Manila, 29 January 2008 – IP E-Game Ventures, Inc. (IP E-Games), the online gaming subsidiary of IPVG Corp. (PSE: IP) and GMA New Media, Inc.      (GMA-NMI), the digital media arm of GMA Network, Inc. (PSE: GMA7), entered into a Shareholders’ Agreement for the purpose of creating and operating a joint venture company to be incorporated under the name I-Play, Inc. The business venture will focus on designing, operating and maintaining casual online gaming and casual online gaming-related portals.

 

The investment in I-Play, Inc. will be in the form of an authorized capital stock worth PhP 800M, with an initial paid-in capitalization of PhP 200M.   I-Play, Inc. will be equally owned by IP E-Games and GMA-NMI, with each party having a 50% stake in the company. I-Play is set to commence operations in the first quarter of 2008.

 

“We’ve had online gaming in our agenda for quite some time but because we wanted to be in it for the long haul, we had to make sure that we come in when the market was ready, we had the right business model, and we found a partner that shared our vision,” says Judd Gallares, President of GMA-NMI.

 

“Some gaming businesses were built around one title and have had short-lived success. Others were built around core gaming despite the fact that casual gaming appeals to a broader user base and represents a greater majority of the market. Although we are keenly looking at both casual and core, I believe that starting off with casual gaming aligns ideally to the strategic strengths of GMA with its merchandising assets and its already wide audience base. In this regard, we looked for a strategic partner that had the same vision and core values as GMA-NMI’s. We found these in E-games.”

 

IPVG CEO Enrique Y. Gonzalez expressed excitement about the joint venture partnership. “With this collaboration, we have clearly established ourselves as a market leader in the casual gaming segment and are now positioned to be the partner and publisher of choice for all the top-tier game developers around the world that would like to introduce their products into the Philippines,” Gonzalez says. 

 

GMA-NMI`s unique position of being both a media company and a technology company will certainly be played to the hilt in this partnership, says Gallares. “In combining the creativity and speed of digital with the broad reach and appeal of traditional, we’ll be breaking new paths in gaming.”

 

 “The synergies between E-Games and GMA-NMI go beyond just marketing and game publishing. I think together, we can look at unique opportunities in creating purely localized casual games based on local IP assets and locally produced story lines,” Gonzalez remarks.

 

Both GMA-NMI and IP E-Games agree that the future of online gaming in the Philippines lies in the casual gaming segment because it appeals to a much broader audience base. “Our partnership with GMA-NMI will allow us to take casual gaming and online gaming mainstream,” remarks Gonzalez.

 

“This partnership symbolizes the convergence of traditional media with new media and highlights the role online gaming plays as a unique environment and medium for Internet users across the Philippines. Expect great things to come from I-Play,” closes Gonzalez.

 

I-Play is just one of many initiatives in GMA-NMI’s Grand Digital Plan. This partnership follows the unprecedented success of GMA’s own news website, GMANews.tv, as well as that of Pep.ph, the Philippines’ leading entertainment website co-owned by GMA-NMI and Summit Media. “We will be announcing more ground-breaking projects in the months to come,” Gallares promises.

 

IP E-Games, the biggest advocate of the Free to Play model in the country, currently has 2 online casual games in its roster – Audition Dance Battle and O2Jam.

 

One of the gaming distributor’s most exciting business innovations is content localization. A prime example of content localization is the integration of local talents in the highly popular rhythm casual game O2Jam. By hitting certain keys on the right beat, gamers can play the game to the tune of their favorite songs from popular local artists such as Hilera, Sugarfree, Urbandub, Slapshock and Sandwich.

 

 

 

GMA New Media, Inc. (GMA-NMI) is the digital media arm of GMA Network, Inc. Since its inception in 2000, it has launched category-breaking projects in multiple platforms, including mobile, Internet, and digital TV. It owns the leading celebrity mobile phone portal, Fanatxt, and powers all the SMS-TV campaigns of GMA. It was the first to introduce interactive chat and gaming in Philippine television. Among its most recognized innovations are the first landline telegaming segment called PLDT Playtym and the first made-for-TV interactive game show, Txters V. It has a major stake in some of the Philippines’ most successful online properties such as GMANews.tv and Pep.ph. On the broadcast side, it produces breakthrough real-time special effects for GMA. Anticipating the changing media landscape on a global scale, NMI is venturing into digital TV through its Internet TV and Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) offerings, which will allow global audiences not only to access GMA content but also to customize it to their liking. For more information, go to www.gmanmi.com

 

 

IP E-Game Ventures, Inc. (IP E-Games), is a subsidiary of IPVG Corp. (PSE: IP) that operates the online gaming business unit of the company. IP E-Games has the exclusive distribution rights to the #1 MMORPG RAN Online, #1 Casual Games O2Jam and Audition, Supreme Destiny and Presidential Award recipient Korean game Granado Espada. IP E-Games is ranked #1 online games publisher in the Philippines and holds the top three titles in the Philippines namely - RAN Online, #1 MMORPG plus O2Jam and Audition #1 rhythm and dance casual games, respectively. IP E-GAMES strategic minority investors include the Philippine Star Group, and E-Store Exchange (an affiliate of GMA7). For more information log on to: www.e-games.com.ph

 

Acquisition of Prolexic Propels IPVG to Global DDoS Mitigation Provider
 
MANILA, PHILIPPINES – 11 January 2008 – Publicly-listed IT company IPVG Corp. (PSE: IP) announced the acquisition of Prolexic Technologies Inc. (Prolexic), a United States-based managed security service provider of distributed denial of service (DDOS) mitigation solutions. The acquisition represents IPVG’s roadmap of growing the company in key areas in the IP domain and global market. IPVG now offers a unique DDoS protection value proposition for its regional data center infrastructure customers.

Under the terms of the agreement, IPVG has initiated a stock purchase agreement with Prolexic stockholders for the purchase of 100 percent of the Company’s capital stock. IPVG is investing US$10.5M for the acquisition.
 
IPVG Corp. CEO Enrique Y. Gonzalez said, “The acquisition of Prolexic takes IPVG’s communications business global. With Prolexic, we now are positioned as the leading DDoS mitigation provider in the world with operations in the U.S., Latin America, Europe and Asia. As it gets easier and cheaper to launch DDoS attacks, the internet security requirements for the enterprise market for best of breed mitigation services will continue to increase.”
 
“Prolexic has led the DDoS mitigation sector for many years,” said Keith Laslop, Prolexic president.” We were the first to offer DDoS scrubbing centers in all major global regions. We currently have the industry’s most varied, advanced, and largest quantity of mitigation equipment and offer the largest amount of bandwidth available to stopping DDoS attacks. Joining forces with an aggressive company such as IPVG will allow Prolexic to extend its market leadership in all regions of the globe in the continuing arms race against DDoS attackers.”
 
Prolexic Global Security Operations Centers in Europe, US, and Asia that are able to respond to security attacks within minutes of a DDOS attack. Prolexic provides clean pipe services that actively monitor traffic patterns and filter out any illegitimate traffic that causes DDoS attacks. This process called “scrubbing” provides Prolexic’s customers with DDoS protection and allows customers to continue their online operations without threat of downtime.
 
IP-Converge Data Center, Inc., the data center subsidiary of IPVG, successfully prevented DDoS attacks within its customer networks with Prolexic. Attack size ranged from 100Mbps to over 2Gbps which if not prevented would have cost IPVG customers close to a million dollars in bandwidth and lost business opportunities.

DDoS MARKET DEMAND AND MATURITY
 
DDoS or Distributed Denial of Service attack occurs when a computer resource is rendered unavailable to its intended users usually by flooding or causing abnormally high bandwidth usage. During the attack the service is prevented from functioning efficiently, temporarily or indefinitely. Perpetrators of DDoS attacks typically target sites or services hosted on high-profile web servers such as banks, credit card payment gateways and even DNS root servers.
 
Philippine Internet Monitor reports that the Philippines ranks 6th in the number of security related attacks among the 20 member nations of the HoneyNet Project. The Philippine Honeynet Project, which writes the report, stated that the Philippines average 336 attacks per day.
 
In its July 2007 Zombie Report, ( http://prolexic.com/zr/zombie_july_2007.pdf) Prolexic noted that Cyber criminals target organizations for financial gain, competitive advantage, corporate espionage or ideological opposition. Their methods get more sophisticated, and more powerful, as businesses increase their security. They are determined and clever at targeting organizations and devising new attack strategies.
 
 
About Prolexic
Prolexic Technologies provides cutting edge solutions that protect Internet operations from the debilitating service disruptions caused by DDoS attacks. Prolexic`s patent-pending Clean Pipe Virtual Transport® network offers solutions that keep its clients` internet-facing infrastructures free of DDoS traffic. Without making major adjustments or multimillion-dollar investments in their existing hardware infrastructures, Prolexic`s customers rest assured that their network borders are secure and can thus focus on what is really important: their businesses. More information about Prolexic is available at www.prolexic.com
 
About IPVG
IPVG is publicly listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE Ticker Symbol: IP) and engaged in the information technology and communications space in South East Asia. IPVG owns three operating subsidiaries in: (i) Information Technology and Telecommunications (IT&T); (ii) on-line gaming, and (iii) Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) with presence in the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong and India.
 
 
 
For further inquiries, contact:
Investor Relations:                             
Antonio Garcia                                  
Tel – (632) 976 4784                         
Email – tonio.garcia@ipvg.com           
 
Corporate Communications:
Sheila Rada
Tel – (632) 976 4788
Email – sheila.rada@ipvg.com