RALEIGH, N.C.—Mobile content providers Oasys Mobile Inc. and Moderati announced a contract win with Sprint Nextel Corp. that establishes them as the “agent partners” for the carrier’s CDMA ringers and wallpapers offerings.
Sprint Nextel said it expects the partnership to help streamline the process of distributing the most current ringers and wallpapers to its subscribers, thereby shortening its time to market. As per the agreement, Oasys Mobile and Moderati will serve as gatekeepers for developers wishing to provide ringers and wallpapers on Sprint Nextel CDMA phones, although the carrier will continue to work directly with major media and strategic content partners for various offerings.
Oasys Mobile and Moderati said they plan to review proposed content, make recommendations to Sprint Nextel, license the content from the rights-holder, format and test the content, present it to Sprint Nextel for final approval and push it live to customers.
However, the deal with Sprint Nextel didn’t come in time to help Oasys Mobile’s second-quarter revenues, as the company reported revenues of $1.81 million, barely higher than the $1.79 million it reported for the same period in 2005. Oasys Mobile’s results last year included $438,000 from the company’s Sports Illustrated contract, which ended in March of this year.
Net losses for the quarter totaled $1.78 million, about double the $845,000 net loss the company posted a year ago.
Gary Ban, chief executive officer of Oasys Mobile, explained that while the company saw good growth in its games business, its revenues increased only slightly overall due to the conclusion of the Sports Illustrated contract as well its decision to minimize investments in photo messaging and news-based applications.
In addition to its new deal with Sprint Nextel, Ban said, “we just finalized our partnership with a major music label to enhance the content offering of our new mobile lifestyle portal, OasysMobile.com.”
Looking forward, Ban commented that he expects strong revenue growth now that the company has elements in place that generate momentum in both its carrier distribution as well as its direct-to-consumer portal business.
