US
: Openwave Systems and Cilys, a Canadian wireless telecommunications
software infrastructure vendor located in Trois-Rivieres and Montreal,
today announced they have signed a definitive agreement for Openwave
to purchase all outstanding shares of privately held Cilys. Openwave
plans to integrate Cilys' allgo*mobile technology, which is currently
deployed by an Orange Group subsidiary, into Openwave's client and
server product offerings.
Cilys'
optimization technology, which increases speeds for accessing mobile
data services and compresses the amount of data sent over 2.5 and
3G networks, will improve the performance of mass market mobile
phones, smart phones, PDAs and portable computers. The Openwave
combined product offering will strengthen the company's position
and offerings for mass market phones.
As
a result of operators deploying this technology, subscribers will
experience major speed improvements when browsing, emailing, messaging
and downloading content such as email, games, music and ringtones.
"We
welcome the Cilys team and technology to Openwave. Cilys' technology
will be an important piece of our client and server solutions to
allow wireless operators to deliver and deploy innovative services
with the best possible user experience," said Paul Anderson,
vice president and general
manager of Openwave's mobile infrastructure products.
"We
expect Cilys' technology will help operators generate capital expenditure
savings since the technology compresses the amount of data sent
over the network and thereby reduces the need for spectrum and investment
in access infrastructure."
Cilys'
product architecture accelerates any protocol and, consequently,
any wireless application running on the wireless data network. Cilys'
allgo*mobile(TM) acts at the network core and reduces the impact
of network latency on applications and accelerates the data transfer
rate for a faster response time and a better user experience.
"Cilys
has been pioneering optimization aiming at consumer mobile data
services and mass-market devices since its inception. By joining
Openwave and their leading position in both handset client software
and server technologies such as the Openwave Mobile Access Gateway,
we have a perfect match in bringing an innovative product to the
market," said Sven Borgstrom, president and CEO of Cilys. "We
look forward to joining the Openwave team."
"Operators
are increasing rollouts of 3G networks and need to launch innovative
services to attract and keep subscribers that can generate returns
on their 3G investments. This optimization technology will help
improve the user experience with less waiting time for the subscriber
when accessing data services and will reduce costs for the operator,"
said Mark Winther, group vice president of IDC. "The Openwave
and Cilys combination will deliver a comprehensive client server
offering, which will help operators generate revenue for their services
on mass market phones and will ultimately build subscriber loyalty."
"After
evaluating the dominant solutions on the market, we concluded that
Cilys allgo*mobile is the most innovative solution available, combining
all the elements required by an operator to get the maximum out
of the data network. It greatly enhances the user experience of
our subscribers, it doesn't require any configuration from an end-user
perspective, it supports the largest number of devices and protocols
and it is easy to deploy and maintain," said Mario Assaad,
Core Network and Value-Added Services Director at Orange.
Financial Terms
and Schedule
Under the terms of the definitive agreement, Openwave will acquire
all outstanding shares of Cilys for a total purchase price of approximately
US $10 million. The purchase price will be paid with a mixture of
approximately 50 percent cash and 50 percent stock. The transaction
is expected to close in the first quarter of 2005 and is subject
to customary closing conditions.