***VC COMPANY PROFILE***
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by Udayan Gupta, Venture Capital Analyst
MobileAria: Voice Data on the Go
North Americans spend 26 billion hours in cars each year. And what do
they do more and more of while driving? They talk. Nearly 80% of all
cellular phone calls now originate from inside a car. By the year
2010, the auto voice and data industry is expected to grow to a $33
billion market according to UBS Warburg, the investment banking firm.
San Jose-based MobileAria (www.mobilearia.com) is attacking this
fertile market with a variety of tools for mobile customers,
including e-mail, traffic information, stock quotes, news and weather
-- all on a subscription basis. Further down the road, the company
expects to provide access to e-commerce, GPS-based navigation, stock
trading, and streaming audio and video. "A mobile media marketplace
inside the car" is how Tom O'Gara describes MobileAria's product.
MobileAria plans to partner with the major telecom carriers, not
compete with them. "We're not resellers of time," says O'Gara. The
firm's offering he adds, is a services-based package. "Our initial
goal is productivity - allowing people to have access to their
information," says O'Gara. There is an advertising component to the
business model, but it has yet to be clearly defined.
The company was launched in October 2000 with investments from
Delphi Automotive Systems, Palm, Inc. and Mayfield Fund. O'Gara says
the firm is planning another round of financing in the first quarter
of 2001.
MobileAria has no revenues or profits at this time and will have to
get big, fast, as a number of established players move into this
emerging space. Private companies include ATX Technologies, Inc.,
PacketVideo Corporation, and Wildfire Communications, Inc. Public
companies in the mobile voice and data field include Active Voice
Corporation (ACVC) and General Magic, Inc. (GMGC). And soon, major
car manufacturers, such as Toyota Motor Corporation (TM), may build
in similar appliances in high-end automobiles.
*** On Jan. 9, Active Voice (ACVC) filed a proxy statement announcing
a shareholder vote on its planned merger with Cisco Systems (CSCO).
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*** Shares of General Magic (GMGC), which just installed a new CEO,
Jan. 4, surged more than 50 percent Wednesday (Jan. 17) after the
software application developer reported it would develop hands-free,
voice-activated access to the Internet in automobiles. On Friday,
the company filed a primary offering prospectus (Form 424B2) for
1.47 million additional shares, which would raise its number of
post-offering shares outstanding to 66.3 million.
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