« The Cloud Weighs In On FON | Main | Euro VC at record level says Tornado Insider »
February 10, 2006
Esmertec's rollup continues
Its share price performance may be less than stellar since Esmertec raised about SFr100M last year on the Swiss stock exchange, but its ability to do M&A in the highly fragmented mobile java software market is pretty solid.
Before going public, Esmertec, whose claim to fame is a small-footprint virtual machine that runs Java code on mobilephones, completed five low-budget acquisitions of rivals, snapping up Kada Systems, Insignia Solutions, Esmertec Engineering Services KK (formerly eValley Inc.), OOVM and the mobile division of CoreTek Systems, within a three year period.
It just completed two more deals. Today, Esmertec said it paid €9.5M for France’s Cellicium, the highest amount it paid for an acquisition to-date, we believe. Another €3M could be paid if milestones are reached in the next year. It was a cash and stock based payment.
Cellicium, which is profitable, makes so-called subscriber self-service applications used by mobile network operators. It is a new market for Esmertec to attack beyond the cellphone, and will be the basis of a new business unit.
Esmertec also said it took a 20 percent stake in Silicon Valley based Javaground, a mobile phone games developer and tools for games developers, which could rollover into 100 percent ownership next year.
Jean Schmitt, Esmertec's secret weapon
We hear that board member and early investor, Jean Schmitt, a partner at Sofinnova in Paris, is a driving force in Esmertec's rollup activity. We've talked to entrepreneurs who've been on the other side of the negotiating table with him and they say he drives a hard bargain.
Schmitt says he is just straightforward and makes only one offer (at least that is what he told us at a recent private equity investment conference).
Whatever his strategy or style, when it is combined with Esmertec's management, it seems to be successful.
Posted on February 10, 2006 07:58 AM | Posted to Wireless | Permalink
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.thealarmclock.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/458
