Waikato University spin-off success brings major new company into the region

5 Oct 2005

An award winning IT company spun-off from Waikato University has been purchased by TANDBERG, global leaders in interactive video communication.

 TANDBERG S purchase of Waikato University spin-off company Ectus Ltd, is a net win for all with news that TANDBERG will not only retain the Ectus team and Waikato Innovation Park base, but also plans to expand it , said Waikato University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Roy Crawford,  The purchase of Ectus brings this highly innovative global company into the Waikato region.

Ectus was spun off from Waikato University in 2004 as a privately held company with an investment from venture capital company Endeavour-icap, one of the four managers of the Government s Venture Investment Fund (VIF). This sale is the first of the VIF companies to achieve a highly successful exit - evidence that the fund is working and producing results.

 The sale is an excellent example of how science and technology is being developed in the Waikato - with the assistance of venture capital - and then spun out into the commercial world with benefits accruing to all, says Professor Crawford.

 We envisage that TANDBERG will continue to use Waikato University as a test bed for world-leading e-learning and video conferencing software.

 This relationship with TANDBERG will enable the University to build on our Vision goals of excellence and international connectedness as well as creating new jobs in the region and bringing a new stream of revenue to the University. We will use our proceeds from the sale to develop research initiatives that have the potential to generate intellectual property with commercial property, he says.  It is yet another example of how the University is contributing to wealth creation in the region.

TANDBERG, which has dual headquarters in New York and Norway, designs and develops software for video, voice and data. It provides sales support in over 90 countries around the world and its shares trade publicly on the Oslo Stock exchange.

TANDBERG Spokesperson Steven Peri says that Ectus appealed to the company because of its innovative, on-demand, rich media solutions, which provide for the capture and distribution of video, audio and graphics content.

"Ectus offered an exciting suite of capabilities not previously presented in a single solution. The uniqueness of the solution lies in the integration of collaboration tools with the rich media-streaming environment," he says. " We are excited that this cutting-edge technology will now be taken to a global audience."