New CEO for Babelgum

DUBLIN, July 5: Former Vodafone executive Valerio Zingarelli
has been tapped as the new CEO of Babelgum, succeeding co-founder Erik Lumer, who
will now shift his focus to strategic product development.

Zingarelli, previously Vodafone’s global director of
networks and service platforms, will lead the company into its next stage of
growth, now that the platform is up and running. Babelgum aims to grow its
employee base to approximately 100 by the end of the year. Over the next 9 to
12 months, Babelgum will ramp up its niche content offerings; embark on a
marketing campaign, initially targeted to English-language viewers; and add
advertising to the site.

Babelgum chairman and co-founder Silvio Scaglia explains:
“We are now moving to phase two in the development of Babelgum. The core
technology has been proven and whilst our focus right now is on bringing
together compelling content, we will soon turn to user acquisition and
advertising. Valerio’s appointment is a reflection of that changing focus.”

Scaglia continued: “I have known Valerio since 1995 when, as
chief technology officer of Omnitel, he built what is still considered by many
to be the best mobile network in Europe. He was instrumental in developing an
organization that grew from nothing to a staff of 1,000 serving millions of
customers. His knowledge and first-hand experience in managing the technical
and operational demands of rapid and sustained growth are exactly what we now
require at Babelgum.”

Prior to joining Babelgum, Zingarelli was an independent
member of the board of directors of Fastweb, the second largest fixed line
telecommunications company in Italy. From 2002 to 2005, he was global director
of networks and service platforms at Vodafone.