News

Sun set to acquire Pixo

• By John K. Waters
• July 7, 2003

The three pillars of Sun Microsystems' (http://www.sun.com) new branding strategy -- which debuted at last month's JavaOne developer conference -- are mobility, consumer products and gaming. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based computer maker has now reinforced all three by finalizing its agreement to acquire Pixo Inc., a maker of tools that manage the distribution of games, ring tones, and various digital content to cell phones and other wireless devices.

Sun disclosed last week that it has agreed to acquire the privately held software company in an all-cash deal. Sun said the deal is expected to close this summer.

Founded in 1996, San Jose, Calif.-based Pixo (http://www.pixo.com) provides network operators with Java-based server software designed to manage the secure distribution and monetization of digital content for end users' mobile devices.

The company's flagship product, the Pixo Mobile Download Server (MDS), is high-performance server software that allows wireless operators to manage the delivery of content applications over the air to subscribers. The Pixo MDS is designed to separate content aggregation, presentation and delivery into separate 'Managers.'

Pixo officials say the architecture enables wireless operators to manage content centrally and customize multiple subscriber interfaces and ensure fast downloads. The current version of the product (3.6) provides a consolidated download platform from which operators can add, manage, market, download and bill for all types of wireless content, regardless of where that content is physically located.

'The adoption of Java technology and the Java Card Subscriber Identity Module [SIM] standard are unleashing revenue opportunities on a sea of new and emerging devices,' said Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's EVP of software.

At the close of the sale, Sun officials said Pixo will become part of the firm's so-called Project Orion platform, which calls for converging Sun's software offerings into a predictable, scheduled quarterly release of an integrated software system distributed on the Solaris operating system, Solaris x86 Platform Edition and Linux, according to company officials.