Giga Media Limited - History of GigaMedia

History of GigaMedia

GigaMedia was incorporated in September 1999 as a company limited by shares organized under the laws of the Republic of Singapore, and completed an initial public offering of its shares on NASDAQ on February 24, 2000.

Under new management in 2004, GigaMedia began to restructure.

• In April 2004, GigaMedia acquired the business and operations of Grand Virtual, Inc. and related affiliates, a privately held entertainment software developer and application service provider, through Cambridge Entertainment Software Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary.

• In September 2005, GigaMedia sold all of its ownership interest in the Rose Records and Tachung Records music store chains in Taiwan to sharpen focus on online entertainment software and services.

• In January 2006, GigaMedia acquired FunTown, the world’s largest online MahJong game site by revenue and a leading Asian online casual games portal with approximately 5 million registered users.

• In March 2006, GigaMedia entered into a strategic alliance with online community blog site, Wretch. According to market rankings from independent industry source Alexa.com, Wretch is one of the most popular sites on the Internet in terms of daily traffic.

• In May 2006, GigaMedia entered an exclusive partnership with and strategic investment in online casual games company T2CN Holding Limited. T2CN is a leading online sports casual game operator in China with over 21 million registered users.

• In December 2006 GigaMedia entered into a strategic alliance with Infocomm Asia Holdings Pte Ltd, an operator and distributor of online games in Southeast Asia.

• In December 2006, GigaMedia entered into a licensing agreement with a subsidiary of the PM Media Group, an online entertainment provider, through which GigaMedia has licensed certain of its gaming software.

• In May 2007, GigaMedia Licenses Hit SEGA Game, the latest sequel to No.1 RPG series Phantasy Star.

• In June 2007, GigaMedia formed a strategic alliance with SoftStar Entertainment Inc . and made an initial investment of NT$60 million (or approximately US$1.8 million) for the acquisition of 10 million convertible preferred shares of SoftStar. SoftStar is a games design house and online game operator in Taiwan. SoftStar has announced plans in 2005 for Xbox 360 game development.

• In September 2007, GigaMedia secured an exclusive license to offer and operate the hot new massively multiplayer online role-playing game Holic, in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.

• In November 2007, GigaMedia and Electronic Arts signed an agreement for the operation of highly anticipated Online Game NBA Street Online.

• In December 2007, GigaMedia announced a strategic partnership with and investment in hot game development studio XLGames Inc headed by Jake Song, the creator of The Kingdom of the Winds - one of the world's first MMORPGs, and Lineage - the most popular online game franchise in history.

• In December 2007, GigaMedia announced a strategic partnership with and investment in leading game development studio Neostorm Holdings Limited, one of the largest independent game developers in South Korea.

• In 2008, GigaMedia announced online Pachinko for the Japanese market.

• In January 2008, GigaMedia signed an exclusive license from Electronic Arts to offer and operate Warhammer Online in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.

• In August 2008, GigaMedia sold its ISP business to China Network Systems for $20 million in cash plus up to $5 million over the next two years.