WASHINGTON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - i3 Mobile Inc., which provides stock prices, traffic, sports, entertainment and other news on wireless devices, filed on Friday to raise $65 million in an initial public offering.
The company, which is based in Stamford, Conn., offers its services mainly through co-branded distribution relationships with wireless network operators that offer i3's information either free or for a subscription.
Some of those wireless network operators include AT&T Corp.'s (NYSE:T - news) Wireless Services Inc., Omnipoint Corp. (NasdaqNM:OMPT - news) and SBC Communications Inc. (NYSE:SBC - news).
As of Dec. 15, i3, which also offers e-mail, had more than 450,000 users of its products, of which more than 100,000 were paying subscribers.
It gets content from media and information companies like the Associated Press, Bloomberg LP, Dow Jones & Co. Inc. (NYSE:DJ - news) and Reuters Group Plc (NasdaqNM:RTRSY - news) (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: RTR.L).
The market for wireless mobile data is expected to skyrocket in the next couple of years, the company predicted, citing industry data.
Wireless data subscribers will grow at a compound annual rate of 82 percent, to 36 million in 2003 from 3 million in 1999, creating a market of $3 billion in annual revenue.
``We believe that we are positioned to capitalize on the convergence of the growth in the use of digital wireless communication devices and the rapidly increasing demand for and availability of real-time content over the Internet,' i3, founded in 1991 as Intelligent Information Inc., said.
Terms of the IPO, such as the number of shares and their projected price range, were not disclosed in the company's preliminary prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Those details were expected in future filings. |
