[2004-01-07]

Index Corp. acquires two leading mobile content providers in the U.S. and France as its subsidiaries to strengthen its businesses in the West.- Aiming to establish a global distribution system of mobile content -

Index Corp. (President: Yoshimi Ogawa; Head office: Setagaya-ku, Tokyo), globally extending its mobile and media business, has invested in two companies in the U.S. and France, both of which develop their businesses in the field of mobile content distribution in each country. The companies are Mobliss Inc. (Head office: Seattle, USA) and HAIKU S.A.S. (Head office: Issy les Moulineaux (suburb of Paris), France). A purchase agreement with Mobliss Inc. was concluded, limiting the payment to 15,000,000 U.S. dollars, and an investment of 4,499,998 euros in HAIKU S.A.S. was carried out.

Index Corp. will provide European countries (France, Italy, Britain, Germany, and Spain) and the U.S. with its know-how and technology that have been cultivated in Japan. This investment, therefore, makes it possible to take the lead in both rapidly expanding markets. Since its foundation in 2002, HAIKU S.A.S. has rapidly established itself in the mobile content market in Europe and developed into a top-level enterprise. Mobliss Inc. has been promoting mobile content business in the U.S., focusing on SMS (short message service) and the technology of Brew and Java. It has also been developing mobile service tied-up with very popular TV programs in the country.

Affiliating with these fast-growing companies allows us to steadily and speedily advance our businesses in Europe and the U.S. Moreover, this will strengthen the mobile content distribution system spread throughout the world, including China, Japan and other Asian countries.


Mobliss Inc. (U.S.)Haiku (France)


Europe Index Inc., a Europe-based company, and Index Music Publishing, a music publisher in Europe, will hold an exhibit at MIDEM (International Music Market; January 25-29) to be held in Cannes, France.



[About MOBLISS]

Company name:Mobliss Inc.
Head office:Smith Tower 506 Second Avenue Suite 410 Seattle, WA 98104
URL:http://www.mobliss.com/index.jsp

CEO: Brian Levin
Capital: 1,580,627 U.S. dollars
Investments: Concluded a purchase agreement, limiting the payment to 15,000,000 U.S. dollars (stock holding ratio: 100%)
Employees: 21

Company History:
May 26, 2000: Founded
March 12, 2001: Started providing AT&T Wireless with games
December 18, 2001:Started providing ski resort snow information service for mobile phones
July 22, 2002: Started providing information service of the popular TV program in the U.S. “American Idol” for mobile phones
January 16, 2003: Started the TV polling system for “American Idol”
October 21, 2003: Started distribution of content tied up with FOX TV Program “Joe Millionaire”
Started the mobile prize campaign of Coca-Cola

Personal History of CEO:
Experience in Internet, E-Commerce, and consumer marketing
Served on the Board of Directors of the Mobile Marketing Alliance

Main Business: Providing game applications using Brew/Java, mobile marketing, content tied up with television, and the short message billing system


[About HAIKU]

Company name: HAIKU S.A.S.
Head office: 16, rue Kléber 92442 Issy les Moulineaux France
URL: http://www.haiku.fr

CEO: Axel Dreyfus
Capital: 40,000 euros
Investments: 4,499,998 euros (stock holding ratio: 60%)
Employees: 15

Company History:
June 2002: Founded
November 2002: Started providing content distribution service for a telecommunication carrier of France i-mode, Bouygues Telecom (10 sites, including original content and others)
July 2003: Started providing content distribution service for a telecommunication carrier of Spain i-mode, Telefonica
October 2003: Started providing content distribution service for French telecommunication carriers, SFR and Orange
In the future, full-scale deployment of business targeting telecommunication carriers of Europe i-mode is scheduled to start.

Personal History of CEO:
Majored in IT Engineering at the Sweden Lunds Universitet
Spent 7 years in the online communication industry, and successfully completed an IPO once in the past
Experienced in management, being the joint founder of an IT development company and an IT company, 365Corp, listed on the London Stock Exchange

Main Business:
Promoting B2C, B2B4C and B2B solutions in the mobile phone content business
Providing content, such as ringing melody, wallpapers, Java games, fortune-telling, news, sports and celebrity information