Subject: [NEXTEL-1] The Seattle Times Business Profile Column

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 17:15:43 -0500

http://cnniw.yellowbrix.com/pages/cnniw/Story.nsp?story_id=34290421&ID=cnniw&scategory=Telecommunications%3AWireless&

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The Seattle Times Business Profile Column

Source: The Seattle Times

Publication date: 2002-11-11

Nov. 11--WHAT: Mforma Group

WHAT IT DOES: Develops and distributes games for wireless phones.

WHO: Dan Kranzler is chairman and acting chief executive officer. He has
worked at McCaw Cellular (now AT&T Wireless), InfoSpace and AccessLine
Technologies.

STARTED: May 2001

GENESIS: Kranzler calls Mforma "an outgrowth of my frustration that the
cellular industry didn't have a solution" to deliver data applications to
their subscribers. There were lots of little pieces of the puzzle but not a
big comprehensive solution that was easy for the end user and the (carrier)."

STITCHING IT TOGETHER: Kranzler bought four small wireless start-ups --
Indiqu, NearMe, Cosant and HandsOn -- and put together a platform that could
aggregate games and deliver them to wireless subscribers.

WHERE: Corporate headquarters are in Kirkland, at Carillon Point, with
offices in San Diego and the U.K.

EMPLOYEES: 48

MONEY MAKERS: The company makes money three ways: licensing the platform
to wireless carriers, providing tools such as digital-rights management, and
sharing revenues from game sales with the developers and carriers.

Tiny games cost money? New phones that can download applications, also
known as Java or Brew phones, are now arriving on the market, charging between
$1 and $6 to download a game.

METRICS: Mforma offers more than 300 games to 50 wireless carriers in the
U.S. and Europe, including AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Cingular Wireless,
Sprint and T-Mobile.

GAMES: Titles range from soccer matches to dating games to simple attacks
sent through short text messages. The most popular so far is a Spider-Man
game. "What I want are simple and compelling games with five-minute
satisfaction," Kranzler said.

FUNDING: The company has not disclosed how much money it has raised but
its primary investor is eFund, a Kirkland venture fund that donates all
profits to children's education programs. Kranzler is also managing partner of
eFund. The companies Mforma acquired had collectively raised $40 million in
financing.

FUTURE: "Once I'm used to downloading games, well, why can't I buy a
movie ticket after I play a Spider-Man game? Why can't I buy a CD?" Kranzler
said. "Getting someone to go to their phone and buy a CD, that's difficult.
Getting someone to play a game, then buy the CD, that's not so difficult."

-----

To see more of The Seattle Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.seattletimes.com.

(c) 2002, The Seattle Times. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune
Business News.

AWE, VZ, VOD, BLS, SBC, FON, DT,

Publication date: 2002-11-11

© 2002, YellowBrix, Inc.

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