CNM Short Takes

Mosaic Group bolsters digital marketing armToronto-based Mosaic Group Inc, an outsourced marketing services agency, has bought a majority equity stake in fellow Toronto group Medium One Productions Inc. Mosaic execs say the 52 per cent buy-in to the company, with 45 Toronto- and Montreal-based staffers, will allow Mosaic to expand its electronic marketing efforts for its clients. Medium One builds interactive marketing materials for a client list that includes the Royal Bank of Canada, Chapters, Classwave Wireless, Cincinnati Bell and Canada Life. The Medium One acquisition is expected to add over $4 million in revenue to Mosaic's $60 million top line. CBC Radio to examine Internet in schoolsA new 10-part radio/ Internet series, co-produced by CBC Radio Syndication and CBC Radio New Media, examines the promises and the problems of making the Internet an integral part of the Canadian education system. The multi-part series, Wired Classroom (www. cbc.ca/wiredclassroom), debuted April 25 and is scheduled to run for the next two months. The on-air programming will be supplemented and expanded upon on The Wired Classroom Web site. The site will feature audio reports and documentaries from a team of CBC reporters, plus links to relevant documents, speeches and web sites. Using an on-site chatroom, CBC New Media will generate material for local radio shows as well as ideas for future installments in the series. Canoe begins roll out of regional portalsCANOE Inc continues to expand its Internet reach with the launch of a new, Canada-wide business strategy which will build community-based sites as adjuncts to the main Canoe.ca portal site. Calgary is the first English site to be rolled out, and CANOE executives promise specific regional information focused on the oil patch capital. Content will be developed through a Sun Media/CANOE partnership. The new site is aimed squarely at attracting advertisers and other partners looking to exploit a well-educated, well-connected audience. No news yet on which Canadian cities will get a regional site of their own. Global Vision buys majority of Océan ImagesGlobal Vision of Montreal has purchased 85 per cent of the voting and participating shares of Océan Images, another Montreal company. As a result of the buy, Global Vision says it has become the largest provider of film and video images in Canada. Local and international Global Vision customers will now have access to a computerized image bank for use in documentaries and commercials. Cinémathèque québécoise still controls 15 per cent of Océan Images through its subsidiary, Fiducie Océan. Regional Cable brings Gigabit speeds to schoolsRegional Cablesystems Inc has built a Gigabit wide area network for two Sudbury-area schools boards and their seven high schools. The network will support high-speed Internet, on-demand learning systems, and broadcast quality video conferencing. The network represents an increase of at least 125 times over the school's current level of connectivity.In other news, Regional is allowing AOL Canada to use its high-speed Internet service as part of a pilot project underway in Sturgeon Falls ON. AOL Canada says it's the first time in Canada that any company — other than a cable company — has been able to provide broadband Internet over a cable-owned network. ISPs are still battling for access to cable networks, despite an order by the CRTC requiring cable operators to share their networks beginning December 13. Hard punches land on Ottawa's SofTV.netThe Big Apple's PayForView.com has chosen Ottawa-based SofTV.net's software to bring viewers an all-female boxing card direct via the web April 26. PayForView.com's web site combines streaming video content with the latest show business news, upcoming events listings and other information. Rather than having to click through multiple web pages to get to the relevant information, sofTV.MediaSuite allows viewers to click on links while continuing to watch the broadcast. The content is displayed alongside the video window; the viewer never has to leave the web page and the site requires no special plug-ins. (CNM, Dec. 23/99; July 13/99) Canadian website makes PC Data top 10 listAccording to figures released by PC Data Online, msn.ca was the only Canadian specific (dot ca) website to break into the list of most popular web sites among Canadian home Internet users in the month of March. Its affiliate msn.com ranked in at #4. Yahoo.com was the most visited and Micro-soft Corp claimed five sites in the top 10. The top Canadian sites were msn.ca with 2.9 million unique users, sympatico.ca with 2.6 million and yahoo.ca with 1.7 million. Other notables were canoe .ca with 1.4 million and the government's human resources web site had 865,000 unique users. PC Data compiles monthly lists of top web sites based on the traffic of home-based use, and in January began measuring traffic from both overall as well as Canadian specific sites. WSi Interactive launches media streaming companyWSi Interactive Corp, Vancouver, has launched a full-service media streaming company to service the broadcast markets in the United States and Canada. DNS Media Inc, www.dsnmedia.com, will provide streaming media services for the entertainment, corporate, finance, education as well as broadcast industries. The company is currently developing several strategic relationships with private sector partners to use as leverage to launch a broadband video delivery network in the near future. GlobalMedia changes name, secures Nasdaq listingVancouver-based Global Media Corp has changed its name to GlobalMedia.com and is now trading on the Nasdaq National Market tier of the Nasdaq Stock Market. The listing will increase the credibility of the company's stock, enabling it to move forward with partnerships and acquisitions. It also puts the company in a better position in terms of client opportunities. itemus acquires 100% of Ottawa-based companyitemus Inc has purchased 100 per cent of Ottawa-based MoSHON Digital Media Inc, an award-winning developer of digital media productions. It accelerates itemus' strategy of building strong internal operational resources and provides the company with the ability to bring traditional bricks and mortar companies onto the web. Big Picture and SUNmedia sign product agreementCalgary-based Big Picture Technologies Inc and SUMmedia.com of Denver CO have entered into a wide reaching technology and product alliance under which SUMmedia will initially use Big Picture's eMerchant Pro to quickly and effectively implement customer web sites. Later in the year however, SUMmedia will begin to market a private-label version of the eMerchant product to its customers. Big Picture also plans to add value to the product's business through the e-coupon portal, www.savingmoney.com. Alberta's iCORE initiates new grant program for ICTAlberta's Informatics Circle of Research Excellence program has launched a new grant program aimed specifically at supporting Alberta researchers currently working in information and communications technology projects. The new grants called Research Grants, are intended to help researchers from that province expand their programs by hiring additional professors, research fellows, postdoctoral and graduate students. Grants will range from $50,000 to $500,000 for periods of one to five years. Total awards are, however, expected to be at least $200,000 which may also cover operating and equipment costs. Axon gets $10 million for courseware developmentIC Axon can now launch new medical education courseware with additional financial support from Capital Communications CDPQ. The $10-million investment will enable the Montreal-based multimedia content provider to continue development of its medical courseware and its mypatient.com web portal. This round of financing follows an earlier $2.7-million investment from Capital Communications in June 99.The portal, developed in conjunction with the University of Virginia School of Medicine, enables medical professionals to develop, deliver and participate in case-based medical courses. A leading U.S. health system, Kaiser Permanente, has agreed to pilot mypatient.com which will provide 2,000 primary care physicians in Northern California access to the system.Axon began developing web-based medical education programs in 1996 with the support of companies like Merck, Roche and Novartis.

CNM Short Takes

News | 05/04/2000 4:00 am EDT

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