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Home > Press > Press Releases > Nearlife Announces Funding from Motorola
Nearlife Announces Funding from Motorola
Equity Stake Represents First Outside Investment in "Living Entertainment" Company
Strategic Alliance Forged to Explore New Technology-Enhanced Consumer Products
Cambridge, MA - April 20, 2000 - Nearlife Inc., a leader in utilizing proprietary technologies to develop new forms of entertainment that immerse audiences in "near life" experiences, today announced that Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) has made an equity investment in the company. The funding represents the first outside investment for the Cambridge, MA-based company. The minority equity investment was made by One Motorola Ventures, the strategic venture capital investment arm of the global communications and embedded electronics company. Nearlife also announced that the two companies formed a strategic alliance that will enable Nearlife to accelerate development of new consumer products through cutting-edge technology and enhanced creativity. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Nearlife creates Living Entertainment(tm) that immerses audiences in virtual worlds of vivid action, light, color, and music, with talking props and animated characters that respond and react to the world around them.
"Nearlife offers highly creative, out-of-the-box thinking, and innovative technological applications for interactive experiences," said Matthew I. Growney, managing director of One Motorola Ventures' New England office, located at the company's new Consumer Design Center in Cambridge, MA. "Motorola is committed to delivering consumer products that enrich the communications experience and enable people to connect to each other anywhere and anytime they want. We're very excited about the experience that Nearlife is delivering through its entertainment projects and we're looking forward to developing a number of new products with them."
"Motorola is the ideal partner for us," said Tinsley Galyean, co-founder and CEO, Nearlife. "Our vision is to extend our entertainment properties through the Internet and new emerging communications technologies. Motorola's strength in wireless, broadband, and other areas combined with our creative storytelling and proprietary technologies open the door for next-generation entertainment products."
"This is especially good news for people who want their entertainment anytime, anywhere," added Galyean.
Recent popular and upcoming Nearlife entertainment experiences and attractions include:
KidsRoom2. A favorite attraction at the Play zone in the Millennium Dome, Greenwich, England, KidsRoom2 is a highly interactive child's fantasy bedroom where the walls come alive with virtual birds and monkeys.
Virtual FishTank. First installed at the Museum of Science, Boston, with a second installation recently completed at the St. Louis Science Center, Virtual FishTank immerses visitors in an undersea world filled with cartoon-like fish. Virtual FishTank is a place where visitors and fish interact, blending the real and virtual environments in a near life experience.
Computer network exhibit. At the Museum of Science & Industry, Chicago, Nearlife is undertaking conceptual design and development for this exhibit about computer networks scheduled to open in February 2001. Using Nearlife's proprietary technology, visitors will be immersed "inside the 'net.'"
About Motorola
Motorola, Inc. (NYSE:MOT) is a global leader in providing integrated communications solutions and embedded electronic solutions. Sales in 1999 were $33.1 billion. More company information is available at www.motorola.com. One Motorola Ventures (1MV) is the global, strategic venture capital investment arm of Motorola, Inc. 1MV actively invests at early stages in developing companies of strategic value to Motorola in order to accelerate access to new technologies, new markets and new talent.
Motorola and the Motorola logo are registered trademarks of Motorola, Inc.
About Nearlife
Nearlife is an entertainment company utilizing proprietary technologies to develop new forms of entertainment that immerse audiences in "near life" experiences. Based in Cambridge, MA, Nearlife was founded by Tinsley and Sheri Galyean in 1996, following Tinsley's work at the MIT Media Lab in the area of interactive cinema.
The company is dramatically changing how people think about entertainment by delivering a new genre of entertainment called Living Entertainment. Combining traditional and established entertainment values and the storytelling talents of plot and character development with cutting edge technology, Nearlife delivers highly engaging, creative and stimulating Living Entertainment. In Living Entertainment characters and environments travel, migrate, adapt, grow, change, and react blending the real and virtual worlds.
Nearlife creates experiences for high profile, widely recognized and visionary cultural institutions and public and private organizations. Clients include: the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) New York City; the Museum of Science, Boston; the Museum of Science & Industry, Chicago; the St. Louis Science Center; the Millennium Dome, Greenwich; Intel; Mitsubishi and Microsoft. Nearlife designs, manages, and implements all aspects of its highly successful exhibits and Living Entertainment experiences, including character design, theming, content, graphics, interaction, user interface, software programming and technical supervision.
Nearlife, Living Entertainment and the Nearlife logo are trademarks of Nearlife, Inc.
For Information Contact:
Jim Brady
Nearlife Inc.
info@nearlife.com
(617) 491-3184
Motorola, Inc.
Anne Stuessy
(847) 538-6192
anne.stuessy@motorola.com
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