PALO ALTO, CA, January 7, 1997-VXtreme(TM), Inc. the leading provider ofhigh-quality streaming video for the Internet and corporate networks, todayannounced that Cisco Systems, Inc., Informix Software, Inc., and SOFTBANKVentures Inc. have each purchased a minority equity stake in VXtreme. Thetotal investment was more than $10 million. The company raised the moneythrough strategic investments from leading companies who are shaping theinfrastructure, management and delivery of multimedia content on the Web.In addition, key executives from each of the investing companies will takeseats on the VXtreme board of directors.
"The investment by these leading technology companies is a major steptowards establishing VXtreme as the standard for video on the Internet,"said Pete Mountanos, president and CEO, VXtreme. "Cisco, Informix, andSOFTBANK are defining how multimedia content gets delivered over theInternet, and their market presence, expertise and financial commitment toVXtreme will help accelerate the adoption of our technologies and serviceson the Internetand corporate networks."
Networking
In addition to its financial commitment, Cisco and VXtreme plan to workclosely to assure interoperability of VXtreme's streaming technologyfeatures with Cisco's Internetworking Operating System (IOS) softwaretechnologies. This compatibility will help facilitate the development of anetworking infrastructure that delivers the bandwidth, quality of service,and efficient multipoint communication for high quality video."We are seeing an increase in the demand for multimedia applications overthe Internet, and we believe video is playing a dominant role. To giveconsumers and corporate users the quality they want we need to have thedifferent pieces of the network puzzle work together," said Ed Kozel, chieftechnology officer and senior vice president of business development, CiscoSystems. "VXtreme is a clear leader in video compression for packet-basednetworks. This investment is the first step in working with VXtreme todeliver elements of their technology and products in conjunction with ourCisco IOS software. Cisco's investment in VXtreme complements itsinvestment in Precept Software."
MultimediaManagement
In addition to its investment, Informix is working closely with VXtreme tointegrate its streaming video technology as a video DataBlade Module forthe Informix Universal Server, providing a complete solution for the back-endmanagement of video content on the Web. A DataBlade module is a softwarecomponent that extends the relational database capabilities to support thecomplex management requirements of this new type of multimedia content inthe Universal Server."We are investing in VXtreme because we see great synergy between ourcontent management capabilities and VXtreme's advanced streaming andcompression technology" said Phil White, chairman, CEO and president, InformixSoftware. "The Informix-Universal Server is the leading product formanaging rich content data on the network. The missing piece until now hasbeen the ability to stream that content over the network to give users"click-and-play" access to video, audio, and other real-time content.VXtreme has done pioneering work to provide this capability together withthe authoring and server tools necessary for a complete video solution."
Video Content Delivery
The investment by SOFTBANK Ventures, the venture capital investment arm ofSOFTBANK Corporation, is the latest in a series of strategic infrastructureinvestments. These investments include such Internet infrastructurecompanies as: CyberCash, Inc.; Firefly Network, Inc.; I/Pro; OnLive!Technologies; USWeb; and Yahoo!. SOFTBANK, the leading infrastructureprovider to the digital information technology industry and the world'slargest producer of technology-related trade shows and expositions, plansto deploy VXtreme's Web Theater within its trade show operations. Forexample, SOFTBANK COMDEX is currently working with VXtreme to utilize WebTheater technology to support live Webcasts of SOFTBANK COMDEX events, aswell as to develop promotional materials which incorporate video clips.About VXtreme
VXtreme was founded in 1995 to develop and market a complete softwaresolution for high-quality video over the Internet and corporate networks.Its Web Theater product family delivers high-quality video and scales tosupport thousands of concurrent users. VXtreme is financed through equityinvestments from Cisco Systems, Informix Software, and SOFTBANK Ventures.For more information, visit VXtreme's home page at www.vxtreme.com.VXtreme and Web Theater are trademarks of VXtreme, Inc. Cisco, Informix,SOFTBANK, Precept and all other company and product names may be trademarks ofthe respective companies with which they are associated and are herebyrecognized as such.
