SAN DIEGO-Publisher Random House said it has acquired a minority stake in startup company called Vocel to offer educational content to mobile-phone subscribers for a monthly fee.
To prop up the deal with Vocel, Random House said it has licensed two programs. The first is called Living Language for foreign language self-study, and the second is Prima Games, which publishes video-game strategy guides.
“Random House considers the mobile phone to be an important future platform for the delivery of information to consumers,” said Richard Sarnoff, Random House Ventures. “Vocel, with its business philosophy of providing premium-branded content for cellular devices and its patent-pending proprietary technology covering interactive messaging, represents a perfect fit for Random House in gaining access to the mobile information market.”
