VeriSign Inc. has agreed to acquire Jamba AG, a Berlin, Germany-based wireless content and services provider, for US$273 million in cash and stock, VeriSign said Monday.
The acquisition is expected to close by the end of June and is subject to German regulatory approvals,VeriSign said in a statement.
Jamba will be integrated into VeriSign’s Communications Services group, which provides network, database, billing and content services to thousands of wireless and wireline telecommunications, said Stratton Sclavos, chairman and chief executive officer of VeriSign. A majority of VeriSign’s customers are in the U.S., including AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and SBC Communications Inc.
Jamba’s acquisition is part of VeriSign’s growth strategy in Europe, Sclavos said. The German company currently provides content distribution and billing services to 13 wireless carriers in nine European countries, including U.K.-based Vodafone Group PLC, Germany’s T-Mobile International AG and the Netherlands’ KPN NV.
Jamba has amassed a database of more than 50,000 downloadable songs, graphics, games and applications, which are distributed to European cellular phone users through 180 content publishers, Sclavos said. “Jamba provides over 80 per cent of the downloadable music and graphics for the Vodafone Live service,” he said, adding that digital-content downloading was heating up as an industry.
Of the US$273 million, VeriSign will pay to Jamba 65 per cent in cash and 35 per cent in stock. Approximately 300 Jamba employees will join VeriSign as part of the transaction.
VeriSign stock (VRSN) closed Monday up 3.4 per cent at US$18.35 on the Nasdaq stock exchange. In after-hours trading, it was down 2.5 per cent at US$17.90, according to information from Inet ATS Inc.
