We believe excellence in technology alone is not enough. All technology is ultimately there to serve people, and people love design and beauty as much as function. That's we strive for excellence also in the field of design. Fortunately, our technology units can draw skills and creative minds from our portfolio company hau-to Publishing. All units of bloomYa enjoy a high level of synergies to each other. Just think about hau-to getting a state-of-the-art eCommerce system from railando. Railando in turn taking advantage of Xionet's deep level of excellence in project management, including agile software development and understanding clients' IT needs. Or GUI design in railando projects taking advantage of hau-to's layout and design competence and creative equipment.

bloomYa is actively managing the portfolio, so it won't stay the same. Even though we strive to only have outstanding businesses that are leading in their fields, there might be moments to disinvest. Should the opportunity arise, we're also open to new acquisitions that have an outstanding market position and a lasting business model in technology and media.

Another path for expanding our portfolio is to start new businesses. We're working on a new startup based in San Diego that is going to change the world and revolutionize a thing that is called "search engines" today. That new company is heavily exploiting and building on our experiences from railando, Xionet and hau-to. Stay tuned to learn more.

Managing a portfolio of businesses has been with us for a long time. Back in 1998, our founder and CEO Bernd Blume, then a member of the TOP500 management circle at e.on, a large, German-based energy and utilities group, has received formal education at world-famous INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, for management of a portfolio of world-class businesses and for general top-management skills.