More than one dozen companies have formed “Points for Pakistan,” a program that targets more than 200 million active monthly users of social games and social media sites. Beginning today, users of IMVU, RockYou, Playspan, Playdom, NHN USA/ijji, KlickNation, Nvinium Games, Roiworld, 101 Apps, Blue Frog Gaming, and Fish Wrangler will get the chance to participate. Specifically, users can earn credits or virtual goods by participating in a Peanut Labs online survey that asks them how familiar they are with this summer’s flooding, provides links to learn more about the disaster, and directs them to donate to Points for Pakistan aid programs administered by the American Red Cross, Oxfam America, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees flood relief programs. A number of companies have pledged additional support to the campaign through matching donation pledges, direct grants, and special Pakistan-branded virtual goods. The campaign also has the support of nonprofit industry groups including Women in Games International.

“The data collected from Points for Pakistan’s user survey will be useful for employing social media for humanitarian causes,” said Ali Moiz, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Peanut Labs, which is administering the campaign. “When we understand how users learn about global events, and how they make decisions about charitable giving, then we can do a better job of leveraging social technology to do good in the world.”

Participating companies formed the Points for Pakistan campaign in response to the scope of the flood’s destruction and the potential power of engaged social media users. “Social media users spend several hours each day participating in online communities and volunteering their opinions about brands and products. With Points for Pakistan we have an opportunity to harness their engagement in response to overwhelming need,” said Cary Rosenzweig, CEO of IMVU Inc., one of the participating companies.

According to United Nations estimates, flood damage already has surpassed that of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, 2005 Kashmir earthquake and 2010 Haiti earthquake combined. Officials predict the flood’s total economic impact to exceed US $40 billion.

About Peanut Labs

Peanut Labs is a social monetization company that helps publishers maximize their earning potential via virtual goods and currencies offered through a mix of discount deals, market research surveys, global payments, and offers. In early April, social networking giant Facebook introduced Peanut Labs’ platform as one of the first three alternate ways for users to earn Facebook’s virtual currency, Credits. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with offices in Seattle and New York, the company currently manages monetization for more than 200 million monthly website visitors. The company has won numerous awards, including the FAST Top 50 2008 ranking and the Advertising Research Foundation’s 2008 Silver Innovation Award. To learn more, visit www.peanutlabs.com.

nCircle has worked directly with the PCI Security Standards Council to drive the PCI Data Security Standard for over four years and is pleased to see these positive changes implemented. The nCircle Certified PCI Scan Service, consistently rated as the most accurate solution in competitive bake-offs, is an automated, self-service solution that enables anyone to scan their Internet-facing payment network for PCI compliance. Based on technology from nCircle’s award-winning vulnerability management product IP360™, the Certified PCI Scan Service provides a highly accurate platform to scan merchant networks for PCI compliance.

The new features in the updated nCircle Certified PCI Scan Service include:

• Enhanced Asset Discovery
  PCI DSS 1.2 requires that merchants identify all Internet-facing systems that are part of the cardholder data environment as “in scope” for PCI scanning. The nCircle Certified PCI Scan Service adds enhanced automated asset discovery, eliminating manual scoping efforts and greatly improving the accuracy of those efforts. nCircle’s automated asset discovery eliminates repeat scans required due to incorrect initial scoping, saving valuable time.
• New Report Formats
  PCI DSS 1.2 standardizes the report format produced by ASVs. The nCircle Certified PCI Scan Service now generates reports in this required format, including pass/fail status and a prioritized list of any vulnerabilities discovered.
• Partner Report Branding
  The nCircle Certified PCI Scan Service now provides the ability for a partner to upload their logo and have it included on each report generated by the service.

“nCircle continues to execute for us in the security compliance of our merchant networks, staying on the cutting edge of the latest PCI requirements from the PCI SSC,” stated Jason Miller, Relationship Manager at Beanstream Internet Commerce, a leading provider of authentication and electronic payment processing solutions. “We especially like the easy-to-use interface and the new report branding feature, allowing us to easily co-brand our merchants compliance reports.”

“The new PCI DSS requirements will improve the security of cardholder data, and nCircle is proud to deliver support for these requirements ahead of the deadline,” said Tim Keanini, CTO at nCircle. “nCircle’s updated service also has improvements specifically for its PCI partners, making it easier for them to provide the best possible service to their customers.”

The new version of the nCircle Certified PCI Scan Service will be generally available today. Customers using the service for the first time are eligible to receive a free trial subscription. For more information on the nCircle Certified PCI Scan Service, please visit ncircle.com/pci.

About nCircle Suite360
nCircle provides the world’s most comprehensive suite of solutions for agentless security and configuration auditing for physical and virtual IT environments. nCircle’s solutions combine the broadest discovery of networked systems and their operating systems, applications, vulnerabilities and configurations with advanced analytics to help enterprises reduce security risk and achieve compliance. nCircle’s solutions includes IP360™ for vulnerability management and risk management, WebApp360™ for web application vulnerability auditing, Configuration Compliance Manager™ (CCM) for configuration auditing and file integrity monitoring, Certified PCI Scan Service™ for on-demand self-service PCI scanning, and Suite360 Intelligence Hub™ for IT governance, risk and compliance (ITGRC) reporting and analytics.

About nCircle
nCircle is the leading provider of automated IT security and compliance auditing solutions. More than 4,500 enterprises, government agencies and service providers around the world rely on nCircle’s proactive solutions to manage and reduce security risk and achieve compliance on their networks. nCircle has won numerous awards for growth, innovation, customer satisfaction and technology leadership.  nCircle is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with regional offices throughout the United States and in London and Toronto. Additional information about nCircle is available at www.ncircle.com.

9Dragons is a Martial Arts MMORPG set during the Ming Dynasty of feudal China. Players explore the vast expanse of the lands as a member of one of the legendary clans of Chinese Martial Arts and challenge each other for ownership of immense Fortresses in massive PvP battles.

Players can fully immerse themselves in the robust powerful storyline that details the history of ancient China and their respective clans. Tilt the balance of power between the White and Black clans and participate in quests that lead each player on a journey of enlightenment and martial art mastery.

“9Dragons is the most authentic Martial Arts MMO on the market with a very active and fun community,” say Tracy Spaight, Executive Director of Publishing for GamersFirst. “INDY21 clearly made significant investments in best-in-class resources to create this stunning Martial Arts MMO. GamersFirst looks for great Free2Play MMO titles with strong and dedicated communities and with 9Dragons we noticed a rare opportunity to incorporate a new MMO genre to the GamersFirst catalogue in addition to working with INDY21.”

In addition to the solid foundation of existing PvE and PvP gameplay, the changing of hands will also include several new key features over the next quarter, including:
• Dedicated tutorial map for easing new players into the 9Dragons experience
• New high level dungeon encounter “Vault of the Ice Dragon”
• Updated “Tibet” map
• Brand new Kung Fu patterns to master
• ‘Most Wanted’ list – useful in avoiding—or becoming—one of the most dangerous and skilled players in PvP

“We chose GamersFirst, because it is a company that understands the Free2Play market and communicates with its gamer community,” said Yong-Nam Jin, CFO at Indy 21. “We have seen GamersFirst build Free2Play MMO’s with the same type of strong community presence that exists within 9Dragons and are looking forward to continuing the success of the game.”

Look out for details on the launch date for 9Dragons on GamersFirst at www.gamersfirst.com. You can also sign up on our Facebook fan site at www.facebook.com/gamersfirst

About INDY21
Founded in 2000, INDY21 began the development of a Full 3D role-playing online game 9Dragons. Now, 9Dragons has become of the most successful Free2Play MMORPG’s in its genre and has launched in the Americas , Europe and Southeast Asia. Staying true to their values and strong spirit, INDY21 has turned their passion of martial arts into a leading MMORPG, taking hold of the MMO world on a Global level.

About GamersFirst
GamersFirst is the leading Free2Play® MMO publisher in the Western hemisphere. Serving more than 30 million players, GamersFirst.com is where gamers decide the price of the games they love to play–even when that price is “free.” Powered by GamersFirst CONNECT, the end-to-end game publishing, game operations and game community platform made available to all of GamersFirst’s Development Partners, GamersFirst.com features the hit MMOs; Knight Online, Sword 2, War Rock and OurWorld and future hits including 9Dragons, MKZ, Victory and Taikodom. Read more about the company and find all of their games at http://www.gamersfirst.com

nCircle’s solutions combine the broadest discovery of IT assets and their operating systems, applications, vulnerabilities and configurations with advanced analytics to help enterprises reduce security risk and achieve compliance. nCircle’s solutions include IP360™ for vulnerability management, WebApp360™ for web application vulnerability auditing, Configuration Compliance Manager™ for configuration auditing and file integrity monitoring, Certified PCI Scan Service™ for on-demand self-service PCI scanning and Suite360 Intelligence Hub™ for IT governance, risk and compliance (ITGRC) reporting and analytics.

“We are very pleased to bring nCircle’s market leading solutions to the Brazilian market“, stated Waldir Santos, head of Alphaware Technologies in Brazil. “All organizations in Brazil are looking for ways to improve their information security and nCircle provides valuable technologies to help measure and manage security risk.”

“Alphaware has a skilled team with extensive experience serving enterprise customers in Brazil. This partnership gives us access to their outstanding expertise and well respected presence in Brazil,” stated Gus Malezis, VP of Worldwide Sales and Support at nCircle. “Having companies such as Alphaware providing local support and expertise is a key component in our international growth strategy.”

“Brazil is the world’s 8th largest economy and we have been looking to establish Reseller relationships there for some time. With nCircle as the clear market leader in this space and Alphaware as our partner in Brazil we know there is a big potential market,” said David Bennett, CEO of Excelerate Systems LLC. “We have had great success with nCircle in the rest of Latin America and I look forward to working with Alphaware and nCircle in Brazil.”

About nCircle
nCircle is the leading provider of automated IT security and compliance auditing solutions. More than 4,500 enterprises, government agencies and service providers around the world rely on nCircle’s proactive solutions to manage and reduce security risk and achieve compliance on their networks. nCircle has won numerous awards for growth, innovation, customer satisfaction and technology leadership.  nCircle is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with regional offices throughout the United States and in London and Toronto. Additional information about nCircle is available at www.ncircle.com. nCircle is a registered trademark of nCircle Network Security, Inc. All other registered or unregistered trademarks are the sole property of their respective owners.

About Alphaware Technologies
Founded in 2000 and located in Alphaville, Sao Paulo, Alphaware combines products, people and processes to provide the best technology solutions with the best cost benefit. The philosophy of Alphaware is that the image of a company cannot be protected by good products and services alone, being necessary to maintain the functionality and security of business. In an environment that demands lower costs without losing effectiveness, Alphaware shows that is possible to find intelligent solutions, high performance and affordability that guarantee the high level company’s operation. More information visit: www.alphaware.us or e-mail contatos@alphaware.us

About Excelerate Systems LLC
Excelerate Systems is a leading provider of IT services and solutions. We work with enterprise level organizations by offering solutions and high quality services that focus on managing and monitoring of IT Operations infrastructure, Security and Virtualization as well as ensuring compliance with key industry and regulatory standards such as SOX, PCI-DSS and ITIL. Headquartered in Redmond, Washington; Excelerate Systems operates in the United States, Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Australia and New Zealand and will continue to expand internationally. For more information visit www.exceleratesystems.com or email info@exceleratesystems.com

The Chicago-based e-commerce company says it has purchased a majority stake in local sale sites Qpod Inc. of Japan and Darberry Inc. of Russia, and plans to rename both Groupon. Terms of the deals weren’t disclosed.

“We are dedicated to being the company that defines the daily deal market,” said Rob Solomon, Groupon’s president and chief operating officer. “Having a global footprint has been very helpful to the Amazons and eBays of the world.”

Groupon, whose name is a combination of “group” and “coupon,” offers consumers discounts each day that come from restaurants and other local businesses. The closely held company was on track to earn revenue for this year of at least $300 million in North America and $50 million in Europe before the latest deals, Mr. Solomon said. With the addition of Japan and Russia, he expects the company’s global revenue next year to be well above $500 million, with as much as 40% coming from international markets.

Mr. Solomon said that Groupon management has been focusing its efforts on building out its North American business, and decided it was faster to grow internationally through acquisitions. “These companies are the best in their markets,” he said.

Groupon, which had previously operated in 165 markets, as a result of the latest deals expects to offer daily deals in 230 markets and 29 countries. In May, it acquired the Berlin-based City Deal GmbH to expand into some 80 European markets.

The company received a $135 million investment in April from Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies Ltd. and Battery Ventures that valued the company at about $1.35 billion. The company has raised some $170 million from investors, but declined to say how much it has spent on acquisitions. In the last five months, Groupon has grown from 200 employees to more than 1,500.

Groupon’s simple business model has given rise to a range of competitors, including Thrillist and LivingSocial, as well as so-called “flash sale” sites such as Gilt Groupe, which has been rolling out weekly offers of markdown items in cities including San Francisco.

Yet Mr. Solomon said that his company’s growth is showing no signs of flagging. The rate at which the company’s 13 million registered consumers open emails featuring the company’s deals has stayed constant, indicating that customers haven’t tired of checking out its offerings each day.

The company’s rapid acquisition strategy is common among Internet services companies, said Patricia Nakache, general partner at Trinity Ventures, which has invested in Internet companies such as Blue Nile Inc., Care.com Inc., and thredUP Inc.

“If you find a customer proposition that is working, it makes sense to grow as fast as possible before clones pop up,” said Ms. Nakache. Moreover, larger Internet companies benefit from advantages such as lower prices on media to acquire new customers, she said. Groupon, in particular, could use their scale and brand to attract more local businesses to use their site, she said.

By Geoffrey A. Fowler

Groupon, a name that blends “group” and “coupon,” presents an online audience with deep discounts on a product or service. Act now, says the pitch: You have only so many hours before this offer expires. That’s a familiar come-on, but it’s coupled with a novel element: You get the deal only if a certain number of fellow citizens buy the same thing on the same day. It’s a cents-off coupon married to a Friday-after- Thanksgiving shopping frenzy.

What’s in it for the vendor–which might be a museum, a yoga studio or an ice cream shop? Exposure. Since the resulting revenue is not only discounted but shared (typically, 50/50) with Groupon, the vendor may scarcely break even on the incremental sales. But it now has customers who might never have thought of patronizing the business. Groupon gets its offers in front of eyeballs by buying ad space through Google and Facebook and via the word of mouth of its 13 million subscribers.

Unlike so many dot-com rockets, Groupon is a real business. Occupying 85,000 square feet inside a rehabbed eight-story former Montgomery Ward warehouse in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, the company is on track to pass $500 million in revenue this year, according to a report Morgan Stanley put together to win some underwriting business. No technology stalwart–including Ebay, Amazon.com, Yahoo, AOL and Google–grew that big that fast. At just 17 months old this April Groupon boasted a $1.35 billion valuation when it raised $135 million, the biggest chunk of it from Digital Sky Technologies, the curious Moscow investment fund behind Facebook and Zynga. (Mason will not disclose his stake, which he says is less than 50%.) The only company to reach a $1 billion valuation faster was YouTube (now part of Google), founded in 2005 and still waiting to turn its first profit. Groupon broke into the black just seven months after inception.

Mason’s model is transforming the way companies–especially smaller ones with limited marketing budgets–snag sales. In May Groupon sold 6,561 tickets to a King Tut exhibit in New York’s Times Square for $18 apiece, little more than half the list price. The campaign brought in $120,000 at virtually no marginal cost to the exhibit; Groupon pocketed about 50% for a day’s effort. The most popular item so far: a $25 ticket for a Chicago architectural boat tour sold for $12. In May Groupon moved 19,822 tickets in eight hours and split the $238,000 with the tour operator.

Groupon has charged into 88 U.S. cities and 22 countries, including Turkey and Chile. Hundreds of rivals, some with deep pockets, are springing up. With turf wars brewing from New York to Brazil, Mason has armed himself with 250 salespeople and 70 writers, many plucked from the Chicago improv scene, to concoct witty pitches for deals. “We want to do for local e-commerce what Amazon did for normal consumer goods,” he boasts.
Mason’s no Silicon Valley geek. He grew up in suburban Pittsburgh, where his father hawked diamonds and his mom worked as a photographer. Music, not computers, was his passion, starting with piano lessons at age 6. At Northwestern Mason helmed a rock band that he describes as equal parts punk, the Beatles and Cat Stevens. “I thought I was going to be a rock musician until I was 25 or so,” he says. “But it wasn’t about being a rock star; it was about being part of a counterculture.”

Mason’s entrepreneurial instincts were already stirring. At age 15 he delivered fresh bagels purchased from a bakery to his neighbors’ front porches on Saturday mornings. (Candy bars, bought at Costco, proved a better seller.) After college Mason, a self-taught computer programmer, landed a coding gig at InnerWorkings, a Chicago firm that farms out companies’ printing jobs to the lowest bidder. There he hatched an idea for a website that would examine thorny topics, such as the Iraq war and health care, by unveiling the hidden agendas of the authors behind popular articles. Mason found support in 2006 at the University of Chicago, which granted him a scholarship toward a master’s degree in public policy. A few months later Eric Lefkofsky, InnerWorkings’ founder, caught whiff of Mason’s plans and offered him $1 million of angel capital to crank up the hidden-agenda site.

The idea soon morphed into ThePoint.com, an online platform for petitioners to muster support for all sorts of causes. ThePoint launched in November 2007 and drew national press attention for its users’ zany campaigns. One amassed 1,000 people committed to donating millions of dollars toward solving Africa’s aids epidemic–on the condition that u2 front man Bono would retire from public life. Another corralled several thousand supporters of building a dome over Chicago to keep the city warm all year. The publicity helped lure $4.8 million in venture capital from the likes of Sand Hill Road’s NEA. “I figured it was just a matter of time before I had my $400 million company and got my big payout,” quips Mason.

But ThePoint didn’t attract enough eyeballs to live on advertising revenue. One of Mason’s lieutenants, Aaron With, proposed paying for popular Google search terms related to societal issues–such as “make weed legal.” Mason got traffic, just the wrong kind. Obnoxious fans of the band Insane Clown Posse, known as Juggalos, made ThePoint their online playground. As losses mounted in 2008, Mason trudged to With’s house to lay off his friend. “If I was a rational person, I probably would have quit right there,” says Mason.

One promising trend: Some of ThePoint’s most effective campaigns banded consumers together to gain buying power. Mason began featuring a blog that offered readers a different deal from various vendors every day. Having little to lose, his investors encouraged him to pursue the strategy. Groupon–then called Getyourgroupon.com–was born.

Mason’s crew of seven people each made 100 calls a day hunting for campaigns. Some days the deals would “tip”–meaning they’d meet the minimum number of takers demanded by the vendor–and some days they wouldn’t, meaning Groupon got zilch. (Today 98% of the deals tip.) Using a 5,000-name mailing list, Groupon sold 100 $25 passes to an experience involving one hour inside a pitch-dark, soundproof tank containing skin-temperature salt water. At that point Mason knew he was on to something: “Who would think this many people would be interested in a sensory deprivation chamber?” In the next six months Groupon opened in Boston, New York and Washington, D.C., giving each city a Web page featuring its deal of the day. More than half of visitors drop in on the page because they’ve heard about it from friends.

Groupon’s salespeople, most working in Chicago, earn salary plus commission, based on revenue and the ratio of refunds (usually negligible). Writers earn entry-level salaries commensurate with salaries of journalists, around $35,000 a year. Aaron With, now Groupon’s editor in chief, oversees enough copy to fill a 190-page novel every day.

Landing a Groupon deal, even at a loss, can put a small business on the map. In March East Coast Aero Club, a flight school in Bedford, Mass., offered introductory helicopter flying lessons, normally priced at $225, for $69. The deal had to be shut down at 11 a.m. after subscribers signed up for 2,500 lessons; the club had expected perhaps 200. “I knew we had a problem when I checked in right after receiving the e-mail and 30 lessons had already been sold,” recalls Philip Greenspun, the head helicopter instructor. “We look at this as incredibly effective advertising.”

So effective that Mason claims Groupon now has 35,000 companies clamoring to be on its roster. Only one in eight applicants makes the cut. The winners must already be getting kudos at online review sites like Yelp, CitySearch and TripAdvisor, and the deals must offer a substantial discount from normal prices and not be similar to other promotions regularly offered by the vendor.

One problem with the Groupon model: Anyone can replicate it. More than 200 copycat sites have sprung up in the U.S., with another 500 overseas, including 100 in China. The competition isn’t bashful. Many sites closely mimic Groupon’s copy and graphics. One Russian site, called BigLion, ripped off Groupon right down to the fonts and colors. (While he probably has grounds for a suit, Mason says going after a startup in Russia isn’t worth the effort.) In China a copycat has begun operating at www.groupon.cn, using the same graphical interface. “Groupon is looking at this as a winner-take-all situation, but they may find it tough to sustain their position in every market,” says Andrew Razeghi, a marketing professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.
LivingSocial, Groupon’s closest rival in the U.S., raised $40 million since launching its service in July 2009. Chief Executive Timothy O’Shaughnessy thinks his Washington, D.C. outfit has a long-term edge because it puts a full-time salesperson in each of the 50 cities it’s in. Groupon has people in about half its markets. “You’re dealing with a lot of small merchants whose business is their life,” says O’Shaughnessy, “For them being able to work with a real person is a big deal.”

Big players lurk, too, including Twitter, now with over 80 million users and 70 million tweets a day. In June Amazon.com bought Woot, a site that offers one piece of discounted merchandise a day. “This space is bound to attract somebody big; there’s just too much money involved,” says Lefkofsky, Groupon’s largest shareholder. “We think we have a big lead.”

Being the first mover has its advantages. “Groupon” is now part of the lexicon of online shopping. But Mason is protecting his flanks. To take on more small business clients, he just announced plans to feature more than one deal per day in most markets. An algorithm will mete out the offers by weighing customers’ past purchases and geographic locations. A hockey fanatic from Chicago’s far North Side wouldn’t receive a deal for half-price yoga lessons in the city’s South Side Hyde Park neighborhood.

Mason’s other strategy: consolidation. In May he bought Berlin’s Citydeal, a group-buying site with 600 employees serving 80 European cities (the price wasn’t disclosed). Mason says he may strike again overseas but that “it’s tough coming in from outside and figuring out local consumer habits.”

Mason has the capital to expand–profitably. He estimates that a metro area like Chicago should yield 20 deals a day; that implies nearly 5,000 retailers per city per year, up from the 250 in most cities now. Groupon now posts 100 deals per day in the U.S. Mason figures he can increase that number by 50 every month to reach 400 come January. Against that quadrupling of deals he plans to boost his sales staff by 80% (200 people) and his writing bullpen by 100% (70 people).

As for spending himself to perdition, as did many dot-commers before him, Mason’s not sweating it: “There’s never been anything–radio, TV, newspaper, whatever–that could generate small business sales so quickly.”

The Great Race
Groupon is on pace to pull in $1 billion in sales faster than any company in history. This list excludes investment holding companies (which tend to be preassembled before formally launching) and those built mainly through mergers or acquisitions. –Scott DeCarlo

nCircle Configuration Compliance Manager (CCM) is a comprehensive, agentless configuration auditing and file integrity monitoring solution that gathers configuration information from every system on the network. CCM automatically discovers configurations and compares them to any of the more than one hundred built-in policies, identifying non-compliant configurations and alerting on high-risk misconfigurations. Unlike agent-based systems, CCM does not require any software to be installed on the target system, so every asset on the network can be continuously scanned.

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) have mandated the implementation of FDCC and STIG guidelines to ensure that U.S. government and Department of Defense agencies meet core configuration standards for IT systems. nCircle is a charter member of the committees that created the SCAP standard and nCircle CCM is SCAP-validated.

The CCM Policy Library update includes:

• New FDCC Internet Explorer 7 policy
• New FDCC Vista Firewall policy
• New FDCC XP Firewall policy
• New Windows 2008 Member Server STIG policy
• New Windows 2008 Domain Controller STIG policy
• New CIS-certified Windows 7 policy
• Updated existing FDCC Vista policy
• Updated existing FDCC XP policy

“The new policies in nCircle Configuration Compliance Manager further increase nCircle’s industry-leading coverage,” said Tim Keanini, Chief Technology Officer at nCircle. “The continued expansion of our policy library to support federal standards represents our ongoing commitment to enabling government agencies to improve their security and achieve compliance at the lowest possible cost.”

About nCircle Suite360

nCircle provides the world’s most comprehensive suite of solutions for agentless security and configuration auditing for physical and virtual IT environments. nCircle’s solutions combine the broadest discovery of networked systems and their operating systems, applications, vulnerabilities and configurations with advanced analytics to help enterprises reduce security risk and achieve compliance. nCircle’s solutions includes IP360™ for vulnerability management and risk management, WebApp360™ for web application vulnerability auditing, Configuration Compliance Manager™ (CCM) for configuration auditing and file integrity monitoring, Certified PCI Scan Service™ for on-demand self-service PCI scanning, and Suite360 Intelligence Hub™ for IT governance, risk and compliance (ITGRC) reporting and analytics.

About nCircle

nCircle is the leading provider of automated IT security and compliance auditing solutions. More than 4,500 enterprises, government agencies and service providers around the world rely on nCircle’s proactive solutions to manage and reduce security risk and achieve compliance on their networks. nCircle has won numerous awards for growth, innovation, customer satisfaction and technology leadership.  nCircle is headquartered in San Francisco, CA, with regional offices throughout the United States and in London and Toronto. Additional information about nCircle is available at www.ncircle.com.

Tageszeit- und zielgruppenbezogen werden lokale Angebote von kaufDA-Kunden wie SATURN, OBI und PRAKTIKER in über 1.100 Wagen der Berliner U-Bahn ausgestrahlt. Die Shoppingtipps erreichen täglich rund 1,5 Millionen Fahrgäste und lenken die Aufmerksamkeit auf www.guckhier.tv, wo alle Angebote für Berlin tagesaktuell von kaufDA präsentiert werden.

„Mit dieser Zusammenarbeit bietet kaufDA dem lokalen Handel die intelligente Vernetzung von verschiedenen Medien aus einer Hand – und das mit dem Ziel, die lokale Reichweite für seine Kunden weiter auszubauen“, erklärt Christian Gaiser, geschäftsführender Gesellschafter des mehrfach ausgezeichneten Unternehmens. „Wir können uns sehr gut vorstellen, diesen neuen kaufDA-Service in Zukunft auch in anderen Ballungszentren anzubieten“, so Gaiser.

„Die Schnelligkeit und Präsentationsqualität unseres Mediums macht es zur idealen Plattform für die Verlängerung von Onlinekampagnen in den öffentlichen Raum der mobilen Metropole. Neben der Reichweite bietet die Möglichkeit, Zielgruppen tageszeit- und kontextbezogen anzusprechen, interessante Perspektiven für den Einzelhandel“, erläutert Andreas Orth, Geschäftsführer der Berliner Fenster GmbH.

“YuMe is committed to helping publishers monetize their video content on every possible viewing device, including mobile,” said Jayant Kadambi, co–founder and president of YuMe. “We are thrilled to announce that publishers choosing to distribute content through HTML5 players will have the option to immediately monetize their video streams with ACE.”

According to The Nielsen Company, the mobile video audience grew 51.2% year-over-year to more than 20 million users, who spend on average more than 3.5 hours each month watching video on a mobile phone. According to Coda Research Consultancy, 95 million out of 158 million mobile handset subscribers in the U.S. will be watching video on their phones, and mobile video will account for more than two-thirds percent of all mobile data usage in the U.S. by 2015.

“YuMe is an innovative video advertising partner making important strides to empower media publishers to monetize content beyond the PC Web and to take advantage of fast-growing devices like the Apple iPad,” said Jeff Whatcott, senior vice president of marketing, Brightcove. “We’re excited to see YuMe’s ACE integration, which will provide another powerful option to our media customers with access to a top-tier ad network, flexible campaign management tools, and monetization opportunities across multiple screens.”

The new HTML5 plug-in allows publishers to easily monetize their HTML5-based websites via YuMe’s ad network. It supports pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll ad units, as well as ad playlists formatted in JavaScript for easy parsing.

Starting today, publishers will be able to download the HTML5 plug-in at http://www.yume.com/publishers. After completing the simple integration process, publishers will be able to submit their inventory for inclusion in YuMe’s video ad network. Every publisher in the YuMe network is ACE-equipped, giving advertisers unprecedented access to advanced targeting, high-impact ad units, and real-time campaign optimization to achieve superior results.

The Nielsen Company, “Three Screen Report,” Volume 8 – 1st Quarter 2010

Coda Research Consultancy, “Mobile Internet Traffic via Handsets in the US: Forecasts to 2015”; March 2010

„Mit dem Know-how von DeutschlandCoupon im Bereich des lokalen Web-Couponings erweitern wir unsere Führungsposition im Bereich der standortbezogenen Online-Dienstleistungen in Deutschland erheblich und können nun auch lokale Services für die Konsumgüter-Industrie und Service-Dienstleister anbieten“, erklärt Christian Gaiser, geschäftsführender Gesellschafter des mehrfach ausgezeichneten Unternehmens kaufDA. „Damit sind wir unserem Ziel, kaufDA zur zentralen internetbasierten Anlaufstelle für lokale Angebote in Deutschland zu machen, ein großes Stück näher gekommen“, so Gaiser.

„kaufDA hat mit dem Konzept der lokalen Prospekte im Internet in sehr kurzer Zeit einen völlig neuen Markt bereitet, der nun eine ideale Basis für Ergänzungen bietet“, erläutert Michael Kappler, Geschäftsführer von DeutschlandCoupon. „Als Teil eines größeren Unternehmens wird es einfacher werden, die nächste Stufe zu erreichen. Es ist äußerst wichtig, einen Partner zu haben, der unsere Philosophie für lokale Online-Handelsdienstleistungen teilt. Im Internet gibt es dafür keinen besseren Partner als kaufDA.”