Editor's Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News' new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect the wireless industry.--Gaming giant...
Shares of InfoSpace Inc. shot skyward after the company said it will sell its mobile services division to Motricity for $135 million in cash.Motricity will acquire InfoSpace's managed services infrastructure for mobile carriers, including technology and services such as mobile search, storefronts, portals and...
Google Inc. continued its head-long charge into mobile with the acquisition of Finnish start-up Jaiku. Jaiku, like rival Twitter and a handful of other "microblogging" companies, allows users to post short messages about what they're doing from PCs or mobile phones. The year-old Finnish...
AT&T Mobility said it will pay $2.5 billion in cash for all of Aloha Partners L.P.'s 700 MHz spectrum, apparently signaling Aloha's exit from the mobile broadcast space.AT&T, which said it remains committed to using Qualcomm Inc.'s MediaFLO network for multimedia wireless broadcasts, said...
Xero Mobile Inc., the mobile virtual network operator in terminal pre-launch mode, is being eyed by ROK Entertainment Group.ROK CEO Laurence Alexander said he is negotiating to acquire Xero, which has long planned-and, thus far, failed-to deploy an ad-subsidized service for college students. Xero...
Cisco Systems Inc. has agreed to purchase wireless spectrum analysis and management company Cognio Inc. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cognio's spectrum technology "enhances performance, reliability and security of wireless networks by detecting, classifying, locating and mitigating sources of radio frequency interference,"...
Gracenote expanded on its offerings with the acquisition of interactive voice response technology from Musicphone Inc.The Emeryville, Calif.-based firm said the platform allows music fans to dial a short code and play a snippet of music into the handset to receive information about the...
Mobile-game publisher Telcogames acquired Australia's Viva La Mobile for an undisclosed sum.Viva La Mobile operates Redstar, a platform for multiplayer mobile gaming in use by a half-dozen network operators including 3 Australia, 3 Austria, SmarTone Vodafone Hong Kong and Telstra. The 4-year-old firm's platform...
Medio Systems Inc. announced it acquired rival mobile ad firm Suhari L.L.C. Terms of the deal were not disclosed."Medio has a track record of successfully partnering with mobile operators to deliver the most intuitive mobile search experience to consumers while increasing revenues for operators,"...
The 9th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals gave the go-ahead to a class action consumer suit claiming Cingular Wireless service deteriorated after the mobile phone carrier was fully acquired by AT&T Inc. in 2004.The three-judge appeals panel in San Francisco reversed a lower court's...
Verizon Wireless purchased the operating assets of Ramcell in Kentucky and Oregon for an undisclosed sum.The nation's No. 2 carrier picked up Ramcell's 51 cell sites as well as spectrum licenses that cover nearly 600,000 potential customers in the Kentucky markets of Clay and...
Dobson Communications Corp., which recently announced plans to be acquired by AT&T Inc., posted a 15% jump in second-quarter revenues from $312.1 million in 2006 to $360.2 million this year. Net income also improved from a loss of $8.4 million in 2006, a loss...
Numerex Corp., a wireless network and machine-to-machine services provider, announced it acquired Orbit One Communications Inc. in a deal worth up to $10.5 million and more than 1.5 million shares."We are very excited about this combination and the new M2M markets we are entering....
Alltel Corp. reported a strong quarter in which it saw its best-ever figures in wireless service revenue and churn-but profits were down 54% from the previous year's second quarter due to 2006's inclusion of profits from the company's wireline division, which Alltel has since...
As a service shut-off deadline looms, Amp'd Mobile Inc. customers now have an out: Prexar Mobile, a small mobile virtual network operator managed by a nationwide CLEC, signed a deal to acquire Amp'd Mobile's customers. Prexar is hoping the boost to its business will...
Nokia Corp. continued to expand beyond mobile into the broader Internet market with the acquisition of Twango Inc., a Redmond, Wash.-based social-networking startup.Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Nokia reportedly paid nearly $100 million for the 10-employee company.Twango-which is not to be...
NextWave Wireless Inc. completed the purchase of a controlling interest in a Swiss WiMAX company with significant spectrum holdings in Austria, Slovakia and Croatia. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but NextWave subsidiary Inquam Broadband GmbH closed on the purchase of a 65%...
Buongiorno S.p.A. stepped up its spending spree, agreeing to acquire U.K.-based content provider iTouch plc for $192 million.The Italian mobile content and advertising behemoth said it will pay $176 million to iTouch shareholders and absorb $16 million of the company's net debt. The combined...
WPCS International Inc. said it will spend $800,000 in cash and stock to acquire Houston's Max Engineering.Max Engineering, which was founded in 2000, provides engineering services for infrastructure in the telecommunications and energy markets. The company's customers include AT&T Mobility, Clearwire Corp., Leap Wireless...
ROK Entertainment Group announced it acquired Blubox Software, a data optimization and compression developer. The mobile technology and software developer views the deal as a logical path toward allowing users to store and manage their photos online."Blubox have created the most powerful, user-friendly and...
Bell Industries Inc. said it would sell an undisclosed chunk of 2.5 GHz spectrum to Sprint Nextel Corp. for $13.5 million, pending approval by the Federal Communication Commission. FCC approval is expected prior to the deal's closing in 45 to 90 days, according to...
Infrastructure giant L.M. Ericsson announced it will pay around $417 million for German billing company LHS AG, a move that could pit Ericsson directly against telecom billing heavyweights like Amdocs Ltd. and Convergys Corp."Operators are quickly moving towards convergent charging and billing solutions to...
Singapore-based Flextronics International Ltd. said it would acquire Solectron Corp., of Milpitas, Calif., for $3.6 billion in cash and stock to create an even larger electronics manufacturing service that will generate more than $30 billion in annual revenue.Flextronics is well-known in the cellular industry...
Online casual gaming giant Oberon Media bought its way onto the mobile playground, picking up London-based publisher I-play for an undisclosed sum.Oberon powers storefronts customers such as MSN Games Network, Electronic Arts Inc., Verizon Broadband, Comcast and Orange/France Telecom. The New York-based company is...
