LightSurf was a provider of multimedia messaging and interoperability solutions for the wireless industry. The company was founded in 1998 by tech entrepreneurs

Philippe Kahn Philippe Kahn (born March 16, 1952) is an engineer, entrepreneur and founder of four technology companies: Borland, Starfish Software, LightSurf Technologies, and Fullpower Technologies. Kahn is credited with creating the first camera phone, b ...

and

Sonia Lee Sonia Lee (born April 12, 1960) is a Korean-born entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and president of Fullpower Technologies. Sonia Lee also co-founded LightSurf and Starfish Software. Biography She is married to Philippe Kahn, CEO of Fu ...

, and was acquired by

VeriSign Verisign Inc. is an American company based in Reston, Virginia, United States that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the , , and gene ...

in 2008 and later by telecommunications service provider

Syniverse Technologies Syniverse is a telecommunications company based in the United States. It was founded in 1987 as a GTE business unit called GTE Telecommunications Services Inc. The company’s global headquarters is in Tampa, Florida, with regional headquarters ...

in late 2009.

History

LightSurf was founded in 1998 by Philippe Kahn and his wife Sonia Lee. In 2005, the company was acquired by

. Following a change of corporate strategy and an internal reorganisation, the LightSurf technology and assets were included in the "VeriSign Messaging and Mobile Media" business unit which was subsequently offered for sale by VeriSign in late 2008. The group was sold to Syniverse Technologies in late 2009.

Products

The company's core technology, the LightSurf 6 Open Standards

MMS MMS may refer to: Science and technology Network communication protocols * Multimedia Messaging Service for mobile phones * Microsoft Media Server, a content-streaming protocol (mms://) * Manufacturing Message Specification for real time proces ...

Platform, was a suite of hosted and managed MMS services that allowed users to capture, view, annotate, and share multimedia messages with any handset or e-mail address, regardless of device, file type, or network operator. LightSurf's products include the first mobile picture messaging solution in North America (

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such as ...

), the first mobile picture messaging solution on a

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a packet oriented mobile data standard on the 2G and 3G cellular communication network's global system for mobile communications (GSM). GPRS was established by European Telecommunications Standards Inst ...

carrier network, the first commercially deployed inter-carrier MMS solution in North America, the highest volume of picture and video messaging in North America and over 400 million media messages shared on

Sprint Sprint may refer to: Aerospace *Spring WS202 Sprint, a Canadian aircraft design *Sprint (missile), an anti-ballistic missile Automotive and motorcycle * Alfa Romeo Sprint, automobile produced by Alfa Romeo between 1976 and 1989 * Chevrolet Sprin ...

’s network (powered by LightSurf).

Notes

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lightsurf Companies based in Santa Cruz County, California Defunct software companies of the United States Software companies established in 1998 Software companies disestablished in 2009 Software companies based in California

History

Products

See also

Notes

References