Reaction to the Verisign-M-Qube Deal

Some analyst and online reactions are trickling in..if you are an analyst and want to be included here, let me know:
JP Morgan Equity Research: This is a major positive as the acquisition gives Verisign a lead at this point in providing mobile content infrastructure in North America. Further shifting its mobile business from being reliant on the actual content that makes up over 75% of what Jamba did just 6-9 months ago. This acquisition now gives VRSN the lead position for providing infrastructure to third party content to both Verizon Wireless and Sprint (which Verisign has been providing off portal content to for the past couple quarters). We estimate that m-Qube did roughly $80M in revenue in 2005, and assuming just a 30% growth (we think it could be much higher) makes the deal valued at 2.4x forward revenue. This is without consideration of any deferred revenue write-downs.
Roger Entner, Ovum: The mobile delivery space is overcrowded and ripe for consolidation. Verisign’s acquisition of M-Qube is hence a logical development and for Verisign it is another step to become the leading end-to-end provider of wired and wireless connectivity. Progressively Verisign’s strategy of acquiring best of breed applications is being unveiled and Verisign is rapidly becoming the 800 pound gorilla of wireless and wireline commerce, content and connectivity. Vernon Irving has the vision and the deep pockets to ensure the right pieces are there to build a dominant provider, the challenge is to make it all fit together seemlessly.
Nabeel Hyatt, Everypoint: M-Qube certainly went through moments in the early days when it was entirely on the ropes, had to switch business models, had an engineering team in Seattle and management in Boston, and plenty of other twists and turns. There is still a lot to figure out about M-Qube’s future (as sms pipes get commoditized, can they get their other value added services off the ground?) but it’ll be as part of the amassing mobile empire of VeriSign.

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