Leap Wireless International Inc. announced it bought NeoPoint Inc.’s myAladdin.com location-based content aggregation portal and wireless information technology.
Leap said it will extend the service to its Cricket customers and others in the first half of the year. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
“Our objective in creating myAladdin.com was to develop a simplified way in which mobile users could obtain localized, personalized information,” said William Son, chairman, chief executive officer and president of NeoPoint. “This transaction enables us to remain focused on our core competencies in designing and developing award-winning smart phones.”
Kevin Thorton, NeoPoint vice president and general manager of the myAladdin.com service, is moving from NeoPoint to Leap to continue leading the division. Leap said it would add about another 20 employees from the myAladdin.com group to its wireless development business. It also expects to maintain most of the content provider relationships NeoPoint formed in connection with the service, including with MasterCard International and Ticketmaster.com. Other myAladdin.com relationships include GetThere-.com, InfoSpace, i3 Mobile, MapQuest, Navigation Technologies and TVData.
Although designed by a phone manufacturer, the myAladdin.com service was available to any Internet-enabled phone, and NeoPoint offered the service on a private-label basis to any wireless carrier. Bell Mobility of Canada was the only publicly announced carrier to engage in trials for the system but never offered it commercially.
Dan Pegg, Leap senior vice president, said the company plans to extend the myAladdin.com service into new areas beyond those set out by NeoPoint.
“We think the myAladdin.com service has some untapped potential our group can take advantage of,” he said. Pegg added that the service will no longer be offered on a private-label basis to other carriers.
All the content at the myAladdin.com site was geared specifically for location-based needs including driving directions, ATM locator, traffic information, flight status and schedules, local Yellow Pages, radio station directories, television listings and movie listings.
Users either must enter their current location to make use of the service or employ a phone charger with a global positioning system chip in it designed by NeoPoint for its phones. NeoPoint also had planned a battery for the NeoPoint phone with a similar chip embedded.
Leap said it is considering a handset-based location determination solution for both the E911 mandate and other location services.
NeoPoint said it sold the division to focus more heavily on its phone manufacturing business, which has been struggling lately. While its inaugural NeoPoint 1000 smart phone won rave reviews, it lacked a dual-mode option, which made for limited sales.
A much-needed contract with AirTouch Communications was stalled after the firm’s merger into Verizon Communications held up the process. Going further, planned revenue to come from an initial public offering never materialized as NeoPoint was forced to withdraw its IPO registration due to a depressed stock market.
The myAladdin.com sales is seen as a positive step by some, who felt the division was more of a distraction to the relatively newer phone manufacturer than anything else.
