Clickatell Merges with MultiMode, Inc
March 27, 2006 SAN MATEO, Ca - Clickatell, the premier global mobile message carrier, today announced a strategic merger with MultiMode, Inc., a well-respected application service provider that offers global delivery of time-critical notifications to communication devices of all types. At the same time, Clickatell also announced the relocation of its corporate headquarters from Cape Town, South Africa to the United States. Both companies are private and the terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company will operate as Clickatell, Inc. With this transaction, Clickatell is addressing the growing demand for mobile messaging services by extending its Short Message Service (SMS) capabilities to include multimodal messaging and alerting communications. Multimodal messaging allows users to choose on which devices they would like to be reached for time-critical alert messaging. Text, voice, email, fax and pager alerts can be sent to one or more communication devices according to customer preference; including every mobile phone, fax machine, land line phone, text pager and IP-connected device in the world. This represents a major extension to Clickatells product family and offers enterprise customers and employees unprecedented application-initiated mobile message delivery with significant cost efficiencies. The Clickatell/MultiMode merger brings to the U.S. proven solutions, such as real-time alerts for financial transactions that do not exist here today, said Pieter de Villiers, CEO of Clickatell. The MultiMode Global Messaging Service (MGMS) extends our messaging capabilities to devices beyond the mobile phone and allows us to deliver a truly any message, anywhere solution for corporate communication. The end result is a global messaging infrastructure that allows businesses to better communicate with their customers wherever their location and whatever their device preference. In a world plagued by identity theft and unauthorized account activity, financial institutions, governments and agencies around the world are embracing Clickatells end-to-end global messaging solutions as they deploy their Text Alert Programs. For example, banks can now alert any Internet banking client whenever someone logs into their online account, making it much harder for criminals to access bank accounts without being detected. In Europe, Asia and even Africa, this type of alert communication is becoming commonplace but it is now a fast-growing trend in America. "We are delighted to join with Clickatell, the global leader in the SMS mobile messaging space, said Tad Bogdan, former CEO and co-founder of MultiMode and now EVP Worldwide Sales at Clickatell. This merger underscores Clickatells commitment to providing mobile users with unparalleled mobile message delivery methods. Customers will now be able to receive real-time alert notifications on any communications device, anywhere in the world." Clickatell and MultiMode have collaborated on messaging and alerting services in the past including teaming together for the worldwide delivery of messaging for Oracle Corporation and its clients. Oracle uses messaging and alerting for calendar and email alerts, mobile sales force notifications, IT network events and emergency management. According to Forrester Research, the many flavors of messaging will account for more than 126 billion messages and $8.6 billion in revenue in the US in 2009, with short message service (SMS) dominating these numbers.
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