News

More deals on the way for NewBay

"Mobile software firm NewBay is believed to be on the verge of signing another major deal with a large mobile operator, following an agreement last week with American mobile operator US Cellular that will see its LifeCache software used by 6.2 million customers. Company sources declined to comment on the identity of the new customer, but it is believed to be a European firm.

NewBay’s LifeCache is an online service that is hosted on NewBay’s servers and can be accessed from any phone on the US Cellular network. NewBay chief marketing officer Nagappan Arunachalam said that LifeCache will replace an existing solution provided by a rival firm, which means the deal will present NewBay with an active user base. Arunachalam declined to comment on the value of the deal, but did state that it was not a revenue-sharing agreement.

NewBay will receive a licensing fee for use of the software, in addition to fees for the number of customers who actively use the service. This is the third US operator that NewBay has signed up to use the service, following earlier deals with T-Mobile and Alltel, which is being taken over by Verizon. NewBay was last week exhibiting at CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment exhibition in Bellevue, Washington and, aside from the US Cellular deal, also announced details on its latest product offering, version two of its LifeCache Social Networking software.

It allows users to access aggregate content from their social networking accounts from their mobile phone. It pulls information from Facebook, Bebo, YouTube and MySpace into a single feed, which is then viewable from a single web page on a mobile phone. Arunachalam said that this service is also hosted by NewBay from its own servers. Users will be able to click on links from the feed and access individual social networking sites and their associated services from it.

The company has yet to announce any customers for the product, but users of the first version include Vodafone, O2 and Orange. Founded in 2002, the company’s chief backer is Barry Maloney’s Balderton Capital. Propylon founders Declan Hogan and Paul McKeon are also investors in the company. According to its most recent accounts, revenues rose from €2.7 million in 2005 to €4.4 million in 2006, but the company had a €364,000 loss for the year after turning a profit of €719,000 in 2005. It had accumulated losses of €137,000"