HONG KONG, 22 JANUARY 2009 – Sybase, an enterprise software and services company, has announced the acquisition of paybox Solutions, a mobile payment solutions provider.
paybox, a Germany-based privately held company founded in 1999, will be integrated into Sybase 365, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sybase Inc. With this acquisition, Sybase extends its mobile infrastructure to mobile payments.
Growth anticipated
Sybase will now provide mobile operators, financial institutions and merchants with a full suite of mobile payment solutions, and enable their customers to undertake person-to-person remittances, make payments for goods and services, top-up mobile airtime and pay bills from a mobile device, in both developed and emerging markets.
“Mobile payments are an increasingly critical part of mobile computing, a core component of our Unwired Enterprise strategy,” said Marty Beard, president of Sybase 365.
“The sheer number of people with access to a mobile phone in both developed and emerging markets around the world means the mobile device has the potential to become a dominant vehicle for consumers to connect and transact conveniently, anytime, anywhere, fuelling the mobile economy”, said Beard.
Eckhard Ortwein, chief executive officer of paybox, said: “This acquisition is a natural progression of the partnership agreement signed between the two companies in the fourth quarter of last year. paybox and Sybase share the same vision for mobile commerce that is in line with where the market is headed and what customers are demanding from their mobile phones.”
Remote payments
For the past several years, Sybase has provided remote mobile payments via SMS, MMS and WAP to content providers and brands, for digital mobile content and services, charged directly to the subscribers’ bill via their mobile operator.
In October, 2007 Sybase launched ‘Sybase mBanking 365’, a product suite for the financial industry enabling banks to interact with customers in real-time through mobile alerts, two-way banking services, out-of-band authentication, and marketing campaigns.
Sybase does not expect this acquisition to have a material impact on 2009 financial results.
