BiblioMondo - the World's eLibrary Network (www.BiblioMondo.com) was launched today after leading software company Best-Seller acquired the European software company ALS International Inc and renamed the company to BiblioMondo Inc.
This acquisition follows a recent funding by Investissement Desjardins (other portfolio companies include Miranda, 20/20 Technologies & Silanis), the Royal Bank of Canada, a European private investor and TechnoCap of Montreal (Hyperchip, VIPswitch & YottaYotta).
"With over 19 million BiblioMondo users and the largest library network in the world, Investissement Desjardins is pleased to be a partner in BiblioMondo and in its exponential growth as the World's eLibrary Network." said Pierre Brunet, Senior Vice-President, Investissement Desjardins.
"BiblioMondo unleashes the Optical Tidal Wave on the World's multi-media libraries." said Todd Joron, President & CEO of BiblioMondo. "This strategic partnership enables BiblioMondo to capitalize on the explosive growth in the demand for eLibrary Networks."
The enterprise market for Internet and Intranet Corporate and Public multimedia libraries is approximately $1 billion dollars. "(The eLibrary Network market) certainly is a niche vertical that they're moving into and if you look at any high-tech success, attacking one vertical seems to have been the way to go," said Kevin Restivo, an analyst with IDC.
BiblioMondo is the World's eLibrary Network. BiblioMondo provides massively scalable networking for the worlds 712,000 multi-media libraries (audio, video, digital works) and access to their vast content via the Internet or Corporate Intranet. With Y2001 revenues projected at over $15M, 140 employees and offices in 6 countries, BiblioMondo has network nodes in London, Paris, Cologne, Amsterdam, Philadelphia and Montreal and boasts 1400 clients in 9 countries and 19 million users.
BiblioMondo has the largest network of libraries in the world. BiblioMondo's clients in North America include America OnLine Inc., the world leader in interactive services; Hydro-Québec, the largest supplier of electricity in North America; the Bibliothèque Nationale du Québec, the largest library in Quebec. In Europe major customers include the Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon, the largest network of municipal libraries in France; the City of Hamburg, the largest single library network in Germany; PRISM, the largest shared local-authority system in England and ProBiblio, which is simultaneously the largest library network in the Netherlands and in the world.
About Financial Partners
Investissement Desjardins (www.Desjardins.com/id) is the venture capital arm of the Mouvement Desjardins, covering investment in growth companies and investment funds. Its mission is to create value in associated companies and help them achieve a significant position in their sector of activity, on both Canadian and international markets.
Royal Bank of Canada (www.RoyalBank.com) is a diversified global financial services group and a leading provider of personal and commercial banking, investment and trust services, insurance, corporate and investment banking, online banking and transaction-based services including custody.
TechnoCap (www.TechnoCap.com) is a venture capital company that is in the business of starting and building massively scalable netOptical companies. TechnoCap's investee companies (the "TechnoAffiliates") include massively parallel optical companies such as YottaYotta, VIPswitch, Hyperchip and BigBangwidth and massively scalable net software companies such as webPLAN, OriginalSim, netPCS, Jiveway, GlobalMedic, FreeBalance and BiblioMondo.