reality.

Q: What do you think, makes Sting Networks so exciting?

A: It has everything you could ask for, an experienced management, a track record in a young market segment, exciting new services that enable emerging VOIP operators to bring new services at an affordable price to corporate and private consumers in a very dynamic telecom industry that truly is ready for a real change that Sting can take advantage of.

Q: Would you like to say something to the Bridge investment community?
A: Of course I hope that all will consider to switch to a phone service enabled by Sting as soon as possible and then to help to market Sting as a company and its services in any way possible.

The coming share issue

2007-02-15T11:42:00.000+01:00

Erik Penser Fondkommission is finishing the Sting Networks share issue prospectus.
Erik Penser Fondkommission, is finishing the Sting Networks share issue prospectus, and the first version has been send to Finansinspektionen (FI), the Swedish financial authority.When FI, has approved the prospectus, it will be made available on your Bridge back office account. This time, we will also send a printed edition to all members by mail.
The share issuing, will be for a total of 31 million Swedish crowns, about 3.4 million euros.One block of shares, will be about the same amount as in previous share issuings, around 1,100 euros.

Sting Networks Road show schedule
Prepare yourself for the Sting Networks road show. In a few weeks, Sting Networks will start their road show to meetand interact; with as many members as possible.It will be a great opportunity for you to personally listen, to whatTommy Ekström, and other key members from Sting Networksmanagement will share.Please verify the Schedule below, to participate in these events:

12 March - Visby - Best Western Strand Hotel
13 March - Stockholm - Hamburger Börs
14 March - Mjölby - Skänninge Stadshotell
15 March - Göteborg - Storan
16 March - Malmö - Hilton Malmö City
20 March - Riga - The Riga Latvian Society house
21 March - Oslo - Radisson SAS Scandinavia Hotel
23 March - Reykjavik - Grand Hótel Reykjavík

Not only, you will be able to meet the Sting Networks team,but also Bridge, ACH Securities, and Erik PenserFondkommission, who will also be present.
And just as important, it will be a wonderful opportunity tomeet and interact with other members of the Bridge community.More details about the road show, will soon be published.Make sure to make a note in your calendars.

Bridge & Mindark updates

2007-02-08T08:47:00.000+01:00

Mindark featured in an article in the latest issue of the swedish magazine "Internetworld". It is an interesting article but sadly it is only available in swedish. Go here

I might try to translate parts of the article when I have time.

Preliminary dates for the roadshow of the second part of the Sting Networks pre IPO are now set.

12/3 – Visby - Best Western Strand Hotel
13/3 – Stockholm – Hamburger Börs
14/3 – Mjölby - Skänninge Stadshotell
15/3 – Göteborg – Storan
16/3 – Malmö - Hilton Malmö City
20/3 – Riga - The Riga Latvian Society house
21/3 – Oslo - Radisson SAS Scandinavia Hotel
23/3 – Reykjavik - Grand Hótel Reykjavík

Stings Networks pre IPO oversubscribed!

2007-02-02T15:23:00.000+01:00

ACH Securities S.A who is administrating Sting Networks AB (publ.) first share issue reports that it was successfully oversubscribed more than three times.The huge and massive interest from the member Community to invest in the booming telecom sector of Voice/Services over Internet is reflected on the impressive numbers of participants.

Due to the oversubscription, the available shares of 1 million Euro will be allocated in a drawing process. Those that subscribed should review their ACH accounts to find out if you were beneficiary of the drawing process which is scheduled to conclude by February 13.

The second offering will take place between March 13-30 under the supervision from Erik Penser Fondkommission who currently is working to finalize Stings prospectus. After this the prospectus will be delivered to the Swedish Financial Inspection (FI) for final approval.
Bridge will soon announce dates and places for the upcoming Road shows with the co founders behind Sting Networks.

Sting Networks

2007-01-25T10:06:00.000+01:00

Important information!
The information memorandum that this offer is based on has been produced by the board of Sting Networks AB. Erik Penser Fondkommission AB has, on behalf of Bridge, reviewed the Company and its Memorandum in order to assess the reasonableness of the offer. Subscription forms should be sent to ACH Securities S.A. who will administrate the offering.

This offer is not, directly or indirectly, made to persons whose participation would require any additional prospectus, registration or other measures than those required under Swedish law. Neither the information memorandum nor the subscription form may be mailed or distributed to or into any country where such distribution or the offer would require such measures or would be in conflict with any law or regulation applicable in such a country. The shares offered have not been and will no be registered in accordance with the United States Securities Act of 1933 or any province law in Canada and may not be offered for sale in the United States of America, Canada, Australia, Japan, New Zealand or South Africa, or any other country where distribution or the offer would require such measures or would be in conflict with any law or regulation applicable in such a country. Subscription for shares in violation with the above conditions may be left without notice. Accordingly, the shares can not, either directly or indirectly, be offered, sold, marketed or delivered to or into countries where actions or requirements specified above are necessary or to residents of the countries listed above. Swedish law applies to the memorandum. Disputes concerning the contents of the memorandum or any issues related to it will be settled in accordance with Swedish law and by a Swedish court exclusively.

Sting Networks Memorandum

Sting Networks Website

Sting Networks Pre-IPO is now open

2007-01-17T13:01:00.000+01:00

Sting Networks was established late 2002. Sting Networks is a fast growing dynamic provider delivering complete VoIP communication solutions both to Service Providers, enabling them to offer innovative telephony services to their clients, as well as to Contact Center and Enterprises with a need for advanced and customized hosted solutions.

Tommy Ekström the CEO of Sting is also founder of Song Networks AB (formerly Tele1 Europe, now a part of TDC) in 1996, have almost three decades of telecom experience from working at companies such as Ericsson, Motorola and Vodafone in different partsof the world and currently Member of the Boards of Medhelp AB, MedIn OY and Sting Network Support Services AB.

The offering will be done in two parts. The first funding will be through a Private placement of 9 million SEK.

• Number of shares to be issued: 450,000
• Price per share: 20 SEK
• Price per block of shares: 10,200 SEK (500 shares)
• Subscription period: 15-26 January 2007
• Payment date: 5 February
• Distribution of shares: 13 February (preliminary)

The second offering will be for the remaining value of 31 million SEK and it is expected to be concluded after the prospectus is finally approved by the Swedish financial services authority (FI). Erik Penser Fondkommission in Stockholm, Sweden, will write the prospectus and administrate the subscription of shares.
It is expected to open for subscription at th end of Febuary or Mars

For the second offering Sting Network´s Board of directors will be doing "roadshows" and investment meetings for Bridge Members in Scandinavia and Balticum.

Agloco - Own the internet

2007-01-17T11:24:00.000+01:00

A new internet opportunity have surfaced, it is in pre-launch face right now and a lot of people have already singned up and are promoting it. Is it all hype? It looks interesting, here is a copy and paste from their site:

AGLOCO: The Internet's First Economic Network

Today’s hottest Internet businesses are all about the power of social networks. Companies like MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube have become worth billions because businesses have realized that these social networks are generating huge advertising and marketing opportunities. As these social networks grow, the economic potential for its owners – and the advertisers who target the site’s users – is remarkable.

At AGLOCO, we asked a simple question: The users created the community, where’s their share of the profit?

It was from this question that AGLOCO set out to create the Internet’s first Economic Network, harnessing the power of Internet-based social networks to directly benefit the Members who help to create the community.

Becoming a member of AGLOCO is as simple as completing a brief sign-up page (name, age, location and email address.). Once you’re a Member, you will be asked to then download the Viewbar™ software. (Note: the Viewbar™ software is currently unavailable, as it is in closed testing. It will be ready for public download in a few weeks, and members will be notified when it is available.)

AGLOCO makes money for its Members in many ways:

Search: Every time you use the Viewbar™ to do an Internet search, AGLOCO earns money from the search engine providers. (For example, Google pays as much as $0.10 on average for each search that is directed to its search engine.)
Advertising: The Viewbar™ itself displays ads that are targeted based upon the websites you’re visiting. When you click on an ad and make a purchase, AGLOCO receives a referral fee, which we pass on to our Members. (Please note: Individual members do not receive any compensation for clicking on ads in the Viewbar™, and the Viewbar™ can detect if someone is clicking ads in a fraudulent manner.)
Transaction commissions: Many major retailers pay commissions when you refer customers who make a purchase. AGLOCO collects that commission and passes it on to our members. (For example, Amazon pays an 8.5% commission to most websites who refer customers, and has cut deals for even larger percentages. The bigger the AGLOCO community, the better commission we can negotiate for our Members.)
Software distribution: Numerous software companies pay websites to encourage the download of new software releases (for example, Adobe’s Flash and Acrobat Reader software), and trial versions of new programs. AGLOCO members not only get access to the latest and coolest software, they get paid for it.
Service distribution: Many online service providers will look to the AGLOCO community as a source of new and active users for their services. (For example, eBay, Skype, and PayPal, among others, all pay fees to people who help them recruit new active users to their services)
Product distribution: When Members agree to use a product, such as cell phones, high-tech gadgets, office supplies, new credit cards or financial services, AGLOCO can collect referral fees. Some companies even offer special rebate and cash-back programs.

AGLOCO Members make money in four ways.

Members earn a monthly share of the AGLOCO revenue based on the use of the AGLOCO Viewbar™ that month.
Members earn part of the company based on the use of the AGLOCO Viewbar™ that month (currently a maximum of five hours are rewarded).

Members who use our referral system to help build the AGLOCO network will earn more. (AGLOCO only has significant value as a large network and people who help build it should be rewarded. – We also feel that the early users who told friends about YouTube or MySpace or even Google probably deserved something too, but no referral system was available to record their work).
Members will also get a share of any commissions AGLOCO gets when a Member purchases a product or service from an AGLOCO Sponsor company.

Why should I join now?
First, it costs nothing to Join and takes less than one minute.
Second, you can help build the AGLOCO community by recruiting new Members TODAY.Right now, inviting your friends to join AGLOCO is as easy and productive as it will ever be – but you need to invite your friends before someone else beats you to them.Remember, the bigger the AGLOCO community, the more attractive AGLOCO is to potential business partners and advertisers.
Recruit your friends and family by contacting them through email. (But remember we have a strict anti-spam policy.)
Use your blog and your existing social networks, such as MySpace and Facebook, to contact your friends and encourage them to join a new community that will actually let them earn money.

If you want to join the link is in the sidebar.

Next case, Sting Networks pre IPOs

2006-12-07T08:51:00.000+01:00

2006-12-05

The Bridge Group announces today that Sting Networks AB intends to make a pre IPO offering of approximately 4,5 million EUR exclusively to the Bridge investment community. The pre IPO will be concluded through two funding phases.
All the necessary agreements between the parties were signed yesterday.

The first funding will be through a Private placement of 1 million EURO to be concluded latest in January 2007.

The second offering will be for the remaining value and it is expected to be concluded after the prospectus is finally approved by the Swedish financial services authority (FI). Erik Penser Fondkommission in Stockholm, Sweden, will write the prospectus and administrate the subscription of shares.
Sting Networks is a fast growing dynamic provider delivering complete VoIP communication solutions both to Service Providers, enabling them to offer innovative telephony services to their clients, as well as to Contact Center and Enterprises with a need for advanced and customized hosted solutions.

We want to give companies access to a whole new way of redefining communications with endless possibilities. It is our mission to challenge traditional telecom institutions with a new, hard-core communication approach; with solutions that are more powerful, simpler and more rewarding for the customers, says Tommy Ekström CEO & majority shareholder of Sting Networks.
Mr Ekström is also co founder of both Tele1 Europe (former Song Networks and today part of TDC Song) and Europolitan (former Vodafone and today part of Telenor).

Sting Networks own state of the art one stop shop interface based on IP-technology together with awarded commercial VoIP systems enables companies to boost their businesses through low cost and high quality communication services and provide end users with innovative telephony solutions. Sting Networks gateway platform for traditional and VoIP telephony via Internet makes access to telecom solutions available to a broader mass of enterprises and resellers. Sting network was founded in late 2002. After a start up phase period during 2003 and 2004, the company has experienced an explosive business growth and a strong demand for its services since the beginning of 2005.

Sting Networks has developed from a 0,5 million EURO annual revenue rate with presence in two markets at the beginning of 2005 to a 2,3 million EURO revenue at the beginning of 2006 with presence in seven markets.

The market for Sting Networks services is growing at an enormous pace. IDC forecasts, that the number of VoIP users in Europe will soar to 22 million in 2008 (from 2,5 million late 2004), representing 7 USD billion in revenue.

Sting is in a unique position to exploit the explosive growth of the European market for VoIP communication services. The goal for the company is to become a leading player in the European White Label market attracting a number of strong partners providing advanced and high quality communication services to the end user market. The companys aim for next three years is to reach at least 18 million EURO in revenue.
Sting has successfully moved into the growth phase of the company and seeks further financing in order to scale up the business. The new funds will be used to expand Stings European operations, aggressively expand its sales and marketing presence in all markets and continue to strengthen its product development.

Sting fits very well into Bridge investment strategy. The company has successfully completed the establishment phase with growing revenues and customer base. The offerings are fairly easy to launch in new markets to achieve a broader geographical presence. The company operates in a fast growing market expected to explode considering both business as well as residential clients. The management have together long experience from telecom services and are devoted to success, says Mats Jäderberg, one of Bridge Directors for Europe.

Links
Stingnetworks.com

Media
Realtid.se
Telecom Idag

The planned pre IPO in Svaret Holding cancelled

2006-10-06T20:12:00.000+02:00

Bridge board of Directors has decided to cancel the planned Pre IPO in Svaret Holding of 20 million because of changed conditions related to the companys financial status.

The decision was taken after consultation with the Advisory Board and the stockbroker Erik Penser Fondkommission.

During the stockbroker, Erik Penser Fondkommissions work with the prospect between June to August, the company reported several occasions, with significant negative deviations compared to earlier financial statements. As a result of this the conditions for new capital to be used for future growth decreased drastically.

Simultaneously with the work at Erik Penser Fondkommission, the Advisory Board has been notified of the substantial deviations and was finally given Bridge their recommendations to discontinue the planned share issue. The Advisory Boards opinion is that the company first has to strengthen its balance sheet and show a long term positive trend in the company’s financial results.

I am very grateful for both Erik Penser Fondkommissions and the Advisory Boards professional opinion. Terminating a project of this size at this late stage is a tough but necessary decision. We rather make a hard decision today than risk an investment that our members regret for a long time. Bridge investment model has three vital filters; the Advisory Board, the Stock broker and the Financial supervisory. In this case, the second filter has stopped further progress to protect the members and the companys interests, says Henrik Selstam, board member of Bridge.

Advisory Board regarding the interrupted new issue in Svaret Holding

When, in May, we took a position regarding the planned new issue for Svaret we based our decision on the companys own figures and the prognoses in their investment memorandum.

Today we can state that the companys figures diverge significantly from previous prognoses and we now longer consider that Svaret meets the basic requirements that Bridge insist on to continue our support for the issue, says Kjell Nilsson, member of Bridge Advisory board.

I think that the fact that Bridge has chosen not to continue with Svarets new issue to its members demonstrates the negotiating power of the Bridge board of Directors to operate with the purpose of achieving the company’s and the members long term expectations.

Our task has always been to determine the value of Svarets offer to Bridge members and with the facts in hand there is considerable divergence from what we can support, Kjell Nilsson concludes.

Bridge is now working intensively with the Advisory board to review other companies which better fit Bridge essential requirements, companies that have passed the establishment phase, have shown profitability and planning for continued growth.

Comments: Very sad indeed, but I guess it is for the best considering the potential losses for bridge members if they have chosen to go through with the offering.
Buys me a little more time to save up more capital to invest more into the next one instead :P

Bridge at the Swedish Entrepreneur Gala

2006-09-28T09:07:00.000+02:00

The Gala was held at the famous Stockholm City hall with over 700 people invited guests.
This was the first year for Bridge to become sponsor for the Entrepreneur Gala 2006.

The Swedish Entrepreneur Gala 2006 was held at the Swedish City hall under the supervision of Founders Alliance, a knowledge company driving the corporate development of entrepreneurial high-growth companies.

After the yearly ceremony of rewards to succesful entrepreneurs the dinner took place at the Blue hall were also The Nobel prize take place.

The purpose of the Gala event is to increase opportunities for Sweden’s entrepreneurs to grow quicker and more efficiently through access to the necessary tools, resources and individuals.

Amongst an impressive elite of Swedish entreprenuers the participants could listen to Mr. Niklas Zenström, founder of Skype and Kazaa and Mr.Thord Wilkne founder of WM data.

This is a true moment for an invesment network like Bridge to meet Founder Alliances strong network of entreprenuers and also to learn how to work more close in the future, says Mr. Mats Jäderberg, one of Bridge representatives in Europe.

Learn more about Founders Alliance att www.foundersalliance.com

Svaret Holdings Pre IPO delayed

2006-09-26T14:54:00.000+02:00

We are sorry to announce that the signing period concerning new shares in Svaret Holding, earlier scheduled to start October 2, will be delayed. During the assessment period where The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, FI has reviewed the prospectus, the contracted stockbroker, Erik Penser Fondkommission AB has on behalf of Bridge, continued their work to ensure that the investment opportunity should reflect a reasonable balance in terms of share price and risks linked to the investment.

There are still certain critical aspects that need to be analyzed in more depth to ensure that the company has fulfiled all necessary aspects, before Erik Penser Fondkommision and the company could carry out the investment opportunity to the Bridge investors.

Bridge has today given both parts this week to come back with more detailed information regarding the current situation and a new possible date of subscription. As soon as Bridge receives such information, the company will immediately announce it to all its members.

At this moment we can just wait and rely on Svaret, mTouch and Erik Penser Fondkommision professional attitude to be productive in order to shorten the occurred situation, says Mr. Mats Jäderberg, Bridge representative for the European operation.

New Bridge case in pipeline

2006-09-26T14:37:00.000+02:00

A German Software Company, Investment Capital Management Ltd, an entirely owned subsidiary of Bridge has signed a Letter of Intent with a German provider with the aim to raise 3-6 million Euro.The company offers advanced project and workflow management software for major companies in well defined markets. The company was founded in 1997 and is profitable. The company holds an impressive stock of large and prestiges clients which already using the company’s software since many years.

The aim is to rise up to 6 million Euro and to further list the company within 36 months or sell parts of the business to a strategically player. As soon as the parties have made their final decisions to execute the deal Bridge will inform its members the dates for a planned share subscription.

Investment Capital Management (BZE) Ltd is responsible for signing agreements regarding realization of road shows, were the companies and licensed stockbrokers can meet Bridge many investors.

Mindark News

2006-09-26T14:06:00.000+02:00

Mindark introduces ATM cards for real cash withdrawal

Entropia Universe, the fastest growing virtual world utilizing a real cash economy, introductes a ATM card system that connects directly with real-world Versatel machines internationally, for easy access to the conversion between virtual and physical currency.The revolutionary ATM system allows players to use any versatel Machine around the World, allowing Entropia members to conveniently access virtual PED (Project Entropia dollars) and transfer it into "real" cash.

The implementation of the system is just another benefit of the built-in "real cash economy" of Entropia Universe.
An Entropia Universe participant can acquire the ATM card from MindArk, the developer of Entropia Universe. The card is associated with the participants' Entropia Universe account (similar to a bank account), allowing one to efficiently and securely access funds to make a withdrawal of virtual money (Project Entropia Dollars) in real life currency using any Versatel machine around the world. All of the features of transferring, withdrawing, depositing, viewing account balances and more are available with this virtual ATM system. This innovative service for Entropia Universe members provides true economic freedom and puts them one step closer to bridging the gap between the virtual and real world.
"The ATM system is a crucial and significant element in the true monetization of virtual currency, by supporting instant and convenient conversion to real cash," says Jan Welter, CEO of MindArk, developer of Entropia Universe. "MindArk is changing the online gaming and virtual community landscape by introducing a real cash economy that offers validity and secure monitoring of one's funds. We aim to become unique forerunners of online virtual entertainment, and with the ATM technology and economic stability of our universe, we are creating the next level of the online experience.
"I think the ATM card is the Holy Grail of Massive Multiplayer Gaming that everyone has been looking for," says Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs, recent winner of the Virtual Space Resort in Entropia Universe. "It is incredible to now think that it is possible to manufacture and sell a virtual item one minute and then go out and buy a real dinner the next minute, with the same funds!"

Mindark users get access to Chinese market

MindArk PE AB who develop and operate Entropia Universe, the fastest growing virtual online world with real cash economy, have signed an agreement with a payment provider into the Universe, incorporating all major Chinese debit and credit cards. The agreement opens the vast Chinese market and connects 123 million Chinese internet users with the Entropia Universe, which had a 2005 GNP (real cash value of traded virtual items) of 165 MUSD. The services will be available in the first quarter of 2007.
Chinese internet usage so far has increased by 20 percent from the 2005 levels, and China now has the world’s second largest internet user community after the US. No less than 77 million Chinese now have broadband access, according to government statistics from the CNNIC. Growing with 133 000 new users 2005, Entropia Universe is a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) that offers a popular online science-fiction world adventure. In the Entropia Universe, the currency is PED, with ten PED being equivalent to one US dollar. Users can freely enter and withdraw money from the universe through their existing bank accounts.
Domestic online games are enjoying an enormous growth in Asia, with sales reaching 300 MUSD and an annual 50 percent growth expected over the following five years, according to IDC. Interactive online entertainment such as Entropia Universe has an ever broader audience, attracting both old and young.
“This is a major step for us, bringing the world’s fastest growing online entertainment world to the world’s fastest growing audience. Many Chinese actors have signaled their interest to include Entropia Universe as a part of their online offering and we feel very lucky to be the first foreign online entertainment community to enter China. A simple and safe payment solution is an absolute necessity, and we are glad to be able to rely on a trusted partner of ours, Paynova, for this,” says Jan Welter Timkrans, CEO of MindArk.
The Chinese online gaming market covers close to half of the world’s entire online gaming community and no provider can ignore it. Mindarks payment gateway can deal with 34 Chinese payment cards. Mindark can now offer users a fast access to the Chinese market, whether this is for gaming, e-commerce or other purposes. Arriving with the world’s fastest growing virtual world.

Subscription for shares in Svaret between 2nd to 20th October

2006-09-01T14:38:00.000+02:00

2006-09-01

On Monday the 4nd September at 10 am, Erik Penser Fondkommission AB will hand out the prospectus for the dedicated issue to Bridge members in Svaret Group AB (previously called ”Svaret Holding”).

Erik Penser Fondkommission and the Svaret Group apologises for the delay relative to the previously given time schedule, but Erik Penser Fondkommission together with Bridge subsidiary Investment Capital Management (Belize) Ltd and the company are agreed that it must be ensured that the prospectus meets the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority’s (FI) new requirements, which have not previously been tested. These new requirements cover, among other things, extended analysis of the company operating capital and financing and the grounds for the evaluation of subsidiary companies. On the 13th September 2006 an extraordinary general meeting of Svaret will be held, where all the necessary formal decisions caused by the issue will be taken. The main owners of the company, who own the majority of the shares have stated that they support all the proposals; The purchase of all shares in mTouch AS, which will become a subsidiary to Svaret Group AB The creation of a new parent company by the change of the firm from Svaret Skandinavien AB to Svaret Group AB and the transfer of the present operations in the company Svaret Skandinavien AB to the wholly owned subsidiary Business 4U AB, which will change name to Svaret AB. The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority requires 20 working days for inspection and approval of the prospectus and the company may make additions and supplements to the prospectus during this time, although without essentially changing the conditions of the issue. The subscription period is given as the period from 2nd October to 20th October 2006 or three weeks, which is allow the Road show (investment meetings) like before in the larger towns and cities in countries where Bridge has members. Bridge will next week provide information about the practical procedures for subscribing plus the time schedule for the Road shows. About

Investment Capital Management (Belize) Ltd
ICM is a subsidiary to Bridge Group with the responsibility to identify potential companies with the aim to be public listed within 6-36 months. The company also arrange with securities dealers road shows, events, movie productions and distributes financial information on behalf of its clients to the member community in Bridge.

Erik Penser Fondkommission (Sweden) AB
An Independent and one of the major privately owned securities firm situated in Sweden. Erik Penser Fondkommission is licensed by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. The firm is a member of the Stockholm, Copenhagen and Helsinki stock exchanges, as well as of the Swedish Securities Dealers Association and SwedSec.

Swedish Financial Supervisory (FI)
The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, (FI), is a public authority, with the role to promote stability and efficiency in the financial system as well to ensure an effective consumer protection, EU rules and regulations. FI authorize, supervise and monitor all companies operating in Swedish financial markets. FI is accountable to the Ministry of Finance

Lars Apelthun, acting VP Global team Sweden

2006-09-01T14:30:00.000+02:00

2006-09-01

From 1 of September is Mr. Lars Apelthun new acting VP Global team Sweden with the responsibility to coordinate and lead the Swedish member community with assistance from Bridge executives.

Mr. Apelthun will be reporting directly to the companys representative for Market development in Europe, Mr Mats Jaderberg. "We believe Mr Apelthun will be the right person to coordinate activities and information between Associates. After the pre launch in Scandinavia it is now time for each country to build up their own information councils with local leaders. Mr Apelthun is a appreciated member and have also built up an impressive community of high net individuals in Bridge“ says Mr. Jaderberg.

Mr Apelthun has been living in Norway for many years but lives in Uppsala, Sweden since 1985. He is married, has many children, and enjoys his full time work with Bridge and of course to spend time with his family and children.

He will now with immediate action coordinate local conference calls, meeting activities and information to the Swedish and Scandinavian leaders in order to create a strong base for further growth. A first step is to involve Ms. Kajsa Thelander (chief editorial) to send out a Swedish newsletter to investors and Associates and together with the company gather key leaders for a workshop and making goals for the rest of 2006, in Stockholm, September 2d.

Bridge shares soon inserted into Swiss accounts

2006-08-30T14:01:00.000+02:00

Bridge has now started to look for the best vendor possible to move the companys own shares into electronic shares. By doing so Bridge will be able to insert the current members reserved amount of shares into their depots at ACH Securities S.A or other securities dealers.
Bridge is right now in negotiations with several large and reliable securities dealers particularly in Hong Kong and Panama to find the best possible way to take over Bridge shares electronic and make them ready for trading between members around the world, says Jacinto Wong.

A non public company like Bridge usually do not have electronic shares but a share register and sometimes printed share certificates. In order to prepare Bridge shares for internal trading we will go with a global licensed vendor to keep the digital share register ready.

When a final agreement is in place the digital shares will be moved into the member depot together with other assets. This affects the few members that has taken part of the earlier promotion offer to receive Bridge company shares for free. When the trading starts all members can sell and buy the shares from each other.

Bridge receives prestigious direct sales license for Asia

2006-08-30T13:42:00.000+02:00

At Friday 11th August the Ministry in Malaysia approved a direct sales license for Bridge 100% owned subsidiary Bridge Asia BGIN Sdn Bhd. It will still take another week before the license will be issued, but with this important and historical step done we can now plan for a pre launch followed by an official launch in Malaysia during October and to grow the investor community with our referral system, says Mr. Anders Fors, Head of operations for Asian market.

A Malaysian Direct sales license which is among the most difficult in the world to obtain is kind of a milestone for Bridge, and it will enable us to do business all over the world. Especially for the Asian markets this means a lot, the Malaysian license can be endorsed in all other Asian countries, and with that done Bridge will be one of very few among many direct sales companies in the world that is actually licensed, says Mr. Basilio Chen, Vice President and Director Market development Asia.

This is a moment we all have been waiting for even if Bridge has waiting more than 18 months to be approved. Our team are now working flat out to organize the soft launch and the official launch in Malaysia under and as soon as the dates and places for the venues are set Bridge will post the dates and more information on the website. Now we will start phase two which means the actual recruitment to grow the investor community of new members and associates, says Mr. Shanker, Vice President Global team Asia.

A new Advisory board for Asia together with a new set up of Asian securities dealers, to open the Asian members Safe custody accounts will be announced during the offiicial launch.

comment: If this don´t shut up the naysayers I don´t know what will.

Svaret.se

2006-08-21T09:49:00.000+02:00

The next Bridge case "Svaret Holding AB" is coming up soon, for more info check the sidebar for "Case II".

The last month www.svaret.se has been doing a lot of advertising on the swedish radio and have put up adds on swedish job sites to recruit salesmen. It looks like they are preparing for the merger with mTouch and the offering that will expand the company and brand. Almost all the money from the offering will go to marketing and system tweaks. Info regarding the company can be found at www.svaret.biz

Svaret is a search portal where you can find addresses and phone numbers for persons and companies. They are looking to compete with the 2 biggest search sites in Sweden Eniro.se and Hitta.se
Svaret is currently marketing itself as a cheaper alternative compared to these two sites and other actors in the searchmedia business.
The search service is also launched for mobile solution http://www.mobil.svaret.se/via Expressen.

Svaret.se is owned by "Svaret i Skandinavien AB" that is also delivering services to Microsoft´s MSN.se, Dagens Industri´s DI.se, Expressen.se and metro.se. As an adveriser you will also be searchable on all these sites also.
"Svaret i Skandinavien AB" - Is also selling agent for ProspectXtractor, a norwegian developed software technology that works as a webanalysis engine.

The search results for the web is delivered by MSN Search and the sponsored links is delivered via Yahoo! Seach Marketing (ex. Overture).
The Shopping search is also delivered by Yahoo in this case using Kelkoo.
The link "Ring gratis(call for free)" goes to a pop-up windows that shows that Svaret.se through estara.com offers the function to call the person or company you searched for free.

In addition to Svaret´s own services the company also works with selling of sponsored searchwords/links with distrubution via for example msn.se, spray.se, alltheweb.se, altavista.se/com, google.se being a few of them.

My comments:
At first glance it looks like it will be a tough task to compete with two search sites as established as eniro.se and hitta.se but the amount of money svaret is planning on putting into marketing etc will make them very dangerous in the future and definitely a worthy contender. They also have a lot of big partners which will work to their advantage.
If hitta.se could come out and rival eniro.se a few years back why couldn´t svaret? with the right strategy and financial backing I think that they will be able to pull this one off. One big reason also is the very renowned and respected Knut Axel Ugland, a heavyweight in the Norwegian financial/investment world.

I am looking forward to read the prospectus when it comes out to see what they got up their sleaves :)

Reminder regarding the next Bridge case

2006-08-14T15:09:00.000+02:00

The "Svaret Holding" case
Some of you that have been in contact with me have shown interest in joining Bridge when the next case is ready. The prospectus has been delivered to the swedish "financial inspection" for approval, this might take about 4 weeks. When the prospectus is approved Bridge will open it to members and meetings and roadshows will be held.
This is just to remind you that if you are interested in investing in the "Svaret case" you will need to join pretty soon and start the ACH application process. There are several reasons for this.
Bridge have openly stated that it is "first come first served", this means that if you join after the "Svaret" case opens you might not have the chance to invest in it because the existing members are prioritized. A lot of members have waited for this a long time so this case will probably "sell out" within two weeks or less.
Also this case is considered "small", the maximum share value is 20 m sek(ca $2,7 m). The "Mindark PE" case was 30 m sek. Let us assume that like the last case 1 block of shares is 10 000 sek then there is only 2000 blocks of shares availible. Bridge might reduce the minimum to accommodate the over 4500 members that Bridge have now. It is only my guess though.

So if you want to invest in this case you will need to hurry up and prepare to have everything ready when the case opens to members.

Short update regarding the Asia launch
I got some info from a "higher up" yesterday that all the applications of permits and licenses needed in the south-east asia countries that Bridge is launching in has all been approved. The Asia launch is now very near, hopefully Bridge will choose a lucky date. :)

Bridge news regarding Svaret

2006-08-09T12:28:00.000+02:00

Share issue for Svaret will be submitted to the financial inspection shortly 2006-08-08

Strong interest among members for the comming pre IPO* in Svaret. The team from Erik Penser Fondkommission AB, lead by Mr. Hans Edstedt, undertook an audit of all companies involved. Together with a specially formed project group, representing the involved companies key management, the group has now finalised all necessary figures and writings in the outlining of Svarets prospectus for Bridge global network of investors.

Due to new EU regulations, introduced in January 2006, the terms and conditions for producing a prospectus are now far more extensive than previously anticipated, and require detailed accounts and in depth analysis of the expected long-term revenues for all the companies, as well as calculations of working capital required for future expansions and developments. The Financial inspection’s valuation is due back in early September; a week or so behind schedule.

Apart from the outlining of the new prospectus, the development of a new parent company to incorporate Svaret Holding AB, and the two fully owned subsidiaries Svaret i Skandinavien AB and mTouch AS is also in the progress.

The day-to-day running of the two companies are not being affected by the on-going work on the share issue, in fact the preliminary results show that the companies are continuing with rapid growth.

The market for online search engines via Internet and mobile phones continues to expand at a sound pace, and is predicted to grow between 30-50% over the next three years. Between 2004 and 2005, the advertisement for these services grew close to 44 percent in Sweden and ca 55 percent in Norway. This growth is predicted to continue at the same speed until 2007!

Roadshows and places for investment meetings will be announced as soon as Bridge receives further information from Erik Penser fondkommission.

Bridge, Svaret, mTouch and Erik Penser Fondkommission are looking forward to meet you soon!

People in Bridge

2006-07-06T00:24:00.000+02:00

President & CEO

Mr Jacinto Wong is the dedicated to lead and supervise Bridge Group International and its subsidiares.

Mr Jacinto Wong was born in 1956 in Panama, Republic of Panama. Mr Wong is known as an Innovator, Entrepreneur, Leader and Out-of-the-box thinker. Ample experience in Private and Public sector institutions, representing his country of origin and industry in many International Forums. Prior joining Bridge Mr Wong has held several top management positions, among others:

President and CEO of EIS Consulting. IT consulting group with international presence in Panama, Venezuela, Costa Rica and Dominican Republic. Specializing in Business Intelligence in particular in the Banking and Telecommunication Industries. Chief Information Officer for Cable and Wireless Panama. Incumbent Telecommunications Multinational Company. Participated in several IT Global strategy boards. Chief Information Officer for the Panama Canal Commission. Chief, Panama Canal Protection. Responsible for the security of the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal is know worldwide for it´s effectiveness in the use of technology. Board of Director and member of several Charity, Professional and Church Institutions.

Mr. Wong is a Graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, USA Electronics Engineer, Computer Sciences and Material Sciences. Post Graduate studies in Business and Executive Management at Columbus University, New York, USA and Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, USA.

Head of Bridge Asia

Basilio Chen H. is one of Bridge founders, VP & Director market development in Asia for Bridge. He is also President of the Asian Business Association (“ABA”) and is the CEO of Oxherd Int’l Group Corporation. Mr. Chen is also Managing Partner of EvoTech Capital Management, a member of the EvoTech Group and of FairChild Equity Management, Inc. (West Coast), member of the FairBanks Group, a consulting firm based in New York, USA, that provides investment banking, capital management services and strategic consulting. He was CEO of several listed companies during its re-organizational stages (NASD OTC: KTSY and JMIC). He is also Chairman of the Board for EvoTech MEC, Inc, a high tech product development company he managed with a record of 52 consecutive years of profitable growth and with corporate clients such as Ericsson, Alcatel, Raychem, General Electric. Mr. Chen was Chairman of the Board for Compression Asia Sdn. Bhd., a Pacific Rim technology company with headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia focused on technology transfers.

Mr. Chen serves on the Board of Directors of several community organizations and is advisor to several corporations and agencies including Wells Fargo Asian Strategic Advisory Board, and the California State Assembly Select Committee on Asian Trade. Mr. Chen was elected in 1996 for a 2 year term to serve as a member of the Central Committee and remained as a voting member delegate of the California State Party until 2004. He was recently nominated to the President’s Business Commission at the White House and appointed by the NRCC as member of the Presidential Business Commission representing California. Mr. Chen in his official capacity has hosted many high profile individuals which include Secretary of Labor – the Honorable Elaine Chao, U.S. Treasurer –the Honorable Rosario Marin, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations - Your Excellency Sichan Siv and California State Assembly Minority Leader – The Honorable Wilma Chan.

Mr. Chen, a native of Panama, has been involved professionally for over 25 years as a high tech product developer and technopreneur in the telecommunication and computer industry, and over 15 years in general management and finance. He has started, actively managed and operated close to a dozen companies from inception. He is an Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi graduate with an electrical and electronics engineering degree (cum laude) from California State Polytechnic University. In 1974, he was accepted to the honor societies of both Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi. In 1975, he attended the Florida State University Master of Business Administration program and subsequently as a post-graduate at the University of British Columbia focusing his research in Dynamic Signature Pattern Recognition and Shannon’s Information Theory. Mr. Chen was lecturer and assistant professor in electronics instrumentation at the University of Panama between 1975 and 1976 and a registered professional engineer in the Republic of Panama since 1975. As a lecturer and seminar presenter, he has given over 200 seminars worldwide in topics ranging from technology, business and health including giving the 2000 techno-preneur keynote at the Kuala Lumpur MESDAQ stock exchange sponsored by Malaysian Technology Development Corporation (the official government venture capital arm of Malaysia). He has trained over 1,000 technical and sales professional.

He is an honor member of Who’s Who in Computer and is listed in Marquis Who’s Who in the West and Who’s Who in the World. Mr. Chen speaks internationally on technology, business development and venture investments as applied to alternative-actively-managed (AAM) funds. He served on the International Technological University Board of Trustees.

He enjoys improving his golf, the art of tai chi chuan, researching herbal medicine, and the music of Bossa Nova. He adheres and believes in the art of self-cultivation putting emphasis on family values and traditional principles. Mr. Chen resides with his family in the North Bay Area of California, the strip between Silicon Valley and Telecom Valley in USA.

Together with his team, external consults and lawyers the planning and preparations for the massive launch in Asia that is taking place right now! The first issue is to get all the legal work and a license to operate the concept according to laws and regulations. As soon as this is done the company will start to grow the community into a selected number of countries. Mr Chen will also be responsible to set up the Asian Advisory board. More information will come when Bridge will be ready for takeoff. The local team in Scandinavia has done an important work during the pre launch and we will now as Directors take this experience with us to be able for quantum growth of this global venture community, says Mr Basilio Chen.

Head of Market development in Latin America

Alejandro A. Tiniacos is a Panamanian with Greek heritage whom has been a successful entrepreneur all his life.
Mr. Tiniacos has been the founder and partner of fourteen successful companies, in Financial, Real Estate, Retail, Transportation, Freight, IT and Telecom. His businesses are operating in three continents, and he brings his global vision and experience to the Bridge Board.

Mr. Tiniacos dedicates part of his time, talent and assets in significant social charities as his legacy. In this regards, he has contributed as President of Lions Club, member of the Patronage of “Hospital del Niño” -the best public children hospital in the region-, PRIDE -drug prevention and rehabilitation institution-, founder and president of the Cornea Bank, and many other social welfare institutions. He has been a promoter of sports and has taken Panama to be a world class contender in baseball. Alejandro

Tiniacos has an degree in Architecture, has three sons with Theoni Liakopulos. He loves to work every day and contribute with his competencies to all persons and organizations surrounding him.

In October 2005 he visited many of the Scandinavian members, together our company’s CEO & President Mr. Jacinto Wong, in the first “Bridge Scandinavian Event in Stockholm”, to learn from the member community and from the local representatives in Bridge management.

Chief Technology Officer

As Chief Technology Officer worldwide, Pablo Moran is in charge of global technology development for Bridge. Bridge is working hard to replace its current systems and integrate them into the brand new Trading platform that will be launched during 2006. Therefore Bridge will not use any more resources to develop the current system more than necessary.

Pablo Moran is also the President of HTIGroup, a group of six small businesses focused on specialized Telecom, Information Technology and human-ware solutions for Panama´s biggest private companies.

Mr. Morans initial administrative and technological experience-school was as the Technological leader of local and regional efforts as Vice president and Technology Director for Citibank – Consumer Services Group – Panama, and as Technology Manager for Banistmo – Central Americas biggest private bank. In both cases he was responsible for major IT projects, whose drivers were technological improvements that would create a significant competitive-long-term-differentiation.

Pablo Moran holds an Electromechanical Engineering Degree from Universidad Tecnologica de Panama. Additionally, he has received Post-graduate instruction in Technological and Executive Management themes from INCAE, Citicorp, Franklin Covey Organization Services, and NCR Corporation.

Pablo and his wife Jean, have three daughters: Paola, Lian and Marie. He visited Bridge members for the first time in September 2005 at “The Spybar” in Stockholm and presented himself to many of the attending members together with Mr Henrik Ericsson and Mr. Mats Jäderberg.

Another important man in Bridge is Mats Jäderberg - Marketing director of Europe. I have met Mats in person and he is a very professional IT-marketing entrpeneur. Much of Bridge´s success in Scandinavia is thanks to him.

Koos Tesselaar joins the Advisory board

Effective July 20th, Mr. Erick Echevers, has been appointed as Bridge, Technical Support; for Corporate Servers located in an IDC in Panama City, PanamaMr.
Echevers, has a robust knowledge and experience in both Information Systems and Telecommunications; holding positions such as IT Director, for the Government of Panama's (LNB) an entity that regulates the Beneficiary Lottery System.

Erick, possess strong interpersonal communications skills, which will be of great value for his responsibilities.
Mr. Erick Echevers is a Systems Engineer and holds an (MBA) Masters Degree in Business Administration, from (UIP) Inter-American University of Panama, in 2004.

How to join.

2006-06-30T11:23:00.000+02:00

Click this invitation link : http://www.mybridgeportal.com/104952
Or go to www.bridgeltd.com
Click join and check out "members program" and choose what kind of membership you want and then go back and click on "apply"
The invitation code is 104952
The membership fee can be paid with Visa or Mastercard.
After receiving your member number you can go to www.bridgeltd.com to log in to your account.
Don´t forget to apply for an ACH account right away as this might take 1-3 weeks or more depending on the workload at ACH.
Please contact me if you have additional questions.

Frequently Asked Questions

2006-06-30T10:23:00.000+02:00

Sewercash, are you the admin of Bridge?
Lol. No, I am only a member/investor.

What is Bridge?
Bridge investment Network/Club is for people/companies with interest in investing and for people interested in expanding their network. Bridge offer its members the opportunity to invest in Pre-IPO(Initial Public Offering) in companies that has left the "start-up" phase and are in a very strong "growth" phase. Finding new interesting companies with high profit potential to offer its members is Bridge´s main focus but as the network expands other opportunities will most definitely become availible as well.
For example: Bridge have in partnership with Elian group an real estate investment offer that is exclusively for Bridge members.

Is Bridge a ponzi?
No. It is important to understand that Bridge is not a HYIP in the sense that we know of in this HYIP arena. It is an investment club. It does not need new member´s money to survive. Bridge never directly handles or control members investment money anyway. However, Bridge wants to expand its membership around the globe simply because the more members/investors Bridge have the more investing power Bridge have as an entity. Bridge will be more attractive to companies in acquiring Bridge´s services. The companies gets a wide spread and powerful liquidity in their share ownership by offering the share issue to Bridge members.

Aha! So Bridge is a MLM?
No. Yes there is multi level marketing to the reward plan but I wouldn´t call it mlm. I rather call it an affiliate program. In a pure MLM you have to referr or sell the products to be eligible to earn anything. In Bridge you can choose to invest in the opportunities without ever recruiting a single person and still be able to profit. The reward plan acts as an incentive for affiliates to earn an additional income for expanding the Bridge Network. It is an affiliate program.

So how does the reward plan work then?
Coming soon.

Who handles my funds and pre-IPO?
By a third party, ACH Securities.

What is ACH?
Ach Securities S.A is a Swiss licensed securities dealer based in Geneva. Founded in 2001 by among others Olov G Hedengren which also acts as CEO. ACH is a seperate from Bridge.
Bridge have partnered with ACH to handle the members custody accounts where the funds and Pre-IPO is stored. All transactions selling and buying of shares between members is handled by ACH.

*More questions and answers will be added soon.

"Real Estate Investment Opportunity on Cyprus"(open)

2006-06-18T22:07:00.000+02:00

Exclusive offer for Bridge members
5 % cash back offer for members of Bridge. The highly lucrative Cyprus property investment opportunity just got even better.
Members have a fantastic opportunity to take part in the very lucrative Cyprus property market. The property developer now has an exclusive offer to members of Bridge. You have the possibility to get a 5 % cash back on your investment.As a Bridge member you have a unique opportunity to meet the senior management and other representatives from the company during your visit to Cyprus where they will guide you though the process of selecting and buying your property and also show you how your investment will grow.The 5 % cash back will be deposited in your ACH Securities account or another account specified by you.

Property investments in Cyprus now available!

2006-06-10

As a part of Bridge continued mission to gain access for its members into a wide range of selective investments opportunities, Bridge has with exclusivity negotiated with ELIAN Group and Emporiki Bank (former Commercial Bank of Greece), to create a strong and unique Investment product with high return for the Bridge members. Cyprus is expecting a boom in the growth of value for properties and real estates between, 2006-2010.

Bridge members will be able to buy a house or apartment from Elian Group and finance it through Emporiki Bank with presumably the best loan conditions in the market and only accessible inside the Bridge member community. You apply through Bridge member portal, accept that the information already given to ACH Securities should be available for the bank to approve your loan. No additional security is requested for Bridge members. You will be able to lend up to 90% of the total price, without any interest or repayment installments the first 24 months after you have received your property! The loan is for 30 years or until your age of 70. Have you ever heard about a loan with no interest the first two years?! This is an exclusive offer for Bridge members in cooperation with Emporiki Bank and will not be given outside the Bridge Investment Club.

Members will also be able to make discounted reservations at hotels for Inspection tours. A list of those hotels will come soon. At every inspection meeting in in Cyprus Bridge and Elian will afterwards arrange for a traditional Cyprus dinner, with lots of Cyprus specialities, music and social gathering between Bridge properties investors!

"We as a bank in Cyprus and Greece are proud to offer this terms exclusive to the Bridge global community of high individuals and we strongly believe that both companies joined forces will benefit in the area of property development and property investments. What we learned so far when we meet the European management in Bridge is that the company already represents an impressive number of investors and has unlimited growth potential. We are looking forward to have an increasing number of Bridge members as clients to our bank" says Mr. Marious Constantino at Emporiki Bank in Cyprus.

By investing with the banks money in a house you can actually see your asset grow in front of your eyes during two years without any cost for the loan! If you then decide to sell the house with a high profit, you will make money of money you never had, keep it for higher returns, or why not rent it out and make more money!

My comments:
This sounds like a sweet deal, who would not like to own a villa or a flat in the Mediterrenean! I am seriously considering this.

The condos can be seen here

The villas can been seen here and here.

This is what I was thinking. The condos is about £50 000 - £100 000 depending on the size. The villas is £100 000 and above. Since the bank is offering to loan me 90% of the amount let´s say I bought a condo for about £75 000, I pay £7 500 out of my own pocket. I don´t pay any interest or make any installments on the loan until two years after I have received my property. The projects will be finished in summer 2007 at the latest according to project plan. By that time the property should have already gone up 20%-40% according the current market values in Cyprus. Let´s be modest and say it went up 20%, I could sell it for £90 000, pocket my principal £7 500 that I put out and earn £7 500 from the deal. Or I can option to rent it out for two years until the interest starts to tick and earn from the rent, let´s say a couple of hundred £ a month, then sell it. Elian Group offers to handle everything, furnituring, renting and selling.

I see many different ways to go about it. Either way I am gonna make a profit.

Since I am not experienced in real estate I asked for some advice at the forum. These are some things I have to consider. Courtesy of Seymour77:

1) The growth of the real estate market in Cypress. Here in the US real estate has peaked and in some areas of earlier rapid growth has begun to decline some. How certain are you of appreciation in value of 20% to 40%?

2) How strong is the rental market? Are you certain you can rent the unit out or will it be vacant? Also if you rent it what is property crime like in that area that could cost you?

3) How fast does real estate sell in Cyprus? Can you get stuck paying interest while you wait for your unit to sell?

I also knew that Tobor work with real estate so I shot him a pm. He was very busy so he couldn´t fully review the opportunity but this is what I got back:

Keep an eye on your downside. What is there is a terrorist attack on Cyprus? What would be the impact on property prices for the next 5 years? Could you sustain a downturn? Maybe that is extreme, but you have to be able to ride a downturn for whatever reason.

Both gentlemen gave me great advice I think, these are things I really have to research and consider before I decide.

Below is a copy and paste from Eliangroups website, it is most definitely written from a marketing standpoint but informative nonetheless and if they deliver what they say, they seem to provide a great service.

"Why Cyprus?

Cyprus has everything that makes the Mediterranean such an attractive place for second or retirement homes, with 340 days of sunshine a year, an enviably high standard but low cost of living, a very low crime rate and exceptionally friendly and welcoming people.

Cyprus is now enjoying a property boom with annual house price inflation running at 20%+. Prices are being pulled up by demand for property from investors worldwide with the increase in demand accelerating now that Cyprus is a member of the European Union. And property purchase fees are amongst the lowest in Europe.

Of particular interest to investors, Cyprus enjoys a comparatively low rate of taxation including a Double Taxation Treaty with the UK. Capital gains tax is only 20% and corporation tax for Cypriot limited companies (through which you can own properties and contracts) is only 10%. UK pensions can be received on the island free of UK withholding tax and foreign residents residing in Cyprus pay only 5% flat rate of income tax.
The British based legal system and one of the most efficient systems of land registry in the world mean that your purchase is straightforward and assured. You chosen lawyer will speak English and processes will be familiar. Then when it comes to choosing mortgages and managing your money in Cyprus, the British based banking system helps here too.

Quality property in Cyprus is very popular for letting or selling to the UK, Cypriot or wider European holiday or second home market. The potential financial return for well marketed, quality accommodation in a setting with year-round appeal in excellent and can be well in excess of traditional buy-to-let investment.

But don’t take our word for it; the UK’s best selling overseas property magazine “A Place in the Sun” said:“Cyprus is currently experiencing the beginning of a property boom as it becomes more and more popular with British buyers, after Spain and France. Property for sale offers excellent value for money so its popularity isn’t surprising. After all, how many of us regret that we didn’t buy that bargain property in Spain a few years ago, before prices shot up?”

Elian Developers provides a professional service for property investors seeking superior return with minimum risk. We guide you through every step of your purchase assisting with the legal, tax and financing processes as well as furnishing, letting and managing your property.

We offer:

The security and reassurance of an award-winning UK property development company with a long and distinguished track record.

A comprehensive range of off-plan geared property investments in sought-after locations at competitive prices designed and built to rigorous standards.

The most innovative investor finance packages available in Cyprus, with low deposits and long completion dates to allow maximum capital growth.

No-fee, fully re-assignable contracts so you can sell the property before completion without fees eating into your profits.

Independent, English-speaking property lawyers working in accordance with UK best practice for your protection.

Tax specialists who advise on minimising your tax liabilities and protecting your profits.

The services of specialist mortgage and foreign exchange brokers to ensure you get the best deals in the market and reduce your currency risk.

Full rental service with property management for buy-to-let and live-and-let investments.

Furniture packs to suit your budget and preparation of your property for your occupation or letting.

Assistance with selling your contract or property to realise your profits.

Why Elian Developers?

Elian Developers provides a professional service for property investors seeking superior returns. We take the hassle out of investing or home buying and make property purchase in Cyprus straightforward and hands-off. We guide your through every step of your purchase assisting with legal, tax and financing processes and furnishing, letting and managing the property.
We offer:
A wide range of off-plan geared property investments in sought-after locations at competitive prices designed and built to rigorous standards by award-winning UK developers.

The most innovative finance packages available in Cyprus, with low deposits and long completion dates to allow your investment time to grow with little money down.

No-fee, fully re-assignable contracts so you can sell the property to whoever you wish before completion without transfer fees eating into your profits.

Independent property lawyers and professional accountants experienced in helping foreign nationals purchase property and manage investments in Cyprus. They conduct all the necessary work to complete your purchase and can assist with reducing your tax liability via a Cypriot limited company or a trust.

The services of specialist mortgage and foreign exchange brokers to ensure you get the best deals in the market and reduce your currency risk.

Rental services and property management for those who wish to hold as a long term investment and gain income.

Furniture packs to suit your budget and preparation of the property for letting.
Advice on property investment strategies to suit your personal goals.
For example:

sell the property contracts at any time ahead of completion.
sell the property on completion.
hold for further capital growth and let for income.
use the property yourself and let for income when not in use.
Elian Developers offers peace of mind when investing in Cyprus, via a comprehensive, straightforward service that covers all your needs and ensures everything goes smoothly. You can use our full investment service or pick and choose help where you need it most from our team based in the UK and in Cyprus."

Case III "Bridge & Elian Property Fund"(upcoming)

2006-06-18T21:50:00.000+02:00

Bridge and ELIAN Group in a joint venture to create a huge and high return property fund

2006-04-06

Bridge Global Invest (Belize) Ltd and ELIAN Group Ltd (Cyprus) has signed a memorandum of understanding as of March 31, in order to incorporate a 50/50 owned company regulated by the Financial Services Authorities (FSA) with the aim to operate and manage a multimillion fund.

The fund will direct its investments to ELIAN groups projects primarily in Cyprus but with immediate plans in Greece and UK. The company managing the fund will go public on the London Stock Exchange within the first quarter of 2007. The name of the joint venture company will be announced as soon as the name is approved and the incorporation is established.

The company will be funded through the owners and a pre-IPO share issue.

Negotiations with several major banks and investment entities to gear the fund assets are already taking place.

The fund will either sell the properties and realize the capital growth approximately 20% -40% a year for the next five years, or rent and lease the properties to tour operators in UK, Germany, Russia, Scandinavia, Asia and benefit from at least 10% yearly, or a mixture of both. The portfolio of the properties will consist of quality villas, apartments, town houses, hotels, marinas, golf’s, resorts and Spas in not as of today so exploited areas, within walking distance to the best sandy beaches and the around amenities.

“The end result of putting together Bridge global community of investors and ELIAN group is an entity which will grow to become a huge monster investment vehicle” according to one of the founders and the CEO of ELIAN Group, Mr. Elias Elia.

“The synergies are so great and both companies completely compliment each other” says, Mr. Jacinto Wong, CEO & President of Bridge Group.

About ELIAN Group
ELIAN is a strong and rapidly expanding company that is gaining an excellent reputation for its diversity of property styles and sizes. The ELIAN group aims to become one of the major developers in prime locations in the Mediterranean areas and has today offices in UK, Germany, Russia, Cyprus, Sweden and many more will come. The company has ongoing projects in many of the most exclusive areas near to the Famagusta district on the South East coast of Cyprus and Paralimni, the largest town in the district.

My comments:

This fund has the potential to be huge! I attended a meeting where "Mats Jäderberg - marketing director of europe" spoke about this joint venture more in depth. Another Bridge member and online friend of mine NEIL374 attended a meeting in London where "Elias Elian - CEO of Elian Group" made a presentation himself.

Apparently the Famagusta area because of its location on the border between the "greek side" and the "turkish side", is pretty much under developed and untouched in terms of real estate and has the most beautiful sand beaches on the whole of Cyprus.
Elias Elian the CEO of Elian Group has relations in the area and has been actively buying up land here for a while and already owns 60% of the land that the local authorities has been selling out. Since Elian Group already owns more than half, they have aquired the option to the buy the lot of it if the should choose to. (Elian has ongoing building projects that is already underway in this region as can be seen in "Real estate investment opportunity on Cyprus".)

Since Cyprus got accepted into the EU property prices has gone up 20%-40% annually the last few years. The government is working hard to return Cyprus to its former glory as a turist paradise that it was in the 80´s.
This time around they are set out to attract not only the regular charter tourist but also the more well off to buy second homes on Cyprus. Therefore the plans of Elian Group to build quality villas, apartments, town houses, hotels, marinas, golf courses, resorts and Spas is very in tune with the governments strategic outline for tourism. Elian Group has the local authorities full support.
(I checked out the website of the "Cyprus Tourist Organisation" and found their "Strategic Plan for Tourism" :D . If you want to read it go to:
http://www.visitcyprus.org.cy/ click on "Cyprus Facts" then on "Facts on Cyprus" and you will find it. Very interesting read if you are interested in this upcoming case.)

Because of the conditions and because Elian Group already own this big piece of land in the Famagusta area, a lot of investment banks have shown a lot of interest in investing in the projects and having the fund with them. It is said that for every £ that the investors/joint venture puts into the fund the bank will match that with 3-4£.

Mats also stated that listing a company on the London Stock Exchange can be time consuming and requires a lot of different permits, therefore the strategy might be to buy a non-active already listed company with all the neccessary permits to save time and money.

My personal conclusion to this case is that it has the potential to become a MONSTER! I am very positive and exited :)

Case II "Svaret Holding"(cancelled)

2006-06-18T21:14:00.000+02:00

Svaret Holding invites subscription in pre IPO shares for members in Bridge
2006-06-08
The owners of Svaret Skandinavien AB, ( Svaret) and the owners of mTouch AS, (mTouch) have come to an agreement of a merger of both companies in a new company with Svaret Holding AB as the parent company. The aim of the new concern will be to exploit the existing complementary strengths in

Sweden

Norway

and

Denmark

and create a competitive challenger in Scandinavia within the area of online Search services and work towards a listing of the merged company during 2007.

Download more detailed information here:

Svaret and mTouch pre IPO in English (pdf-format)
Svaret och mTouch pre IPO in Swedish (pdf-format)

After inspecting the project the Advisory Board has recommended Bridge the investment, where several important factors motivated the invitation to subscribe to shares.

Erik Penser Fondkommission AB in Sweden have been retained to carry out the legal due diligence of the amalgamated companies, to establish the necessary prospectus documents and to handle the share subscription to Bridge members. "We have looked at the objectives and strategies of the combined company and judged that both the company and its area of involvement are very interesting" states Hans Edstedt, at Penser Fondkommission.

The company operates in the fast growing market for advertisement financed search services via Internet and mobile telephony. The use of different search services both by companies and private individuals is growing rapidly and the Nordic market is much further advanced than the rest of Europe in terms of the content and functionality of the services.

Search services are mainly financed through advertising revenues and the volume of online advertisements has expanded by more than 50 % during the last 12 month period and the rapid growth is expected to continue as more advertisers diversify their marketing from traditional media to new online based media.

The company´s main owner for Svaret is the well known financial Norwegian investor, Mr. Knut Axel Ugland and in mTouch, IT Fornebu a powerful cross-section of Norway´s financial and industrial sectors owned by (e.g Norwegian government, Telenor and DnB NOR Bank). Both investors have consciously invested in product development, brand building, volume growth and have financed any deficits that occurred during the establishment phase.

The company Svaret has grown rapidly and more than tripled turnover in the three year period 2003-2005 and is calculated to turn over 50 M SEK in 2006. In 2005, mTouch turned over approx 8 M NOK and has long term contracts with large Scandinavian media companies such as TV2 in Norway, TV2 in Denmark and TV4 in Sweden.

Current services are marketed in collaboration with established media companies such as Dagens Industri, Metro, TV2 Denmark, TV2 Norway and TV4/Expressen in Sweden.

The investment opportunity was brought to the attention of Bridge through Jon Martinsen, a member of the Bridge Advisory Board. At present Jon Martinsen has the role of externally contracted MD of Svaret Skandinavien AB and also has a minority shareholding in the company.

Because of conflict of interest, Martinsen has not been able to take any part in the Advisory Board´s meetings and further evaluation of the project´s potential. The other members of Bridge Advisory Board have unanimously declared themselves in favour of the proposed investment.

Share issue for Svaret will be submitted to the financial inspection shortly 2006-08-08

The day-to-day running of the two companies are not being affected by the on-going work on the share issue, in fact the preliminary results show that the companies are continuing with rapid growth.

Roadshows and places for investment meetings will be announced as soon as Bridge receives further information from Erik Penser fondkommission.

Bridge, Svaret, mTouch and Erik Penser Fondkommission are looking forward to meet you soon!

Svaret.se

Case I "Mindark PE"(closed)

2006-06-18T21:13:00.000+02:00

In short MindArk PE AB, is a Swedish-based software company, that develops and run Project Entropia, an internet-based virtual universe for interactive entertainment and trade with an integrated real-cash economy.

Project Entropia is an online game on the Internet where one can meet other players, lead a life, make a career, develop social relationships and earn real money in virtual reality under the same conditions that we use in the real world. The game is unique because no other game in the world has developed a virtual world which reflects the same conditions that we as humans have on earth. In Project Entropia there are always new players, environments, production units. Players can buy services from each other. This money can be used to buy items in the game and soon you will be able to invest in Entropia’s own virtual Stock market. Mindark has gone further than any other company in blurring the boundaries between virtual and real values. The company’s game Project Entropia was launched on a large scale in 2003 and today there are around 250 000 users, mainly in the

USA

and Europe. Previous investors in Project Entropia include Skandia, Banco fonder and Value Venture Capital. The project had a financing start cost of more than 150 million SEK over a five year period to the end of 2003.

In a short period of time several players have established different business operations such as construction units, invested in land, real estate sales etc. You can be as financially successful in Project Entropia as in the real world because the money used in the game can be withdrawn as real money. The possibilities for providing for yourself in the game are like the real world, unlimited. Amongst other things a class of real estate sharks has begun to develop within the game and the game is the first in the world where participants use real money.

Over the last three years the company has doubled turnover and now generates profit. The company calculates that growth will continue at 100% over the next three years.

The issue to opened to Bridge members in August 2005. The prospectus was created by The Swedish broking house Tamm & Partners AB in Stockholm, the case was also handled by them. The prospectus was approved by the relevant authorities in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland and roadshows were held.

Mindark and Project Entropia has been the focus of attention from several news agencies:

A selection of press articles:

BBC World
USA Today
The Inquirer
NEXT Generation
The Sydney Morning Herald
PC Pro
BBC News
Dagbladet
Dagens Industri
The Register
Guardian
IGN
Gamespot
Newscientist
BBC News

Aftenposten
VG

Dagens Industri
IDG
Nyteknik
Realtid.se

The latest news update about Mindark 2005-05-24
The company has increased the net revenue between January- March this year to 13 052 000 SEK, according to last year period 6 409 000 SEK, an increase of 104%. The operational cost increased from 4 156 000 SEK to 6 025 000 SEK, an increase of only 45%.
The profit before tax was 6 270 000 SEK, according to last period of 1 847 000 SEK a dramatically increase of 239%!

Two weeks ago Mindark also announced that the players will be able to cash in earnings in the virtual world of Entropia into real money with a Entropia debit card at A.T.M machines all over the world. International press all over the world like CNN, BBC, New York Times and many other were not late to publish the story in all major newspapers and some broadcasting channels.

On the agenda for the annual shareholder meeting is also a proposed split of the current shares 1:10. This means that for every share the benefical owner has, he/she will instead after the split own 10 shares in MindArk.

Mindark confirms going public.
2007-08-01

Mindark prepares for a stock market listing and the London Stock Exchange is the most suitable choice.
Sweden s leading financial newspaper, (Dagens Industri) today published a two page interview with Mindark s, CEO & founder Mr. Jan Welter- Timkrans.
In which he reveals that a Stock market listing is in progress and that the London Stock Exchange is the most likely outcome.
Mindark, has been in negotiations with several Investment banks and will soon announce their decision.
Both investors and analysts on the London Stock Exchange posses the knowhow and interest in these kinds of companies.
First: Is of course completion of a promise made to more than 900 Bridge investors back November 2005.
Second: The huge access to the capital market for further growth and expansion.
Jan Welter Timkrans, also says that similar deals are under negotiation with large media companies for the European and American markets.
As soon as Mindark officially make their choice of which investment bank and set a date for the listing at the Stock Exchange; they will inform their entire current shareholders.
With this great news, Bridge investors, who took part in the Mindark s offering, will foresee exciting prosperous times ahead.

Bridge Investment Network

2006-06-16T10:34:00.000+02:00

About Bridge
Bridge, or more formally Bridge Group International Ltd, was founded the summer of 2004 in Belize, with the vision to create a global community of investors. Bridge is a global investment club that gives the members the opportunity to buy shares/stocks in reviewed growth companies before they are listed on the stock-market. These kinds of opportunities are usually only reserved for investment banks, venture capital companies and a small group of people with good contacts and a lot of money. By gathering thousands of separate smaller investors and act as one single powerful player Bridge and its members can receive conditions that otherwise would not be possible. The investment opportunities that are presented to the members are not only approved by brokerage houses and the local financial supervisory authority but also by Bridge Advisory Board.

What does a bridge membership mean?
You will be a member of an investment club in which you will be able to invest in not yet quoted shares. The goal is that you will annually receive offers where you can sign up for a minimum of one block of new shares in fast growing companies all over the world. All companies that are offered are on their way to be quoted.
You purchase your own shares and they are registered in your name. They will be deposited at a custody account in your name. Bridge never handles your investment, Bridge only acts as an intermediary.
Your custody account will be registered at ACH Securities a securities dealer based in Geneva, Switzerland.
The companies that you will be offered to invest in are – none quoted fast growing companies that are planning to quote their shares at the stock market somewhere in the world.
The companies that will be proposed to the members have to full fill the following demands:

They have to be profitable.
They shall be in a fast growing phase.
The have to aim to be quoted at the stock market somewhere in the world within 6-36 months.
All Prospectuses have to be authorized by the local government's Financial Supervisory board and approved by the brokerfirm that is broking the deal.
The have to be approved by Bridge Advisory board.

The goal with the investment is to earn 3-5 times the money within 6-36 months.

The shares/ pre-IPO
Normally these types of investments has two major disadvantages for small investors. The first is the price for purchasing one block of shares in this type of companies. It is often set at the amount of $35 000 - $100 000, occasionally they are set at a price of $7 000 - $14 000.
Through Bridge the price for a block of shares is set to 1000 – 1500 EURO.

The second disadvantage is that these types of shares are difficult to sell before they are quoted. In Bridge members can trade these shares between themselves. The broker bank in Switzerland has invested in a trading system that will enable Bridge members to have their own trading at their own stock market, similar to the stock markets offered by net brokers.

Advisory board
The Bridge advisory board functions as an investment committee, giving its investment recommendations to the parent company. It evaluates prospects from companies, and then invites the most promising ones to investment meetings for our members. These successful entrepreneurs, financial professionals and venture capital investors will review the companies that are interested in offering their pre-IPO to Bridge members, before Bridge even continues to consider offering their services to the company it has to be approved by the advisory board.

The members of Bridge advisory board:

Anders Eriksson
Koos Tesselaar
Suresh Patel
Björn Zikarsky

Portfolio
Members of Bridge Investment Network and Bridge Group have at current invested in these companies.

GPS-Buddy is a provider of vehicle tracking and mobile data solutions for vehicle fleets. GPS-Buddy is at the forefront of easy-to-use business solutions for tracking, managing, monitoring, messaging, navigation and routing from door to door.
Investment year: 2007 | Amount invested: 3.5 MEUR

Sting Networks is a unique white label operator delivering complete VoIP Solutions. The solutions enable Sting Networks' partners to offer innovative IP telephony services under their own brand to their own customer base.
Investment year: 2007 | Amount invested: 50 MSEK

Mindark operate, develop and market the Entropia Universe (EU). More than a game, EU is a 3d virtual universe on the Internet for interactive entertainment, social interaction and trade. EU has a Real Cash Economy with its own currency. Soon to be quoted at the London Stock Exchange.

Investment year: 2006 | Amount invested: 30 MSEK

ELIAN Developers in Cyprus is a member of the ELIAN Group of companies in the field of property investment and development. A dynamic, rapidly expanding company, ELIAN Developers is now one of the largest property developers on the South East coast of Cyprus, covering a wide range of homes, from one bedroom apartments to three bedroom luxury villas.
This is a very profitable real estate investment offer made to Bridge members that is currently still open.

Here is the new memberships and the new pricing model from September 1, 2007

SILVER,

Basic level
Sign up 1 000 EUR
Annual fee 300 EUR
Apply for a basic Custody account for investments
No minimum requirements in deposit

GOLD

Premium level
Sign up 2 000 EUR
Annual fee 300- 600 EUR
Apply for a basic Custody account
Apply for a Debit card
Extra assignment of shares if oversubscribed
No minimum requirements in deposit

PLATINUM

Advanced level
Sign up 3 000 EUR
Annual fee 300- 600 EUR
Apply for an expanded Custody account
Apply for Debit card
Extra assignment of shares if oversubscribed
Custody account can be used for all other shares than part of Bridge offers
VIP Travel pass (Exclusive resorts, discounted prices and easily paid from your deposits)
Minimum requirement 50 000 EURO in deposit

Sewercash

2006-06-15T14:34:00.000+02:00

EWERCASH