This is an old pr, but with all the excitement with VoIP lately and the big rise in NUAN's stock price I think it's pertinent,,,
PHONE.COM REDEFINES THE MOBILE PORTAL WITH THE ACQUISITION OF @MOTION INC.
PHONE.COM TO INTEGRATE @MOTION'S INTERNET VOICE PORTALTECHNOLOGY WITH
ITS MYPHONE SERVICE CREATING THE FIRST PORTAL WITH WAP, SMS, AND VOICE
ACCESS
REDWOOD CITY, CALIF. (DECEMBER 21, 1999) - Phone.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: PHCM), a leading
provider of mobile Internet software and services, today announced it has signed a definitive
agreement to acquire @Motion Inc. for $285 million. Headquartered in Redwood Shores, California,
@Motion is an emerging provider of Voice Portal technology for the converging telephony and
Internet industries. @Motion's Internet Voice Portal(TM) will voice-enable both Phone.com's My
Phone(TM) mobile portal and its UP.Link Service Suite(TM) WAP 1.1 platform. In addition,
@Motion will add voice communications services such as virtual assistant and unified messaging to
the MyPhone offering. The combined technology strengthens Phone.com's leading position by
allowing network operators to augment their WAP offerings with voice access to subscribers'
personal and Internet information.
"Phone.com's innovative software, licensed to 47 network operators and over 25 phone
manufacturers worldwide, has lead the first stage of the mobile Internet revolution,"said Alain
Rossmann, chairman and chief executive officer of Phone.com. "With the acquisition of @Motion,
we are redefining the mobile Internet through the power and ubiquity of voice. True mobile portals
are more than just a re-formatting of PC-oriented Web content. The MyPhone service will integrate
powerful voice communication capabilities such as virtual Assistant and Unified Messaging with
spoken access to email and information services.
This acquisition will significantly expand Phone.com's potential market by enabling any phone to
access the mobile Internet via voice." This acquisition is in line with Phone.com's strategy to create
the leading platform for the delivery of Internet services to mobile phones. "The @Motion
acquisition is important because it demonstrates our commitment to offer new and innovative
technologies that enable our customers to increase their per subscriber revenues while
strengthening subscriber loyalty," said Alan Black, Phone.com's chief financial officer. "We are very
excited to add @Motion's 40 employees to our team, including 30 engineers."
In connection with the acquisition, @Motion shareholders will receive $285 million or approximately
2.25 million shares of Phone.com based on the closing price of Phone.com common stock as of
December 20,1999. The stock4or-stock transaction will be accounted for using purchase accounting
and closing is anticipated to occur in the first calendar quarter of 2000. The acquisition is subject to
customary closing conditions. Integration of the two companies and their products is expected to
occur quickly as @Motion is located just a few miles from Phone.com's corporate headquarters.
@Motion's employees will be integrated into Phone.com's engineering, marketing, and sales
organizations.
@Motion's Internet Voice Portal employs a distributed architecture that enables voice service
nodes to be placed at the network operator's switch locations, thereby eliminating long distance
back-haul costs which have made other attempts at virtual assistants economically impractical.
@Motion's speaker-independent voice recognition and state-of-the-art text-to-speech technologies
have been optimized for use by wireless subscribers and are designed to create an easy to use, fully
interactive experience for users.
"The integration of @Motion's Internet Voice Portal with Phone.com's MyPhone Service and
UP.Link Server Suite will create the industry's most advanced mobile Internet platform," said George
Sollman, president and chief executive officer of @Motion. "The synergy with Phone.com's
marketing and sales channels as well as technology fit made this a natural combination. Phone.com
enables us to aggressively sell and market this technology to the widest customer base possible."
Dr. Hagen Hultzsch, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of T-Venture and Member of the Board of
Deutsche Telekom AG, said, "The Internet is a key-technology and has become an important part of
the world-wide economy. Internet access is of great importance to Deutsche Telekom. We have
welcomed the opportunity to invest in @Motion, a pioneer with innovations that have provided the
customers of both wireless carriers and portals with new ways to~access information on the Web
via their wireless handsets.
Moreover, we welcome the integration and cooperation of a voice category leader such as @Motion
with the WAP wireless data category leader Phone.com. In consequence of this transaction we are
pleased to enrich the investment portfolio of T-Venture with Phone.com."
ABOUT PHONE.COM
Phone.com, Inc. is a leading provider of software and services that enable the delivery of
Internet-based information services to mass-market wireless telephones. Using its software, wireless
subscribers have access to Internet- and corporate intranet-based services, including Email, news,
stocks, weather, travel and sports. In addition, subscribers have access via their wireless telephones
to network operators' intranet-based telephony services, which may include over-the-air activation,
call management, billing history information, pricing plan subscription and voice message
management. Phone.com is headquartered in Silicon Valley, California and has regional offices in
Belfast, London and Tokyo. Visit phone.com for more information.
ABOUT @MOTION
@Motion Inc., was founded to link the Internet and mobile communications through
"mobile-optimized" web portal offerings that deliver integrated communications, information and
commerce services to any wireless subscriber. The company's founders and management team come
from leading wireless, telecom, Internet and networking companies including Cisco Systems, Inc.,
3Com Corporation, Centigram Communications, Inc., Sun Microsystems, Inc, keynote Systems, and
Telco Systems. Visit atmotion-inc.com for more information. |
