Enterprise infrastructure company Sybase Inc. announced it will acquire wireless e-mail company Extended Systems Inc. in a cash deal worth $71.3 million. The move directly pits Sybase’s wireless enterprise subsidiary, iAnywhere Solutions, against wireless e-mail vendors like Research In Motion Ltd. and Good Technology Inc.
The deal “augments our mobile middleware and e-mail capabilities,” said Marty Beard, senior vice president of Sybase’s corporate development and marketing. “(Wireless) e-mail is the application that everybody starts with.”
Beard boasted that although Sybase’s iAnywhere business will now abut RIM, Good and other wireless e-mail players, the companies aren’t necessarily comparable.
“We see them (RIM, Good and others) as one-mobile-application wireless pure plays,” he explained, adding that iAnywhere offers a full spectrum of wireless enterprise services and applications that stretch beyond just e-mail.
Executives from Good and RIM have previously made similar arguments about the breadth of their own offerings.
Through the acquisition, iAnywhere gains access to Extended Systems’ OneBridge product, which supports wireless access to enterprise applications including e-mail. iAnywhere also scores Extended Systems’ software development kits for Bluetooth, IrDA and SyncML technologies, as well as the company’s relationships with handset and chipset vendors.
Although iAnywhere does have a wireless e-mail product, Beard said Extended Systems’ technology will enhance the company’s mobile e-mail offering. He said iAnywhere will combine its e-mail technology with that from Extended Systems, but declined to say when the combined offering would be available.
Sybase’s iAnywhere subsidiary sells wireless access to database information, wireless synchronization technology, mobile device management services and content provisioning. Sybase has previously acquired XcelleNet and AvantGo in the wireless enterprise arena.
In its most recent quarter, Sybase recorded revenues of $35 million and an operating income of $4.8 million from its iAnywhere subsidiary. For its part, Extended Systems posted net revenues of $11 million on a net income of $2.2 million in its most recent quarter.
Sybase’s stock was up slightly on the deal to $21.42 per share. Extended Systems’ stock jumped more than 25 percent to $4.36 per share.
