World Cup Deal Has Wireless Gamer Kicking Into High Gear
Technology
by Christopher Keough
Just in time for this spring’s World Cup in Japan and Korea, JAMDAT Mobile Inc. has inked a deal with software publishing giant Electronic Arts Inc. to deliver a World Cup 2002 game for mobile phones.
JAMDAT, a Los Angeles developer of wireless video games, has a two-year exclusive agreement with EA to develop wireless versions of the EA Sports soccer game and its PGA Tour golf game.
Timing is everything on the deal, as it also coincides with the planned rollout of next-generation wireless technology from Verizon and Sprint, according to Mitch Lasky, JAMDAT chief executive.
Lasky claims that the new wireless platforms Qualcomm Inc.’s Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless (BREW) and Sun Microsystems Inc.’s J2ME will change the way users play games on mobile phones. The new platforms allow users to download games to handsets rather than play them from a provider’s server. The advantage, Lasky said, is reduced download time and lower expenses, since less airtime is required. Also improving game play is the fact that BREW and J2ME-enabled handsets will have bigger, color screens.
JAMDAT and EA will co-publish the wireless adaptations of the games and deliver them in North America and Asia.
Lasky said launching the games this year is advantageous because the World Cup is the single most viewed sports tournament in the world, and Japan and Korea are two of the world’s most significant and active mobile data markets.
Moving Up an Octave
Octave Software Inc. of Los Angeles recently closed its third round of funding with a $4.4 million commitment, mostly from Sigma Partners, a Boston venture capital firm with offices in Menlo Park and San Ramon.
Octave, founded in 2000, has raised $6.5 million in three rounds to fund development of its content management software. Sigma Partners contributed $4 million in the Series C funding round, according to Octave Chairman and Chief Executive Bill O’Brien. The remainder came from investors in previous rounds.
Octave’s software allows employees around the country or around the world to contribute to an Internet site without highly technical Web design skills. The new money will be used mainly to build a sales team and push the company’s first product, WebOctave, which is due on the market by March.
“We’re getting great feedback form the beta testers,” O’Brien said.
The first bundled package will cost $200,000, O’Brien said, and will come with the software, training, maintenance and professional services.
Slowly but Surely
Los Angeles-based US Search.com Inc. completed its most recent funding round with commitments of $4.7 million.
Adding the new investments to the $3.5 million US Search got from Pequot Ventures in January, the company has now received $8.2 million this year. US Search.com officials have said they sought the money to continue acquiring other search companies and to expand their sales team.
Founded in 1994, US Search.com provides software for Internet-based employment screening and background checks, as well as other identity verification and fraud prevention tools for general and corporate consumers.
In December, US Search.com completed its acquisition of Professional Resource Screening Inc. of Concord. That deal, which involved 10 million shares of US Search.com stock and additional compensation based on the performance of Resource Screening, was valued at $14 million.
Last week, US Search.com’s stock, which is listed on Nasdaq under the symbol SRCH, was trading at $1.37 a share.
Staff reporter Christopher Keough can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 235, or at
[email protected].
