Openwave Systems Inc. (formerly software.com, phone.com, and Libris, Inc.) is a division of Enea. It provides video traffic management and 5G mobile products. Two of Openwave's former products launched as private companies; Openwave Mobility and Openwave Messaging. Openwave contributed to early developments in the Mobile Internet. Openwave pioneered HDML, a precursor to WML. Openwave was a founding member of the

WAP Forum OMA SpecWorks, previously the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), is a standards organization which develops Open standard, open, International standard, international technical standards for the mobile phone industry. It is a Nonprofit organization, nonp ...

History

The company started in 1996 as Libris, Inc. and focused on developing mobile client software for "pull" services based on

Internet Protocol The Internet Protocol (IP) is the network layer communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. Its routing function enables internetworking, and essentially establishes the Internet. IP ...

while the general mobile market was rapidly growing "push" services based on

SMS Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...

. In 1996, it changed its name to Unwired Planet, Inc. and launched its proprietary software platform for Internet access and web browsing, known as up.link (browser and network server/gateway). In 1999, with the introduction of WAP standards, it acquired Apiion, Ltd. of

Belfast Belfast (, , , ; from ) is the capital city and principal port of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan and connected to the open sea through Belfast Lough and the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel ...

(formerly Aldiscon Northern Ireland, Ltd.), changed its name to Phone.com and went public on the

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...

(NASDAQ:PHCM). In 2000, as Phone.com's revenue and stock price grew, it acquired several

startup companies A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses tha ...

with niche products for integration across its product line. In 2001, it merged with Software.com and renamed the merged company Openwave Systems, Inc. With Software.com's large installed base of email servers at ISPs, Openwave expanded by providing its mobile operator customers with software infrastructure for mobile email applications and other multimedia messaging ( MMS) applications. The company's

mobile browser A mobile browser is a web browser designed for use on a mobile device such as a mobile phone, PDA, smartphone, or tablet. Mobile browsers are optimized to display web content most effectively on small screens on portable devices. Some mobile bro ...

(written by Bruce Schwartz) software shipped on over one billion handsets, at one point approx 49% of the global browser-capable device shipments, over 70

mobile operator A mobile network operator (MNO), also known as a mobile network provider, mobile network carrier, mobile , wireless service provider, wireless carrier, wireless operator, wireless telco, or cellular company, is a telecommunications provider of se ...

s. In 2002 it acquired SignalSoft Corp., a developer of location-based services, who developed the first platforms to provide

E911 Enhanced 911 (E-911 or E911) is a system used in North America to automatically provide the caller's location to 911 dispatchers. 911 is the universal emergency telephone number in the region. In the European Union, a similar system exists known ...

services as per the first FCC (

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

) requirements. In 2004 Openwave acquired Nombas Inc., the developer of Cmm (a scripting language with C-like syntax) which was later enhanced to support

ECMAScript ECMAScript (; ES) is a standard for scripting languages, including JavaScript, JScript, and ActionScript. It is best known as a JavaScript standard intended to ensure the interoperability of web pages across different web browsers. It is stan ...

and renamed ScriptEase. In January 2006, Openwave closed the $120 million acquisition of Musiwave, a French music application services provider for mobile phones founded by Gilles Babinet. In November 2007, the company sold Musiwave to

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

for $46 million. In 2007, Openwave faced allegations of

securities law Securities regulation in the United States is the field of U.S. law that covers transactions and other dealings with securities. The term is usually understood to include both federal and state-level regulation by governmental regulatory agencie ...

violations related to financial reporting, though the outcome of these allegations is not detailed here. In February 2008, Openwave launched a contextual advertising system for mobile phones. In May 2008, the ''San Francisco Business Journal'' reported that

had given Openwave a delisting warning for failing to properly report some financial results. On June 30, 2008, Openwave issued a press release stating: "that Purple Labs has acquired the Openwave mobile phone software business, which develops and markets its browser and messaging client technologies.". On October 18, 2010, Openwave announced: "that it licensed certain patents to Mobixell/724 Solutions Inc" as part of an intellectual property protection arrangement. On May 1, 2012, Openwave announced: "the completion of the sale of its Mediation and Messaging product businesses to Marlin Equity Partners." Openwave changed its name back to Unwired Planet. They are now exclusively focused on licensing and enforcement of IP that they claim is "foundational to mobile communications." In response to claims that the company has become a

patent troll In international law and business, patent trolling or patent hoarding is a categorical or pejorative term applied to a person or company that attempts to enforce patent rights against accused infringers far beyond the patent's actual value or ...

, Unwired Planet's general counsel Noah Mesel states: "We happen to be at the point in our business cycle where what's left is a

patent portfolio A patent portfolio is a collection of patents owned by a single entity, such as an individual or corporation. The patents may be related or unrelated. Patent applications may also be regarded as included in a patent portfolio. The monetary benefit ...

." The former product businesses have also been re-launched as two privately held companies, Openwave Mobility Inc. and Openwave Messaging Inc. In 2013 Openwave Messaging acquired Critical Path. On March 2, 2016, Openwave Messaging was acquired by Synchronoss Technologies and the company started trading under Synchronoss Messaging. As of April 2016, Openwave Mobility continued to operate as a Marlin Equity Company. In February 2018, Enea purchased Openwave Mobility for $90 million.

Products

Major current products include: Openwave Mobility *Integra (platform) *Media Optimizer *Mobile Analytics *Promotion Pricing & Innovation *Smart User Repository Earlier products included: *Openwave: Email Kx, Mobile Access Gateway (MAG), Mobile Browser, Mobile Messaging client *Openwave Messaging:Email Mx, Network Message Store, Voice and Video Messaging, App Suite, Rich Mail, Edge GX *Unwired Planet: UP.Link Browser, UP.Link Server

References

{{Reflist Mobile web browsers Companies based in Redwood City, California Defunct software companies of the United States

History

Products

See also

References