Useful Networks Acquires KnowledgeWhere, Location-Based Mobile Games and Advertising Leader
Kirchner and Company, Inc. acted as M&A Advisor and Agent to KnowledgeWhere Inc. Denver, Colorado, 13 August, 2008 – Useful Networks, leading developers of unique location aware applications for mobile phones, announces today the acquisition of Canada-based KnowledgeWhere, a leading provider of location-based services (LBS) mobile games and advertising applications. Founded in April 2003, KnowledgeWhere…
Kirchner and Company, Inc. acted as M&A Advisor and Agent to KnowledgeWhere Inc.
Denver, Colorado, 13 August, 2008 – Useful Networks, leading developers of unique location aware applications for mobile phones, announces today the acquisition of Canada-based KnowledgeWhere, a leading provider of location-based services (LBS) mobile games and advertising applications.
Founded in April 2003, KnowledgeWhere is best known for developing award winning platform technology to power location-based mobile entertainment products, such as games, social networking, and lifestyle applications KnowledgeWhere’s Location Application Platform (LAP) technology continues to power award winning and industry leading location-based mobile entertainment products, such as its own Swordfish and PhoneTag Elite game applications; and more recently is now powering measurable location-based advertising campaigns, with its unique suite of privacy managed location based advertising solutions and toolsets.
Useful Networks is an international provider of consumer-friendly mobile location technology products, like sniff, its location-based mobile “friend finder.” sniff (social network integrated friend finder) is a permission-based application that lets consumers locate their friends in real-time, automatically, anytime and anywhere with their mobile phone or from Facebook. This cross-carrier application was released in Scandinavia in November 2007 and in the United Kingdom in May 2008, with a U.S. launch slated for later this year.
“We are very excited to be incorporating the vision, technology and products of KnowledgeWhere into the Useful Networks portfolio of location-based services,” said Useful Networks CEO Brian Levin. “KnowledgeWhere’s access to great technology and their long tenure in location aware advertising and gaming complement our services nicely.”
“The decision to move forward with Useful Networks will undoubtedly provide both companies with more resources, technology and development,” said Jim George, founder and CEO of KnowledgeWhere. “We are pleased and excited to be a part of the Useful Networks family.”
Together, Useful Networks and KnowledgeWhere aim to take advantage of their complementary applications and technology to provide best-in-class LBS solutions for consumers, carriers and advertisers alike.
LBS represents an emerging opportunity for companies to connect with the Facebook Generation. A 2007 Jupiter Research report found 26 percent of cell phone owners between the ages of 18 to 24 want mobile social networking applications based on their friends’ locations.
Mobile advertising alone is projected to be a multi-billion business within three years. By 2011, PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts mobile Web advertising will make up 50 percent of the total mobile advertising spend, with the bulk of the remainder being spent on mobile search advertising and mobile broadcast television advertising.
For more information on Useful Networks and its unique location aware applications, visit http://www.useful-networks.com.
About Useful Networks
Useful Networks is a Denver-based company that delivers innovative mobile location technology products to end users via the Internet and mobile carriers. Founded in July 2006, Useful Networks powers cross-carrier location aggregation for both carriers and content providers. Their platform helps carriers reduce costs, time to market and complexity in launching location aware products. Useful Networks is a privately held subsidiary of Liberty Media. Liberty Media Corporation owns interests in a broad range of electronic retailing, media, communications and entertainment businesses. Those interests are attributed to three tracking stock groups: the Liberty Interactive group, which includes Liberty’s interests in QVC.com, Provide Commerce, Backcountry.com, BUYSEASONS, Bodybuilding.com, IAC/InterActiveCorp, and Expedia, the Liberty Entertainment Group, which includes Liberty’s interests in the DIRECTV Group, Inc., Starz Entertainment, FUN Technologies, Inc., GSN, LLC, Wildblue Communications, Inc., and Liberty Sports Holdings LLC, and the Liberty Capital group, which includes all businesses, assets and liabilities not attributed to the Interactive Group or the Entertainment Group including our subsidiaries Starz Media, LLC, Atlanta National League Baseball Club, Inc., and TruePosition, Inc., and minority equity investments in Time Warner Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corporation. For more information, please seehttp://www.libertymedia.com.
About KnowledgeWhere Inc.
KnowledgeWhere Inc. is a leading provider of location-based software and middleware solutions that deliver privacy managed, location enabled content and applications for the mobile entertainment and advertising sectors. Headquartered in Calgary, Canada, KnowledgeWhere develops and supports location-based entertainment and advertising products and services . The company’s products are designed with one thing in common, location, and supported by an array of technologies that are driving the location-based entertainment industry. For more information on KnowledgeWhere, visit http://www.knowledgewhere.com.