News Corp (NYSE: NWS) is overhauling its mobile operations after paying VeriSign (NSDQ: VRSN) $200 million for its remaining 49 percent state in Jamba, the mobile content company. This marks the end to the company’s whirlwind history, which succeeded with the rise of ringtones, only to struggle as it faced…

VeriSign’s (NSDQ: VRSN) effort to capitalize on mobile content through its acquisition of Jamba is officially over. VeriSign tried to keep skin in the game through a JV with News Corp (NYSE: NWS). selling 51 percent in May 2007 for $187.5 million and a merger with Fox Mobile Entertainment. Today,…

MySpace’s long-awaited music music store is going live tonight at 9:00 PM PT/12:00 AM ET. EMI, the last major holdout among the major labels is now on board, as is major indie The Orchard (NSDQ: ORCD). Because EMI only signed on at the last second, the label’s entire catalog will…

Jakob Kuznicki, a former executive at Jamba, also called Jamster in some countries, said he has launched Prizemo, a company that is pitching TV shows involving mobile participation to networks in the U.S. Prizemo raised $2 million in a first round of funding from an unnamed Dubai firm last November,…

Not necessarily a secret, but Verisign is divesting off its “non-core” businesses, and has done some of them, but is now hitting road bumps in selling off some of the bigger units, as it admitted in its Q208 results call today. “As market conditions have worsened, buyers are taking more…

Rafat was almost right on the button. In a meeting today, Jamba decided to stop developing its own mobile games, so is shutting its Ojom development unit. Berlin-based Ojom is actually one of VeriSign’s (NSDQ: VRSN) contributions to the venture with News Corp (NYSE: NWS). which will now concentrate only…

What will happen tomorrow at Jamba? The mobile content company which is majority owned by News Corp (NYSE: NWS). and rest owned by Verisign, has a big meeting tomorrow, according to Rupert Murdoch, who was speaking tonight at the D conference in Carlsbad, CA. Murdoch confessed he didn’t know that…

Update: Jamster COO Lee Fenton will be succeeded by Kaj Hagros, an Airwide Solutions VP, at the start of July. Jamster (via emailed release) said Englishman Fenton “has decided to return to London at the end of June to pursue other opportunities and join his family on a full-time basis.”…

Verisign, which sold off a 51 percent stake in Jamba/Jamster to News Corp in early 2007, has released some more details on developments since, in its 10-K, filed last week with SEC: —On investing more in Jamba over 2007: “Fox paid VeriSign (NSDQ: VRSN) approximately $192.4 million in cash for…

EMI has licensed Jamba to provide what the News Corp (NYSE: NWS). and Verisign-owned mobile entertainment outfit says is the label’s first DRM-free repertoire in Europe to cross both mobile and the PC, we’ve learned. Though tracks may not appear online for another couple of months, the deal was signed…

Nokia’s (NYSE: NOK) former southeast Asia sales VP Mauro Montanaro is just eight days in to his role as Jamba’s CEO, having switched from hardware maker to content player. But the Italian, who replaces Lucy Hood after her departure in October, already has strong views on where to take the…

Nearly four months after the departure of former head Lucy Hood, mobile entertainment firm Jamba has appointed Nokia (NYSE: NOK) veteran Mauro Montanaro as its new CEO. Forty-three year old Montanaro was most recently Nokia’s head of cell phone sales and channel development for the South East Asia Pacific which…