Esmertec Shareholders Approve Acquisition of Purple Labs

Esmertec AG, a provider of Java in-device engines and mobile services platforms, has announced its shareholders have approved the acquisition of Purple Labs and the company has also agreed to be renamed as Myriad Group AG.

 

Back in February, Esmertec (News - Alert) had announced its decision to acquire Purple Labs; the combined business of which was aimed at creating Europe's largest mobile phone software company.

 

The new combined business was also decided to be called as Myriad Group AG, which would unite their industry-reputed technologies and teams in order to accelerate development of next-generation software for mass-market mobile phones.

 

Myriad is a provider of Android (News - Alert) platforms and four other important mobile applications – Java, browsers, messaging and USSD-based data services. Purple Labs is privately held, funded by three European venture capital firms: Sofinnova Partners, Earlybird Venture Capital and Partners Group. The company specializes in mobile browsers and messaging.’

 

The deal signed by Esmertec was to acquire 100 percent of Purple Labs shares in exchange for 19,681,842 Esmertec shares. The agreement also includes an earn-out clause that would provide Purple Labs shareholders a further 4,373,743 Esmertec shares if specified targets for 2009 revenue and gross margin are achieved.

 

In addition, the Purple Labs management options scheme will be converted to 1,434,287 Esmertec options. This would grow by a further 318,730 Esmertec options if the earn-out is achieved.

 

The deal is expected to create a consolidated worldwide customer base and include all major phone manufacturers and 30 mobile network operators. Myriad has also reportedly planned to operate on an exceptional scale, with global team of 800 software engineers and their 2009 revenue planned to surpass $125 million.

 

In continuation to this, the company had held an Extraordinary General Meeting where shareholders voted in favor of the creation of the additional capital necessary to complete the all-share acquisition.

 

The Board of Directors of Myriad, chaired by Hans Peter Baumgartner, will now be further supported by three additional members: Roland Manger, Loek van den Boog and Simon Wilkinson.

 

Simon Wilkinson, chief executive officer of Purple Labs, has been appointed chief executive officer of Myriad. Thomas Hornung, chief executive officer of Esmertec, is stated to retire from the company and will act as advisor to the Executive Team.