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."
