Birst and SK Telecom Partner to Bring the Next Generation of BI to South Korea

SAN FRANCISCO, CA and SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA--(Marketwired - Oct 2, 2013) - Birst, Inc., the leader in cloud BI, today announced a new strategic partnership with SK Telecom, the largest wireless provider in South Korea, giving businesses in South Korea's growing economy access to Birst's market-leading end-to-end business intelligence (BI) and analysis solution.

The two companies announced the alliance today at a gathering of more than 300 SK Telecom partners and customers at the Conrad Hotel in Seoul, with Birst CEO and co-founder Brad Peters presenting the keynote address at the full-day launch event.

Birst's exclusive partnership with one of the leading technology companies in the Asia-Pacific region will enable South Korean companies to leverage the Birst cloud-based BI platform to gain the actionable intelligence and analysis needed to succeed in the global economy. The move is the company's first in a series of milestones following its announcement to expand strategically into international markets and extend access to its enterprise-caliber analytics solution to businesses around the world.

The Birst solution, branded SK Telecom Birst for the South Korean market, is now included as part of SK Telecom's strategic technology portfolio sold through its extensive network of technology reseller channel partners.

"This new partnership with SK Telecom gives us a tremendous opportunity to expand our international footprint in one of the world's best-performing economies," Peters said. "Being selected as the exclusive BI partner by such a large and well-recognized company as SK Telecom is strong validation for our innovative could-based BI solution and solidifies Birst as an emerging BI power in the Asia-Pacific market."

One of the four Asian Tiger nations, South Korea's economy continues to exceed growth forecasts, now ranking as the 4th largest in Asia and 15th in world GDP. Its innovation- and export-based economy even places it far ahead of China in exports, and the country is home to some of the largest companies in the world, including Samsung, Hyundai Motor, and SK Telecom, which rank 20th, 89th and 555th, respectively, on the Forbes Global 2000 list.

"Through this partnership, we can now offer Korean companies access to the world-class Birst BI solution that will enable them to run smarter, leaner and have the support needed for future growth," said Won Sung-shik, Senior Vice President and Head of Solution Business Office, SK Telecom. "We're pleased to partner with Birst to enter South Korea. Being the exclusive provider of the Birst BI platform gives our customers a powerful and agile analytics solution that is not only accessible but also affordable to companies of all sizes."

Birst's award-winning solution has been recognized by Gartner, Dresner Advisory Services, the SIIA CODiE awards and as one of 20 Companies to Watch by CIO for its ability to provide rapid, enterprise-grade BI, including cross-platform correlation and analysis, plus easy-to-digest visualizations -- critical insights companies need to make smarter, faster business decisions based on up-to-the-minute data.

To see a live demo Birst in action, or to learn more, visit www.birst.com.

About SK Telecom
SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM) (KSE: 017670), established in 1984, is Korea's largest telecommunications company with more than 27 million mobile subscribers, accounting for over 50% of the market. The company reached KRW 16.301 trillion in revenue in 2012. As the world's first company to commercialize CDMA, CDMA 2000 1x, CDMA EV-DO and HSDPA networks, SK Telecom launched the nation's first LTE service in July 2011. Backed by rapid nationwide deployment, a rich device lineup and diverse mobile value added services, the company secured over 11 million LTE subscribers as of June 2013. SK Telecom also became the world's first mobile carrier to launch LTE-Advanced on June 26, 2013 by applying core LTE technologies including Carrier Aggregation and Coordinated Multi Point. Also, based on its strength in network operations business, SK Telecom is seeking new growth engines by building ICT convergence business models in areas of healthcare, enterprise solutions, media and education. For more information, please visit www.sktelecom.com or email to press@sktelecom.com

About Birst
Birst is the only enterprise-caliber Business Intelligence platform born in the cloud. Less costly and more agile than Legacy BI and more powerful than Data Discovery, Birst is engineered with an automated data warehouse and rich, visual analytics, to give meaning to data -- all types and sizes. Coupled with the agility of the Cloud, Birst gives business teams the ability to solve real problems. Fast. Find out why Gartner named Birst a Challenger in its most recent BI Magic Quadrant and why more than a thousand businesses rely on Birst for their analytic needs. Learn to think fast at www.birst.com and join the conversation @birstbi.