FORMER MICROSOFT EXECUTIVE AND SYMBIAN CO-FOUNDER JUHA CHRISTENSEN TO LEAD MACROMEDIA MOBILE AND DEVICES DIVISION
Brings key leadership to deliver Macromedia Flash solutions to fast-growing mobile market
San Francisco, CA—January 6, 2004—Macromedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: MACR) today announced the appointment of Juha Christensen as president of its mobile and devices business unit. Christensen recently served as corporate vice president of the mobile devices division at Microsoft Corporation, building Microsoft's franchise in the mobile industry. Before joining Microsoft, Christensen co-founded Symbian Ltd., a joint venture between Nokia, Ericsson, Sony-Ericsson, Matsushita, Samsung, Siemens, and Psion, whose cross-vendor operating system is emerging as an industry standard. Previously Juha worked at Psion Plc., bringing out some of the first PDAs in the industry.
"Juha Christensen brings entrepreneurial leadership, an amazing track record with mobility, and clear vision to our growing mobile and devices business," said Rob Burgess, chairman and CEO, Macromedia. "As president of this important division, Juha will help Macromedia lead the field in delivering innovative and practical solutions for this fast-growing industry."
"While researching for a start-up this fall, I came across Macromedia and was incredibly impressed with the people, the technologies, and the strength of the authoring community. I joined the company because Macromedia is uniquely positioned to deliver the experience layer that will 'light up' next generation mobile devices with exciting consumer services, applications, and content," said Juha Christensen, president of mobile and devices, Macromedia. "I'm excited about leading the development of a rich set of solutions that enable mobile services to be created by a wide range of individuals and companies. Our solutions will be aimed at anyone from the professional content developer to the individual who, without programming skills, wants to reach out and connect with people within their wireless communities."
The market for new devices has been fueled for the past few years by powerful hardware combined with new, consumer friendly software. Macromedia Flash players and content are already found in devices including mobile phones, PDAs, televisions, toys, and other consumer electronics devices. Popular new products using Macromedia Flash include the NTT DoCoMo 505i, 505iS, and the soon to be launched FOMA 900i series mobile phones, many Sony Clie PDAs, and the LeapFrog Leapster educational toy. Macromedia Flash uniquely supports many operating systems, embedded processors and data networks including existing 2.5G and 3G wireless systems. The ubiquitous Flash Player is increasingly playing a key role in exciting new products to support rich, interactive content, improve embedded Internet browsers, and power entire user interfaces.
ABOUT JUHA CHRISTENSEN
While at Microsoft, Christensen brought to market the Pocket PC, Pocket PC Phone Edition, and Smartphone, in addition to Mobile Information Server and Server ActiveSync. He was also responsible for Microsoft's participation in several worldwide wireless standards bodies and developed the strategy for company-wide mobility solutions and scenarios. During his time at Symbian, Christensen wrote the company's first business plan, which defined the company's overall strategy, vision, and operational platform. He led the core team responsible for bringing together joint venture partners, and was also a board member and executive vice president in charge of product management, marketing, sales, business development, evangelism, and supplier relationships. Previously Christensen was vice president of licensing at Psion.
ABOUT MACROMEDIA
Experience matters. Macromedia is motivated by the belief that great
experiences build great businesses. Our software empowers millions
of business users, developers, and designers to create and deliver
effective, compelling, and memorable experiences - on the Internet,
on fixed media, on wireless, and on digital devices.
