Business software maker Sybase said Tuesday it has agreed to acquire venture-backed mobile messaging and content delivery software maker Mobile 365 in an all-cash transaction worth $400 million.
This will help the Dublin, California-based maker of databases to expand in the mobile messaging business, a market that is expected to reach $7.5 billion by 2008.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2006 and is subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions. The company said the transaction amount of $400 million is net of acquired cash and the original amount was set at $425 million.
Sybase’s stock was up 1.14 percent at $23.14 in after-hours trading.
“This acquisition extends our Unwired Enterprise vision with the addition of two new enterprise channels—wireless carriers and content providers,” said Sybase CEO John Chen in a statement.
Based in
Chantilly, Virginia,Mobile 365 is a privately held company with $90 million in revenues backed by prominent venture capital firms such as Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Draper Atlantic Venture, 3i Technology Partners, Institutional Partners, and Mayfield. The company’s assets will help Sybase’s push into the mobility space, said Mike Daniels, Mobile365’s chairman. Once a pioneer of the relational database industry, Sybase saw misfortunes in the mid-1990s after the company’s partnership with Microsoft ended and rival Informix took over a large part of the database market.
MicrosoftThe company has bounced back under CEO John Chen and his “Unwired Enterprise” strategy, which is putting databases on mobile devices. Combining its existing database technology and its mobility products, Sybase wants to capture a large portion of the mobile database market with mobility subsidiary iAnywhere.
The Mobile 365 acquisition will add a mobile-messaging and content delivery component to Sybase’s existing business. The company, which will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary called Sybase Mobile 365, has partners such as Verizon Wireless, Vodafone, T-Mobile, Cingular, Telefonica, and China Mobile.
Marty Beard, Sybase’s senior vice president of corporate development and marketing, was named president of Sybase Mobile 365 and will manage the subsidiary.
Contact the writer:FBhuta@RedHerring.com
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