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BA Venture Partners Helps Deliver $100 Million Boost to Wireless Data Industry
Recent Investments in Sorrent, mBlox, Good Technology and Wayport Signal Next Growth Phase
LA JOLLA, Calif.-September 9, 2004 - BA Venture Partners, a venture capital partnership, today affirmed its commitment to the emerging wireless data industry. The announcement, made from DEMOmobile 2004, comes on the heels of BA Venture Partners' recent investment in Sorrent, a leader in mobile games publishing, which Strategy Analytics recently declared will be an $8 billion market by 2009. Sorrent is among BA Venture Partners' growing portfolio of diverse, wireless-related products and service providers. Recent advances in sophisticated wireless technology continue to pervade all aspects of consumer and business computing, positioning the wireless data industry for explosive growth. Today's consumers increasingly send messages, play games and surf the Web on wireless devices. Business travelers have likewise grown accustomed to quickly accessing their information and applications on a wide range of high-speed portable gadgets. "The wireless data market has arrived," said Rory O'Driscoll, managing director for BA Venture Partners. "New technology has driven the industry from early adopter, professional users to mainstream consumers nearly overnight. After following wireless advances closely, we believe the newly affordable mobile devices with rich, diverse feature sets and inexpensive data plans will continue to fuel the growth of this industry for many years to come." BA Venture Partners has closely monitored this space and recently marked its confidence in the business and consumer wireless data market with several investments in addition to Sorrent, including mBlox, a service provider of mobile messaging infrastructure in the US and Europe; Good Technology, a standards-based leader in wireless messaging and corporate data access; and Wayport, one of the world's largest providers of Wi-Fi wireless and wired high-speed Internet access to mobile travelers. In July, Sorrent received $20 million in financing led by BA Venture Partners; mBlox received an additional $10 million in the same month, also led by the firm; Good was provided an additional $45 million in May; and Wayport received $20 million in August. Total investments for the four-month period amount to nearly $100 million. "Mobile phones in particular have become the new Swiss army knives of today," said Sharon Wienbar, director at BA Venture Partners. "Because they're so versatile and affordable, they can be just about anything businesses and users want them to be. Whether you're looking at a teenager chatting via text messaging, a road warrior downloading corporate content at a wireless hotspot, or a commuter playing games to pass the time, it's clear the appetite for a breadth of new mobile features and services is virtually insatiable." As a firm that is at the forefront of the burgeoning wireless data market, BA Venture Partners has identified numerous software, hardware and service opportunities and will continue to invest actively in this space. About BA Venture Partners BA Venture Partners is a multi-stage, market-driven venture capital partnership that combines the specialized expertise and management support that today's companies need to quickly generate business momentum. Its partners offer extensive industry experience and resources in software, hardware, and biotechnology and medical devices. Recent liquidity events include Microsoft's acquisition of PlaceWare, Checkpoint's acquisition of Zone Labs, and Silicon Labs' acquisition of Cygnal in addition to the initial public offerings of Acusphere and Dynavax. The firm is currently investing in BA Venture Partners VI, a $500M fund. Bank of America is the firm's sole limited partner. For more information, please visit www.baventurepartners.com or call 650-378-6000. ### For More Information, Contact:
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