OmniMedia Plc, the Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey-based supplier of interactive multimedia software has completed a placing of 3.6m new shares at 64 pence per share with a number of institutional funds, raising ú2.3m. It also announced the establishment of an American Depositary Receipt programme in the US on the over the counter market. Citibank will undertake an investor roadshow to raise awareness of the company in the US multimedia market prior to either a Nasdaq listing or an initial public offering – or both – within the next six months. The British issue was handled by Raphael Zorn. OmniMedia raised ú720,000 last August with a placing of 2m shares at 36 pence each on the Rule 4.2 market (CI No 2,490). It intends to use the new funds to develop new children’s CD-ROM titles and continue development of its VideoCD tool kit, MPEG software compression libraries and VideoCD Plus tools. VideoCD Plus is a technology developed by the company that provides users with access to the Internet through OmniMedia’s World Wide Web site so that they can garner further up-to-date information on the artist or film they are watching, such as tour information on a band, says the company. Some of the money will also be used to acquire further licences to expand OmniMedia’s VideoCD library. Four music titles have been published so far ranging from Sade to The Clash, distributed by Philips Electronics NV. Production is well under way on OmniMedia’s second children’s CD-ROM title, The Greatest Toyshop on Earth, following on from The Treasure Hunt. In May the company will release four films on its VideoCD format with user interfaces for personal computers and CD-i machines fitted with a suitable MPEG compression board. Billed as classics by the company, the list includes Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion – the scourge of Goebbels who attempted to have every print burned – and other perhaps lesser-known offerings such as The Navigator, The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith and One Deadly Summer. The interface enables viewers to jump to a favourite scene, watch in slow motion or repeat scenes over and over again. The titles will cost between ú15 and ú18.
