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by Mikael Ricknäs

NTT DOCOMO Plans to Buy PacketVideo

News
Aug 02, 20101 min
BroadbandBuild AutomationMobile

NTT DOCOMO plans to acquire PacketVideo Corporation, a company that develops multimedia software for mobile phones, the Japanese mobile operator said on Monday.

NTT DOCOMO plans to acquire PacketVideo Corporation, a company that develops multimedia software for mobile phones, the Japanese mobile operator said on Monday.

On Monday, DOCOMO reached an agreement to acquire the remaining 65 percent of PacketVideo from NextWave Wireless for US$111.6 million. DOCOMO already owns a 35 percent stake in PacketVideo, which it bought from NextWave in July 2009.

Today, mobile operators are under pressure to find new ways to make money. DOCOMO plans to use PacketVideo’s technology, which is a software family called Twonky, to develop services that connect users’ mobile handsets with home electronic products to remotely share content, it said in a statement.

For example, TwonkyServer Mobile works with Android-based smartphones and lets users share music, photos and video content stored on the phone. Twonky has been shipped and bundled on more than three million products, PacketVideo said in June.

If the acquisition is approved, which DOCOMO hopes will happen by the end of September, PacketVideo will become a wholly owned subsidiary of DOCOMO.

Besides DOCOMO, PacketVideo’s list of customers includes Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and Orange. The company was founded in 1998 and has about 400 employees.

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