Benchmark Capital Europe to Make a Significant Investment in Setanta Sports

Benchmark Capital Europe to Make a Significant Investment in Setanta Sports

LONDON, October 20/PRNewswire/ -- Setanta Sports Group, the international sports broadcaster, and Benchmark Capital Europe, the top tier venture capital firm, today announced that they had agreed terms for a significant investment by Benchmark into the company.

The transaction is in the form of a large capital increase in the company, making Benchmark Capital Europe the largest shareholder in Setanta.

The acquisition was led by Benchmark Capital Europe's General Partner Ynon Kreiz, who joins the board of Setanta.

Setanta will use the proceeds of the investment to finance the continued expansion of the Group's interests in the UK, US, Ireland and mainland Europe. Setanta currently operates seven channels in seven countries. These channels include Setanta Sports North America, the leading European sports channel in the US, and NASN, the leading US sports channel in Europe. Setanta's channels in the UK and Ireland feature the exclusive live rights to the Scottish Premier League as well as the Italian, French, German and Dutch football leagues.

The investment from Benchmark Capital Europe, which is subject to regulatory approval in Ireland, follows an earlier investment into NASN. Benchmark Capital Europe and Setanta each hold a 50% stake in NASN.

Leonard Ryan and Michael O'Rourke co-founders and joint CEOs of Setanta Sports, said: "This investment will enable Setanta to continue to grow its international sports broadcasting business and give the Group access to capital to build its rights acquisition, channel distribution and subscriber marketing activities. We already have an excellent working relationship with Benchmark through their involvement in NASN and we look forward to developing that partnership so that we can grow Setanta into a major force in world sports television."

Ynon Kreiz, General Partner at Benchmark Capital Europe, commented: "This acquisition is part of our strategy to expand our investments into the international media sector. The investment in Setanta Sports will further help the company compete both internationally and in its home markets of the UK and Ireland. Our objective is to back a world class management team and make Setanta a major global force in sports television."

About Setanta Sports:

Setanta is an international sports media company that owns and operates pay television channels and other sports media interests. Setanta operates in seven countries, owns and operates seven channels and employs 150 people in Dublin, London, Glasgow and San Francisco. Setanta also has interests in mobile content, consumer internet operations and broadband distribution.

Setanta was founded in 1992 by Leonard Ryan and Michael O'Rourke, who remain joint CEOs and controlling shareholders. Starting from a base of closed circuit TV distributing Irish sports to an expatriate audience, the business has grown into an international multi channel operation.

Setanta's channel operations comprise:

In Britain: Setanta Sports - includes exclusive live coverage of the Scottish Premier League

Setanta Sports 2 - includes live coverage of the Dutch, French, German and Italian premier leagues

Celtic TV and Rangers TV

In Ireland: Setanta Sports - includes live Formula One, English Premier League, and GAA

In USA: Setanta Sports - includes live UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup and Six Nations and Heineken Cup rugby

In Europe: NASN - the North American Sports Network, the only TV channel in Europe totally dedicated to North American sports. Available in the UK, Germany, Holland, Switzerland and Austria.

For further information on Setanta, visits its website at www.setanta.com

About Benchmark Capital

Benchmark Capital was founded in 1995 to help talented entrepreneurs build great technology companies focused on long-term growth. Benchmark's partners take an intensive, hands-on, team-oriented, approach to venture investing to deliver a superior level of service to the firm's portfolio companies. Benchmark's portfolio includes franchise companies such as Alphyra (the leading pan European electronic payments provider), Betfair (the world's largest online betting company), eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY), Juniper Networks (Nasdaq: JNPR), Sulake (the "Habbo Hotel" leading online games community, founded in Finland), Red Hat (Nasdaq: RHAT), Zopa (the online exchange for direct loans between lenders and borrowers) and Codemasters (the innovative computer and video games developer and publisher). Managing more than US$3 billion in committed venture capital from its offices in Europe, USA and Israel, Benchmark focuses on investing in entrepreneurs with original ideas. Since setting up a fund in Europe in May 2000, Benchmark has made more than 40 investments across a variety of market sectors and geographies. The US$375m raised by Benchmark Europe II follows Benchmark's first European fund of US$500m.

For more information on Benchmark, visit its website at www.benchmark.com

Source: Benchmark Capital Europe

Benchmark Capital Europe (Mantra): +44-(0)20-7907-7815 / +44-(0)7736-067-190, Nick Bishop, nbishop@mantra-pr.com; Setanta Sports Group (Financial Dynamics): +353-1-6633615, Brendan Murphy, brendan@fdireland.ie ; +44-(0)20-7766-8450, Richard Brooke

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