Apptix Acquires WebMessenger, a Technology Leader in Mobile Instant Messaging and Presence Management.Acquisition Will Accelerate Apptix's Delivery of On-Demand Unified Communications The real time redirection of a voice, text or e-mail message to the device closest to the intended recipient at any given time. For example, voice calls to desk phones could be routed to the user's cellphone when required. Solutions for the SMB Market See SMB. HERNDON, Va. -- Apptix, (OSE OSE - Open Systems Environment :APP), the premiere provider of unified on-demand business communications solutions for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), today announced the acquisition of WebMessenger, Inc., a market leading technology company with a suite of Mobile Instant Messaging Mobile Instant Messaging abbreviated as MIM is a presence enabled messaging service that aims to transpose the Internet desktop messaging such as ICQ or MSN experience to the usage scenario of being connected via a mobile/cellular device. (IM) products that work across more devices, platforms, and public & private IM networks than any other provider. WebMessenger provides Apptix with market-ready mobile messaging & collaboration products See collaborative software. and extensive engineering expertise in critical emerging Mobile IM and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) markets. Founded in 1993, WebMessenger is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA and maintains a fully-owned subsidiary in Sofia, Bulgaria. The company's flagship customers include IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) , Genentech, Lehman Brothers, MetLife, Verizon and Sprint. WebMessenger will expand Apptix's existing portfolio of on-demand Email, Collaboration and Voice solutions to include business-class Mobile and Desktop IM. WebMessenger's IM solution empowers mobile workers with real-time communications with colleagues, partners and customers, while providing critical business-class functionality, such as security and IM conversation archiving. More importantly, the application allows users to communicate across public and private IM networks, including AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. , MSN (1) (MicroSoft Network) A family of Internet-based services from Microsoft, which includes a search engine, e-mail (Hotmail), instant messaging (Windows Live Messaging) and a general-purpose portal with news, information and shopping (MSN Directory). , Yahoo, ICQ ("I Seek You") A conferencing program for the Internet from Mirabilis, Tel Aviv, Israel (www.icq.com). It provides interactive chat, e-mail and file transfer and can alert you when someone on your predefined list has also come online. , GoogleTalk, Jabber An open standard for instant messaging (IM). There are tens of thousands of Jabber servers on the Internet, most of which are privately run within a company or college campus. There are also hundreds of public Jabber servers that any user can register with, Google Talk being the largest. , Skype, IBM Lotus Sametime Lotus Sametime is an enterprise instant messaging and web conferencing application sold by the Lotus Software division of IBM. Lotus Sametime provides enterprise instant messaging functionality, presence information, and web conferencing. , Jabber XCP XCP Extensible Communications Platform (Jabber) XCP eXtended Copy Protection (First 4 Internet; UK) XCP Explicit Control Protocol XCP Expendable Current Profiler , Microsoft Live Communications Server (LCS LCS - Language for Communicating Systems ) and Reuters Messaging. WebMessenger's Mobile IM is offered to its SMB (1) (Small to Medium-sized Business) Also called "SME" (small to medium-sized enterprise), it refers to companies that are larger than the small office/home office (SOHO), but not huge. customers in a hosted model, which will allow Apptix to extend this offering to its existing 150,000 subscribers. "The acquisition of WebMessenger will bring the cost benefits and productivity enhancing features of Mobile IM and Presence Management to our 150,000 SMB users," said Amir Hudda, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Apptix. "Furthermore, it provides Apptix with the necessary IP to deliver on our vision of on-demand unified communications for the SMB market." In addition to the products that WebMessenger adds to Apptix's solutions offerings, this acquisition creates access to new channels, including wireless carriers, mobile device manufacturers and additional resellers. "The fall of the wall separating asynchronous Refers to events that are not synchronized, or coordinated, in time. The following are considered asynchronous operations. The interval between transmitting A and B is not the same as between B and C. The ability to initiate a transmission at either end. tools such as email, calendaring and team sites from real-time tools such as instant messaging, presence and conferencing tools will be achieved through customer adoption of unified communications solutions over the next few years," said Mark Levitt, vice president for Collaborative Computing at IDC. "Apptix's acquisition of WebMessenger will provide key enabling technologies to help break down the async vs. real-time walls for Apptix customers." Along with business-class IM, Apptix will leverage WebMessenger's presence management technology as a core component of its unified communications application. Scheduled for delivery in late 2007, this application will integrate five key solutions including email, voice mail, IM, voice conferencing and web conferencing. Providing the presence status of individuals is the most fundamental requirement of a truly unified experience across these applications. WebMessenger's robust and scalable presence engine will enable seamless communications anytime, anywhere - including support of over 50 different smartphones and PDAs. "This is a great opportunity for a strong industry leader like Apptix to leverage WebMessenger's presence management technology, comprehensive IP and development expertise to address the growing market demand for advanced messaging and collaboration solutions," said Val Babajov, president, chief executive officer and founder of WebMessenger. "In my new role as the vice president and general manager for the WebMessenger division, I'm committed to driving the benefits of integrating WebMessenger's Mobile IM and Mobile VoIP technologies with the Apptix product line to guarantee our customers a portfolio of on-demand service offerings that meet all of their unified communication needs." WebMesssenger's product portfolio includes: * WebMessenger Mobile Platform: Presence & mobile IM for the enterprise. * WebMessenger Mobile IM Service: Hosted mobile IM services for SMBs, with support for BlackBerry, Palm, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile 5.0/6.0, and Symbian devices. * WebMessenger Message Alerts for BlackBerry: Business productivity tool that provides rules-based alerting that significantly reduces the clutter of email on BlackBerry devices. * WebMessenger Mobile for Skype: Provides presence, IM, and conferencing on leading mobile devices for Skype users. * Mobile Enterprise Search for BlackBerry: Remote desktop and corporate data, email and file search solution marketed in conjunction with X1 Technologies. WebMessenger has unparalleled product and technology depth that spans multiple platforms, devices and networks: * Cross Platform: Flexible, on-premise server architecture runs on several popular operating system/database configurations: Windows/SQL, Linux/PostGreSQL, Solaris/Oracle, AIX/DB2. * Cross Devices: Native applications for the BlackBerry, Palm Treo, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile 5.0/6.0 mobile devices, Symbian phones from Nokia and Ericsson, and J2ME (Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition) A version of Java 2 for cellphones, PDAs and consumer appliances. J2ME uses the K Virtual Machine (KVM), a specialized Java interpreter for devices with limited memory. phones offering a highly optimized and customized user experience. * Cross Public IM Networks: Supports all leading consumer IM networks: AOL, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, GoogleTalk, Jabber and Skype. * Cross Private IM Networks: Supports all leading enterprise IM networks: IBM Lotus Sametime, Jabber XCP, Microsoft Live Communications Server (LCS), and Reuters Messaging. * Cross Wireless Networks: Provides highly evolved and robust connectivity over all of the leading wireless carrier networks. Apptix acquired WebMessenger for $7M USD USD In currencies, this is the abbreviation for the U.S. Dollar. Notes: The currency market, also known as the Foreign Exchange market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average volume of over US $1 trillion. , of which $4M was paid in cash at the time of closing and $3M will be paid in cash or stock at the company's option one year from the closing date. The acquisition closed on April 30, 2007. About Apptix Apptix (OSE:APP), founded in 1997, is a premiere provider of on-demand messaging and collaboration solutions to over 150,000 subscribers across more than 14,000 organizations worldwide. Its Software as a Service offerings, including Hosted Microsoft Exchange, Hosted Microsoft SharePoint, Hosted Mobile Instant Messaging (IM), Mobile Messaging, and Archiving & Compliance, provide small and medium-sized businesses with a reliable, secure and cost effective alternative to purchasing and managing software applications in-house. IBM, Hewlett Packard, Bell Canada, Savvis and others have selected Apptix to provide on-demand services to their customers. Apptix is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner for Hosting and Application Services. Apptix's brands include www.ASP-One.com, www.MailStreet.com, and www.Mi8.com, which provide Exchange Hosting and essential add-on services, www.SharePointSite.com, which provides Hosted SharePoint, and www.WebMessenger.com, which provides Hosted Mobile IM. The company is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia, with additional locations across the United States, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.apptix.com. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners. |
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