Prospero Technologies Acquires Talk City; Forms New Venture to Focus on Member-Managed Online Communities.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers LITTLETON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 26, 2002 Prospero Technologies LLC (Logical Link Control) See "LANs" under data link protocol. LLC - Logical Link Control , a leading provider of Web-based community infrastructure and services, today announced that it has acquired the assets of Talk City, Inc.- a world-recognized consumer Web brand with over five million registered members. A popular lifestyle and entertainment-oriented community that entered Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings bankruptcy proceedings n. the bankruptcy procedure is: a) filing a petition (voluntary or involuntary) to declare a debtor person or business bankrupt, or, under Chapter 11 or 13, to allow reorganization or refinancing under a plan to meet the debts of the party last August, Talk City enables members to conduct chats with friends and to join online clubs and discussion groups. Talk City will be relaunched and operated as a sister service to Delphi Forums (Delphi Forums, Littleton, MA, www.delphiforums.com) A consumer-oriented Web site that offers self-managed forums on any subject. Similar to UseNet in that messages are posted for subsequent reading at any time, Delphi Forums require all forums to be moderated by the person who originated as part of a new venture and majority-owned subsidiary majority-owned subsidiary A firm in which more than 50% of outstanding voting stock is owned by the parent company. of Prospero. Delphi Forums (http://www.delphiforums.com) is a thriving online community with nearly a million new messages posted each week and more than five million registered members. Talk City and Delphi together will represent one of the largest member-managed discussion networks on the Web. While the new subsidiary will derive revenues from subscriptions, sponsorships and cross-promotion, Prospero will continue to focus on its profitable business of providing outsourced community infrastructure and services to leading Web sites. Talk City and Delphi will use the full breadth of Prospero's platform and features, including real-time chat, message boards, tiered membership plans, moderation and promotional tools. "We are delighted to announce the acquisition of Talk City," said Dan Bruns, President, Prospero Technologies. "This is both an aggressive move to capture a larger percentage of the market and a clear indication of our commitment to leveraging the value of online communities in new ways. The self-managed online community market is a natural complement to our established base of business customers who utilize Prospero's advanced community infrastructure and management tools. The Talk City acquisition significantly expands our revenue and customer base and gives us direct access to users who will impact the evolution and testing of Prospero's platform. This will benefit all of our clients - from individuals to large companies." One tangible example of Prospero's services driving new value from online communities is the growing success of the Delphi Plus and Delphi Advanced premium membership plans. With over 20,000 members paying for advanced features, Delphi's success story illustrates how premium membership plans can create diversified diversified (di·verˑ·s sources of revenue. More importantly, it illustrates how people who feel personal ownership and affinity for a service can contribute directly to its success. "The power and potential of services such as Delphi and Talk City where members have tools to build their own communities cannot be overstated o·ver·state tr.v. o·ver·stat·ed, o·ver·stat·ing, o·ver·states To state in exaggerated terms. See Synonyms at exaggerate. o ," concludes Bruns. The Prospero Services Suite Prospero's suite of services are already delivering business benefits for major Web sites such as Washingtonpost.com, Fox Entertainment, Ziff-Davis Media, Tribune Interactive, About.com/Primedia, Elektra Records Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, which today operates under Atlantic Records Group. History Beginnings Elektra was formed in 1950 by Jac Holzman and Paul Rickholt, who both invested $300. , BusinessWeek and Major League Baseball "MLB" and "Major Leagues" redirect here. For other uses, see MLB (disambiguation) and Major Leagues (disambiguation). Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. . These services include Select Groups(R), services that are tailored to match tiered or for-pay membership plans; Active Content(R), a tool that integrates discussion areas (forums) with the overall site and Cluster Controls, for community management. Other Prospero offerings include feature-rich message boards, hosted live events, end-user personalization Custom tailoring information to the individual. On the Web, personalization means returning a page that has been customized for the user, taking into consideration that person's habits and preferences. , remote posting, automated au·to·mate v. au·to·mat·ed, au·to·mat·ing, au·to·mates v.tr. 1. To convert to automatic operation: automate a factory. 2. e-mails, network promotions, syndication and private labeling, internationalization The support for monetary values, time and date for countries around the world. It also embraces the use of native characters and symbols in the different alphabets. See localization, i18n, Unicode and IDN. internationalization - internationalisation , moderation tools, reporting tools and user-created forums. About Prospero Technologies Prospero Technologies Corporation is a well-established solutions provider, specializing in Web-based customer interactivity and collaboration technology. Prospero's enterprise-class solutions include a full suite of interactive services integrated with customer registration, member directories, customer profiling, activity tracking, management controls and reporting. Prospero's community infrastructure services are currently being provided to approximately 60 customers including Amazon.com, About.com, The Washington Post, Fox Entertainment, BusinessWeek, US News and World Report, Major League Baseball's MLB.com, Hot Jobs, Wharton Business School and Ziff-Davis Media. Prospero can be found on the Web at http://www.prospero.com/ |
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