Toronto-based download site TUCOWS Interactive Ltd. said that the
majority of the company has been acquired by B. Steinmetz Technology Holding
International, a private financial investment company.
Under the agreement, STHI, through TUCOWS.com Inc., has acquired all of
TUCOWS assets and businesses. Additional investors in the acquisition include
representatives from the Arison Group, including Bank Hapoalim, Eurocom,
F.I.B.I. Investments, and XDL, a Toronto-based venture capital fund.
TUCOWS ( It calls itself the “Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software”) will
be operated through the new entity, TUCOWS.com Inc. Financial terms of the
deal were not disclosed.
STHI will maintain control and chairmanship of TUCOWS.com. TUCOWS founders
and managers, Scott Swedorski and Elliot Noss, will retain an interest in the
company. Noss will remain as president of TUCOWS.com, and Swedorski will
remain as editor-in-chief of the site.
“TUCOWS is poised to become the leading online software delivery company,”
said Beny Steinmetz, chairman of TUCOWS.com. We expect to leverage TUCOWS’
unique online distribution avenues to grow our reach of audience.”
“The strength of Beny Steinmetz’s group will open up exciting opportunities
for growth at TUCOWS,” said Elliot Noss, president of TUCOWS. “We are looking
forward to this new phase in the development of our business. Expect to see a
host of new services with TUCOWS.com.”
STHI has invested in more than 35 high-tech companies worldwide, including
comparative shopping on the Internet; text analyzing and automatic e-mail
answering; distance learning; security; e-commerce; Web-based e-mail; high
speed communication modems; digital images; authentication and signatures;
net exchanges and online retail sales companies.
TUCOWS was founded in 1994 as a public service to new Internet users. Today
it offers an array of electronic downloaded software programs that can be
accessed at over 900 mirror sites on six continents. The site claims more
than 70 million pages per month.
