www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Investment bankers have been hired by US-based pre-paid specialist MetroPCS to advise it on the potential acquisition of Leap Wireless. Earlier it was publicly admitted by Leap Wireless that it has appointed Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to advise it on a sale as it looks for potential suitors.

In the past also, moves were prepared by MetroPCS for Leap making a USD5.5 billion all-stock takeover offer in September 2007, offering 2.75 of its own shares for every Leap share.

However, the offer was rejected by the board members of Leap Wireless saying it undervalued the company. JP Morgan Chase and Co has been approached by MetroPCS this time in an effort to facilitate a mutually agreeable deal this time around.

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have been hired by US cellco Leap Wireless to advise the operator on a sale as it looks for potential suitors. A number of potential buyers like MetroPCS, Verizon, and AT&T have been approached by Leap in the recent days.

MetroPCS made a USD5.5 billion all-stock takeover offer for Leap in early September 2007, offering 2.75 of its own shares for every Leap share. However, Leap rejected the offer in mid-September, citing that it undervalued the company.

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Google has just announced that it has acquired AdMob, the mobile advertising company, for $750 million.
Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, DFJ and Northgate Capital will see a huge upside from this investment.
AdMob founder Omar Hamoui sent the following letter to customers:
Today we announced that AdMob has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Google for $750 million. We are extremely excited about this new partnership and what it means for our advertiser, developer and publisher partners.
AdMob’s people, products and tools will continue to work to deliver successful campaigns for you and to effectively monetize your mobile traffic – no interruptions. Our product and engineering teams will keep building great products for our customers. Our sales team will keep working with our thousands of advertisers to deliver successful campaigns. Our business development team will keep working to maximize ad revenue for the more than 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications that make up AdMob’s publisher network.
After our deal closes, AdMob will work with Google to accelerate the pace of innovation in mobile and do an even better job for you. We believe this deal will benefit our advertisers, developers and publishers by:
*Increasing our investment in building innovative and engaging ad units across platforms and to further improve targeting and tracking.
*Building even more powerful relevance and optimization capabilities, and more powerful technology and tools to monetize mobile traffic.
*Increasing the effectiveness of display advertising on mobile devices by leveraging Google sales team, infrastructure and relationships.
*Improving the already high level of service and support we deliver to our advertisers, developers and publishers.
Google has written its own blog post announcing the Admob deal:
iPhone and Android users browse the Internet more often than anyone else [Morgan Stanley], contributing to Google’s 5x mobile search growth over the past two years
And a quarter of these same iPhone and Android users spend nearly 90 minutes per day using applications on their devices [AdMob]
Google has also set up a website to explain the benefits of the AdMob acquisition, detailing the rapidly growing (and still in its infancy) mobile advertising space. Google has also shown what it has currently vis-a-vis where admob is popular today:

Google has just announced that it has acquired AdMob, the mobile advertising company, for $750 million.

Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, DFJ and Northgate Capital will see a huge upside from this investment.

AdMob founder Omar Hamoui sent the following letter to customers:

Today we announced that AdMob has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Google for $750 million. We are extremely excited about this new partnership and what it means for our advertiser, developer and publisher partners.

AdMob’s people, products and tools will continue to work to deliver successful campaigns for you and to effectively monetize your mobile traffic – no interruptions. Our product and engineering teams will keep building great products for our customers. Our sales team will keep working with our thousands of advertisers to deliver successful campaigns. Our business development team will keep working to maximize ad revenue for the more than 15,000 mobile Web sites and applications that make up AdMob’s publisher network.

After our deal closes, AdMob will work with Google to accelerate the pace of innovation in mobile and do an even better job for you. We believe this deal will benefit our advertisers, developers and publishers by:

  • Increasing our investment in building innovative and engaging ad units across platforms and to further improve targeting and tracking.
  • Building even more powerful relevance and optimization capabilities, and more powerful technology and tools to monetize mobile traffic.
  • Increasing the effectiveness of display advertising on mobile devices by leveraging Google sales team, infrastructure and relationships.
  • Improving the already high level of service and support we deliver to our advertisers, developers and publishers.

Google has written its own blog post announcing the Admob deal:

iPhone and Android users browse the Internet more often than anyone else [Morgan Stanley], contributing to Google’s 5x mobile search growth over the past two years..

And a quarter of these same iPhone and Android users spend nearly 90 minutes per day using applications on their devices [AdMob]

Google has also shown in its press section,  what it has currently vis-a-vis where admob is popular today:

Google -Admob

Google -Admob

As Google points out, the deal follows similar acquisitions by traditional online companies looking to move into mobile:  AOL bought Third Screen Media more than two years ago, Yahoo picked up Actionality and Microsoft bought ScreenTonic.

Networking products provider Netgear has introduced the SPH200W, its latest Wi-Fi Skype phone with 802.11b/g compatibility. The phone enables its users to make calls at public Wi-Fi hot spots and via home networks. The white handset comes with a charging cradle and includes a speakerphone, support for seven languages and storage for up to 500 contacts. Talk time is estimated at four hours and standby time at 48 hours, double the amount of Netgear’s first Wi-Fi phone, the SPH101 released last year. No pricing and distribution details were available on the Netgear website.

   

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Netgear and Ubiquisys have collaborated to deliver a residential gateway with integrated DSL modem, Wi-Fi, VoIP and 3G femtocell technology. The Ubiquisys ZoneGate femtocell is a 3G access point that uses a mobile subscriber’s DSL connection to transport voice and data calls to the core network using a range of standards-based interfaces. Netgear and Ubiquisys are working to build this functionality into Netgear’s wireless gateways in order to provide mobile operators with the means to interact with home networks via 3G broadband networks. It is anticipated that the Netgear gateway integrating Ubiquisys’ femtocell technology will be available for operator testing by Q4, with commercial availability slated for early 2008.

   

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Networking products group Netgear has agreed to acquire Infrant Technologies, a specialist in network storage products, for USD 60 million cash. Founded in 2001, the privately-held Infrant targets entreprise-level products for small businesses and home users at affordable prices. Its ReadyNAS family of network attached storage products implements redundant array of independent disks data protection. The ReadyNAS lineup is powered by Infrant’s proprietary network storage processor, the Linux-based RAIDiator operating system and patent-pending Expandable Protection (X-RAID) technology. Netgear has agreed to pay an additional USD 20 million over the next three years if Infrant meets certain performance targets. Infrant’s CEO Paul Tien will become Netgear’s VP and general manager for storage products and its 34 staff will also join Netge.

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Netgear to capitalise on Qatar boom

TradeArabia writes…Netgear has launched a regional expansion programme directed at capitalising on the increasing levels of ICT growth throughout the region.

The move will see Netgear, a worldwide provider of technologically advanced networking products, operate from Qatar, in addition to the UAE, following increased levels of mobile phone and internet penetrations, especially among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.

‘We have achieved outstanding success in our Middle Eastern operations so far, registering more than Dh7.34 million ($1.99 million) in revenue since we opened our Dubai office only six months ago,’ said channel sales manager, Netgear Middle East, Ahmad Zeidan.

‘We also have established wide distribution channels covering Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Egypt, which underlines our ambitious expansion programme in the Middle East and our serious commitment to fulfilling the high market demands of the region.’

According to recent Madar reports, Qatar has experienced exceptional growth in its ICT industry in recent years and is currently ranked third on the Arab countries ICT Use Index.

Statistics indicate that in 2005, the country experienced an overall 32.73 per cent increase of ICT usage during the previous 12 months, in addition to a 76 per cent increase of internet users during the same period as a result of price reductions and speed upgrades.

Netgear’s decision to appoint a local Qatari representative is in line with its strategy to expand regional network by offering customers specialised and localised services to their requirements rather than addressing it remotely, said a Netgear official.