News
Issue #2002 - 40 (October 2002)
(Updated Oct. 22, 2002)

ACQUISITIONS, MERGERS, INVESTMENTS & AGREEMENTS

Sony Puts its Money Where Clie OS Is and IXI secures US$ 15m in third round

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 8, 2002 - PalmSource, Inc., today announced that it has received a $20 million minority equity investment by Sony Corporation that will result in its ownership of about six percent share of PalmSource. This investment, combined with expanded business and technical collaboration agreements enhances both companies' strategic commitment to grow the Palm Economy. 

IXI secures USD 15m in third round
14 October 2002 -- IXI Mobile, a developer of a platform for personal area networks (PANs) has received USD 15m in third round funding. The round was led by TLcom, a European venture capital company. IXI's previous investors, including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Gemini and TI, also participated. 

IXI has developed software technology for a personal mobile gateway (PMG), a match box sized device which connects to a cellular network and then uses Bluetooth to interconnect a range of peripherals in a PAN. By separating the cellular interface from the client devices, IXI enables the individual peripherals to be smaller, more power efficient and less expensive to manufacture. It also supplies a server platform which enables operators to manage the PMG remotely. 

The company has raised USD 45m in funding since its launch in December 2001. 

Palm Invests in Content Spin-off
15 October 2002 -- Palm has announced an undisclosed investment in Mobile Digital Media (MDM), a software publishing company led by former Palm COO Barry Cottle and chaired by Satjiv Chahil, former Chief Marketing Officer at Palm. MDM will focus on supplying content and applications on MMC and SD media. 

The investors -- including Palm -- together hold a minority interest in the new company. In addition, a long-term strategic relationship has been created whereby Palm will provide Mobile Digital Media access to Palm's distribution channel, preferred promotion, and other sales support.

MultiMediaCard (MMC) and SD media are postage-stamp-sized cards that are used inmillions of handheld computers, smartphones, MP3 players, still and video cameras, and printers worldwide. The media easily stores applications, text, images, video and audio files or combinations of the above. Additionally, SD media includes input/output capabilities that enable small but sturdy digital cameras, bar-code readers, sensors and other devices. Blank versions of both types of cards can be used for storage and backup.

Palm believes Mobile Digital Media's established momentum in an emergingbusiness and its single focus will help it succeed quickly. "Mobile Digital Media will dramatically increase the content available on
SD and MultiMediaCard media," said Cottle. "This industry-standard media brings new ways to use mobile and desktop solutions, and new reasons to buy SD/ MultiMediaCard-capable solutions. Our focus will be on leveraging our advantage as a leading publisher on expansion media to attract high-quality
content and grow the market."

"Palm benefits from Mobile Digital Media because it will create even more choices for content that exploit the world's most popular brand of handheldcomputers," said Todd Bradley, president and chief executive officer, Palm Solutions Group. "Palm customers will benefit, too, because their handhelds will become even more attractive and versatile. And our expansive retail and online distribution channels will provide an immediate, established and growing channel."

SD/ MultiMediaCard Background
"SD/ MultiMediaCard has far greater capacity then CD-ROM. It's a sleek and sturdy industry-standard approach to content storage and I/O for mobile devices. The growth potential is huge," said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies. "As of February, there were about 2.1 million SD/MMC-enabled handhelds sold worldwide. We predict that by 2006, that number will grow to 350 million handheld appliances worldwide*." 

For more information: www.palmsource.com  http://www.ixi.com http://www.mmca.org and http://www.sdcard.org

MobileInfo Comments and Advisory: Selective investments continue to be made in mobile device and wireless space. This should be good news for startups.

Note: This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Readers should take appropriate caution in developing plans utilizing these products, services and technology architectures.  All trademarks used in this summary are the property of their respective owners.