Zingy bows to Vindigo brand

Former ringtone purveyor Zingy is shuttering its mobile personalization business and will reorganize under the resuscitated Vindigo brand.
Zingy, a longtime player in the mobile content space, merged two years ago with Vindigo, which offers consumer applications such as MapQuest Mobile and Vindigo City Guide. The companies-both of which are subsidiaries of Japan’s For-Side-integrated their offerings and did business under Zingy’s name.
But Zingy has struggled to evolve in the face of a dissolving ringtone market and decreasing revenue margins for content aggregators. The company last year shuffled through several top executives and unveiled a doomed direct-to-consumer mobile content subscription offering.
The New York-based subsidiary said it will cut some jobs as it closes its personalization services division, and some employees will be redeployed “in the remaining divisions.”
“The new Vindigo is realigned on the company’s most profitable business lines,” said Scott Jensen, who was appointed CEO as part of the reorganization. “Our new strategic direction leverages our strengths as market leader in network-aware applications and refocuses us on the high-growth opportunities in mobile entertainment, which today are cross-platform applications, mobile advertising and casual games.”
For-Side in 2005 expressed plans to consolidate its U.S. businesses into a single entity in an effort to take the subsidiaries public. The parent company began shopping the businesses when the IPO plans fell through, but failed to find a buyer.