Majority of Investors Recommit as Company Focuses on People Search Engine
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Wink, the first people
search engine for online profiles, today announced it has repurchased some
shares of its stock from investors. As part of this buyback, a few existing
investors have increased their stake in Wink. Greylock Partners has reduced
its stake, but remains the largest shareholder outside of the company. The
majority of investors in the company will continue to hold their existing
positions.
"We refocused the company last November, launching the industry's first
people search engine for online profiles and social networks, which
currently includes over 150 million people across five major social
networks -- MySpace, Bebo, Live Spaces, Friendster and LinkedIn," said
Michael Tanne, founder and CEO of Wink. "As people's time and attention
continues to shift to the web, a people search engine focused on web
addresses, not street addresses, is crucial for finding, connecting and
staying in touch with friends and family."
"Wink has been an early proponent of the power of people to improve Web
search," said Venky Harinarayan, Founding Partner of Cambrian Ventures, and
founder of Kosmix and Junglee. "During the last few months, Wink has
focused on allowing people to search across the most popular social
networks and communities to find others on-line. We believe in Michael and
his team and are maintaining our position in the company."
"We support Michael and his team in their development of a people
search engine for the next generation of the Internet," said David Sze,
Partner, Greylock Partners. "While this transaction partially reduced
Greylock's investment, we remain a major investor in the company."
"I believe this direction provides Wink with a significant business
opportunity and have decided to maintain my stake in the company as a
result of its focus on people search," said Pete Bodine, an early investor
in Wink and experienced venture capitalist.
Wink provides a unique way to find people online. Wink People Search is
the first search engine dedicated to searching people's online presence
such as their profiles, blogs, social networks and other online
communities. Because the information Wink searches has been published by
people themselves, it is much more reflective of their interests and how
they want to be found online. More than just name search, Wink People
Search also provides several ways to search information people have
published about themselves, including their location (no street addresses),
school, interests, affiliations, musical tastes, age, occupation and more.
Using Wink, people can also create profiles that link together all the
websites that define their online interests. Others searching for these
people can readily find these services such as social network profiles,
photo sites, blogs and more.
ABOUT WINK
Wink is a Social Search Engine that makes it easier to find people and
the information that matters most to them. Wink People Search lets you
search for people across social networks and on-line communities across the
Web. Wink's team of experienced search engineers come from Yahoo, Inktomi,
Excite, and Google.
Find more at http://wink.com .
MEDIA CONTACT:
Matthew Stotts
TENOR
415.786.2231
matthew@tenorcom.com
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