Air2Web Signs On eBay As Part Of 2Roam Acquisition

Air2Web 2Roam

2Roam will provide a tool called Nomad that ports Web content to mobile formats through a drag-and-drop interface, said Kathy Jaques, vice president of marketing at Air2Web, Atlanta. That tool is expected to augment Air2Web's existing product, a higher-end hosted platform that helps enterprise customers extend applications, such as CRM and ERP, for use on a variety of mobile devices.

Equally important, said Jaques, is the new customers that 2Roam, Redwood City, Calif., brings on board, including eBay, Best Western International and Hoovers. At press time, Air2Web was unable to provide the specific number of new customers 2Roam will add to its roster. Air2Web current services about 70 "production deployments," Jacques said.

Geoff Vickrey, a managing director in the Atlanta office of PricewaterhouseCoopers, said the acquisition is definitely a benefit for Air2Web partners. "We are all expecting the wireless market to consolidate in the coming months," he said. "We're glad to see Air2Web pick up [not only a pretty neat piece of technology, but also a robust client list."

As 2.5G and 3G wireless services are deployed, companies like Air2Web will play a key role in providing mobile services, said Scott Ellison, a wireless and mobile analyst at IDC. Although Air2Web has its systems optimized for the slower wireless networks now, what customers really want is to exchange mobile data "even better and faster," he said. "Air2Web is one of a handful of companies that is in a premier position in this space."

Air2Web officials said they have moved 2Roam's technology to their BellSouth hosting center in Atlanta. They expect to integrate 2Roam's technology into the Air2Web product over the next 12 months.