Empresas y finanzas

Benefon Acquires Location Content Specialist GeoSolutions, B.V.



    Benefon Oyj (HEX:BNFSV) announced it has acquired GeoSolutions
    B.V., a developer of location-based technologies, products, and
    services for mobile and Internet-connected devices. The GeoSolutions
    technology will leverage Benefon's GPS leadership and heritage by
    providing Location Based Search Technology, a Communities Platform,
    location relevant multimedia content and most importantly, a new and
    powerful commercial model. GeoSolutions co-founder and CEO Dan Harple
    has joined the Board of Directors of Benefon.

    The acquisition provides Benefon with a highly experienced senior
    management team having senior executive experience from companies such
    as Oracle, Netscape, AOL/Time Warner, and UUnet. The GeoSolutions team
    further provides an intriguing new technology combining GPS and
    Mobile-based technologies together with Internet-based social
    networking. The team has experience building enterprise and
    consumer-based software suitable for mass markets; past products built
    by this team were used by over 300 million people.

    "The GeoSolutions technology will set new standards for location
    services as Benefon's reach increases by providing software that is
    interoperable across competitive handset manufacturers" said Peter
    Bamford, Chairman of Benefon, "the market opportunity is large and
    growing fast."

    Mr. Harple, a renowned technology entrepreneur founded and led two
    successful Internet-enabled software companies, InSoft and Context
    Media. Each company achieved significant shareholder value in M&A
    transactions with Netscape Communications Corporation, and Oracle
    Corporation, respectively. Sam Critchley, GeoSolutions co-founder,
    formerly ran the European network for the world's largest Internet
    provider UUnet. Mr. Critchely and Mr. Harple were brought together by
    former investors of UUNet and Mr. Harple's former companies.

    Benefon Director Brian Katzen said, "The founders of GeoSolutions
    have in their tenure been responsible for major Internet standards for
    streaming media, collaboration, and enterprise content; shipping
    applications used by hundreds of millions of users on the Internet.
    They bring that experienced skill-set to the Benefon team, a deal
    which we are incredibly positive about."

    Based in Amsterdam, GeoSolutions delivers products enabling mobile
    users to access traditional Internet-based content along with user
    generated content and local information that is aggregated from third
    party information sources such as directory services. Mr. Harple
    stated, "Amsterdam is the hub of geo-technology, globally. Our
    presence here will tap the deep experience base in the region, further
    enhancing our ability to create geo-integrated mobile applications
    that connect people to the places they care about."