Mobile Content Player Jamdat Files For $86 Million IPO

I only mentioned it in jest about two weeks ago..that mobile content companies should be thinking about IPO. Little did I know that four-year old wireless entertainment publisher Jamdat Mobile would file for an $86 million IPO today. (So does that mean we’ll see other companies in U.S. and U.K. file soon? I have reason to believe they will soon..the window is too lucrative to not do it…)

The Los Angeles-based company said Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch & Co. will be lead underwriters for the IPO. The preliminary prospectus did not include the number of shares to be offered or the price per share, as those details are expected in future filings. The company will trade under the symbol “JMDT.”

Some numbers, and they look just about OK: “Since commencing operations in March 2000, our revenues have grown to $13.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2003 and $7.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2004. We had a net loss of $7.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2003 and generated net income of $0.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2004.”

Carrier dependency is also troublesome, if you ask me, but those are macro-business issues Jamdat can’t do anything about: “For the three months ended March 31, 2004, we received approximately 42% of our revenues from subscribers of Verizon Wireless and 18% of our revenues from subscribers of Sprint PCS.”

The full SEC papers for IPO are here (warning: long page). I would urge you to read the IPO document carefully: it will give you a very good idea of the flux in this nascent market, and the competitive dynamics with the triad of payers: content providers, handset manufacturers, and operators.

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