Versatile Multilayer Disc (VMD or HD VMD) was a high-capacity red-laser optical disc technology designed by New Medium Enterprises, Inc. VMD was intended to compete with the blue-laser Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD formats and had an initial capacity of up to 30GB per side. At a physical level, VMD is identical to DVD, but with the possibility of using more layers. History The company founded in Nevada as Shopoverseas.com on August 2, 1999, changed its name to New Medium Enterprises, Inc. (NME) on July 10, 2000. On April 20, 2001, it became a public company, with shares traded over-the-counter with symbol MNEN. On January 13, 2004 it acquired the intellectual property for multi-layer optical disks from MultiDisc Ltd. and TriGM International S.A, and became headquartered in London. On June 14, 2005, Rupert Snow became chairman, and Mahesh Jayanarayan became chief executive officer, replacing interim CEO Irene Kuan. On July 1, 2005, Eugene Levich was appointed chief technical officer of NME. Levich had a long history of developing multi-layer formats, such as the fluorescent multilayer disc of Constellation 3D. In December 2005, NME announced an agreement with Chinese-based company E-World which was developing a similar format called Enhanced Versatile Disc. At CeBIT in March 2006, NME demonstrated a prototype VMD player and announced that it was expecting to launch the format in the third quarter of 2006. NME claimed 100 titles would be available in 2006. At the Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association trade show in September 2007, NME exhibited two players set for release in October 2007. Twenty US titles were available at launch time, including some from Icon Productions, Paramount Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures, New Line Cinema, DreamWorks SKG, Lionsgate and The Weinstein Company. NME also signed a deal with Bollywood production company Eros Group who intended to release 50 Bollywood features on the format. The two initial players to be released were the ML622S and the ML777S. The ML777S included USB ports for connection to external storage devices and a media card reader. The manufacturers hoped to sell the format as a lower cost alternative to other optical technologies. However, the Great Recession of 2008 struck about this time, and NME struggled to stay in business. On June 13, 2008 Geoffrey Russell, the interim chief executive officer of New Medium Enterprises, Inc., notified the US Securities and Exchange Commission that the company would be terminating the