Openwave gets Cilys

Redwood City, Calif.-based mobile software developer Openwave Systems announced today its acquisition of Cilys, a privately held wireless software infrastructure vendor based in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. According to the terms of the deal, Openwave will acquire all outstanding shares of Cilys for about $10 million U.S., to paid in a 50-50 cash and stock split. The transaction is expected to close before the end of the first quarter.

Cilys’ allgo*mobile optimization technology promises to increase speeds for accessing mobile data services like Web browsing and downloading games and ringtones, at the same time compressing the amount of data sent over 2.5 and 3G networks.

“Cilys’ technology improves the user experience for a wide variety of mobile data services by reducing latency, reducing connect time and reducing download time,” said Paul Anderson, general manager and vice president of the Infrastructure Product Group at Openwave. “There are two primary benefits for our operator customers: First, the technology improves the user experience for mobile services, which will improve customer satisfaction and increase penetration. It also reduces the amount of network capacity that’s consumed by these transactions.”

The allgo*mobile technology is currently employed in the network of an unnamed subsidiary of the Orange Group. “We have been tracking this [compression and optimization] space for a couple of years, and did an evaluation of the different businesses beginning about six months ago,” Anderson said. “That’s what led to the acquisition.”