[Manila, 27 August 2008] -- Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), the world’s leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software, and I-Play Online Games Incorporated (X-Play) a joint venture of online gaming publisher IP E-Game Ventures Inc. (IP E-Games), and GMA New Media Inc. (GMA-NMI), announce today that X-Play has secured an exclusive license in the Philippines for the operation of the highly anticipated EA SPORTS™ title - NBA STREET Online. 

NBA STREET Online is a real-time online mid-session game (MSG) of EA`s phenomenally popular NBA franchise games series, featuring fast-paced street basketball action with today`s biggest NBA superstars, all in true-to-life detail.

Under the licence from EA, X-Play will provide marketing, community management, customer and technical support, and other valuable services as the operator of NBA STREET Online in the Philippines.

IT company gross revenues over P1.7 Billion Peso mark in first half of fiscal year. Revenues up by 505% YOY.

Makati City, 20 August 2008 – Technology firm IPVG Corp. (PSE: IP) announced today its financial results for the 1st half of its fiscal year (ended June 30, 2008).

IPVG reported a consolidated interim financial results at PhP 1.79 Billion in net revenues, and PhP 50.51M in net income (net of PhP 45.4M one-time financing charge due to BPO acquisition in the USA). Earnings Before Interest, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) of P184.26M is 233% higher than last year.  This represents a 498% growth in revenue, and 16% growth in net income year-on-year (YOY). Excluding one-time financing charge, net income would have reached P95.97M or 121% growth YOY.

The year continues with an upward trend in performance giving the IT Company its 10th consecutive quarter of all-time highs in terms revenue growth.

"IPVG continues to demonstrate continued revenue growth and traction across all lines of business. We continue to serve a greater number of customers across several geographies through our global infrastructure.”

“We expect a steady improvement in our bottom-line and profit to revenue ratios as we complete the integration of our acquisitions, finish accounting for all one-time charges in relation to our acquired companies, and increase our margins through revenue growth and maximization of our economies of scale and synergies across our various units. One could say that as we make the transformation from a local company to a global company, we have incurred significant expenses which have compressed our near-term profits.”

“Despite short-term profit to revenue compression, we are well poised to capture the potential growth across all three sectors. We are strategically well positioned across all business lines, and stand ready to benefit from further growth which will translate to tangible improvements in our margins and earnings moving forward. We therefore anticipate a stronger 2nd half in 2008,” said Enrique Y. Gonzalez, CEO of IPVG.

1H 2008 Financial Analysis
 
IPVG’s diversified business model, which has tapped strategic vertical industries with global geographic market presence, generated a healthy mid-year financial report.

From the BPO group total revenue in the 1H of 2008 was PhP 1.07B from PhP 1.58M Y-o-Y, posting an incredible 68,016% growth from 1H in 2007. These figures account for 60% of total revenues. The remarkable increase is attributed to US-based call center Influent which generated sales of PhP 1.03B. Other BPO subsidiaries - IPCCO (IP Contact Center Outsourcing, Inc.) and I-PCV (I-Pay Commerce Ventures Inc.) contributed PhP 53.03M and PhP 0.27M respectively. 

The Communications group contributed PhP 434.60M from PhP 193.17M, representing 24% of total revenue in 1H of 2007. This is an increase of 125% Y-o-Y performance. Contribution from IP-Converge increased 17% from PhP 196.69M to PhP 229.92M while newly acquired Prolexic Technologies contributed PhP 194.91M in revenues. Continued demand in the area of high-end technology managed services and network security continue to sustain the communication group’s positive performance.

The Content business group represented 16% of total revenue in the 1H of 2008 demonstrating a 178% YOY growth from PhP 100.4M to PhP 278.65M. Online gaming subsidiary, IP E-Games further improved its performance from PhP 133.48M to PhP 211.47M, a 58% Y-o-Y growth, outpacing the overall growth of the online games industry in the Philippines. MEGAmobile, also on its 1st year of operations is on a steady growth with a reported PhP 2.86M in revenue. 

From an earnings perspective however, communications and online games contributed a total of PhP 125.67M, while BPO and Corporate Overhead reported losses of PhP 75.16M, thus resulting in consolidated earnings of PhP 50.51M in the first six months of 2008. 

It is important to note that IPVG’s BPO business (Influent USA) reported a one-time financing charge of PhP 45,454,036.00. The removal of this one-time charge would have resulted in a positive net income of PhP 13.04M (vs. loss of P32.41M) for the BPO business group. This would have resulted in a much improved net income of P95.97M for IPVG for the 1st half of 2008.

1H 2008 Highlights:

Maintaining a planned and well-executed 5-year roadmap, IPVG is on track in its pursuit of becoming a global Filipino company. Capitalizing on its remarkable milestones in the first two quarters of the year, activities founded on strengthening its global, as well as local, presence were undertaken.

Communications
• IPVG entered a niche and high-growth market of high-end managed security with the acquisition of Prolexic Technologies – the leading developer and provider on DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) mitigation. The US$ 10.5 Million investment instantly gave the IT company a global footprint for DDoS mitigation, and strong U.S and European presence.
• Prime Communications (formerly Pacific Internet) links up with IPVG through its ICT subsidiary IP Converge Data Center, Inc. (IPC) to augment the telco provider’s existing bandwidth capacity, increase their IP transit capacity and minimize downtime.
• Leading telco provider Bayan Telecommunications Inc. (Bayan) enlisted IPVG through its IT&T subsidiary IP-Converge Data Center Inc. (IP-Converge) to provide 100mbps of additional bandwidth in order to accommodate the ever-increasing demands of their fast-growing customer base.

Content
• IPVG formed a 50/50 equity, joint-venture agreement with GMA New Media, Inc. – the digital media arm of GMA Network, Inc. to create a new subsidiary called I-Play Online Games Incorporated (I-Play). Investment in I-Play valued at PhP 800 Million with an initial capitalization of PhP 200 Million. The new venture will focus on the designing operating and maintaining casual online gaming and casual online gaming-related portals.
•  IPVG entered into the mobile content development and services market when it acquired 70% of the outstanding capital stock of MegaMobile Inc., valued at PhP 6.4 Million.
• Through its gaming subsidiary IP E-Games, entered the following partnerships, namely:
     o ESTsoft, a Korean game developer for the publishing and distribution rights for the highly anticipated massively 
        multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG), CABAL Online;
     o GDH K.K., a Japanese media company, through its group company GONZO Rosso K.K. for an online licensing 
        deal to launch the 1st Japan-made MMORPG - Pandora Saga, in the Philippines; and,
     o Perfect World Co., Ltd (Perfect World), a leading online game developer and operator in China. IPE will operate 
        Perfect World’s “Zhu Xian” game in the Philippines.
• Lastly, IP E-Games announced that its newest MMORPG title, CABAL Online exceeded the 52,000 concurrent user (CCU) mark a week after it was commercially launched on June 12, 2008.

BPO
• IPVG announced the 70% acquisition of US-based contact center Influent which has facilities in the US, Panama and the Philippines. The company is a leading contact center specializing in banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) markets in the US. It has a total of 11 delivery centers with over 1400 seats and ranked among the Top 20 call center companies worldwide according to customer service magazine survey.
• IPVG entered a Joint Venture Agreement with Credence Analytics (I) Pte Ltd (Credence Analytics) and formed a joint venture company called Verity Analytics in India that will engage in the business of providing Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) services to banking and financial institutions. Under the joint venture, Credence Analytics will de-merge its KPO business, which will then be operated by Verity Analytics. The US$ 1 Million investment agreement has an equity share of 60% for IPVG Corp. and 40% for the founders of Credence Analytics.
• IPVG signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to enter into a strategic and commercial partnership with leading Vietnam ICT company CMC Telecommunications Services Corp. (CMC Telecom) for developing and providing ICT products and services in Vietnam.

Finally, during its annual shareholders meeting in June 27, the stockholders approved amending Article Seven of the Company’s Articles of Incorporation and increasing the authorized capital stock of the Company from PhP 800 Million to PhP 1 Billion.

For more information, visit www.ipvg.com. To receive IPVG-related news on your mobile, type IPVG ON and send to 2948 free of charge.

For further inquiries, contact:
Investor Relations:                        Corporate Communications:
Antonio Garcia                                Sheila Rada
IPVG Corp.                                       IPVG Corp.
Tel – (632) 976 4784                     Tel – (632) 976 4788
Email – tonio.garcia@ipvg.com  Email – sheila.rada@ipvg.com

PR Agency:
Justine Bonilla
Dominguez Marketing Communications, Inc.
Tel – (632) 897 7088
Email – justine.bonilla@dominguez.com.ph