AnywhereYouGo.com, an online community Web site dedicated to wireless application developers with physical testing labs in the United Kingdom and the United States, may not make it to its first anniversary.
The wireless developer organization that launched at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Associations Wireless 2000 show earlier this year said it is in deep negotiations for an expected acquisition.
Company Chief Executive Officer Lee Wright said he is in talks with several entities, which he declined to name. At least two of the proposals being discussed include the possibility of splitting up the firm between its online community presence and its physical testing labs in the United States and the United Kingdom, selling each to a different buyer.
According to Wright, prospective buyers first began approaching the company as early as a month after the company’s launch, but he preferred to operate independently. However, he said AnywhereYouGo.com is yet another victim of the dried up investment market for dot-com companies following this spring’s Wall Street meltdown.
“It’s certainly not a hospitable funding climate,” Wright said.
It secured $4 million in first-round funding from Brience this June, but has struggled to secure second-round financing.
The AnywhereYouGo.com Web site provided developers with documentation, tutorials, news, training, discussion groups, message boards, survey results, e-commerce opportunities and a career center. It grew out of a merger between consulting firm People, Design, Technology and the U.K.-based WAP site WAPtastic.
But AnywhereYouGo.com is not a full-fledged dot-com. In May, it launched its first physical lab to test wireless applications over various devices and gateways. It followed up with a U.S.-based lab in September.
Interest in wireless developer issues is ramping up in the industry, and as such, Wright said he feels confident an acquisition will be completed in a matter of weeks.
“I think developers remain a critical component,” he said. “I don’t think the importance of developers has diminished.”
Wright declined to name the interested acquirers, but said one is a large Internet community and developer initiative, another is a European company with a strong developer focus and a third is a U.S. hardware and software services firm.
