Is Rovio’s floatation ever going to happen? For some time now, we’ve been reading chatter about an imminent IPO. The latest date is 2013, the latest market is Hong Kong. And, this time, the company itself is making bold on-the-record plans…

Visage Mobile, the enterprise smartphone management developer formed out of the ashes of an MVNO-enabling business, has announced a Series C round of $3.6 million, led by Qualcomm (NSDQ: QCOM) Ventures. The announcement comes only eight months after Visage picked up $4.5 million in VC funding.

In addition to the ABC (NYSE: DIS) Player hitting the iPad App Store, its parent Disney has a number of special items for the iPad’s release on Saturday. Aimed at affluent, first-adopters with kids, Disney Publishing Worldwide has built two original Toy Story read-along apps for the iPad. These iPad…

*Disney* is rolling out a free iPhone app that includes live access to Radio Disney (NYSE: DIS), video clips from its TV shows, games and personalized greetings. The company already has a number of paid apps in the store—mostly games like Toy Story Mania and G-Force: The Game—but this new…

Remember Visage Mobile? The San Francisco-based company was one of the unlucky few that got caught up in the MVNO heyday. Founded in 2001, Visage helped Disney (NYSE: DIS) Mobile and others resell mobile services directly to consumers. It raised an astonishing $90 million in venture capital. Now that most…

Disney (NYSE: DIS) has unveiled the three handsets which it will offer in its Japanese MVNO, due to launch on March 1st. “Aimed at young working women, Disney Mobile will first offer three types of mobiles made by Japan’s Sharp, whose outer package is covered with silhouette patterns of Mickey…

Dutch mobile operator KPN has found success in Germany with the cut-rate, no-frills, no subsidized handsets mobile plan it offers through Base, a brand it had imported from Belgium. Indeed, as Businessweek notes in its feature article on KPN, it’s shaken up the Vodafone-T-Mobile “duopoly” in the country. While the…

Disney is planning another MVNO, this time in Japan according to the Nikkei business daily, reports Reuters. Not put off by two failures in the US, “Disney aims to win 1 million users by targeting families with an offer of handsets and downloads featuring Disney characters”. It will use Softbank’s…

Kid-targeting MVNO Kajeet is dangling a carrot for customers of the defunct Disney (NYSE: DIS) MVNO—a $50 airtime credit to all Disney Mobile customers who transfer their phone number to Kajeet by November 10th reports TMCnet. Kajeet targets the same audience with similar “parental control” features, but works on a…

What is Google (NSDQ: GOOG) thinking? I’m not being facetious, I really want to know… The company has a lot of mobile services available, and there are quite a few indications that it’s working on its own handset. Add to that its expressed interest in bidding for spectrum in the…

Updated below: Later this morning, sources close to the situation tell mocoNews.net, the Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) Company will announce that it is closing its second MVNO in as many years rather than continue to invest in the expensive service. The decision was based on a recommendation by the Walt…

Disney (NYSE: DIS) MVNO lasted 15 months, and its history, in link (reverse chronological order):—Disney MVNO: In Process of Evaluating—Disney Mobile, A Year Later—Interview: Steve Wadsworth, President, Walt Disney Interactive: Disney MVNO Post ESPN—Disney Mobile Drops UK Launch Due to “Competitive Environment”—Will The Disney-Branded MVNO Fare Better?—Disney Soft-Launches Mobile Phone…

Disney (NYSE: DIS) CFO Thomas Staggs spoke this morning at Merrill Lynch Media and Entertainment Conference in Marina Del Ray, and AlleyInsider picks up on it: Staggs said Disney has seen “some challenges” on Disney MVNO, and is “in the process of evaluating where we sit.” He said it needs…

Disney has a new mobile social network in Japan, called Wonder Days, described as a cross between Habbo Hotel and Mickey Mouse. It’s a rich Flash-based service where you can modify your avatar, shop at the Disney store and so on. Wireless Watch Japan has a post on it, as…

RCR has some stats from Disney on the usage of its kids-and-parents focused MVNO service Disney Mobile. About 30 percent of the MVNO’s subscribers make use of its GPS location tracking services, and parents who do so use the feature 14 times per month on average—or roughly every other day.…

The Billboard Mobile Entertainment Live at CTIA kicked off with a keynote by MTVN’s Greg Clayman (more on that in a bit). Now going on: an energetic staged showdown between the producer—Larry Shapiro, EVP, Business Development & Operations, WDIG—and the distributor—Jim Ryan, VP, Consumer Data Products, Cingular/AT&T, deftly moderated by…

Disney announced its Q3 results today, and not much details on mobile..some of them below: CFO Thomas Staggs said the investment in Disney Mobile’s launch “will be offset by the decreased spending at ESPN mobile, because we have transitioned that into a part of our licensing business, so that will…

Disney Mobile, the MVNO started by Disney and aimed at kids and parents, may have been feeling some heat from MobileESPN’s closure, and is trying better ways to market itself: it has started a holiday promo by lowering the cost of its handsets and offering a month of service for…

This articles starts: “The Walt Disney Co. will spend about $30 million to shut down its Mobile ESPN wireless telephone services, but remains “excited” about its family-oriented Disney Mobile phone service, Disney Chief Financial Officer Tom Staggs said on Monday.” The effect will be mainly in the fiscal year 2007.…