The long, hard road of Wireless Knowledge seems to have finally come to an end.
Starting Monday, Wireless Knowledge will fold into Qualcomm Inc.’s Wireless Business Solutions division.
Qualcomm Inc. helped launch the company as a joint venture with Microsoft Corp. in 1998 and later took control of the company as a subsidiary after Wireless Knowledge bought out Microsoft’s stake. Now, Qualcomm will take on Wireless Knowledge’s business and will discontinue much of its product portfolio.
“We’re not really shutting it down,” said Norm Fjeldheim, Qualcomm’s senior vice president and chief information officer. “The business is continuing, but it will continue under the Qualcomm banner.
“The main message was that … we’re not exiting the business at all. We’re actually strengthening the business. The business is continuing.”
Fjeldheim said the “majority” of Wireless Knowledge employees would move to Qualcomm’s WBS division, although he would provide no specific numbers. He said the division would focus more on consulting services than on selling products, because Wireless Knowledge had found success in consulting. Fjeldheim said Qualcomm will discontinue much of Wireless Knowledge’s product lineup, including its flagship Workstyle server for businesses, which offered wireless access to corporate information through a range of devices. Qualcomm said it will partner with other wireless enterprise companies, including Extended Systems, to offer such server products. Fjeldheim would not comment on the status of Wireless Knowledge’s customers, noting that contract negotiations are under way.
“In some cases, the customers will actually expand their contracts” to tap into the breadth of Qualcomm’s offerings, Fjeldheim said.
Qualcomm’s move comes as little surprise. The wireless enterprise market has been suffering for years as the economy tightens and corporate spending declines. Indeed, Wireless Knowledge last year acquired some of the assets, including consulting services, of failed wireless enterprise company Mobilocity Inc.
