Wind River To Accelerate Mobile Services Presence In APAC

Wind River, a player in the Device Software Optimisation (DSO) space, has announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire MIZI Research, a privately-held company based in Seoul, Korea, that focuses on the development of mobile application platforms based on embedded Linux. Founded in 1999, MIZI currently has 65 employees and is one of the earliest Linux pioneers in the mobile market. With this acquisition, Wind River expects to gain access to world-class mobile expertise that can be leveraged across its various mobile alliances as well as accelerate its mobile services presence in Asia Pacific.

Under the terms of the agreement, Wind River will pay up to $16 million in cash to acquire substantially all of the outstanding shares of MIZI. The completion of the acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to occur in Wind River’s third fiscal quarter ending October 31, 2008.

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A number of fast-growing consumer electronic market segments are turning towards Linux and developing common requirements based on mobility, wireless connectivity, location-based services, feature-rich user interfaces and the promise of a rapidly expanding ecosystem of mobile and connected applications derived from the desktop. Wind River is targeting a number of vertical markets as Linux growth opportunities, including automotive infotainment, mobile handsets and mobile Internet devices. Each of these segments require Wind River to rapidly expand its mobile Linux services delivery capability as well as deepen the value of its product offering tailored to these markets, which is the competency that MIZI has been developing for nearly a decade. Wind River’s mobile Linux strategy is focused on open standards and consortia, and it is expected that MIZI’s mobile expertise will be redeployed on these projects and provide a basis for differentiation.

“Wind River is targeting the mobile device market as a strategic growth opportunity within our Linux business. With the addition of the MIZI team to Wind River, we will benefit from their mobile expertise in areas such as telephony, feature-rich user interfaces and multimedia, as well as their world-class mobile systems integrator expertise, complementing our current efforts across a variety of mobile alliances,” said Ken Klein, chief executive officer, Wind River. “This acquisition will provide us with access to a talented pool of experts in mobile Linux and enable us to accelerate our mobile services presence in Asia Pacific.”