The PoleStar Foundation, an independent trust established in 1998 to recognise Excellence in Journalism, announced the winners of the Eleventh Annual PoleStar Awards in a ceremony held at the Taj Connemara, on Friday, June 26, 2009. Mr. Andrew T. Simkin, Consul General, U S Consulate General, Chennai, presided over the function and felicitated the winners. Mr. Prabhu Chawla, Group Editorial Director & Editor, India Today, was the Guest of Honour and delivered the keynote address.

The Winners of the Eleventh Annual PoleStar Awards are:

1. Best Feature in IT Journalism:
Mr. Gunjan Trivedi, currently Assistant Editor, CIO, Mumbai, for his story, "Serving IT shrunk", published in CIO.

2. Best Feature in Business Journalism:

Ms. Dhanya Krishnakumar, currently Principal Correspondent, Businessworld, Bangalore, for her story, "Sun in the backyard", published in Businessworld.

3. The 'Jury's Special Recognition', was conferred upon Mr. E Kumar Sharma, Assistant Editor, Business Today, Hyderabad, for his stories on "The route to 'dharmacracy'", "On a (merit) roll", and "Messiah or merchant?", published in Business Today.

This year, the Foundation received 188 nominations from Journalists across India. A team of esteemed Jury members from the Corporate sector and Academia selected winners in the categories of IT and Business Journalism. The Jury comprised Mr. Abhay Gupte, CEO, Logica India, Ms Aruna Rao, CIO, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Dr. Ashok Korwar, CEO Coach and Former Professor, IIM-A, Mr. Pradipto K. Mohapatra, President & CEO (Technology Business), RPG Enterprises and Chairman, CII Southern Region, Mr. Ramraj R, Co-Founder & Former CEO Sify Ltd., Ms Uma Krishnan, Executive Director & Head - Regional Markets Operations, ABN AMRO Central Enterprise Services Pvt Ltd (ACES), Mr. Anand Sudarshan, CEO and MD, Manipal Education, Mr. Arun Kumar N T, CEO, Dun and Bradstreet Predictive Sciences and Analytics.

At the awards ceremony, Mr. Andrew T. Simkin, Consul General, U S Consulate General, Chennai, touched upon the acceleration of news reporting in the Internet era and the need to stay informed 24/7. He appreciated the role Journalists play in articulating a clear and correct view of the Government policies for the citizens.

Mr. Prabhu Chawla, Executive Editor, India Today, in a scintillating speech, urged the Journalists to ask simple but tough questions. Investigative Journalism is intensive on inquiry time, which is crucial to get to the root of the matter. He elaborated, with personal examples, the need for encouraging Investigative Business Journalism in a way that protects both customers and shareholders.

Congratulating the winners, Mr. Arun Jain, Founder, PoleStar Foundation, said, "The social media is bound to change the landscape of Business Journalism and presents a host of opportunity and challenges for the Journalists. The conventional boundaries are fading away and the Journalists can play a role in influencing the opinion on global issues. With a million blogs coming up every month on social media, there is a growing tribe of journalists who want to express their opinion on issues concerning Business and IT."

The awards ceremony included a panel discussion on the topic, "Euphoria or Hysteria – Can journalists influence the direction of the economy?". The panel featured thought leaders from the Industry and Media. Moderated by Sanjay Pinto, Bureau Chief (Tamil Nadu), NDTV, the panel comprised eminent personalities from Media and Corporate including Mr. Ganesh Natarajan, Global CEO, Zensar Technologies and former Chairman NASSCOM, Mr. Prakash Dharamarajan, President, Ogilvy & Mather, Chennai, Mr. Charles Assisi, Executive Editor, Forbes (India), Mumbai, Mr. N Madhavan, Associate Editor, Hindustan Times, Delhi, Ms. Preetha Reddy, Managing Director, Apollo Hospitals, Chennai.

The panelists debated on whether and how Journalists influence the economy. The questions raised were whether Journalists were equipped adequately to understand and report the fine print of Business and Technology and whether they have the capacity to influence the stock market and the business climate in general. The competitive pressure on media on breaking news and sensationalism was discussed. The panel concluded that the consumption of news has greatly varied in recent times as consumers now intend to stay connected with the world at all times. With the growing importance of social media, and its impact on information and reach was discussed. The panel expressed that Journalists are on the right path and need not tend towards sensationalism.

The awards evening was attended by leaders from the Industry, Media, Academia and students of Journalism schools in Chennai.

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Sage India announced today that Charhdikala Publications Pvt. Ltd. has decided to implement Sage Accpac ERP to gain better control over billing to the customers and receivables. The implementation will assist Charhdikala Publications to ensure a better operational, financial and accounting control over its billing operations & receivables. It will automate the process of recoveries from the customers which is its key financial area. Modules of General Ledger, Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable will ensure easy access and better presentation of the data in appropriate forms along with adherence to the statutory requirements relating to Income Tax and Service Tax.

The above mentioned modules of Sage Accpac are closely interlinked with each other so that a small change in one module results in a corresponding change in the related fields of the other modules as well i.e. any entry in the accounts payable or receivable results in a corresponding change in the general ledger and balance sheets automatically and seamlessly. This will ensure receivables are accurately tracked without any errors. Also another key area which Sage Accpac will address is data security.

With Sage Accpac ERP, Charhdikala Publications Pvt. Ltd will be able to manage, operate and provide detailed accounting data relating to sales & receivables to its marketing staff & customers. Sage Accap ERP's reporting capability will allow it to generate MIS reports in a predefined as well as customized format, therefore improving the reporting process and data visibility.

Mr. Jagjit Singh Dardi - Director of Charhdikala Publications Pvt. Ltd stated
"We are very enthusiastic about the implementation of Sage Accpac ERP. We were looking for a globally recognized solution which could meet the growing requirements of the business and fit into our business processes. Customer billing and collections are the key financial and accounting areas of an organization, sensing the need of better control and presentation of customer related data we decided to go in for Sage Accpac ERP. Key accounting and reporting features of the solution will assist us to track account receivables and other key customer information thus giving us better control over our business".

Mr. Thomas Abraham - Managing Director, Sage India mentioned
"Sage is focusing on Punjab market with its suite of ERP, Payroll and CRM solutions. We see Punjab as a market with great potential for SME related business applications. We will be working with system integrators across key cities in Punjab to offer solutions and local support".

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For the first time in his long career, world famous composer Yanni dedicated his song "Changes" at his sold out Los Angeles concert 'Yanni Voices' To Bollywood's own sexy diva Mallika Sherawat!

As it was reported just days ago (and as Mallika has been commenting about on her Twitter page @MallikaLA), Mallika met Oscar and Grammy winner Ric Wake and New Age maestro Yanni at famed LA eatery, The Ivy, while having dinner with the producers of her upcoming and highly anticipated film HISSS, which Mallika describes as the world's first "female empowerment superhero snake goddess horror film".

"I haven't been to a concert in a long time, but who could resist such a monumental honour, "Mallika was quoted as saying by an inside source. "The show was incredible. Yanni is a genuine artist".

At the concert, during a jumbo video screen sequence of images from Yanni's legendary performance at India's Taj Mahal, Yanni took to the mic and made an impressive dedication to the star, in front of over 7,000 fans, saying, "This song is for Mallika Sherawat. One of a kind".

Sheeraz Hasan founder of Hollywood. TV who has the inside tip on the Celebrity social scene with his media empire, says, "Since Mallika came to Los Angeles, she's been quite a sensation. This kind of attention hasn't been seen for a long time in Hollywood. Grown men have become boys around Mallika. Established, well-to-do industry players have become desperate to spend time with her. She's the new "It Girl" in town".

Mallika is in Hollywood during the post-production of HISSS, the first Bollywood film to be represented by a top Hollywood talent agency (WME) and according to her @MallikaLA Twitter page, has just signed another American film for the end of summer.

Mr. Hasan also reveals that Mallika's nickname around the Hollywood.tv office is "Her Majesty".

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After successfully launching an array of new products including IXA Bags & Accessories, Mercury Mice, ViewCam and Espial Range of Surveillance products in the H1 2009, the Singapore based IT manufacturer, Kobian, is geared up for H2 2009 to bring out newer innovative products along with a new partner strategy and stronger marketing activities.

Discussing the strategy for the H2 '09, Ms. Sushmita Das, Country Manager, Kobian, said, "This is what we had promised our channel partners early this year!. Our focus for H1, 2009 was launching the new product range for our channel partners enabling them to have a better margin and ROI in their business. Mercury has always focused on the profitability and growth of the channel partners and thus the new product range opens a new market and customer base for our partners".

IXA Bags and Accessories cater to the Lifestyle and Mobile Essential business segment. Mercury Mice and ViewCam are addition to the existing Mercury Peripherals range which includes Motherboards, Casings, TFTs, Speakers, etc. Espial is the range of Surveillance products, which are designed for security requirements of SOHO & Corporate users.

"The market depression in late 2008 had effected all businesses. We had conciously decided not to push newer inventory into the channel as that only fuels the price cutting and profitability of all channel partners" said Ms Das. "As its said "The mind is best trained in adversity", the last few months has been utilised by all companies to re-structure themselves internally and plan a better business. We have improved our human resources and also our product offering. We are very excited with the response on the new products and that gives us the motivation to keep innovating and offering newer products and technology to the users".

Commenting on the plans for H2 '09, she highlighted, "This quarter has witnessed a positive growth in business and thus now we shall be increasing our shipments to India making the product available consistently across country. We shall be stressing on moving away from the age old practices of inventory dumping and month-end price cutting. Our channel programmes are been designed to provide a long tem gain for every Mercury partner .With our new Distribution Alliances we are confident in reaching to a larger partner base and bring value to all Mercury users. Our target is to grow all product categories and reach the deeper pockets in the channel".

After the success of H1 2009 in terms of launching new products in the market and making the Kobian a ONE STOP SHOP for the channel partners, Kobian now looks at increasing its sales and service strength to cater to the larger channel base in the H2. Kobian plans to beef up its marketing activities with more POS, IN-SHOP Promo, street shows and channel schemes, etc.

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Deloitte, today, announced an alliance with Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A). Deloitte has joined hands with IIM-A to offer executive courses on International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). These courses are designed for students, finance executives and CXOs seeking knowledge on the new accounting standard that the world is migrating to. Deloitte will be providing 3 separate course materials for the same in the form of classroom guides and case studies and will provide experts as lecturers. The programme is expected to role out in July 2009.

The main objective of this alliance is to elevate the level of discussion around IFRS , and to help academia educate and prepare executives for the accounting standards of tomorrow. Recognizing the need to have a single set of accounting principles, more than 100 countries and approximately 40 percent of the Global Fortune 500 have already converged to IFRS. Adopting a single, global accounting language will strengthen and empower investors around the world, thereby furthering the economic growth and business expansion, globally.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) too, has decided to fully converge with IFRS from April 1, 2011. To accelerate the integration of IFRS, Deloitte has initiated training for IFRS ready professionals by joining hands with world renowned business school IIM, Ahmedabad (IIMA). By leveraging on Deloitte's experience and ability to provide expertise, the business school can provide the right tools to ready the next generation of business executives in an accounting environment that will govern businesses across the globe within the next few years.

Commenting on the alliance with IIM Ahmedabad, Mr. Savan Godiawala, and Deloitte's IFRS coordinator said, "At Deloitte, we have the opportunity of understanding the dynamics that are in play across different parts of the globe. We bring this knowledge to the fore while training our people and also assisting our clients to reach solutions. We now want to extend this knowledge bank to create further awareness on a transforming accounting and business landscape. This alliance is a first step in our effort to create an awareness and expertise that will assist executives become business ready for tomorrow".

Globalization has necessitated a level playing field for businesses, and therefore it is important to standardize norms. IFRS is one such body of accounting standards which will help businesses adhere to a common set of rules. This need to ready talent and create awareness for executives, in the current environment has been assessed by Deloitte and IIMA and the program will assist executives to better understand, converge and make a smooth transition to IFRS.

Prof. BH Jajoo, Dean, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, said, "We are pleased to enter into this alliance with Deloitte in order to address the critical need to step up awareness on IFRS and enable the Indian corporates to understand the wide-reaching implications of the same. We consider implementation of IFRS as a managerial challenge and as one of the leading management institutes in India, we would like to assist Indian businesses to clearly understand its implementation process. Deloitte brings with it the right global experience and local knowledge to add immense value to this executive course for designed financial professionals".

Globally Deloitte member firms have contributed resources to Ohio State and Virginia Tech universities to assist the schools in developing IFRS curricula. In India Deloitte has partnered with CCH India and Indian corporates to impart IFRS knowledge to finance executives and has successfully trained over 1500 professionals.

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NETGEAR^®, Inc. (Nasdaq:NTGR), a worldwide provider of technologically innovative, branded networking solutions, today announced that Gartner^® has confirmed that NETGEAR is now the worldwide leader in sub-$5,000 business Network-Attached Storage (NAS) systems and that it ranks among the top six vendors in the overall business NAS market. Gartner's April 2009 report, "Market Share: Network Attached Storage/ Unified Storage, Worldwide, 2009" details this market leadership as part of an examination of total revenues and units shipped in 2008. This evaluation places NETGEAR among the leaders in the industry.

"NETGEAR is proud to announce our rankings in this report. We believe Gartner's evaluation represents our strong presence and robust growth in the storage market," said Drew Meyer, NETGEAR's director of storage product marketing. "More importantly, we feel this report recognizes the strength and quality of the ReadyNAS^® line of storage appliances. NETGEAR is fully committed to delivering our SMB customers and channel partners the most advanced and reliable storage platforms in the industry."

In the report, Gartner compared NAS/ unified storage solution vendors' end-of-year results from 2008 to those of 2007 and found that NETGEAR consistently ranked highly. For vendors with solutions priced at less than $5,000, Gartner estimated that NETGEAR had taken 23 percent of the market share in terms of vendor revenue. Amongst vendors with solutions priced at less than $25,000, NETGEAR was ranked third in vendor revenue, delivering a revenue growth rate in excess of 127 percent. Finally, NETGEAR proved its high standing by outpacing traditionally strong storage competitors when 'comparing revenues across all major NAS vendors.

NETGEAR's ReadyNAS products have received high acclaim since their introduction to the market - winning such esteemed awards as CRN's 2008 "Best Product of the Year" for storage and Small Business Computing's 2009 "Excellence in Technology" award for network-attached storage, as chosen by readers. NETGEAR's ReadyNAS appliances are available via Rashi Peripherals and Ingram Micro, the authorized distributors of Netgear in India and come with full 24/7 technical support and an industry-leading five-year warranty. More information for the entire ReadyNAS product line can be viewed at http://www.readynas.com.

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Sage India, today announced that Uniglobe Air Travel Bureau, a global travel network organization offering a full range of travel management services in corporate and leisure travel, has selected ACT! By Sage CRM solution to improve upon its customer contact and sales management process.

Established in 1962 Uniglobe Air Travel Bureau is the largest franchise of Uniglobe Travel International in India. The team at Air Travel Bureau (ATB) was evaluating a CRM solution to automate its customer facing processes of sales and marketing with the core objective of improving sales revenues and customer contact experience. The team evaluated a number of leading CRM applications before choosing ACT!.

ACT! will be used by over thirty sales and marketing professionals of Uniglobe Air Travel Bureau to:

•	Keep track of customer enquires
•	Send apt marketing newsletters to prospects and customers
•	Analyze Marketing ROI
•	Maintain fruitful relationships with customers

Mr. Saurabh Narain, Director, Air Travel Bureau, stated: We were looking for a solution that could assist us in tracking detailed contact information including notes, history, customer communication and sales opportunities all tied to our potential and existing customers for a complete integrated view. Also, we were looking for a mass mailing tool that could send personalized newsletters to our customers, giving us complete analysis on the success rate of the campaign. ACT! along with Swiftpage - Mass Mail Tool met our requirements perfectly. He also mentioned ACT! has the best user friendly features which is one of the reasons why we chose ACT!

ACT! by Sage is the #1 selling contact and customer management solution used effectively by more than 2.8 million users and over 43,000 additional corporate customers, including individual professionals, small business owners, corporate teams, and anyone who regularly works with contacts. ACT! by Sage Premium is specifically designed to benefit larger teams of users with increased data sharing capabilities, group scheduling functionality, advanced opportunity tracking and customization capabilities, robust dashboards and reports, and multiple security levels, stated, Mr. Thomas Abraham, Managing Director, Sage India

ACT! By Sage comes with powerful customer management features including:

•	Centralize critical customer information
•	Manage Contacts at the Company/ Account level for a complete customer view
•	Utilize Contact and Company Notes and History to track every relationship detail
•	Organize Contacts into Groups based on key actionable criteria
•	Seamlessly integrate ACT! and Microsoft Outlook e-mail, saving you time while allowing you to track vital information on your ACT! Contact Record
•	Track all customer communications whether they are paper or e-mail
•	Stay on top of your schedule and prioritize tasks so you are productive
•	Forecast and track Sales Opportunities for an improved bottom line
•	Access and report on critical information quickly and easily
•	Customize ACT! and capture data unique to your business for more insightful business decisions
•	Forecast and track Sales Opportunities for an improved bottom line
•	Meet the needs of your workgroup or team of users sharing data
•	Send personalized mail communications through add on tools like Swiftpage

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FTK Technologies co-branded product, Magikeys, developed with FTK's unique software, LooKeys, is changing the face of computing in government schools.The software, co-developed with the market leaders in the computer education vertical, Educomp Solutions, is specifically oriented to the needs of Indian Government schools, allowing both Students and Teachers all across India to enjoy the computing experience in their mother tongues through an intuitive and easy-to learn interface, using the technology of FTK's flag ship product - LooKeys.

"We took into consideration the fact that most government schools aspire to introduce their students to the world of computers, but face obstacles due to language barrier and the familiarity and preference of the students with their mother tongue" said Rafi Palgi, FTK Executive Manager "Based on the expertise and experience of our partners in Educomp, we created a special interface that will function similarly as our comprehensive software, LooKeys, and that will enable computer-aided teaching and learning in Indian languages. Educomp, as the market leaders in computer education,along with their devotion and passion to this cause, are the most qualified partner to take this revolution and implement it in the field".

Feedback received from the schools using the software indicates the direct influence on learning across the board. "Even teachers of subjects such as physics and science are excited now to use aids such as power point presentations, which could not used so far, as teachers were restricted to English in almost every aspect when working with computers" Palgi explains. "As this was part of our vision when creating Magikeys, it gives us immense pleasure to see how we are helping to create a new generation of young computer users, using computers in their own mother tongue. Our commitment is, and will always remain, to help bring the computing experience to the entire people of India. MagiKeys, which was specifically created for the next generation of users, is maybe the most important step towards achieving that goal".

One emphasis that was implemented in Magikeys was a fully functional Offline interface that would enable teachers and students to use MS-OFFICE and other Unicode compliant applications in their own languages. In schools that enjoy internet connectivity students can also write mails, chat and surf the net in their own language using MagiKeys.

The product is used by Government Schools across the nation, and has proven to be a priceless tool for the next generation of computer education.

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GlacialTech Inc, a diverse provider of cooling, power supply, and PC enclosure solutions for consumer and industrial applications, introduces a new 500 watts radiator for the amplifiers used in the telecommunications systems. The new radiator helps the amplifiers to deliver exceptional performance in the broadband frequencies and is applicable for commercial and other high-performing applications.

Conceptually this radiator takes advantage of the heat-pipe to let the heat source quickly transmit into the fin. It is light weight, high performing and highly reliability. The radiators were constituted by heat-pipes, aluminum fins and axial fans, and the sizes are 160 253 73, 200 323 93, 164 332 95 and 200 303 93 mm respectively and the features of radiator are low weight and high efficiency, and which can solve thermal issue of 500 watts amplifier system, the temperature rise is controlled at 20°C around; GlacialTech can bought you not only designing and manufacturing the radiators but also customized different solutions for high technologies modules for thermal management of telecom industry as well, since in 2001. It produced several special radiators. The specialty of GlacialTech radiators is that it is tiny in form factor and lightness. However, these radiators are highly efficient, and can solve thermal issue of 500 watts amplifier system with ease.

GlacialTech can provide customer the adaptable service like design and manufacture.

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Background
VeriSign's Messaging and Mobile Media Division delivers messages on behalf of carriers and content providers around the world. VeriSign's combined mobile messaging networks (P2P and A2P) connect to more than 700 carriers in over 200 countries and reach more than three billion wireless subscribers.

VeriSign offers one of the most robust and reliable mobile messaging delivery engines across carrier, enterprise, and media/ entertainment networks, generating Billions of dollars in revenue for its customers. Together with RealNetworks, it powers inter-carrier mobile messaging for 8 of the top 10 wireless carriers in North America and other major operators throughout the world. VeriSign is also currently working with 6 of the top 10 banks, 3 of the top 5 financial institutions and global leaders in payments and money transfer services.

Q1 2009 Highlights
Growth in mobile messaging volumes remains a consistent bright spot in the mobile wireless environment. VeriSign's Messaging and Mobile Media Division, together with RealNetworks, continued to see strong double digit growth in the quarter-to-quarter mobile messaging volumes delivered through its network. Highlighted by a single day record in Q1 2009 of over 1.06 Billion SMS and MMS messages delivered on Valentines Day and a total of nearly 84 Billion messages delivered in Q1 of 2009, VeriSign projects it will shatter last's year's record total of 224 Billion messages and reach over 330 Billion messages to be delivered by year end.

In Q1 2009, VeriSign saw an 18.5% increase in total A2P/ P2P messages carried from the previous quarter, this corresponds to over $2.95 Billion in revenue enabled for VeriSign customers and is nearly doubled the amount from Q1 of 2008.

These figures underscore the superior reach, reliability, and scalability offered by VeriSign.

The large migrant worker population, especially in South and Southeast Asia is expected to be a contributing factor to the increase in international mobile messaging. To this end, VeriSign announced that it has been chosen by PT Indosat Tbk in Indonesia and Warid Telecom International Ltd. in Bangladesh to provide international messaging to more destinations. Other drivers for the growth in Asia Pacific include festive holidays such as Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day, the high mobile penetration rates in emerging markets in Southeast Asia and Central Asia and reduced costs for international mobile messaging in Oceania.

VeriSign News Q1 2009 to Date

5/11/09	VeriSign's Messaging and Mobile Media Division Receives North American Messaging-Based Mobile Banking Solution of the Year Award from Frost & Sullivan
4/30/09	Western Union, Consumer Portfolio Service and VeriSign Team to Offer Mobile Bill Payment Solution
4/14/09	VeriSign Increases Momentum in Financial Services as Leading Institutions Worldwide Continue to Deploy Mobile Banking Services
4/14/09	Fifth Third Bank Selects VeriSign for Mobile Text Alert Services
2/12/09	OMG! R U Serious?! Wht a Gr8 Yr 4 Mobl Msging!
1/15/09	A Record of More than 1.4 Billion Mobile Messages Expected on Inauguration Day, VeriSign Says

Key

•	SMS – Short Message Service. SMS is the most common form of mobile messaging, also referred to as "text" messaging.
•	ICSMS - Inter-Carrier Short Message Service. ICSMS messages are text messages exchanged between carrier networks.
•	MMS - Multimedia Messaging Service. MMS allows users to send multimedia messages that include images, video and audio.
•	ICMMS – Inter-Carrier Multimedia Messaging Service. ICMMS messages are multimedia messages exchanged between carrier networks.
•	P2P Messages – Person to person messages, or messages sent from one mobile user to another.
•	A2P Messages – Application to person messages, or application-generated content such as news alerts, ring tones, promotional video clips, and enterprise messages that are sent to mobile users.

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Mobile messaging volumes continue to shatter records, according to the latest quarterly index of mobile messaging statistics compiled by the Messaging and Mobile Media Division of VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world.

"Growth in mobile messaging volumes remains a consistent bright spot in the mobile wireless environment," said Basavaraj Nagaraj, Senior Manager of Product Management, for VeriSign's Messaging and Mobile Media Division. "As consumers and enterprises increasingly rely on mobile messaging to stay connected anytime, anywhere, the mobile industry relies on VeriSign to ensure that those messages reach their intended destination. We are making the investments necessary to deliver the reach, reliability and scalability needed for 2009."

Strong growth in Asia Pacific sustained
Across Asia Pacific, VeriSign saw an approximate 30 percent increase in the total number of international mobile messages sent and received over its network in Q1 2009 from Q4 2008. The company also saw rapid growth in the volume of mobile messaging traffic in this region, especially in South Asia where the number of mobile messages delivered by VeriSign jumped almost tenfold that quarter.

This significantly underscores mobile messaging as an increasing means for people to communicate across borders, especially in South and Southeast Asia where there is a large migrant worker population. To this end, VeriSign announced that it has been chosen by PT Indosat Tbk in Indonesia and Warid Telecom International Ltd. in Bangladesh to provide international messaging to more destinations.

Other contributing drivers for the growth in Asia Pacific include festive holidays such as the Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day, the high mobile penetration rates in emerging markets in Southeast and Central Asia, and reduced costs for international mobile messaging in Oceania.

"The growth of mobile messaging in Asia Pacific this quarter has once again proven its popularity among mobile subscribers and highlights how SMS/ MMS messaging has become an integral part of their lives," Mr. Nagaraj added. "We are extremely delighted to be a part of this growth and will continue to help our customers to reach their goals."

Leading in reliability and global reach
In Q1 2009, VeriSign's combined mobile messaging networks enabled an average of approximately 932 million messages per day globally. This is an 18.5 percent increase from the previous quarter and a remarkable 96 percent rise over Q1 2008. In total, VeriSign delivered 82.3 Billion P2P and over 1.6 Billion A2P messages in Q1 2009.

The VeriSign^® Inter-Carrier MMS and PictureMail platforms also continue to experience rigorous growth in MMS traffic. Compared to the first quarter of 2008, MMS and PictureMail volumes jumped 130 percent and 84 percent respectively. In total, VeriSign delivered more than 1.1 billion MMS messages in Q1 2009.

The quarter also produced a healthy rise in mobile media/ mobile content messaging volumes through VeriSign's Mobile Delivery Gateway (MDG). Driven in part by the addition of new mobile content providers and an increase in mobile content provider market activity, VeriSign reported a 27 percent increase in Premium SMS transactions year over year. VeriSign's MDG platform also reached a monthly all-time high in retail sales, which translated to a 35 percent rise from the previous quarter. With industry leading reliability, the MDG platform has achieved its sixth straight month of 100 percent availability.

Enabling mobile messaging to more businesses and consumers worldwide
With more enterprises turning to the mobile channel to better serve customers, VeriSign Mobile Enterprise Services (VMES) responded to the growing interest in A2P enterprise applications as evident by an 88% year-over-year growth rate of messages delivered through its network while financial services in particular drove a 63% increase in messaging traffic from Q1 2008 to Q1 2009. Financial institutions such as Western Union, U.S. Bank, Fifth Third Bank, and Huntington National use VeriSign's mobile financial services to improve their customers overall experience through alerts and other value-add mobile services. The company also most recently signed a deal with ICICI Bank, India's largest private bank, to use VeriSign's International Messaging Alert Services.

A recipient of the Frost & Sullivan 2009 Award for North American Messaging-based Mobile Banking Solution of the Year, VeriSign's Messaging and Mobile Media Division delivers mobile messaging for 6 of the top 10 banks, 3 of the top 5 financial institutions, and global leaders in payments and money transfer services.

VeriSign's Messaging and Mobile Media Division delivers messages on behalf of carriers and content providers around the world. VeriSign's combined mobile messaging networks (P2P and A2P) connect to more than 700 carriers in over 200 countries and reach more than 3 billion wireless subscribers. VeriSign offers one of the most robust and reliable mobile messaging delivery engines across carrier, enterprise, and media/ entertainment networks, generating billions of dollars in revenue for its customers. Together with RealNetworks, Inc.^®, it powers inter-carrier mobile messaging for 8 of the top 10 wireless carriers in North America and other major operators throughout the world.

To view the full index, please visit http://www.verisign.in/static/mmi-q1-09.pdf.

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Kobian Pte. Ltd., Singapore based manufacturer of Mercury range of products, has announced the appointment of SALORA INTERNATIONAL as their National Distributor for Motherboards and Casings.

Although Salora is known for its manufacturing of Salora branded Televisions and Salora DVD Players, yet the company is there in the Electronics business for last 2 decades with manufacturing of Electronic Components and distribution of branded IT products, components and peripherals. As an IT distribution house, Salora distributes Sony Ericson mobile handsets, Acer PCs and peripherals, Lenovo PCs and peripherals, MoserBaer peripherals, Samsung Pleomax peripherals and Kingmax memory products. Present though 27 sales offices across India,

On the other side, Kobian offers the major PC building blocks. These include motherboards, cabinets, speakers, TFT Monitors, DVD media, Keyboard, Mice, WebCam and UPS. Kobian operates globally through 350 distributors, with offices in over 10 countries and factories in India and China. Inspan Infotech is the other distributor in India that Kobian works with for the entire range of Mercury products.

Speaking on this tie up, Ms. Sushmita Das, Country Manager, Kobian Pte. Ltd., said, "We are very glad to partner with Salora International. Salora brings on table a deep reach across the country through its 27 branches and extensive product knowledge. Mercury range of Motherboards and Casings shall complement Salora's existing products and together we shall be able to bring a better offering for the channel."

"With Salora and Inspan in place as national distributors, I am confident that we will reach a channel base of 4000 partners and a larger SI fraternity. Besides, our channel partners can look forward to a wider product offering from Mercury in the coming months," added Ms. Das.

Mr. Anil Sharma, National Sales Manager, Salora International, said, "Our objective is to add value to the channel business and the vendors. With Kobian as our principal partner, we will surely add value to the channel and enrich their product lines. We always go for long term Business and long associations. We are very delighted to be associated with Kobian as their national distributor. We are looking forward to a Strong tie up with Kobian.

"We have more than 500 direct Channel partners for IT peripherals Business. We are already dealing in USBs, TFTs, UPS, Key Boards, Mice, Headphones, Memory Cards, CD and DVD Media, but we did not have mother boards and casings .Mercury is a very well known & acceptable brand in India and we are glad to be associated with them. With these two products in our basket we have a fuller and an enriched product basket for our channel partners," said, Mr. Sharma.

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Informatica Corporation (NASDAQ: INFA), the leading independent provider of data integration software and services, today announced the acquisition of AddressDoctor, a pioneer and leader in global address validation technology. AddressDoctor offers technology to perform global address validation for more than 200 countries and territories. These capabilities include support for multiple levels of addressing such as street level, delivery point validation and geocoding.

Informatica's market leading Data Quality solution enables customers to trust their data and the acquisition of AddressDoctor extends Informatica's leadership in the Data Quality Tools Market. With the acquisition, Informatica again demonstrates the company's commitment to providing customers with the most advanced data quality products. By adding best-in-class global address validation, Informatica customers are ensured that this critical component is deeply integrated as part of a comprehensive data quality product offering.

"Global address validation is a critical element of data quality and AddressDoctor is recognized as providing leading technology in the global address validation market," said Ivan Chong, senior vice president and general manger, Data Quality, Informatica. "The combination of Informatica and AddressDoctor further advances our technology leadership in data quality by adding the preeminent address validation technology natively to our platform. The addition of AddressDoctor will enable Informatica to empower customers with the necessary performance and flexibility to increase the benefits of global address validation within their data quality initiatives."

Leading customers worldwide, including Kempinski Hotels and Aramex, rely on AddressDoctor for global address validation. AddressDoctor partners with prominent companies such as: IBM, DataFlux, Experian QAS, Melissa Data and Siperian, as noted on the AddressDoctor website. Informatica remains committed to providing these partners with the critical global address validation technology that each partner has come to rely upon.

"Too many businesses today are compromised because of inaccurate data, especially outdated or inaccurate addresses related to their customers," said Sven Schreiber, managing director, AddressDoctor. "AddressDoctor spends 100 percent of our time focused on global address validation. Together with Informatica, we will enable our customers to apply global address validation across a wider variety of applications."