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The Dublin, Calif., software vendor Sybase Inc. is making a play for a bigger role in the mobile payment business through its purchase of a German application developer.
"Our belief is that mobile devices will become extremely prominent in the way people buy goods and services," Marty Beard, the president of Sybase 365 Inc., a Sybase unit that focuses on mobile applications and services, said in an interview.
The deal for Paybox Solutions AG, which specializes in mobile commerce and payments, closed last month and was announced last week. Mr. Beard would not give a price.
"We're already in the mobile banking space," Mr. Beard said — more than 30 banks use its Sybase mBanking 365 software, which was introduced in October 2007 and provides mobile alerts, two-way banking services, out-of-band authentication, and marketing campaigns, primarily through the short message service, or text messages.
"We want to offer payment capability as part of that," Mr. Beard said.
In November, Sybase and Paybox struck an agreement to jointly provide mobile payments and person-to-person money transfers for both emerging and developed markets.
The acquisition allowed Sybase to round out its mobile financial services offerings, Mr. Beard said. "This is not just information delivery. Now you're transferring value."
Sybase 365 will be able to offer the "triple play" of text messaging, mobile Internet, and a client application that is downloaded to a user's mobile handset, he said. "SMS will always be a large part of mobile commerce, the dominant part."
Sybase Inc. said it believes a full suite of mobile commerce services would include payments, top-ups for cell phones, mobile banking, and emerging applications such as person-to-person transfers, mobile bill payments, and transactions completed at the point of sale using chips that are installed within handsets.
Though it is best known as a developer of computer databases and applications, competing against firms such as Oracle Corp. and SAP AG, Sybase has focused for most of this decade on creating what it has termed its "unwired enterprise" strategy, for delivering both enterprise data and increasingly mobile messaging and content to remote workers.
In the third quarter, mobility technology generated 31% of the parent company's $284 million of revenue.
Sybase 365, which the company formed in November 2006 following the purchase of Mobile 365 Inc., provides operator connectivity services to more than 700 mobile network operators around the world.
The unit enables remote mobile payments via text messaging for digital mobile content and services that are charged to subscribers' phone bills.
It also provides mobile Internet services to content providers and brands.
In May, Sybase 365 announced that it would provide mobile banking services to Compass Bank, a unit of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA of Madrid.
Compass said at the time that one factor in selecting the vendor was that the bank was already using Sybase's Financial Fusion software to run its online banking site.
Mr. Beard said financial services companies provide about 20% of Sybase's revenue. It said it does not expect the Paybox acquisition to have a material effect on this year's financial results.
Paybox, founded in 1999, is an established vendor in the mobile payment marker. It has said it was the first payments technology provider to offer mass-market mobile payment services in five European markets.
Its Paybox Money Mobilizer software offers cross-border remittance capabilities, prepaid mobile phone top-ups, bill payment, secure person-to-person payment features, and other financial services.
Paybox says on its Web site that it has helped establish operator-led, national mobile payment standards in Germany and Austria.
Mr. Beard said Paybox also has conducted implementations in several countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Western Europe.
In Canada, it participates in the Mobex mobile person-to-person money transfer service that was introduced in November by Royal Bank of Canada.
The Boston research and advisory firm Aite Group LLC said in a report released this month that Paybox and Sybase 365 ranked first and second, respectively, among 14 mobile banking vendors it surveyed for the breadth of their capabilities.
"Our research has shown Sybase 365 to be one of the fastest-growing mobile banking service providers in the United States, and this acquisition is likely to increase their momentum," Nick Holland, a senior analyst at Aite, said in an interview.
"The real strength of Paybox has been in the client application, and that is where Sybase has been pretty weak," Mr. Holland said.
This acquisition "rounds out their suite of offerings."
