Press Releases

Emeryville – 12 August, 2009 – Lithium Technologies, the leading provider of Social CRM solutions to power the customer network, today announced over 80 percent growth in new monthly recurring revenue for the first half of 2009, culminating with a record performance in its second quarter. While maintaining its focus on its quickly expanding customer base, Lithium has invested in innovative solution development and vision, has acquired a complementary technology, expanded its executive leadership team, and has moved into new geographic markets to continue the company’s growth to record levels.

Customer Momentum

Lithium’s 81 percent growth in the first half of 2009, compared with the same period in 2008, is indicative of the way companies are investing through this economic downturn. Specifically, companies are investing in solutions that deliver hard ROI and that meet mission-critical needs. In a downturn, companies are discovering that investments in engaging with their customers are paying lucrative dividends.

“Lithium customers have experienced a bottom-line impact from our solutions as their customer networks help them innovate faster, promote on their behalf, and provide higher levels of support,” said Lyle Fong, CEO of Lithium Technologies. “It’s been exciting to see the leading brands we work with documenting millions of dollars in new revenue and savings.”

Lithium’s customer momentum in 2009 has been central to the company’s growth and has been an important factor in establishing Lithium’s market leadership. The company continues to see a rapid uptake of its Social CRM and customer community solutions among worldwide brands, such as Aflac, Trend Micro, Betfair, France Telecom, Avnet and Leapfrog Enterprises.

Many of these new customers joined existing Lithium customers at the company’s annual customer conference this spring, which saw a 50 percent increase in attendance over last year’s event. Entitled “Spotlight on Community Value,” sessions included speakers from Lithium customers such as Barnes & Noble and Best Buy, along with partners Omniture, Inc. and RightNow Technologies.

New Social CRM Products and Vision

The first suite to offer businesses a single platform to create a powerful customer network of advocates across the social web, Lithium Social CRM allows businesses to proactively build stronger, deeper customer relationships by integrating social customer conversations into existing CRM business processes and systems. Lithium Social CRM moves well beyond using social media channels to reach individual customers – instead, it creates a network of customer advocates that is integrated into core business processes, allowing companies to drive millions of dollars in untapped value through amplified word-of-mouth marketing, improved customer service and accelerated innovation. As a part of the launch, the company introduced three new products: Tribal Knowledge Base, CRM Connect and Social Web Connect.

Additionally, the company introduced Lithium Insights, the industry’s first set of analytic solutions to accurately measure and benchmark the health of online communities. Lithium Insights includes the Community Health Index and the Lifecycle Benchmark Service, enabling customers to proactively monitor six key dimensions of community health, compare their communities' performance to benchmarks and, importantly, receive tailored step-by-step recommendations to help improve participation and performance of their community. Designed as an open standard, the Community Health Index has been of broad interest across all companies looking to measure the performance of customer networks and communities.

Keibi Acquisition

In the first half of 2009, Lithium also announced its acquisition of Keibi Technologies, which integrates into Lithium’s arsenal of leading products and is the market’s leading solution for automated moderation of social content. This acquisition extended Lithium's lead in delivering highly successful communities by giving companies the power to immediately discover, analyze and moderate user-generated content of all kinds that might impact their brands on the web.

Keibi's technology adds to the Lithium application a content analysis platform proven at popular social networking sites like Bebo, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL LLC, as well as with leading global brands, including the world’s largest beverage company. Keibi's engine quickly processes large volumes of user-generated content – including text, images, animations and video. A patented process measures and scores content across multiple dimensions, helping brand managers discover content that demands their immediate attention or that provides deeper insight into their customers' behavior.

Additions to Company Leadership

Building on its momentum, Lithium has hired industry veteran Bruno Teuber as general manager and vice president for its EMEA operations, opening new offices in Zurich and London. Meeting growing worldwide customer demand for Lithium solutions, Teuber will leverage current Lithium customer success with international clients to build and grow local sales and support operations across EMEA markets.

In the United States, Lithium formalized Nader Alizadeh’s leadership across the company’s sales functions, naming him senior vice president of sales, North America. Alizadeh’s role includes a focus on scaling the organization to meet current growth forecasts. The company expects to add at least 10 new sales positions in the second half of 2009.

About Lithium Technologies

Lithium is the leading provider of Social CRM solutions to power the customer network. Working with market leaders such as Best Buy, Sony, AT&T, Research In Motion Limited (RIM), Univision, and PayPal, Lithium is delivering the next generation of customer relationships by unlocking the value of the social customer network. Lithium solutions combine the power of online customer communities with the broader social web and traditional CRM business processes to inspire customers to innovate, promote, and support on the company's behalf. As a result, businesses measurably improve their marketing and sales, accelerate innovation, and increase customer satisfaction. Lithium's platform is proven in high-volume, growth environments and provides the security, analytics, APIs, and multi-language support that enterprises demand. Founded in 2001, Lithium is privately held with headquarters in Emeryville, California. For more information, visit www.lithium.com.

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Lithium Media Contacts:

Michael Paige, Corporate Headquarters & Global, michael.paige@lithium.com , +1 (510) 318 7014
Sandra Teuber, Central & Southern Europe, sandra.teuber@lithium.com , +41 (79) 223 7356
Prelini Chiechi, UK & Northern Europe, prelini.chiechi@lithium.com, +44 (7826) 912788
Imogen Riley, APAC & Australia, imogen.riley@lithium.com, +61 413 274 210