Oracle, Motorola in wireless Net partnership
By Bloomberg News
Special to CNET News.com
February 22, 2000, 7:40 a.m. PT
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--Oracle, the world's largest database software maker, plans to form an independent company to develop wireless Internet access technology and will unveil a partnership today with Motorola, 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.
Oracle, based here, 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 firm Telia 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's 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 the Telecom 99 conference, held in Geneva last October.
Oracle is wading into a competitive market. The leading U.S. mobile-phone companies are developing products to tap the wireless data market.
Sprint's wireless unit uses technology developed by Phone.com that allows consumers to access the Internet from cell phones. Nextel Communications last May received $600 million from Microsoft to help develop an online service.
Bell Atlantic, 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.
Copyright 2000, Bloomberg L.P. All Rights Reserved.
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