Emode Names Samir Arora Chairman of the Board, Enters Media Metrix Top 50
13 November 2003 - 1:00PM
PR Newswire (US)
Emode Names Samir Arora Chairman of the Board, Enters Media Metrix
Top 50 Industry Veteran to Assist With Strategy and Growth SAN
FRANCISCO, Nov. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Emode.com, Inc. today announced
the appointment of Samir Arora as chairman of the board and
unveiled its new identity as Tickle Inc. (http://www.tickle.com/).
The company was also named as one of the world's Top 50 most
trafficked web sites by comScore Media Metrix. These moves coincide
with the news of the company's acquisition of the third largest
social networking player, Ringo.com. (see separate release)
"Today's announcements reflect our mission to establish Tickle as
the next online media company," said James Currier, founder and
CEO. "Our new name better reflects our company's fun intimate and
human personality. I look forward to leveraging Samir's unique
strategic and operational experience to build Tickle into a global
provider of consumer-focused media services. With his help, the new
name, and our war chest of capital for expansion, we are well on
our way to achieving our goals." An industry veteran, Samir Arora
brings more than ten years of experience as a chairman and chief
executive officer and over 18 years of management experience at
Apple, Rae Technology, NetObjects and Information Capital. In 1995,
he founded NetObjects, Inc., creating the first web site-building
product that was used to create over ten million web sites
worldwide. Arora was the founder, chairman and chief executive
officer of NetObjects, named one of the Top 100 Internet Software
companies by Softletter and Top 500 Media companies by NewMedia.
Arora oversaw the company's growth from inception through launch,
investment acquisition by IBM, public offering and sale of its
products and services. Arora is a frequent speaker at industry and
financial conferences, and the recipient of CNET's "Web Innovator
of the Year" and IIA's "Entrepreneur of the Year" awards. He has
been involved with the launch and massive adoption of several
groundbreaking technologies that help people create, communicate
and connect such as the Apple Macintosh, desktop publishing,
personal information management, information architecture and
navigation and web sites. "The first generation of the web was all
about information -- building web sites, browsing, searching and
shopping -- we are now at the start of the next generation of the
Internet, and it's all about people," said Samir Arora, Chairman of
Information Capital LLC. "Having helped over 16 million individuals
discover and communicate more about themselves, Tickle is uniquely
poised to lead this revolutionary change. I am excited about
helping the Tickle founders and management team build Tickle into a
leading personal media company with massive reach, viral growth,
deep technology, and significant revenue." Since its founding four
years ago, Tickle has provided viral content such as
self-discovery, matchmaking and social networking services to build
a critical mass of over 16 million members. According to comScore
Media Metrix, Tickle was shown to be the number two Internet
destination in the women's category -- currently, more than 65
percent of the company's members are women. Tickle has had six
consecutive quarters of profitable growth, with a majority of
revenues coming from consumer subscriptions and a smaller portion
from top-tier advertisers. Arora's appointment is effective
immediately, and he joins other board members Andrew Anker of
August Capital and Tickle founder and CEO James Currier. About
Tickle (formerly Emode): Founded in 1999, Tickle Inc. is an online
media company that makes its members the center of the experience,
providing self-discovery, matchmaking, and networking services to
more than 16 million active members worldwide. Tickle is a place
where people make deep, meaningful connections, understand
themselves and others, and manage their personal and professional
relationships in a way that is fun and efficient. The company is
distinguished by a strong foundation in scientific research, a
proven commitment to protecting member privacy, an ability to
quickly deliver innovative new features, and many years of customer
satisfaction and financial success. Tickle has recently been named
as one of the top 50 web sites by comScore Media Metrix and is
funded by August Capital and nationally known leaders in the areas
of media, consumer research, and technology. For more information,
please visit http://www.tickle.com/. Keywords: Yahoo, AOL, IAC,
Google, Match.com, Personals, Classmates, Friendster, Tribe,
eHarmony, HotJobs, CareerBuilder, Monster. DATASOURCE: Tickle Inc.
CONTACT: media, Diane Schreiber of Spark PR, +1-415-962-8200, ext.
231, or , for Tickle Inc.; or Jennifer Hwang of Tickle Inc.,
+1-415-281-6360, or Web site: http://www.tickle.com/ Web site:
http://www.emode.com/
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