Esmertec buys majority stake in Japanese mobile Java firm

DUEBENDORF-ZURICH, Switzerland-Java virtual machine vendor Esmertec announced it scored a majority stake in eValley Inc., which sells Java technology for mobile phones in Japan. Esmertec teamed with Tokyo-based eValley in 2002 and took a minority stake in the company in 2003.

“The equity investment in eValley follows Esmertec’s strategy to have a strong technical and sales team effectively serving the local customers and partners in Japan,” said Jean-Claude Martinez, Esmertec’s chief operating officer. “Japan has played a leading role in developing mobile and embedded software services, and it is important that Esmertec can contribute to this development.”