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BRAINSPARK PLC
("Brainspark" or the "Company")
Update on Investments
Brainspark announces that it has agreed
to invest $100,000 (£57,000)
in
Polarizonics Corp. ("PL") a Delaware corporation.
Dr. Oron Zachar, founder of PL, has developed a method of potentially
increasing
the data storage capacity and read rate of both red and blue laser
DVDs by up to
three times, and which is described as Polar High-definition DVD
(PH-DVD)
Technology. This technology exploits the polarization element contained
in all
current DVD formats not being used for the physical encoding of
the information
on the disc to significantly increase both the speed and capacity
of DVDs.
Applications have been made for patents in respect of this technology.
Brainspark will invest $100,000 (£57,000) in
Series B preferred Polarizonics
Stock representing a holding of 22,941 shares or approximately
1.96% of the
enlarged issued share capital of the company. The price is based
on a
pre-investment valuation of $5,000,000 (£2,850,000) or $4.359 (£2.485)
per
share. This investment is part of a funding round raising $250,000
(£142,000)
for PL in total, with $695,000 (£396,000) having already been raised
with
private US investors.
Brainspark has been awarded a transferable option for an additional
sum of
$50,000 (£28,500) which expires on 15th July 2006, under the same
terms of the
current Series B Preferred Shares.
Francesco Gardin, Brainspark chairman commented: "This
is Brainspark's first new
portfolio company investment since 2003. It is an early stage investment
in very
high-risk technology and is in line with the declared strategy
of the venture
capital side of our business. This investment, made in conjunction
with a number
of sophisticated US private investors, is an indication of the
new network of
relationships established by the Brainspark Board which is central
to our
strategy of both identifying selected investment opportunities
globally and
raising the necessary seed capital."
Mr Gardin adds: "We believe that Polarizonics
Technology, developed by leading
scientists, could have a significant impact on the development
of high
definition DVDs. Nevertheless, the Board is aware that this is
a high-risk
investment given the highly competitive nature of this market."
Contact: Francesco Gardin, Brainspark PLC on 00 39 335 296573
Roland Cornish, Beaumont Cornish Limited on 020 7628 3396.
Background on Polarizonics Corp.
Polarizonics Technology (PT) simply introduces optical modulation
and detection
mechanisms to employ the polarization characteristics which, although
are
present, are currently unused in physical disc formats. Importantly
Polarizonics
Technology requires no change in the disc structure itself, and
present mass
replication equipment can be used without modification or additional
costs.
Hence, PT can be brought to market within a very short time scale.
The PH-DVD format can applied as a modification to increase the
data read rate
and capacity of any of the competing blue laser formats (such as
Sony Blu-Ray
and Toshiba HD-DVD). Moreover, the Polarizonics Technology may
provide for a
red-laser capability to support HD content. Thus, with the potential
for over
100GB discs, this innovation is of particular importance for satisfying
the
coming demands of increased disc capacity of HD video content of
movies and
video games. The PH-DVD format also introduces a new hardware level
suppression
of the possibility of unlicensed replication piracy.
The Polarizonics Technology R&D effort is supported
by an expert engineering
team. Dr. Zachar, the founder and original inventor of the Polarizonics
optical
disc memory technology, received his Ph.D in theoretical physics
at UCLA.
Prof. David Ezra (Reading University) is a co-founder of the Company.
Prof. Ezra
was a founder member of Sharp Corporation's European Technology
Centre in
Oxford. In 2000 he was the Director of Strategic Research of Sharp's
European
Technology Centre. Prof. Ezra is currently a Visiting Professor
at the
Department of Physics of Reading University, and remains a Senior
Corporate
Advisor of Sharp, reporting directly to the Board.
Prof. Masud Mansuripur (University of Arizona), a board member,
is supervising
the laboratory testing system design. Prof. Mansuripur is Chair
of Optical Data
Storage, Professor of Optical Sciences University of Arizona Optical
Sciences
Center, and is a leading scientist in the field of optical data
storage.
Prof. Steven McLaughlin is responsible for developing optimal encoding
algorithms, determine the maximum achievable information density,
and explore
possible novel copy protection mechanisms for the PL format. Prof.
McLaughlin is
director of research at Georgia Tech institute of telecommunications.
He
presently serves as president of the international IEEE Information
Theory
Society. He is the author of 23 patents in the field.
Prof. Hong-Wen Jiang (UCLA) is mainly responsible for the development
and supply
of test samples designed according to the PL specifications. Prof.
Jiang was a
Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University from 1989-91, where
he worked with
the Nobel laureates Profs. Dan Tsui and Horst Stormer. He joined
the Department
of Physics at UCLA in 1991. Jiang was a Sloan Fellow (1992-94),
recipient of the
1993 McMillan Award for outstanding contributions in condensed
matter physics,
and the 1996 Overseas Chinese Physics Association Outstanding Young
Researcher
Award |