Phone.com buys Onebox.com for $850M
Today it was announced that Phone.com will buy Onebox.com in a straight stock swap valued at $850m. The company said the takeover, which provides unified email, voicemail, fax and wireless-enabled communication applications, would help to compliment its existing products.
Phone.com provides wireless Internet software and services. The company has gone on a shopping spree of late, acquiring @Motion and Paragon in recent weeks. It bought Paragon for $500m in stock last week, and in December bought @Motion for $285m. Under the terms of the latest deal, Onebox.com shareholders will get about 6.5 million shares of Phone.com common stock. The deal is expected to close during Phone.com's fiscal fourth quarter, which ends on June 30.
The companies' products will be integrated together and sold as a package or on a standalone basis to Internet service providers and telecommunications companies. Onebox.com, which has 2.5m registered users, is a ZDNet partner. Its chief executive officer, Ross Bott, will become Phone.com's chief operating officer for the products group. Onebox.com's 70 employees will also join Phone.com. "We now significantly broaden our target markets and product offerings with Onebox.com's advanced unified messaging applications," said Alain Rossmann, CEO of Phone.com.
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