Iobox

Infobox Dotcom company
company_name = Iobox Oy
company_
company_type = Privately held company
genre =
foundation = January 1999
founder = Jari Ovaskainen, Henry Nilert
location_city = London
location_country = United Kingdom
location = also Helsinki, London, Munich, Stockholm, Oulu
locations =
area_served = Europe
key_people =
industry = Mobile Telecommunications
products = iobox.* portal, Wapagotchi, "m-Mails"
services =
revenue =
operating_income =
net_income =
owner =
num_employees = 200+, at peak
parent = Telefónica, Terra Networks
divisions =
subsid =
company_slogan = "we bring the Internet to your mobile"
url = www.iobox.fi


caption =
alexa =
website_type = web portal
language =
advertising =
registration =
launch_date =
current_status =
footnotes =
intl =

IObox Oy was a Finnish mobile and web portal operator. Formed in 1999, the dot-com company ended up as part of Telefonica Mobile.

At a sale price of $250m (€230m) in 2000, IObox represented the largest venture capital exit in Finland until the sale of MySQL AB in 2008 for $1bn (€670m) [Holtron Ventures, [http://holtronventures.com/?p=18 We Did It Again!] , 2008-01-16.] .

Growth

IObox was founded in January 1999 by Jari Ovaskainen (formerly of Anderson Consulting) and Henry Nilert (formerly of Credit Suisse First Boston). Ovaskainen sold his car and used other assets including his life-savings to raise $120,000. A round of funding in the first month brought in €3.1m and the opening of a Helsinki office in Finland followed.

In November 2000, the office in London, England opened. Second round financing in December 2001 brought another €13m. In January 2000, after offices in Munich and Stockholm had opened, London become the main company headquarters. IObox acquired "Futuron Wireless Solutions" and with an Oulu office opening in March 2000 had brought the staff count to 70 persons.

At the point of sale in July 2000, the company had grown to 100 employees. This expanded further to beyond 200 employees by near the end of the same year.

Products

IObox operated mobile and web portals, having as many as three million users. [Curriculum Vitae, [http://www.ee.oulu.fi/~moo/cv/CV%20-%20Mikko%20Ohtamaa%20-%202005.pdf Mikko Ohtamaa] .] In addition the company operated branded portal sites for customers such as the Swedish communications company Telia, using software written in Java.

In February 2000 IObox announced "Wapagotchi", a digital pet similar to the briefly popular Tamagotchi style toys. The user ("owner") would control their pet using WAP pages. If the virtual pet was neglected, or hadn't been cared for enough, the owner would receive SMS notifications, for example, stating that the pet was "hungry". [Website, [http://virtualpet.com/vp/media/mpets/mpets.htm Wireless virtual pets for Mobile Phones] , subtitled "an industry study".] .

For a time from July 2000, IObox offered UK consumers a SMS-to-email gateway costing 6p per email( termed "m-Mail"), despite other companies already having offered such as service for free. [The Register, [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/07/10/click_here_to_send/ Click here to send an email on your bog-standard phone] , 2000-07-10.] .

In February 2001, an announcement was made along with provider BEA Systems that their "global wireless portal" had scaled to 3.5 million users and up to 4,000 simultaneous connections [BEA Systems Press [http://www.bea.com/framework.jsp?CNT=pr00545.htm&FP=/content/news_events/press_releases/2001 BEA Systems Supports Growth of Terra Mobile-iobox, Europe's Leading Mobile Portal] , 2001-02-26.] . Only a third of the registered users had visited more than once, often only signing up for free credits.

Ownership

The company was originally backed by several venture capitalists, including CapMan Plc [CapMan Plc Group, [http://www.capman.com/En/Media/Releases2001/CapMan_Plc_Group_Financial_Statements_Bulletin_1_Jan_31_Dec_2000.htm Financial Statements Bulletin 1 Jan – 31 Dec 2000] , 2001-02-15.] (listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange). CapMan and others disposed all 100% of IOBox to the Spanish organisation Terra Mobile in July 2000 (just 19 months after foundingHelsinki University of Technology, B-to-B Case: [http://www.tml.tkk.fi/Opinnot/Tik-109.501/2000/raportti72.doc Iobox] , 2000-11-14.] ) for €230m cash. [ZDnet News, [http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/0,1000000085,2080404,00.htm Terra hits WAP scene with iobox buyout] , 2000-07-25.] . Terra Mobile was itself a joint operation of Telefónica and Terra NetworksTelefonica Mobile Inc. SEC filing, [http://sec.edgar-online.com/2003/06/27/0001193125-03-014220/Section4.asp TEM Annual and Transition Report (foreign private issuer) (20-F) Item 3] .] .

Upon the dissolution of IObox Oy prior to December 2002, Telefonica were forced to write-down the "goodwill" associated with the purchase to the tune of €154m

New Iobox (2008)

In early 2007, Finnish company [http://www.lapitor.fi Lapitor Oy] acquired a large number of the old iobox.* domain names. The new company announced its intention to try to "carry on from the point where Spaniards left Iobox in 2002". Lapitor hopes to publish the new Iobox portal venture across twelve European countries.Satojen miljoonien Iobox irtosi ilmaiseksi (in finnish), [http://www.ilkka.fi/Article.jsp?article=324828&Title=Satojen+miljoonien+Iobox+irtosi+ilmaiseksi] .]

Trademark

In January 2008, Lapitor managed to acquire the European-wide trademark for "iobox". Lapitor stated that they paid nothing for the trademark. Telefonica had gained the original trademark as part of the €230m buy-out in 2002. As Telefonica has not defended the original, Lapitor has started a process to attempt to cancel Telefonica's trademark.

References