Nokia Does Another Buy: Mobile Marketing Company Enpocket
Updated below: Nokia (NYSE:NOK) has made another mobile content/marketing buy: it has bought Boston-based mobile marketing company Enpocket, though the price is not clear, WSJ reports. The company was founded in 2001, and got $2 million last year from venture debt firm Leader Ventures. It has received a total of $25 million in venture capital funding. The 120-person company works with Sprint Nextel, Vodafone and Bharti Airtel of India, and has ad clients such as Hyundai and Pepsi.
This Nokia buy follows its buyout of social net Twango, and online/mobile music service Loudeye, and its efforts to launch content and applications on its new handsets.
Updated: it has been officially announced, and Nokia’s Mobile Advertising business unit will be headquartered in Enpocket’s Boston office and Enpocket CEO Mike Baker will lead Nokia’s new unit, according to bizJournals.
Posted In: Advertising, Money, M&A & Venture Capital, Companies, Nokia
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Comments (5)
Sep 17, 2007 7:13 AM
The surprising move by the Finnish company is support our view that at the end of the day the content is the king, and the way to reach the subscribers is through the rich media channel.
Nokia took a bit conservative approach by targeting formats such SMS and MMS but still, it does reinforce our vision. Delivering promotions and advertising to the end users in the space of rich content, such as games, live video and IM, intend to gain higher acceptance among the audience.
Sep 17, 2007 2:21 PM
It’s not surprising at all, Nokia and the rest of the industry has been going down this path for a while. It is finally reaching mass adoption. Nokia Venture partners has been an investor in Enpocker since 2001.
Boston is a very large mobile hub with many of the top firms for mobile marketing, content, advertising being based here. I think the mobile advertising industry is about to explode and they will do very well with Nokia backing them. Expect some additional acquisions coming from Nokia and rolling them up into this new unit.
Sep 17, 2007 6:43 PM
Nokia has an interesting strategy emerging for a handset maker. It seems smart to add a leading mobile marketing company, such as Enpocket, into the fold. Strategically, the carriers have always been the 800 lb gorilla in the room, controlling handsets, software, and access. Nokia now owns handsets, a music service to deliver content into those handsets, a social network (mosh.nokia.com and twango.com), and now an advertising platform/mobile marketing company. They have their hand in almost everything mobile at this point in time. Being able to vertically integrate the mobile experience for the consumer, from using the phone to update their blogs, maintain social networks, listen to music, etc, is also good for an advertiser and a potentially strong revenue engine other than handset sales. The odd part though is they are buying a slew of US companies, but their handset market share in the US is slim compared to their European dominance.
Sep 19, 2007 11:33 AM
Does anyone know the figures of the acquisition?
Sep 19, 2007 5:44 PM
they’re positioning themselves well, they anticipate the impact the iPhone will have in mobile based social media, so they’re trying to get there first.
The problem is, the iPhone is much easier to use than anything Nokia has to offer, this is what will attract content developers..