"Oracle & Motorola on Wireless Internet Technology"
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Mon, 21 Feb 2000, 7:35pm EST
Oracle to Join With Motorola on Products for Wireless Internet Access
By David Ward
Oracle to Join With Motorola on Wireless Internet Technology
Redwood City, California, Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Oracle
Corp., the world's largest database-software maker, will form an
independent company to develop wireless Internet-access
technology, and will unveil a partnership tomorrow with Motorola
Inc., the companies said.
Motorola will be one of the companies making the cell phones
and other devices that use the wireless technology, said Motorola
spokesman David Rudd. The new company will use Oracle's software
with Motorola's voice-command recognition technology, he said.
Redwood City, California-based Oracle will spin off its
division developing the software, dubbed Portal-to-Go, that allows
users to access the Internet from devices other than a computer,
Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison said last month.
The moves are part of Oracle's effort to tap into the growing
market for technology to access the Internet from cell phones and
other devices. The market is expected to grow to $13.2 billion a
year by 2003 from $1.8 billion now, according to Boston-based
market researcher Yankee Group.
Oracle on Friday said it was joining Swedish
telecommunications company Telia AB to create a company to develop
and sell wireless Internet products outside the U.S.
``Following the trends that have evolved in mobile telephony
and the Internet, the next phase is converging both areas in a
mobile Internet environment,' Kenneth Karlberg, Telia's head of
business area mobile communications, said in a statement.
Oracle and Motorola last October agreed to combine Portal-to-
Go with Motorola' voice-based VoxML technology, which allows users
to access information using voice commands. Oracle, Motorola and
Telia demonstrated their jointly developed wireless Internet
technology at Telecom '99, in Geneva.
Competitive Market
Oracle is wading into a competitive market. The leading U.S.
mobile-phone companies are developing products to tap the wireless
data market.
Sprint Corp.'s wireless unit uses technology developed by
Phone.com Inc. that allows consumers to access the Internet from
cell phones. Nextel Communications Inc. last May received
$600 million from Microsoft Corp. to help develop online service.
Bell Atlantic Corp., the No. 2 U.S. local phone company, said
in November it would also offer Internet access to digital-
wireless customers.
Investors are betting on the growth of that market. Phone.com
shares are up almost 17-fold since the company first sold shares
to the public in June.
Oracle shares fell 3 1/16 to 58 9/16 Friday. Schaumburg,
Illinois-based Motorola fell 2 5/16 to 144 15/16. U.S. markets are
closed today for the Presidents Day holiday.
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