[February 14th 2000] Phone.com has announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire
Onebox.com for approximately $850 million in Phone.com common stock. Headquartered
in San Mateo, California, Onebox.com is a leading communications application service provider with 2.5 million registered users worldwide utilizing
unified email, voicemail, fax, and wireless-enabled communication applications. Onebox.com's suite of applications will be integrated with
Phone.com's offerings and will be delivered as outsourced solutions or standalone products to telecom and Internet-based service providers
worldwide.
"Phone.com has successfully created the leading Internet-based application platform for wireless telecommunications," said Alain Rossmann, chairman and
chief executive officer of Phone.com. "We now significantly broaden our target markets and product offerings with Onebox.com's advanced Unified
Messaging applications. Together we will provide telecom and Internet-based
service providers a time-to-market advantage in deploying the
next-generation killer applications as the convergence of the Internet and wireless telephony accelerates. I am pleased to welcome Onebox.com's
experienced team to Phone.com, and to announce that Onebox.com's chief executive officer, Ross Bott, will join Phone.com as chief operating officer
for our product groups."
"The demand for unified messaging solutions is robust, as evidenced by Onebox.com's success in adding 2.5 million subscribers in just six months,"
said Ross Bott, chief executive officer of Onebox.com. "Users enjoy universal access to email, voicemail, and faxes from their phone,
Internet-connected PC, or browser-enabled mobile phone. Onebox.com's offerings combined with Phone.com's extensive footprint of over 50 wireless
operators and powerful sales channels should accelerate the deployment of these advanced unified messaging solutions. I am delighted to assume my new
responsibilities at Phone.com."
Based on a highly scalable and reliable IP infrastructure, Onebox.com has designed its architecture to deliver high-quality carrier class services
that scale to support millions of subscribers and to support future innovations in communications technology. Phone.com will offer Onebox.com's
applications by providing state-of-the-art unified messaging solutions as an outsourced service or as standalone products. This choice gives telecom and
Internet-based service providers the ability to rapidly deliver the
messaging services consumers demand.
"Over the past two months we have executed a strategy to acquire the best-of-breed applications for next-generation communication services," said
Alan Black, chief financial officer of Phone.com. "With the acquisition of @Motion, Paragon, and now Onebox.com, Phone.com has raised the bar yet
another level and has re-written the competitive landscape in the wireless Internet industry. In addition to strengthening our competitive position at
the infrastructure level, we have now leapfrogged our competitors at the applications layer. These acquisitions expand our target markets and are
expected to fuel revenue acceleration."
In connection with the acquisition, Onebox.com's shareholders will receive a fixed number of approximately 6.5 million shares of Phone.com common stock.
The stock-for-stock transaction will be accounted for using purchase accounting and closing is anticipated to occur during Phone.com's fourth
quarter of fiscal 2000. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approval. Integration of the two companies and
their products is expected to occur rapidly. Onebox.com's 70 employees will be fully integrated into
Phone.com.
