GripeVine Acquires MBE Holdings Inc. Toronto, On

Toronto, Ontario, March 07, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GripeVine, Inc. ( GRPV ) announced that it has entered into a share exchange agreement dated February 28, 2017 (the “Share Exchange Agreement”) to acquire all of the total issued and outstanding shares of MBE Holdings Inc. (MBE), in exchange for the issuance of one (1) share of GRPV for every (30) shares of MBE. In accordance with the terms and provisions of the Share Exchange Agreement, GRPV issued an aggregate of 5,248,626 shares of its restricted common stock to the shareholders of MBE in exchange for 157,458,778 of the total issued and outstanding shares of MBE (constituting 100%), thus making MBE its wholly-owned subsidiary. The Board of Directors of GRPV and MBE deemed it in the best interests of the respective shareholders to enter into the Share Exchange Agreement pursuant to which GRPV would acquire all the technology and assets and assume all liabilities of MBE.

New Business Operations

GRPV will be involved in the ongoing development and marketing of “Gripevine”, which is a social customer experience platform for social customer service and consumer reviews.  “Gripevine” includes a proprietary process to assist companies in resolving customer service complaints (the “Gripevine Proprietary Process” or “Gripevine”). The Gripevine Proprietary Process helps consumers achieve resolutions while enabling businesses to improve consumer loyalty.  Our platform includes the handling of ratings, reviews, complaint resolution statuses while offering data collection features such as scoring, polling, comments, voting, and credibility points – all with the aim of creating a home for connections, resolution, business improvement, and loyalty enhancement. Consumers with legitimate customer service complaints can post it (“plant a gripe”) and connect with companies who in turn can interact with their customers on a level playing field to find an amicable resolution. 

Mr. Hue, President/Chief Executive Officer, stated “Completing this process is exciting for us, and the timing couldn’t be better. GripeVine will be gaining access to hot capital markets at a time when consumers are looking to be heard and businesses are looking to engage with consumer voices. MBE Holdings, Inc. has been developing its social customer service platform to fill those needs in one centralized active platform that makes sure every voice is heard in a crowded social space.”               

New Management Richard Hue will continue as President/Chief Executive Officer, Secretary, Treasurer/Chief Financial Officer and member of the Board of Directors.  In accordance with the Securities Exchange Agreement, James Liolios has been appointed as Chief Operating Officer and a member of the Board of Directors and Mark Vange has been appointed as Chief Technical Officer and a member of the Board of Directors. 

Richard Hue. Mr. Hue has worked with companies in the service and technology industries. He is an experienced, passionate entrepreneur and self-professed, “startup junkie”. Mr. Hue’s experience working with companies in the service and technology sectors has offered founders experience and contacts in numerous fields. As lead investment manager of a privately managed family fund for the past twenty years, Mr. Hue also oversees many investments from real estate to technology. Mr. Hue began his career as an investment banker with one of Wall Street’s major investment banking institutions providing him with many years of management and investment banking experience. His duties and responsibilities included: (i) researching and analyzing solutions for diversification and enhancement of portfolios; (ii) monitoring finances by analyzing cash flow and other financial statements; (iii) preparing valuation analyses; and (iv) analyzing data pertaining to debt and credit opportunities for various companies. And, as the former president of RT Equity Inc., a boutique merchant banking firm that was eventually acquired by a financial institution, Mr. Hue was responsible for overseeing the development of startups, restructuring business operations and expansions of private and public companies, many in the technology and biotech sector. Mr. Hue continues to successfully apply his investment and management skills to small and mid-cap companies both in North America and internationally.

James Liolios. Mr. Liolios is the company’s resident expert on information security and cloud infrastructure. His expertise spans from the public sector, where he was involved in complex systems security architectures for the Department of Defence, to the private sector as Sr. Security Analyst for numerous Fortune 1000 companies. As a Co-Founder and Vice-President of the “InfoSec Society” (an official association) at Seneca College in the area of information security, James is involved in mentoring young people in this space. His experience as guest speaker at numerous infosec events and recipient of numerous Blackhat Conference Scholarships when he was a student, allows students he mentors an inside perspective into the world of cyber security. Mr. Liolios is also Co-Founder at Red Trait Ventures, where he provides a unique blend of leadership and management skills applied in a technical context with development teams steering them towards a common technical vision.

Mark Vange.  Mr. Vange has been a technologist and entrepreneur for over two decades. Mr. Vange was chief technology officer of VR1 Inc. where he led the development of network technology to facilitate massively multiplayer online games. During 2004, Mr. Vange founded Mobile Post Production for rapid porting of applications between various mobile telephony platforms. He is also the former Chief Technology Officer of Electronic Arts and a successful advisor to companies and investment funds for technology that enables community building and business operations .

About GripeVine, Inc .: GripeVine ( www.gripevine.com ) is a proprietary complaint-resolution platform for the facilitation and management of social customer service via centralized communication, rating, and review tools. The tools offered to businesses and consumers incentivize positive and amicable outcomes and reward reliable consumers and responsive businesses. A thriving social engine for consumers and unmatched back-end tools for businesses secure GripeVine as the next evolution of social customer relations and the central hub of activity where businesses and consumers can truly be heard.

Forward Looking Statements : This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements concerning financial projections, financing activities, corporate combinations, product development activities and sales and licensing activities. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results or performance, are sometimes identified by words of condition such as “should,” “could,” “expects,” “may,” “intends,” “seeks,” “looks,” “moves,” or “plans” and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, known and unknown, that could cause actual results to differ materially from those intended or anticipated. Such risks include, without limitation: nonperformance of investments, partner and portfolio difficulties, potential delays in marketing and sales, problems securing the necessary financing to continue operations, potential of competitive products, services, and technologies, difficulties experienced in product development, in recruiting knowledgeable personnel, in collecting judgments and in protecting intellectual property. Further information concerning these and other risks is included in the Company’s super 8-K  and 10-Q filings which, along with other very important information about the Company, can be found here: https://www.otcmarkets.com/stock/GRPV/filings . The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release. Respective statements concerning the development of GripeVine and other platforms or services under development have been made based on information which the Company believes to be accurate, but have not been independently verified.

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