News Corporation and VeriSign Announce Joint
Venture to Create Leading Global Mobile Entertainment Company
News Corporation to Acquire Controlling Interest in Jamba
World’s Largest Mobile Entertainment Company
Los Angeles, CA, and Mountain View, CA – September 12, 2006 –
News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A) and VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) today
announced a joint venture to form the world’s largest provider of mobile
entertainment. News Corp. will pay approximately $188 million
for a controlling interest in VeriSign’s wholly-owned Jamba subsidiary
and will combine it with Fox Mobile Entertainment assets.
The new company will merge the most technologically
advanced platform in the category with market-leading mobile content
production and delivery capabilities and will serve 30 territories with
a potential reach of more than a billion mobile subscribers.
The new company intends to retain the Jamster brand in the U.S. and
the Jamba brand worldwide.
Lucy Hood, formerly President of Fox Mobile Entertainment,
will become CEO of the joint venture. With key centers in Los
Angeles and Berlin, the new entity will be the industry’s only vertically
integrated mobile entertainment company with unique capabilities to
produce, market, sell and distribute mobile content.
"This is an important step in News Corp.’s strategy
of becoming the world’s leading digital media company,” said Peter Chernin,
News Corp. President and Chief Operating Officer. “We’re the most
powerful media company on the web with Fox Interactive Media, our aggressive
digital content deals have given consumers access to News Corp. programming
on every conceivable platform and we have already demonstrated innovation
in this emerging space with the Mobisode™ and Mobizzo.
“Wireless technology gives us an enormous opportunity
to reach billions of mobile phone users with our content. With
this new venture we’re looking forward to inventing new and compelling
ways to engage this exciting new audience.”
“We are excited to combine our unique mobile entertainment
expertise and direct to consumer assets with one of the most forward-thinking
media companies in the world. We look forward to working with
News Corp. to create compelling, interactive services that make an impact
on the next generation of wireless users,” said Stratton Sclavos, VeriSign’s
Chief Executive Officer.
Both entities forming this union are considered pioneers
in mobile entertainment.
Jamba was founded in 2000 and is considered a global
leader in off-deck delivery of mobile entertainment. The company
currently delivers content in 30 territories and has one of the industry’s
most advanced technology platforms. Jamba can immediately distribute
content in all of its territories, which is critically important in
an industry where most of the users are young people always looking
for the “next cool thing.” With its cutting-edge analytic tools,
Jamba has the real-time ability to track and optimize marketing, quickly
reacting to consumer needs and interests in order to be able to monetize
products and services.
News Corp’s Fox Mobile Entertainment group got its
start with American Idol text voting, which generated nearly 65 million
text messages this past season, up from 12,000 messages in the first
season in 2001. In a long list of firsts, the company also invented
the Mobisodes™ Series category, which led with the“24: Conspiracy” series,
the first made-for-mobile program to be Emmy-nominated, and launched
the first ad-sponsored video series, “Prison Break: Proof of Innocence.”
The company also launched the first media-backed cross-carrier mobile
entertainment service for consumers, Mobizzo.
The new Jamba will offer the world's widest aggregation
of content from music and media companies, as well as original content created
exclusively for mobile. Jamba partners include: Universal Music Group
and Warner Music, among others. In addition, Jamba and Fox Mobile
Studios have units that create original content ranging from the highly
successful Crazy Frog, to multiple animated characters, to genres such
as Manga, Activism, and X-Sports. The unit is expected to draw from
not only top Fox divisions but also News Corp companies around the world.
The new company will immediately become the largest
customer for VeriSign’s Digital Content Services (DCS) group, which
specializes in providing intelligent infrastructure and connectivity
solutions to enable the delivery of rich content over mobile and broadband
networks. Leading mobile operators, portals, media companies and
consumer brands around the world leverage the DSC platform to power
their interactive entertainment experiences. Fox’s Mobizzo unit
and Jamba are existing customers of DCS.
Under the agreement, Jamba will soon release its first
products and offerings as a new entity, following the close of the transaction,
including:
- MySpace Mobile
Store: In an alliance with MySpace, the largest and most popular
social networking site with more than 74 million users worldwide, Jamba
will be MySpace's global m-commerce partner. Jamba will build a unique
m-commerce engine to enable MySpace users to download ringtones, graphics
and animations from top music and media companies.
- The Simpsons Mobile: Coming soon, Jamba will exclusively offer mobile content
from the popular FOX series, The Simpsons, through the industry’s first
subscription package tied to exclusive content called the “Yellow Plan.”
Available to consumers for the first time, the “Yellow Plan” will include
an array of uniquely designed Simpsons mobile content, such as wallpapers,
screensavers, ringtones and video.
The transaction is expected to be finalized by the
end of 2006. Transaction is subject to the completion of definitive
agreements as well as the receipt of obtaining all required regulatory
approvals and the satisfaction of all other customary conditions.
About News Corporation
News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) had total assets
as of June 30, 2006 of approximately US$57 billion and total annual
revenues of approximately US$25 billion. News Corporation is a diversified
international media and entertainment company with operations in eight
industry segments: filmed entertainment; television; cable network programming;
direct broadcast satellite television; magazines and inserts; newspapers;
book publishing; and other. The activities of News Corporation are conducted
principally in the United States, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom,
Australia, Asia and the Pacific Basin.
About VeriSign
VeriSign, Inc. (Nasdaq: VRSN), operates intelligent infrastructure services
that enable and protect interactions across voice and data networks
anytime, from anywhere on multiple devices. Additional news and information
about the company is available at www.verisign.com.
For more information contact:
News Corp: Teri Everett, TEverett@newscorp.com,
310-369-2929
Fox Mobile Entertainment: Lynne Hentemann, lynne.hentemann@fox.com,
310-598-4813
VeriSign: Brian O’Shaughnessy, boshaughnessy@verisign.com,
650-426-5270
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
This communication contains statements that constitute forward-looking
statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements
are not guarantees of future performance or results and involve risks
and uncertainties, and that actual results or developments may differ
materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result
of various factors, including the inability of the parties to reach
agreement on definitive documentation or failure to close the contemplated
transactions, financial community and rating agency perceptions of the
company and its business, operations, financial condition and the industry
in which it operates and the factors described in News Corp.’s and VeriSign’s
respective filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including
the sections entitled "Risk Factors" and "Management's
Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations"
contained therein. News Corp. and VeriSign disclaim any obligation to
update the forward-looking statements contained herein.
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