Announcement regarding Establishment of Impress Career Corporation
Tokyo, June 14, 2006 - Impress Holdings, Inc. (TSE: 9479), announced today that the Company and Grand Designs(1) have jointly established Impress Career Corporation to provide support to top-level engineers looking to change employers.
1. Background
The approximately \2.6 trillion(2) personnel placement industry continues to show generally solid growth. At the same time, there continues to be a shortage of engineers in the field of information technology (IT), as an increase in the number of information systems development projects at corporations creates increased demand for these engineers.
Against this background, the new company will utilize the Impress Group's(3) expertise in the field of IT to provide job relocation support services. Initially, Impress Career will intermediate on behalf of top-level engineers − primarily readers of the Impress Watch (http://www.watch.impress.co.jp)(4) comprehensive digital news service − who desire to change jobs. Over the medium to long term, the company aims to provide comprehensive personnel services by integrating the three personnel placement vectors of evaluating leading technologies, enhancing skills and capabilities, and career advancement. Through these activities, the company will assist top-level engineers in advancing their careers, while at the same time supporting companies seeking first-rate IT engineers in securing personnel.
2. Overview of New Company
| Company name: | Impress Career Corporation |
| Address: | 1-3-12 Shiba-koen, Minato-ku, Tokyo |
| Established: | June 14, 2006 |
| Capital: | 20,000,000 yen |
| No. of shares issued: | 400 shares |
| Fiscal year: | April 1 of each year until the following March 31 |
| Shareholders: | Impress Holdings, Inc. (51%) Grand Designs Co., Ltd. (34%) Impress Watch Corporation (15%) |
| Directors: | Chairman: Keiichiro Tsukamoto (President/CEO, Impress Holdings) President/CEO: Atsushi Fujimoto (President, Grand Designs) Director: Kenji Kasamuta (Director, Impress Watch) Director: Masayuki Sugiura Auditor: Yutaka Suzuki (Corporate Auditor, Impress Holdings) |
| No. of employees: | To be determined |
| Businesses: | Paid career placement, general personnel dispatching |
| URL: | http://www.impresscareer.jp/ |
| Corporate logo: | Impress Career supports job relocation for top-level engineers. The orange in the corporate logo expresses sincerity and trustworthiness, and the symbol of a person brimming with vitality, leaping over the letters of "Impress Career" represents "career advancement" through Impress Career. The symbol of the person itself is also constructed from the letters "IC," for Impress Career, to convey the idea of Impress Career creating a new image of IT engineers. |
3. Schedule
| (1) | Corporate registration: | June 14, 2006 |
| (2) | Commencement of services: | September 1, 2006 (tentative) |
4. Future Outlook
The impact on future results at Impress Holdings cannot be determined at this time. Announcements will be made as the impact becomes clear.
| (1) | Grand Designs Co., Ltd. (http://www.granddesigns.jp/) |
| Grand Designs was established in July 2005 with the aim of becoming a provider of comprehensive solutions for "marketing strength." The company's current businesses are in marketing organization consulting, marketing personnel placement, and marketing personnel development. In May 2006, President Atsushi Fujimoto published the book "What's Wrong with Your Company's Marketing" (published by Shinchosha), which quickly became a best seller, reaching the Top Ten in business book rankings. |
| (2) | From Toyo Keizai Inc., "Kaisha Shikoho, Gyokai Chizu − 2006 Nendo Saishinban (Japan Company Handbook, Industry Map, Most Recent for Fiscal 2006." The figure is the total of the personnel dispatching, personnel placement, and job relocation support markets. |
| (3) | Impress Group (http://impress.jp/) | Media group with Impress Holdings (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Keiichiro Tsukamoto, President/CEO; Listed on TSE First Section, securities code 9479) as holding company. Develops media businesses that provide highly specialized content and services with "IT," "Music," "Design" and "Medicine" as main themes. |
| (4) | Impress Watch (http://www.watch.impress.co.jp) | Comprehensive digital news service operated by subsidiary Impress Watch (Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Keiichiro Tsukamoto, President/CEO). Popular as a specialized media in the fields of information technology and consumer electronics, the IT news service site boasts the highest access level in Japan, with approximately 190 million monthly page views by approximately nine million unique users (as of May 2006). Core entity for the IT sector of the Impress Group's media business. |
