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Arlinda Sipilä
Arlinda 

Xtract Names Michael Hallén Chairman of the Board of Directors

Helsinki, Finland – October 16, 2008 – Xtract announced today that the company’s board of directors has appointed Michael Hallén as chairman of the board effective immediately. Hallén has a solid experience from several technology companies.

Michael Hallén’s most recent operational assignment was as president and CEO of Stockholm listed Boss Media AB, a leading systems supplier in digitally-distributed gaming entertainment. His team contributed in revitalizing the company and then to a successful public bid process resulting in Boss Media being acquired by US based GTECH in April 2008. Previously, Hallén was president and CEO of IFS AB, a provider of business applications, also listed in Stockholm and operating in some 50 countries. He played a key role in the company’s international expansion and has also been establishing its offshore capabilities.

“I am thrilled to be elected chairman of the board of Xtract and to contribute in building the next successful step in the company’s fast development,” says Michael Hallén. “Xtract has built a unique proposition and track record providing software products that enable highly accurate customer targeting and profiling for telecom operators and online social media. I am impressed by the results and the dramatic increase of return on marketing investment for the Xtract customers.”

In support of his interest in building entrepreneurial companies, Hallén has held board positions in a number of other technology companies. He is currently active in the boards of Extenda, a supplier of software for the retail industry; Cambio, provider of healthcare administration software; and XDIN, an engineering consultation firm.

“Michael is the right person to head Xtract’s board through these exciting and challenging times,” said Timo Laaksonen, Xtract’s CEO. “He brings hands-on experience combined with in-depth knowledge and vision of the market that Xtract needs to strengthen our long term strategy and execution.”

Date
Thursday, October 16th, 2008

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Arlinda Sipilä
Arlinda 

Timo Laaksonen Named Xtract’s Chief Executive Officer

Helsinki, Finland – September 24, 2008 – Xtract today named Timo Laaksonen, 46, Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. A top ICT industry executive, Laaksonen has more than 20 years of experience from First Hop (now Airwide Solutions), Sonera SmartTrust, Teamware (Fujitsu), ICL and Nokia.

“Timo is a strong leader and has a track record for driving growth and building world-class teams. I look forward to benefiting from his knowledge and experience,” said Kimmo Kiviluoto, Xtract’s Deputy CEO and Co-founder.

At Xtract, Laaksonen will be responsible for developing and executing company’s long-term growth and market strategies as well as leading the management team. “I am both thrilled and honoured to take on the position as Xtract CEO. Thrilled thanks to the significant market opportunities available to the company, and honoured because of the position and recognition Xtract has already won as one of the absolute top tier companies in social marketing and advertising intelligence” said Timo Laaksonen, Xtract’s CEO. “Xtract’s innate strength lies in its unique skill set, knowledge and technology. There are very few companies out there who would have as unique strengths and as much potential for competitive differentiation as Xtract does.”

Prior to Xtract, as CEO of First Hop, Laaksonen performed a central role in the company’s growth to become a leader in mobile service delivery and business management solutions through building a world-class team into First Hop, defining the market strategy and positioning, setting up and controlling sales and product operations, as well as directing the related corporate financing activities. He has also held executive and business management positions at Sonera SmartTrust, Teamware Group (Fujitsu), ICL and Nokia Data.

Laaksonen graduated with honours and gained a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Turku School of Business Administration in Finland. He is fluent in five languages.


Arlinda Sipilä
Arlinda 

Xtract Social Links™ Now Available in USA, Adds Demographic Prediction

The newest software module brings more customer insight for effective mobile marketing campaigns

Helsinki, Finland and San Francisco, USA – September 10, 2008 – Marketers in the telecom industry are faced with the challenge of ever-changing market conditions that lead to shortage of customer insight, especially in the pre-paid markets. Today at the CTIA wireless show in San Francisco, Xtract announced expanded U.S. availability for its Social Links software, as well as a new module to help mobile operators worldwide better understand their customers in order to deliver more engaging marketing and advertising.

Now playing across the USA

Xtract’s Social Links is the world’s first commercially available software for analyzing social network interactions within large scale mobile communication networks. Social Links ability to deliver a far higher return on investments for its clients has been proven in a series of trials and full-scale projects with mobile operators around the globe. Starting today, Social Links is available to additional mobile operators in the U.S.

Xtract Social Links turns raw customer data into a vital marketing tool for mobile operators. By analyzing the social networks within large scale mobile communication networks it identifies the underlying social network structures within the subscriber base and the most influential people in the network, which Xtract calls Alpha Users. The result is a completely new layer of customer insight and a tangible tool for increasing the efficiency of targeted marketing and advertising.

The add-on modules combine social network with demographic and behavioral information, providing a Three Dimensional (3D) view of the customers for specific business applications including marketing activities by mobile operators as well as targeting for mobile advertising. These modules include: Churn Prediction, Customer Acquisition, Product Marketing, and now Customer Insight. Customers benefiting from Xtract Social Links range from top-tier operators such as T-Mobile and Vodafone to innovative challengers such as Blyk and Fonecta.

New module offers more customer insights, better targeting at a lower cost
To help mobile operators create more effective and relevant marketing and advertising campaigns, Xtract has developed a new Customer Insight Module for Xtract Social Links that can predict the customers’ demographics and behavior based on a known customer sample. In addition, the Customer Insight Module brings customers’ demographic information to the marketers’ fingertips through an easy to use network visualisation tool.

In just one easy-to-install module, Social Links customers can:

• Predict customer demographics such as age and gender for the whole customer base. Knowing age and gender of a fragment of network customers enables the module to accurately predict the same information for the rest of the customer base.
• Adapt the module to their specific markets based on demographic characteristics of these given markets.

By using the Customer Insight Module, mobile operators are able to quickly and easily develop more focused targeting for the marketing and advertising campaigns, and achieve their marketing objectives at a lower cost.

Always ready for the close up
Social Links Customer Insight Module comes with a network visualizer tool which enables visual analyses and viewing of subscribers’ social network. Mobile operators can observe their whole subscriber social network in real time, highlight the Alpha Users (influencers) and select certain communities within the network. They are also able to zoom in and out in order to gain detailed insights about specific customer qualities.

Integration and Availability
Xtract Social Links Customer Insight Module integrates seamlessly into the Social Links base and is available for all customers globally.

About Xtract
Xtract is a trusted partner and innovator in social advertising intelligence enabling mobile and media companies to monetize their digital communities. Our core strengths are in social network analytics. Xtract has developed a unique set of automated products that, based on social interactions, behavior and demographic data, can create accurate and real time consumer profiles for mobile and online marketers and advertisers. Xtract operates across Europe and Asia, working with over 50 blue-chip companies with intensive customer data. Headquarters are in Helsinki, Finland. For more information, visit www.xtract.com.


Arlinda Sipilä
Arlinda 

Xtract secures EUR 3.5 Million to support fast growth

London, UK and Helsinki, Finland: Xtract, the leader in social advertising intelligence today announced it has closed new funding of EUR 3,5 Million led by Creandum, a leading early stage technology investor together with renewed commitment from existing investor ETF III, advised by Eqvitec Partners.

Xtract answers a real need in the advertising industry which is making the advertising in social media and mobile effective. By using Xtract, customers have seen the average ad income increase with as much as 82% and in mobile campaigns response rates have increased with 30%.

“Our solutions provide genuinely innovative ways to ensure delivery of the right audience to the right commercial message at the right time and to accurately report on the effectiveness of any campaign in an automated way, something that up until now was not possible,” said Kimmo Kiviluoto, CEO of Xtract. ”We are delighted to have Creandum join the company which clearly underlines the confidence in our offering and in the management team,” he added.

Staffan Helgesson, Managing General Partner at Creandum, said: “We are very impressed with Xtract’s success in the telecom sector where leading mobile operators use Xtract to increase revenues and reduce churn. We also believe that Xtract’s approach is unique from the traditional approach in mass advertising. The transition from the traditional static advertising to the more dynamic advertising is going to happen and the brand managers and advertising agencies understanding this change will be the ones surviving the transition to digital advertising. Xtract has a unique position to be one of the leaders driving this change.”

Xtract board member Juha Mikkola of Eqvitec Partners said he was pleased by Creandum’s decision to invest. “This investment opportunity had a lot of demand and clearly marks the very interesting market and expansion opportunity that Xtract represents in the fast growing social intelligence market”

About Xtract
Xtract is the global trusted partner and innovator in Social Advertising Intelligence.
We have the technology and competence to turn large user data into cash flow. Our solutions create accurate and automated consumer profiles for mobile and online advertisers based on social interactions, behavioural and demographic data.

Xtract operates across Europe and Asia, working with over 50 companies with intensive customer data ranging from global leaders such as Nokia, T-Mobile and Vodafone to innovative challengers such as BLYK and Fonecta. Headquarters are in Helsinki, Finland and London, UK. www.xtract.com

About Creandum
Creandum is a Nordic venture capital firm investing in early-stage technology companies. The firm has 120 million Euros under management and is today the fastest growing independent partnership of its kind in the Nordic region. Creandum invests in innovative companies in high growth markets led by outstanding entrepreneurs. All investment professionals at Creandum has started companies or been part of successful startups. For more information, please visit www.creandum.com.

About Eqvitec Partners Oy
Eqvitec Partners Oy is one of the largest technology focused venture capital and private equity firms in Northern Europe. The company was founded in 1997 and employs 15 investments professionals in Helsinki and Stockholm. Eqvitec Partners currently advises five funds with a total capital base of 440 million euros. The funds invest in technology companies in all phases from start-up to buyouts. At the moment the funds have investments in 40 companies and have carried out 35 exits. More information can be found at www.eqvitec.com.

Date
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

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