article: INSP Renewing Wireless....
by: cabvineyard (M/Connecticut)
Long-Term Sentiment: Strong Buy 12/13/01 04:10 pm
Msg: 330030 of 330182
InfoSpace Renewing Wireless Contracts On Schedule
Dow Jones Online News, Thursday, December 13, 2001 at 14:51
LONGVIEW, Wash. -(Dow Jones)- InfoSpace Inc. (INSP) is successfully renewing its contracts with wireless telecom providers, a key component in its strategy to dominate the wireless Internet information services market, said Naveen Jain, chairman and chief executive.
In the fourth quarter, the Bellevue, Wash., Internet information infrastructure company has renewed contracts to provide its wireless services platform to Virgin Mobile and Vodafone Australia. Other contracts have also been renewed but not yet announced, Jain said.
"The best part is that we are renewing them at the same or better terms," Jain said. "We aren't feeling pricing pressure."
Most of InfoSpace's wireless contracts come up for renewal before the end of the year, and Jain said the company hasn't lost any of them.
"Overall, today we feel much better about our prospects about InfoSpace going forward than three months ago," Jain said.
The wireless contracts are key because they are the platform for InfoSpace's most sophisticated services. Jain said that except for Sprint Corp. (FON) and Nextel Communications Inc. (NXTL), InfoSpace has contracts with all the other major wireless telecom providers in the U.S.
InfoSpace develops software technologies that enable customers to offer a broad array of network-based services under their own brand to any device.
In addition to its wireless business, InfoSpace also sells technology and services to Internet portals and Web sites. These so-called wireline services include Yellow Pages, White Pages, classified ads, weather, maps and stock quotes. It also sells Web hosting, electronic payment and other services to merchants.
Wireless and merchant services made up more than 50% of the company's revenue in the third quarter, a number Jain said he hopes will go higher in the fourth quarter and next year. He said the company hasn't given a revenue projection for wireless revenue alone.
The company had more than 3.75 million wireless subscribers in the third quarter, a number that's expected to rise to about 5 million by the end of the fourth quarter, Jain said.
While there is some concern about where wireless growth will come from in 2002, Jain said InfoSpace's partners are telling him it will come in the wireless data category.
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