Vivendi to Purchase Premium Wireless
Media giant Vivendi Universal will acquire Santa Monica-based Premium Wireless Services Inc. for about $10 million, according to sources familiar with the deal, as a first step toward building a foothold in the U.S. wireless industry.
Premium Wireless operates YourMobile.com, which provides downloadable ring tones and logos to cell phone users worldwide and allows users to personalize their phones with their favorite songs. Its customers include Qualcomm Inc. and Cingular Wireless.
Vivendi Universal is a leading player in the wireless industry in Europe.
Through a series of high-profile acquisitions in the last year, including its $10-billion purchase of the entertainment assets of USA Networks, Vivendi has been trying to build a strong presence in the U.S. to take on media rivals such as AOL Time Warner. YourMobile .com gives Vivendi an additional digital outlet for its movies, music and games, analysts say.
Other major entertainment players also are moving into the cellular phone market, including rival Walt Disney Co., which last month announced a deal with AT&T; Corp. making Disney-branded ring tones and graphics available to U.S. wireless subscribers. Disney Internet in August 2000 agreed to provide content to users of NTT DoCoMo’s wireless phone service in Japan and has since signed several more deals with Asian wireless companies.
“Nobody knows what business model is going to work, but at the same time, nobody wants to be a laggard if it does take off,” said John Bucher, an analyst with Gerard Klauer Mattison & Co. in Los Angeles.
