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"Wireless technology gives us an enormous
opportunity to reach billions of mobile
phone users with our content. With this
new venture we’re looking forward to
inventing new and compelling ways to engage
this exciting new audience.”
VeriSign CEO Stratton Sclavos says, “We
are excited to combine our unique mobile
entertainment expertise and direct to consumer
assets with one of the most forward-thinking
media companies in the world. We look forward
to working with News Corp. to create compelling,
interactive services that make an impact
on the next generation of wireless users”.
Jamba was founded in 2000 and is considered
a global leader in off-deck delivery of
mobile entertainment. The company currently
delivers content in 30 territories and has
one of the industry’s most advanced
technology platforms. Jamba can immediately
distribute content in all of its territories,
which is critically important in an industry
where most of the users are young people
always looking for the 'next cool thing.'
With its cutting-edge analytic tools, Jamba
has the real-time ability to track and optimise
marketing, quickly reacting to consumer
needs and interests in order to be able
to monetize products and services.
News Corp’s Fox Mobile Entertainment
group got its start with American Idol
text voting, which generated nearly 65 million
text messages this past season, up from
12,000 messages in the first season in 2001.
In a long list of firsts, the company also
invented the Mobisodes Series category,
which led with the 24: Conspiracy
series, the first made-for-mobile program
to be Emmy-nominated, and launched the first
ad-sponsored video series Prison Break:
Proof of Innocence.
The company also launched the first media-backed
cross-carrier mobile entertainment service
for consumers, Mobizzo.
The new Jamba will offer an aggregation
of content from music and media companies,
as well as original content created exclusively
for mobile. Jamba partners include: Universal
Music Group and Warner Music, among others.
In addition, Jamba and Fox Mobile Studios
have units that create original content
ranging from the highly successful Crazy
Frog, to multiple animated characters, to
genres such as Manga, Activism, and X-Sports.
The unit is expected to draw from not only
top Fox divisions but also News Corp companies
around the world.
The new company will immediately become
the largest customer for VeriSign’s
Digital Content Services (DCS) group, which
specialises in providing intelligent infrastructure
and connectivity solutions to enable the
delivery of rich content over mobile and
broadband networks. Mobile operators, portals,
media companies and consumer brands around
the world leverage the DSC platform to power
their interactive entertainment experiences.
Fox’s Mobizzo unit and Jamba are existing
customers of DCS.
Under the agreement, Jamba will soon release
its first products and offerings as a new
entity, following the close of the transaction,
including:
MySpace Mobile Store: In an alliance with
social networking site MySpace with more
than 74 million users worldwide, Jamba will
be MySpace's global m-commerce partner.
Jamba will build a unique m-commerce engine
to enable MySpace users to download ringtones,
graphics and animations from top music and
media companies.
The Simpsons Mobile: Coming soon, Jamba
will exclusively offer mobile content from
the series The Simpsons through the
industry’s first subscription package
tied to exclusive content called the Yellow
Plan. Available to consumers for the first
time, the “Yellow Plan” will include
an array of uniquely designed Simpsons mobile
content, such as wallpapers, screensavers,
ringtones and video.
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