Eric Hippeau

Who is Eric Hippeau?

Mr. Hippeau has been involved in various capacities with SoftBank

Capital’s investing activities since 1995, and joined SoftBank Capital

in 2000 from SoftBank’s former subsidiary, Ziff-Davis. He has served as

a media industry CEO, having spent over 25 years in senior management

positions at large media companies. Mr. Hippeau joined Ziff-Davis in

1989, and he became Chairman and CEO in 1993. In 1995, SoftBank

acquired Ziff-Davis, and Mr. Hippeau continued in the role of CEO until

2000, when the company was sold.

During his career at

Ziff-Davis, Mr. Hippeau was early to recognize the trend toward on-line

media. Under his stewardship, ZDNet became one of the few successful

examples of a strong on-line business model evolving from traditional

magazine content, and he was instrumental in SoftBank’s first

investment in Yahoo! in 1995. Mr. Hippeau was also responsible for

founding ZDTV, a cable channel dedicated to technology and the

Internet, and an early success in integrating television and the Web.

He also directed several successful magazines and marketing service

launches in the technology and Internet field.

Mr. Hippeau

was President of SoftBank International Ventures, where he established

SoftBank’s international private equity funds and expanded them into

Europe, Latin America and Asia. He was also SB Capital’s board

representative for its direct investments in industry leading

companies, such as Yahoo!, Geocities and CNET.

His experience prior to joining Ziff-Davis includes senior executive positions at International Data Group.

Mr. Hippeau serves on the boards of several public and private companies,

including Yahoo!, Danger, Insider

Pages, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Perpetual

Entertainment, Beliefnet, Goodmail Systems, Huffington Post.com, PureVideo, ThumbPlay and

Associated

Content.

He is also on the investment committee for the SB Asia Infrastructure

Fund.

He graduated from the Lycee Francais de Londres and attended the Sorbonne University in Paris.