NeoEdge appointments
Former Pogo.com executives join as part of the merger with Offspring.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – November 19, 2009 – NEOEDGE ( www.neoedge.com <http://www.neoedge.com> ), one of the leaders and innovators in digital media services for casual games, today announced that it has merged with Offspring, a casual and social games company founded and headed by former Pogo.com executives – Lesley Mansford, Andrew Pedersen, Karen Schulman, and Todd Heringer. As pioneers in the casual games business, these executives helped to build the Pogo brand from the ground up into the industry’s most respected and successful casual games service and brand. With a strong and proven track record in monetizing casual games, this executive team brings its collective skill in building new casual games business models and creating games that seamlessly implement social engagement features to NeoEdge. This expertise, combined with NeoEdge’s vast experience in online digital media advertising, will expand beyond the web into social gaming and other platforms. Lesley Mansford will take the helm as the company’s new CEO, with NeoEdge’s Dan Servos, along with Andrew Pedersen, Karen Schulman, and Todd Heringer all assuming Senior Vice President roles.
“With its patent-pending technology suite and advertising services platform, NeoEdge is one of the leaders in the casual games advertising space and has a strong advantage over its competition,” said Lesley Mansford, CEO of NeoEdge. “This professional pairing ratchets NeoEdge up to the next level by offering original high-quality content, expertise in building social features and unique advertising sponsorships, and new business models like virtual goods.”
As creators of successful brands, original IP, and services, such as Club PogoÔ, this new executive team has a deep understanding of casual games, its distribution, and audience. Mansford was one of the founders of Pogo.com, bringing it from inception to a multi-million dollar venture. With more than 16 years at Electronic Arts in various executive roles, she has experience leading multi-million dollar online, mobile and packaged goods business strategies, and in building and monetizing online and mobile communities.
Pedersen, Senior Vice President of NeoEdge Studios, is known as a product visionary, responsible for building over 100 original high engagement online casual games. Before merging with NeoEdge, Pederson was Vice President of Pogo at Electronic Arts, and held senior positions at Broderbund and Mattel. The games created under his leadership have driven large traffic numbers in the hundreds of millions, due to his ability to tightly integrate addictive casual game play with social features, metagames and monetization. Schulman, NeoEdge¹s new Senior Vice President of Publishing, was also a co-founder of Pogo.comtm and the EA Sportstm brand. She was a Senior Vice President at Electronic Arts, and most recently served as General Manager of WindowsâGaming at Microsoftâ. Heringer, NeoEdge’s new Senior Vice President of Operations, is an expert at operating, maintaining, and supporting large online services and products. As Vice President of Studio Operations & International at Electronic Arts, he has built and grown development and publishing teams in both Europe and Asia.
“This experienced executive team, each with almost 20 years in the games industry, allows NeoEdge to expand beyond its current offerings by providing original content, social enablement of games, and the ability to launch games and services onto new platforms,” said Dan Servos, Senior Vice President, Advertising Sales & Business Development at NeoEdge. “Their addition to the NeoEdge team will only help our current and future customers more effectively reach their advertising goals with the latest innovations in immersive advertising.”
Currently, NeoEdge is known for providing the only digital media services platform that dynamically, safely and securely inserts high-performing full-screen mid-roll video ads, overlay ads and sponsorships during gameplay. The services platform also generates valuable, loyal consumer communities through sponsored social rewards in existing casual download and online flash games. Top publishers, such as Yahoo! and NBC Universal, rely on NeoEdge to deploy over 500 ad-supported casual games throughout the NeoEdge partner network.
In September, 2009, NeoEdge announced $4 million in new financing co-led by Vanedge Capital and Jefferson Partners of Toronto, Canada. Vanedge Capital’s principals are Paul Lee, former President of Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios, and Glenn Entis, former Chief Visual and Technical Officer of Electronic Arts Worldwide Studios and prior to that, CEO of DreamWorks Interactive.
“Having worked with Lesley and the other executives at Electronic Arts, I have been extremely impressed with how they built Pogo.com into the #1 casual games site. They will now be focused on helping NeoEdge build great games by bridging casual games with social networks,” said Paul Lee, principal of Vanedge Capital. “This merger is a perfect fit, combining NeoEdge’s strong technical advertising platform with the Offspring teams' business and game development acumen and deep knowledge in the casual and social games space.”
About NeoEdge
NeoEdge, headquartered in Mountain View, California with sales offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Toronto, Canada, is the leading digital media company, providing total advertising and sponsored community solutions for the online casual games industry. In close partnership with many of the largest game publishers, portals and advertisers, NeoEdge has revolutionized the casual gaming experience by providing safe, simple and profitable ad-supported game play through its patent-pending technology suite and advertising services platform. In January 2009 NeoEdge was awarded Digital Publisher - Category Winner, in OnMedia’s Top 100 Private Companies. In May 2009 NeoEdge was selected as one of the most promising private technology ventures and awarded the prestigious Red Herring 100 NA Award. To advertise with NeoEdge or learn more about increasing revenue through ad-supported casual games, visit www.neoedge.com <http://www.neoedge.com> . Play free games at www.mostfun.com <http://www.mostfun.com> .