Phone.com, Inc., a maker of software for wireless Internet applications, and Software.com, Inc., which sells server software for e-mail and other messaging services, announced Wednesday plans to merge.
The new company, whose name has yet to be announced, will build on Software.com's and Phone.com's strengths to deliver "highly scalable infrastructure and application software enabling the delivery of e-mail, voice mail, unified messaging, directory, and wireless Internet access for IP-based networks," the companies said in a statement.
Under the terms of the merger, shareholders of each company will own approximately half of the combined enterprise. Phone.com will issue 1.6105 shares in exchange for each Software.com share, the company said.
David Corfam, Phone.com's European technical director, said the two companies' strength lies in offering a "unified approach," so that messaging services like fixed-line voice mail, mobile voice mail and e-mail can all be accessed via the same system.
"The thing that Software.com brings is they have the only really massively scalable platform that's available," Corfam said. "What we're seeing is that the people who are demanding these kinds of things are the huge ISPs, looking for platforms that can support tens, potentially hundreds of millions of people."
Both companies deliver "that back-end kind of software the end user doesn't necessarily see," said Phone.com's European marketing director Cindy Dahm. But for large-scale providers like British Telecommunications PLC or Japan's DDI Corp., "it makes it easier to go to one place and serve a lot of their different needs for e-mail, for wireless and wire-line for their end customers."
Donald J. Listwin will lead the new company as president and CEO. He is currently leaving his position as executive vice president of Cisco. Listwin "could pretty much pick any company on the planet to go work for; it's a big endorsement that he chose us," Corfam said.
Software.com, in Santa Barbara, Calif., is at www.software.com. Phone.com, in Redwood City, Calif., is at www.phone.com.
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