Aether Systems Inc. announced it will acquire mobeo Inc., a company that provides financial news and stock updates on wireless devices such as pagers.
Formerly called DocuPro Inc., mobeo delivers quotes on more than 150,000 stocks, options, futures, treasury, foreign exchange and other market data to financial customers.
Aether specializes in connecting enterprise systems to wireless networks, with the long-term vision of becoming a wireless Internet solutions provider.
The company offers several Internet-based content services, specifically focusing on financial information and services. Its MarketClip service provides stock updates and information to pagers via an agreement with Reuters news service. The company also has an agreement with Discover Brokerage for its TradeRunner service, which allows users to buy and sell securities from their wireless devices as well as receive MarketClip updates.
Most recently, Aether formed a strategic alliance with L.M. Ericsson to develop wireless data solutions for the financial investment community. Under that deal, Aether formed a new unit that will co-market its content services with Ericsson.
Jeff Mose, director of marketing communications at Aether, said the addition of mobeo gives Aether a significant presence in the foreign exchange market.
“About 80 percent of the senior traders in the foreign exchange market use mobeo services, and we don’t have any,” he said.
Mose was unable to comment further, however, because the company has entered a quiet period surrounding the transaction.
Aether has partnerships with 3Com Corp. and recently joined the Wireless Application Protocol Forum.
Mobeo’s existing agreements with various messaging companies could benefit Aether. Mobeo has pacts with Metrocall Inc., American Mobile Satellite Corp., BellSouth Wireless Data L.P. and ComStar Communications Corp.
Aether said it is evaluating several financial options for the purchase, which it expects to close by Oct. 3.
