Symantec to Acquire Altiris

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CUPERTINO, Calif. – Jan. 29, 2007 – Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Altiris, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATRS), a leading provider of IT management software that enables businesses to easily manage and service network-based endpoints – from mobile devices, laptops, and desktops to servers and storage assets. Under the terms of the agreement, Altiris stockholders will receive $33 per share of Altiris common stock in cash, resulting in a transaction value of approximately $830 million net-of-cash-acquired. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory and Altiris stockholder approvals, and is expected to close in the second calendar quarter of 2007.

Symantec’s acquisition of Altiris should bolster its position and leverage its strengths on the enterprise endpoint. Symantec helps businesses protect their endpoints with leading security, compliance, and backup and recovery solutions for mobile devices and PCs to servers and storage assets. Altiris helps companies manage their endpoints and the configuration of those assets. With the Altiris solutions, Symantec expects to be able to help customers better manage and enforce security policies at the endpoint, identify and protect against threats, and repair and service assets.

Mobile TV Gets Personal with M1 MeTV

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24 January, 2007: For the generation of young Singaporeans who grew up on reality television and the popular culture of video sharing, M1 is offering them the opportunity to be producers and stars of their own video clips with the launch of MeTV tomorrow.

MeTV can be an enriching experience in more ways than one. Besides sharing their creativity with rest of Singapore, the owners of these video clips will be paid by M1 every time someone views their clips.

A first in Singapore, MeTV brings video sharing opportunities into the palms of mobile phone users. Customers simply upload their video clips onto the MeTV site via multi-media messaging (MMS) and wait for the cash to roll in.

StarHub And Visiware To Launch The First Triple-Play Gaming Offer In Asia

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Singapore and Paris, France, 29 January 2007 – StarHub, Singapore’s largest pay-TV operator, and Visiware, the world’s leading provider of interactive TV games channels, announced today the launch of Playin’TV Triple Play – the first triple-play gaming offer in Asia that will be made available to customers of StarHub from 1 February 2007.

 

Subscribers of StarHub Digital Cable’s Playin’TV (Channel 401) will be able to play selected triple-play games, such as Sudoku and Carrot Mania on Ice via StarHub’s mobile platform and the Internet for free, thanks to Visiware’s Playin’Code technology.

More Asian Consumers Embracing Mobile Video

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Asia-Pacific mobile video subscription rates and revenues will grow significantly over the next few years, as handset capabilities and broadcast technology become more advanced, and events like the 2008 Olympic games spur growth, reports In-Stat (http://www.in-stat.com). Mobile video revenues in Asia/Pacific will reach US$3.1 billion in 2010. With the maturing of large Asia/Pacific mobile markets like Japan and South Korea, as well as rapid growth of new markets like China and India, mobile video will be a valuable new stream of revenue for carriers.

A recent report by the high-tech market research firm found the following:

• Japan and South Korea will be the largest markets, with US$1 billion and US$810 million in revenues, respectively, in 2010.
• 20.8% of all respondents to an In-Stat consumer survey indicated that they download and play mobile videos.
• 3G mobile video users spent around 43% more per month on mobile video than 2G mobile video users.

This Market Alert is drawn from the In-Stat research, In-Sights: Mobile Video in Asia/Pacific: Ready to Soar (#IN0602837AW), which covers the market for mobile video services the Asia/Pacific region. It includes forecasts of mobile video revenue through 2010 for the region and for major countries. It also contains results of In-Stat’s Mobile Content Survey 2006, which gauged consumer interest and usage levels of mobile content in the Asia/Pacific region.

The price is $2,495 (US).

Mobile Number Portability (MNP) – Friend or Foe?

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Synopsis from Frost & Sullivan:

Mobile number portability (MNP) has been implemented in stages in Asia Pacific markets, with the developed markets of Hong Kong, Australia, and Singapore being the early adopters. The push for MNP implementation in the industry has always been led by market regulators in an effort to provide mobile consumers with the freedom to move between service providers, with eventual hopes that it will lead to healthy competition in the mobile industry.

Meanwhile, mobile service providers have been generally adverse to MNP for fear that its deployment would lead to greater increase in subscriber churn rates. Nevertheless, while MNP reduces one of the main barriers to subscriber churn, which is the custody of the same mobile number, its potential negative effects to subscriber retention are likely to be over-rated. Service providers should also realize that MNP brings competitive opportunities for intrepid service providers to leverage on.

This market insight discusses the implementation and impact of MNP in the Asia Pacific region. Read more here.