Item 1.
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Description of Business
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Overview
MobiVentures Inc. (we, us, our or the Company) is
engaged in the business of providing multi-media mobile content, applications
and services. We were originally engaged in the business of commercializing our
MobileMail software. In 2007, we identified an opportunity to grow through the
strategic consolidation of fast growing companies operating within the mobile
content and service industry. In line with this strategy, we acquired Oy
Tracebit AB (Tracebit), a Finnish mobile games and content company, and held
discussions with a number of other companies as acquisition targets in the U.S.,
Europe and South East Asia. We are continuing discussions with certain of these
companies at the present time, although no definitive acquisition agreements
have been executed to date. Our plan is to develop our existing business through
acquisitions and internal growth in order to become an established provider of
leading edge multi-media mobile content, applications and services with clients
across the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia and North America. Tracebit has
developed more than 30 original games and applications for mobile phones and
simultaneously created a global network of customers consisting of over 150
agreements including sales channels with global mobile carriers, service
providers and content distributors, ensuring delivery to a global audience.
Tracebit licenses well-known brands to attach to the products it makes in order
to differentiate from other products in the marketplace.
We believe we have assembled a strong management team both
through the acquisition of Tracebit and by engaging with seasoned executives
from the mobile industry who have a proven track record in creating sustainable
and profitable ventures within the mobile sector, both in Europe and the U.S.
We are also the owner of a suite of software applications that
we refer to as the MobileMail software which provide a platform for enabling
users to send Short Message Service (SMS) messaging traffic to wireless
devices using the Internet and to, in turn, receive SMS messages from wireless
devices through the Internet. The SMS short message service refers to an
industry adopted standard for sending and receiving text messages to and from
mobile telephones. Our MobileMail messaging solutions allow network operators
and enterprises to offer their customers SMS messaging on their Internet home
pages and the ability to send SMS messages from their personal computers.
The MobileMail SMS messaging technology is no longer the core
product in relation to our current and future operational plans. As such, we do
not envisage proceeding with any further developments of the messaging
technology. Support will continue to current customers but no resources will be
allocated to extend the sales and marketing of the current SMS messaging
platform.
Acquisition of OY Tracebit AB
On February 6, 2007, we completed the acquisition (the
Acquisition) of all of the issued and outstanding shares in the capital of
Tracebit pursuant to an Equity Share Purchase Agreement dated January 31, 2007
among the Company and Capella Capital OU, Pollux OU and Tracebit Holding OY
(collectively, the Vendors) and Tracebit in consideration for the issuance of
an aggregate of 8,224,650 shares of our common stock to the Vendors.
We appointed three new directors to our board of directors upon
the completion of the Acquisition, each of whom was a principal shareholder of
Tracebit. The business of Tracebit has been our primary business subsequent to
the completion of the Acquisition.
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Our Corporate Organization
We were incorporated on April 1, 2005 under the laws of the
State of Nevada. We carry out our business operations through our wholly owned
subsidiaries, Tracebit and Mobilemail Limited (Mobilemail UK). MobileMail UK
is incorporated and headquartered in the United Kingdom. Tracebit is
incorporated and headquartered in Finland. Our principal office is located at
Suite 3.19, MLS Business Centre, 130 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, England, W1D
5EU. Our telephone number is +44 (0)20 7031 1193 and our fax number is +44 (0)20
7031 1199.
Effective July 30, 2007, we increased our authorized capital
from 100,000,000 shares to 300,000,000 shares with a par value of $0.001 per
share. Effective August 2, 2007, we completed a change of our corporate name
from Mobilemail (US) Inc. to MobiVentures Inc..
Tracebit was incorporated under the laws of Finland in October
1996. Initially, the core business of Tracebit was IT consulting. However, in
2001, Tracebit divested its IT consulting business and entered the mobile
sector, first by selling ring tone and logo editor products created by it and
later the same year focusing on emerging J2ME mobile games market.
Tracebit Mobil Solutions India (PVT) was incorporated as a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Tracebit in India in 2004. The subsidiary was
subsequently dissolved during 2006.
Business of Tracebit
Since 2001, Tracebit has been a developer and publisher of
leading edge games and entertainment applications for mobile handsets. Tracebit
has developed more than 30 original games and applications for mobile phones and
simultaneously created a global network of customers consisting of over 150
agreements including approximately 70 sales channels with global mobile
carriers, service providers and content distributors, ensuring delivery to a
global audience. Tracebit licenses well-known brands to attach to the products
it makes in order to differentiate from other products in the marketplace.
Currently, Tracebit has 10 brands for which it develops mobile
games and applications, including: David Coulthard; Kung Fu Hustle; WilliamsF1
Team; Nicky Hayden - MotoGP 2006 World Champion; Scott Dixon (winner of Indy
Cars series); Moomin characters; Reality of Speed/BooKoo; Subaru WRX and
Giancarlo Fisichella Motor Sport.
Tracebits customers are ultimately mobile phone users all over
the world that download content (the games Tracebit creates) from:
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mobile portals such as Jamba! and Zingy; or
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carrier sales such as Vodafone, T-Mobile, Orange and Elisa Finland among
others.
The mobile portal and carrier sales channels receive content
from Tracebit in two ways:
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under a direct agreement with Tracebit that delivers the content to them;
or
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through agreements with one or more content aggregators who may represent
Tracebits content and are in a contractual relationship with Tracebit.
The agreements Tracebit makes are either:
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on a revenue share basis where Tracebit receives a fixed percentage of the
net revenues the contract partner receives from its customers; or
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on a fixed fee basis where Tracebit receives a fixed fee per download of
its content.
Currently Tracebits main sales channels include carriers and
mobile portals such as: Elisa Finland; T-Mobile Hungary; Peoples Telephone HK
(Part of China Mobile); Times India Ltd.; Opera Telecom (UK); and Playfon
(Russia). The main distribution network includes content aggregators such as:
Cellmania (US); WapOneLine (US); MIG (China); Airgames (Canada); Amaio (Czech
Republic); LocZ (Brazil); End2End (Denmark); and Selatra (UK).
Our Products
We design our portfolio of games to appeal to a broad wireless
subscriber base. Our portfolio of games includes original games based on our own
intellectual property and games based on brands and other intellectual property
licensed by us from branded content owners. These latter games are inspired by
non-mobile brands and intellectual property, including movies, board games,
Internet-based casual games and console games.
End users typically purchase our games from their wireless
carrier and are billed on their monthly phone bill. In Europe, our subscription
prices range from 3 to 5 euros, while one-time fees for unlimited use range both
higher and lower, depending on the country. Carriers normally share with us 35%
to 50% of their subscribers payments for our games, which we record as
revenues. In the case of games based on licensed brands, we, in turn, share with
the content licensor a portion of our revenues. The average royalty rate that we
paid on games based on licensed intellectual property was 40% in 2006 and 2007.
In the case of games licensed from third party developers, we, in turn, share
with the game developers a portion of our revenues. The average rate that we
paid on games based on licenses from third party developers was 50% in 2007. We
did not have any third party games for sale during 2006.
Our games typically generate revenues for 18 to 24 months after
release. As a result, we generate a significant portion of our revenues from our
collection of games that have been in release for more than 12 months.
Wireless carriers generally control the price charged to end
users for our mobile games either by approving or establishing the price of the
games charged to their subscribers. Some of our carrier agreements also restrict
our ability to change established prices.
The following table sets forth information regarding a
selection of our games:
Title
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Branded Content
Owner
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Year
Introduced
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Market
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Aqua Strike
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Tracebit
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2006
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Global
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BooKoo Motorcross
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Sports
Telecom
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2006
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Global
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Going Home 2
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Tracebit
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2006
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Global
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David Coulthard GP
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Sports
Telecom
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2005
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Global
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Moomin Adventures
Moominpappa Disappears
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Bulls Press
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2005
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Global, excluding
certain Asian countries
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The Village
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Tracebit
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2005
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Global
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WW2 Battle for
Europe
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Tracebit
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2005
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Global
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Scott Dixon Racing
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Sports
Telecom
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2005
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Global
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A Space Incident 2
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Tracebit
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2004
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Global
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The Penguin Run
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Tracebit
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2005
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Global
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City Knights 2
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Tracebit
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2004
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Global
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Title
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Branded Content
Owner
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Year
Introduced
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Market
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Aran The Escape
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Tracebit
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2004
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Global
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Going Home
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Tracebit
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2003
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Global
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Aikia I The
Calling
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Tracebit
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2004
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Global
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A Space Incident
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Tracebit
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2002
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Global
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Extractor
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Tracebit
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2004
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Global
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Tennis Champion
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Tracebit
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2003
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Global
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Vein Invadors
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Tracebit
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2003
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Global
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X-mas Rescue
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Tracebit
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2003
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Global
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Illuminator
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Tracebit
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2003
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Global
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City Knights
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Tracebit
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2003
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Global
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Bring em Back
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Tracebit
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2003
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Global
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Sex Blocks
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Tracebit
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2004
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Global
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Tank Wars
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Tracebit
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2002
|
Global
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Kung Fu Hustle
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Sony
Pictures
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2006
|
Europe
and Americas
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WilliamsF1 Team
Challenge
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Sports
Telecom
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2006
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Global
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Nicky Hayden GP
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Sports
Telecom
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2006
|
Global
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Subaru Rally
Challenge
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Sports
Telecom
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2006
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Global
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Fisichella Motor
Sports
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Sports
Telecom
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2007
|
Global
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Our Market Opportunity
Products such as ring tones outsell any other types of content
at an approximately 2 to 1 ratio and wallpapers are surprisingly popular
considering that people can make their own with their camera phones.
We therefore plan to further expand Tracebits current product
offering including:
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Mobile music services
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Ring tones
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Ring back tones
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Video ring tones
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Streamed music
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Full track music
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Infotainment (mobile sport, leisure and information data
services)
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|
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Video clips
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|
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Streamed video
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|
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Wallpapers and graphics
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|
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Picture messaging
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|
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Games
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We have already started the process to expand our content
portfolio to include video clips, streamed video, wallpaper and graphics and
third party developer games. We plan to continue this expansion during 2008.
Furthermore, we may consider acquiring an already existing
portal with an existing user base and a proven business model, where Tracebit
would aim to create a one stop shop for purchasing content and an
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online mobile community where users interact with each other,
anywhere, anytime, and expand their social network on a daily basis using
services like mobile messaging, blogging, user profiles, friends, groups,
picture, video & music sharing, downloadable free mobile content,
downloadable premium mobile content and multi-player games that the portal would
offer. We plan to leverage this community as a media channel for advertisers and
act as a merchant for mobile content providers.
We plan to introduce additional revenue streams for Tracebit to
the completed online portal to further increase the interaction between the
communitys members, thus helping to attract new individual and business users.
We plan to source value adding partnerships with leading VOIP and mobile T.V.
service providers. These services would be added into the current messaging
portfolio of MobileMail SMS based communication solutions to initiate the
development of an interactive multi media messaging interface, providing
additional revenue through direct users and branding/advertising opportunities.
Competition
Our primary competitors include Glu Mobile, Digital Chocolate,
Electronic Arts (EA Mobile), Gameloft, Hands-On Mobile, I-play, Namco and THQ,
among others. In the future, likely competitors include major media companies,
traditional video game publishers, content aggregators, mobile software
providers and independent mobile game publishers. Wireless carriers may also
decide to develop, internally or through a managed third-party developer, and
distribute their own mobile games. If carriers enter the mobile game market as
publishers, they might refuse to distribute some or all of our games or might
deny us access to all or part of their networks.
The development, distribution and sale of mobile games is a
highly competitive business. For end users, we compete primarily on the basis of
brand, game quality and price. For carriers, we compete for deck placement based
on these factors, as well as historical performance and perception of sales
potential and relationships with licensors of brands and other intellectual
property. For content and brand licensors, we compete based on royalty and other
economic terms, perceptions of development quality, porting abilities, speed of
execution, distribution breadth and relationships with carriers.
Some of our competitors and our potential competitors
advantages over us, either globally or in particular geographic markets include
having significantly greater revenues and financial resources, stronger brand
and consumer recognition, pre-existing relationships with brand owners or
carriers; lower labor and development costs, and broader distribution.
We plan to create a portal and host a mobile social network
that would enable Tracebit to increase revenues by collecting demographics of
users and utilizing this together with media agencies to reach their clients
target groups with greater accuracy using content and portal for advertising. So
far we have not been able to identify a direct competitor offering content
distribution and a mobile community portal with a merchant, community and
advertising business model. However, within the individual categories we plan to
combine, each has its own competitors as outlined below.
The competitive landscape in which Tracebit plans to operate
can be split into three broad categories:
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mobile portal: includes competitors such as Jamba! and Zed.
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content distribution: includes competitors such as MobileMedia and
MediaPlazza.
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mobile advertising: includes competitors such as Greystripe and AvantGo.
Mobile Portal
Mobile portals sell a wide variety of mobile content to end
users on a per download or subscription basis where the user pays a periodical
fixed fee and can choose a limited amount of content from a range. The
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fee is generally less than if the user would have purchased the
same items individually. Mobile portals target users specifically looking to
personalize their mobile phone by downloading mobile content.
The mobile community business model has a high customer loyalty
compared to a pure merchant business model. We plan to differentiate Tracebit
from its competition by acquiring a mobile community, and growing the number of
registered users interacting with each other, as shown by internet companies
such as mySpace and YouTube to create an attractive environment for advertisers,
by offering free services like blogging, personal profiles, video, picture and
music sharing, friends, groups, search and e-mail. We plan to sell premium
downloadable mobile content on the community portal where one of the key
differentiating factors is that Tracebit will offer its registered customer base
select advertisement enabled content for free, lowering the barrier to enter the
world of premium content while at the same time deriving revenues from
advertisers. We also plan to offer a possibility for registered users to store
their content giving them a possibility to secure their purchase, this typically
is something the other competitors do not offer and a customer has to buy the
content again if he or she buys a new phone.
Content Distribution
A content distributor sources a wide array of content from
content developers and sells it to mobile carriers and portals whose users
download the content for a fee that is split between all parties in the value
chain on a revenue share basis. Some content distributors also offer turn-key
solutions for persons willing to become merchants of mobile content.
We plan to compete in this space by offering content that
Tracebit either sources from other content developers and/or produces. There are
two major differentiating factors in its product offerings: i) unique content
Tracebit makes the content and controls who offers it to a specific carrier or
portal or may agree to source some content on an exclusive basis; and ii)
branded content the carrier or portal already has similar content, however, as
there is a brand attached to it, it differentiates enough from others, having
better chances of inclusion in the carrier or portal content offering. We plan
to pursue licensing additional brands on a continuous basis. We plan to also
increase Tracebits local presence in US and Asian markets, providing better
opportunities to interact with customers. We also plan to explore opportunities
in creating co-marketing efforts with the carriers or portals to provide more
visibility for the content offered. We also plan to leverage the Tracebit brand
and the fact that it has been a pioneer in the mobile content market while
adding new channels and exploiting existing ones.
Mobile Advertising
Competitors in this space offers content for free or for a
reduced price to the customers who in return are exposed to dynamic
advertisements (banners, full-screen advertisements or strategically placed
product promotions inside game content) while they consume the content. One
competitor offers a possibility for select partners to distribute the full
ad-enabled catalog. Most competitors offer on-line tools for advertisers to
follow up their mobile campaign.
Tracebits main asset and competitive advantage is expected to
be the profiles of the members of its mobile community, providing very specific
demographic information that can be used to target a specific audience. Using
proprietary technology we expect to have the ability to attach dynamically
targeted advertising to virtually every piece of content on Tracebits portal as
well as within the free services therein.
Marketing Plan
The key to enhanced uptake of our products are:
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Establish the mobile community as a recognized media channel among the
media agencies and brand owners.
To succeed in our marketing efforts we believe we will need to
recruit an experienced marketing expert who will be responsible for setting up
and implementing a detailed marketing strategy that helps us reach the
objectives above.
Carriers and Mobile Portals
To capture greater market share with carriers and mobile
portals, we plan to target carriers, mobile portals, value added resellers and
aggregators worldwide with a focus on growth markets like USA, China, India and
Brazil.
With the addition of new sales people we expect to have the
ability to meet up with the carriers and mobile portals key decision makers on a
regular basis to discuss our product offerings. We plan to offer them a fee in
exchange for better product placement, advertisements of our products on their
own portal and advertisements of their service in the local media where our
products are represented. We plan to offer them brand related prizes to be used
in contests they arrange on their portal where our products would get
visibility. We plan to create an on-line marketing catalog of our product
portfolio for the carriers and mobile portals where they can easily view, listen
or try out our products.
We plan to add our corporate messaging applications to
Tracebits portfolio of mobile content as a value-added service. Tracebits
current distribution channels with mobile operators and value-added resellers
provides an opportunity to add to the reseller channels already in place across
Hong Kong, China, Africa, Europe, the United Kingdom and the Unites States.
We also plan to attend industry fairs, including among others
3GSM, GDC and CES, where we would set up a booth to present our products and
gain access to new sales channels. We further would use banner advertising on
Internet sites in conjunction with new product launches to stimulate general
consumer awareness and demand for our branded products.
Mobile Portal
To increase visibility of our mobile portal, we plan to target
t
he global mobile phone subscriber base, particularly teenagers and young
people who generally have an interest in sports and music.
We plan to approach celebrities with the intent of getting them
to join the community and getting permission to making it public through a press
release. We plan to use Internet banners, TV-spot and newspaper advertising with
an emphasis on free services, free (ad-enabled) downloadable mobile content, and
branded content. We also plan to advertise on search engines like Google, using
Ad Words and to offer a quality service to get good response from word-of-mouth
viral marketing. We plan to attract new users by offering free contests for our
registered users where you can win prizes.
Mobile Community
To establish the mobile community as a recognized media channel
among the media agencies and brand owners, we plan to target media agencies and
brand owners.
We plan to engage a media agency account manager who would
visit the media agencies and also to use sales promotion efforts by offering the
media agencies a free trial of our service as a media channel and send out
promotional leaflets to media agencies.
Our Mobile Solutions
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Our MobileMail software solution enables us to offer to our
potential customers a computer based solution for sending and receiving SMS
messages from personal computers to wireless devices using the Internet. This
solution is achieved by employing our MobileMail software on a users personal
computer, which provides the computer interface with the user, and on a network
server, which provides the SMS messaging functionality and administration
services. Our MobileMail solution enables users to send and receive SMS messages
from their personal computers to mobile devices without the requirement for
involvement by the user or customer in the distribution of the wireless
services. We offer two distinct user interfaces that provide users with this
functionality, namely our MailSMS and EasySMS software. Our MailSMS software
integrates with Microsoft Outlook® as an embedded program and enables users to
send SMS messages using the Microsoft Outlook® program installed on their
personal computer. Our EasySMS software is a software that acts as an interface
to a network server on which all of a users messages and information is stored.
Potential users and customers will be able to download the required MobileMail
software client directly to their personal computer and install the software
themselves. Once the user or customer has done this, he or she can send SMS to
mobile devices (cell phones or personal digital assistants) from their personal
computer.
The MobileMail SMS messaging technology is no longer the core
product in relation to our current and future operational plans. As such, we do
not envisage proceeding with any further developments of the messaging
technology. Support will continue to current customers but no resources will be
allocated to extend the sales and marketing of the current SMS messaging
platform.
Recent Corporate Developments
Staley, Okada & Partners, Chartered Accountants (Staley,
Okada) resigned as principal independent registered public accounting firm of
the Company effective January 16, 2007. As a result of this resignation, we
engaged Dale Matheson Carr-Hilton LaBonte, Chartered Accountants, as our
principal independent registered public accounting firm effective January 22,
2007. The decision to change our principal independent registered public
accounting firm was approved by our board of directors.
On January 31, 2007, we entered into an Employment Agreement
with Mr. Miro Wikgren, an officer of Tracebit, whereby Mr. Wikgren was appointed
as the Chief Technical Officer concurrent with his appointment as a director of
the Company. A copy of the Employment Agreement was filed as an exhibit to our
Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on February 12, 2007.
On January 31, 2007, we entered into an Employment Agreement
with Mr. Simon Ådahl, an officer of Tracebit, whereby Mr. Ådahl was appointed as
the Chief Marketing Officer concurrent with his appointment as a director of the
Company. A copy of the Employment Agreement was filed as an exhibit to our
Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on February 12, 2007. Mr. Ådahl
resigned as a director on June 30, 2007 and as our chief marketing officer
effective July 31, 2007.
On February 6, 2007, pursuant to the acquisition of Tracebit,
Mr. Peter Åhman was appointed as a director and President, Chief Executive
Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Secretary and Treasurer of the Company in
replacement of Mr. Gary Flint, who has remained as a director of the
Company.
On March 9, 2007, we entered into a Consultant Agreement with
Mr. Nigel Nicholas whereby Mr. Nicholas was retained to provide consulting
services to the Company pursuant to the terms and subject to the conditions of
the Consultant Agreement. A copy of the Consultant Agreement was filed as an
exhibit to our Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on March 15, 2007.
In accordance with the terms of the Consultant Agreement, Mr. Nicholas was
appointed as a director of the Company.
On March 14, 2007, we entered into a Consultant Agreement with
Mr. Ian Downie whereby Mr. Downie was retained to provide consulting services to
the Company pursuant to the terms and subject to the conditions of the
Consultant Agreement. A copy of the Consultant Agreement was filed an exhibit to
our
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Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on March 20,
2007. In accordance with the terms of the Consultant Agreement, Mr. Downie was
appointed as a director of the Company.
Effective June 28, 2007, we entered into a consulting agreement
with Mr. Adrian Clarke whereby Mr. Clarke was retained to provide consulting
services to the Company pursuant to the terms and subject to the conditions of
the consultant agreement. A copy of the consultant agreement was filed an
exhibit to our Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on July 5, 2007. In
accordance with the terms of the Consultant Agreement, Mr. Downie was appointed
as a director of the Company effective June 28, 2007.
Simon Ådahl resigned as a director of the Company effective
June 30, 2007.
Accordingly, the current directors of the Company are: Gary
Flint, Peter Åhman, Miro Wikgren, Nigel Nicholas, Ian Downie and Adrian
Clarke.
On September 3, 2007, we entered into an Amendment to
Consulting Agreement with each of Peter Åhman, Gary Flint and Nigel Nicholas,
amending the terms of the consulting services agreements previously entered into
with each of them. A copy of each of these agreements was filed as an exhibit to
our Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on September 7, 2007.
On November 1, 2007, we entered into a Consulting Agreement
with Gary Flint, which supercedes the previous Consulting Agreement entered into
with him on February 1, 2007 and subsequently amended on September 3, 2007,
whereby Mr. Flint was retained to provide consulting services to the Company
pursuant to the terms and subject to the conditions of the Consulting Agreement.
A copy of the Consulting Agreement was filed as an exhibit to our Current Report
on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on November 6, 2007.
Proposed Acquisition of TxTNation Ltd.
On April 24, 2007, we entered into a letter of intent with
TxtNation Ltd. and Jonathan Rowsell and Michael Whelan. TxtNation is a UK based
provider of mobile messaging and billing solutions. Jonathan Rowsell and Michael
Whelan are principal shareholders of TxtNation (the Principal
Shareholders).
We determined in August 2007 that we would not proceed with the
acquisition of TxtNation contemplated in the letter of intent based on the
results of our due diligence investigations. No definitive agreement was
executed between us and TxtNation and the Principal Shareholders.
Froggie S.L. and Norris Marketing S.L.
Partnership Agreement
We entered into a partnership agreement with Froggie S.L.
(Froggie) and Move2Mobile Limited (M2M) on October 31, 2007. The partnership
agreement contemplates the creation of a business to be operated in partnership
between us and Froggie pursuant to which the net income derived from the
business will be split equally between us and Froggie on a 50/50 basis. In
addition, Froggie has agreed to provide bridge financing to us to an agreed
maximum of 120,000 Euros.
Letter of Intent
The execution of the partnership agreement follows the
execution of a letter of intent with Froggie, Norris Marketing S.L. (Norris)
and Tom Horsey dated July 17, 2007 and a further letter of intent between us and
M2M, Nigel Nicholas and Danny Wootton dated August 13, 2007.
Froggie is a provider of mobile telephony marketing systems
with operations in Argentina and Spain. Norris is a company incorporated in the
BVI which provides premium SMS and bulk SMS solutions into
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Spain. Tom Horsey is the principal shareholder of Froggie and
Norris. The letter of intent contemplates the Companys acquisition of up to
100% of the shares of Froggie and Norris from Tom Horsey. To date, no definitive
agreement has been executed for the acquisition contemplated in the letter of
intent. The parties have entered into the partnership agreement pending the
continuation of negotiations on a definitive acquisition agreement. There is no
assurance that any definitive agreement for the acquisition by us of an interest
in Froggie or Norris will be executed.
M2M is a UK-based consulting business that specializes in
assisting businesses and entrepreneurs to develop wireless applications for
their existing or proposed business applications. Nigel Nicholas and Danny
Wootton are the principal shareholders of M2M. The letter of intent contemplates
our potential acquisition of up to 100% of the shares of M2M from Nigel
Nicholas, Danny Wootton and the other shareholders of M2M. To date, no
definitive agreement has been executed for the acquisition contemplated in the
letter of intent. The parties have entered into the partnership agreement
pending the continuation of negotiations on a definitive acquisition agreement.
There is no assurance that any definitive agreement for the acquisition by us of
an interest in M2M will be executed.
Planned Business
Under the partnership agreement, we, Froggie and M2M have
agreed to actively work together to grow our current mobile phone applications
business that provides content, applications and services to customers via their
mobile phones.
The objective of the parties is to generate revenues using
content and services through the live channels that each party has generated.
We, Froggie and M2M have agreed on a management team that will be devoted to the
launching of the business.
Bridge Financing
Froggie has agreed to provide to us the following maximum
bridging finance until January 31, 2008:
-
30,000 Euros at November 1, 2007;
-
30,000 Euros at December 1, 2007 provided deals have been signed by the
partnership between November 1, 2007 and December 1, 2007 with a cumulative
margin value equal or greater than 120,000 Euros on an annualized basis. For
every 10,000 Euros below this figure the bridging finance will be reduced by
2,500 Euros;
-
30,000 Euros at January 1, 2008 provided deals have been signed by the partnership
between November 1, 2007 and January 1, 2008 with a cumulative margin value
equal or greater than 240,000 Euros on an annualized basis. For every 10,000
Euros below this figure the bridging finance will be reduced by 2,500 Euros;
and
-
30,000 Euros at February 1, 2008 provided deals have been signed by the
partnership between November 1, 2007 and February 1, 2008 with a cumulative
margin value equal or greater than 360,000 Euros on an annualized basis. For
every 10,000 Euros below this figure the bridging finance will be reduced by
2,500 Euros.
In consideration for providing this financing, Froggie will be
issued shares of our common stock calculated based on a per share price equal to
the average of the 5 days preceding the date of the investment in each case. In
the event that we complete the acquisition of Froggie, as contemplated in the
letter of intent, the shares acquired by Froggie will be transferred to the
shareholder of Froggie and will be reflected in the share exchange agreement as
an additional payment in shares.
- 10 -
Move2Mobile
We entered into a letter of intent with Move2Mobile Limited,
Nigel Nicholas and Danny Wootton dated August 13, 2007. M2M is a UK-based
consulting business that specializes in assisting businesses and entrepreneurs
to develop wireless applications for their existing or proposed business
applications. Nigel Nicholas and Danny Wootton are the principal shareholders of
M2M. Nigel Nicholas is presently a director of the Company.
The letter of intent contemplates the Companys acquisition of
up to 100% of the shares of M2M from Nigel Nicholas, Danny Wootton and the other
shareholders of M2M, for consideration comprised of cash and shares of the
Companys common stock over a period of two years. In addition, further payments
would be payable over an earn-out period of two years from the date of closing
based on the profit generated by M2M and the value of the shareholdings of M2M
at the end of the earn-out period. The earn-out agreement will be predicated on
the Company providing agreed upon working capital to M2M after completion of the
acquisition. The letter of intent contemplates that closing of the acquisition
of M2M would follow within five business days of the satisfaction of all
conditions precedent to closing and, in any event, by no later than October 31,
2007. It will be a condition of closing that M2M will have delivered to the
Company financial statements of M2M in the form required to be filed by the
Company with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission in accordance
with its reporting obligations under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. A
partnership agreement among the Company, M2M and Froggie was subsequently
executed on October 31, 2007, as described above.
Regulation S Debt Conversion Agreements -
Shares
We entered into a Regulation S debt conversion agreement (the
Conversion Agreement) with each of Nigel Nicholas, the Chief Executive
Officer, the Director of Operations and a director of the Company, Ian Downie, a
director of the Company, Pollux OU and Tracebit Holding Oy (together, the
Creditors) whereby the Company issued to the Creditors a total of 8,051,714
shares of common stock of the Company (the Shares) as repayment and settlement
of an aggregate of $169,086 of indebtedness owed by the Company to the Creditors
(the Indebtedness) on the basis of one Share for each $0.021 of the
Indebtedness. Each Creditor entered into a Conversion Agreement with the Company
that included representations, warranties and covenants regarding the restricted
status of the securities. The Company has granted piggyback registration rights
to the Creditors. The issuance of the Shares was approved by written consent
board resolutions of the Companys board of directors on November 9, 2007.
Pollux OU, is a shareholder of the Company whose director, Miro
Wikgren, is also a director and Chief Technical Officer of the Company. Pollux
OU will be issued a total of 2,450,000 Shares in consideration for the repayment
of a total US$51,450 in settlement of the Indebtedness owed by the Company to
Pollux OU.
Tracebit Holding Oy is a shareholder of the Company whose
Chairman, Peter Åhman, is also a director, President, Chief Financial Officer,
Secretary and Treasurer of the Company. Tracebit Holding Oy will be issued
3,000,000 Shares in consideration for the repayment of a total US$63,000 in
settlement of the Indebtedness owed by the Company to Tracebit Holding Oy.
A form of the Conversion Agreement has been filed as an exhibit
to our Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on November 23, 2007.
Regulation S Debt Conversion Agreement -
Warrants
We also entered into a Regulation S debt conversion agreements
with Gary Flint, a director of the Company, whereby the Company issued to Mr.
Flint a total of 1,915,000 warrants (the Warrants) to purchase a total of
1,915,000 shares of common stock of the Company (the Warrant Shares). The
Warrants were issued by the Company in repayment and settlement of an aggregate
of $40,215 of
- 11 -
indebtedness owed by the Company to Mr. Flint on the basis of
one Warrant Share for each $0.021 of the indebtedness. Mr. Flint entered into a
Conversion Agreement with the Company that included representations, warranties
and covenants regarding the restricted status of the securities. The Company has
granted piggyback registration rights to Mr. Flint. The issuance of the Warrants
to Mr. Flint was approved by written consent board resolutions of the Companys
board of directors on November 9, 2007.
A form of the Conversion Agreement has been filed as an exhibit
to our Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the SEC on November 23, 2007.
Plan of Operations
Our strategy is focused on:
(a) the pursuit of complimentary technologies and additional
mobile content to sell through our sales channels; and
(b) the creation of an aggregated content provision service
managed through an interactive community based web-portal through the pursuit of
a number of acquisitions of established mobile service providers to add to our
portfolio of mobile applications.
We plan to pursue the achievement of the following milestones
in 2008:
Phase 1-until Q2 2007/2008
-
attempt to negotiate and conclude definitive agreements for the acquisition
of Froggie, Norris and M2M and, if such definitive agreements are concluded,
to complete these acquisitions;
-
Raise the required funding to complete the above transactions and any
further acquisitions;
-
Expand Tracebits current product offering to include (i) mobile music
services such as ring tones, ring back tones, video ring tones, streamed
music, and full track music (ii) infotainment (mobile sport, leisure and
information data services) such as video clips, streamed video, wallpapers and
graphics, and picture messaging, and (iii) games;
-
Enter into negotiations and continue to negotiate further acquisitions;
-
Expand our management team, particularly through the involvement of
management of companies that we may acquire;
-
Grow sales of Tracebit through the completion of further partnership deals
with leading mobile content providers, adding gaming titles and the latest
video and audio content to sell additional content through current sales
channels to enhance possibilities when selling content to new customers.
Phase II until Q4 2007/2008
-
Establish an operational centre in the United States and expand the South
American offices acquired through the Froggie acquisition, if completed;
-
Expand into North America by signing up partnership deals with US and
Canadian based mobile service providers to capture opportunities in the
growing mobile content market in US and Canada;
-
Identify and complete further acquisition targets within the mobile
community;
-
Initiate online and mobile marketing campaigns through affiliate marketing
agencies and pay per click campaigns; online search engines to increase
traffic to and the user base of the portal;
-
Establish an operational centre in Asia and expand the existing European
sales offices;
- 12 -
Phase III 2008/2009
-
achieve full operation of and revenue generation from North American and
Asian sales offices;
-
complete full launch of branded multimedia content and messaging portal in
Europe;
-
Sign contracts with a number of large media agencies to source advertising
inventory;
-
Complete a new multi-interaction mobile application, to attract new users
as this application enhances the product offering of the portal.
There can be no assurance that any of these milestones will
be achieved, within the time frames indicated or at all. The achievement of
these milestones will be conditional upon our achieving significant financing.
There is no assurance that we will achieve this necessary financing. Further,
there is no assurance that any financing achieved will be sufficient to complete
our planned acquisitions or other business plans .
MobileMail SMS Messaging
The MobileMail SMS messaging technology is no longer the core
product in relation to our current and future operational plans. As such, we do
not envisage proceeding with any further developments of the messaging
technology. Support will continue to current customers but no resources will be
allocated to extend the sales and marketing of the current SMS messaging
platform.
Financial Condition
We had cash of $27,123 and a working capital deficit of $1,085,799
at September 30, 2007. Our planned expenditures over the next twelve months
in the amount of $500,000 will exceed our cash reserves and working capital.
We presently does not have sufficient cash to fund our operations for more than
the next month. We anticipate that we will require additional financing in the
amount of approximately $1,000,000 in order to enable us to sustain our operations
for the next twelve months in view of our plan of operations and our account
deficit. We will also require additional financing to fund our contemplated
acquisitions if we are able to execute definitive agreement for these acquisitions.
We are currently seeking additional financing, however, there can be no assurance
that we will obtain such financing in the amount required or on terms favorable
to us. If we are unable to obtain additional financing, we may have to abandon
our business activities and plan of operations and we may not be able to proceed
with our planned acquisitions.
Beyond the next twelve months, we will be required to obtain
additional financing in order to continue our plan of operations as we
anticipate that we will not earn any substantial revenues in the foreseeable
future. We believe that debt financing will not be an alternative for funding
our plan of operations as we do not have tangible assets to secure any debt
financing. We anticipate that additional funding will be in the form of equity
financing from the sale of our common stock. However, we do not have any
financing arranged and we cannot provide investors with any assurance that we
will be able to raise sufficient funding from the sale of our common stock to
fund our plan of operations. Even if we are successful in obtaining equity
financing to fund our plan of operations, there is no assurance that we will
obtain the funding necessary to pursue the plan of operations.
Employees
We currently have three full-time employees and four part-time
employees.
- 13 -
Research and Development
We spent approximately $71,669 and $Nil on research and
development activities in fiscal 2007 and fiscal 2006, respectively.
Intellectual Property
We own intellectual property rights relating to Tracebits
games and entertainment applications for mobile handsets and our MobileMail
suite of software applications that includes trade secrets and copyright except
for some brand names that we have licensed. We seek to protect our intellectual
property by generally limiting access to it, treating portions of it as trade
secrets and obtaining confidentiality or non-disclosure agreements from persons
who are given access to it, including developers.
There can be no assurance that we will be able to achieve any
trademark protection for any of the names that Tracebit uses in connection with
its games and entertainment applications or for our MobileMail suite of software
applications. As a result, third parties might be able to sell competing
products with names incorporating these terms, and our ability to build goodwill
and brand recognition for our products may be compromised. Further, there is a
risk that a competitor or other business or person may claim our MobileMail
suite of software applications or the use of the names in connection with
Tracebits games and entertainment application violates the trademark or other
intellectual property rights of the competitor or other business or person. We
have not received any such claims to date.
Government Regulation
We must abide by regulations imposed by government regulatory
authorities in deploying our games and entertainment applications and MobileMail
software solutions. The majority of regulations within the telecommunications
industry that apply to mobile games and entertainment applications and mobile
messaging are created by industry bodies producing codes of conduct that outline
the rules that network operators, content providers, carriers, technology
providers and advertisers must adhere to when providing telecommunication
services to the public. These codes of conduct generally focus on protecting
consumers against unwanted e-mails being delivered to their mobile devices.
We intend to thoroughly investigate the regulations imposed in
each jurisdiction in which we plan to expand our business prior to commencing
any marketing efforts in such jurisdiction. In some cases, the cost of
compliance with a jurisdictions regulations may preclude us from providing
services to customers in such jurisdiction.
Subsidiaries
We have two subsidiaries: Mobilemail UK and Tracebit. Tracebit
had a subsidiary in India, Tracebit Mobile Solutions India (Pvt) which was
dissolved during 2006.
Risk Factors
The following sets forth some of the risks relating to the
business of Tracebit, which is our primary business subsequent to the
Acquisition of Tracebit in February 2007. If any of the following risks occurs,
our business, financial condition or results of operations could be seriously
harmed.
In this section, references to we, us, our or the
Company mean Tracebit.
- 14 -
Risks Related to Our Business
We have a limited operating history in an emerging
market, which may make it difficult to evaluate our business.
Tracebit was incorporated in 1996 but began selling mobile
games in 2002. Accordingly, we have only a limited history of generating
revenues in the mobile entertainment industry, and the future revenue potential
of our business in this emerging market is uncertain. As a result of our short
operating history, we have limited financial data that can be used to evaluate
our business. Any evaluation of our business and our prospects must be
considered in light of our limited operating history and the risks and
uncertainties encountered by companies in our stage of development. As an early
stage company in the emerging mobile entertainment industry, we face increased
risks, uncertainties, expenses and difficulties, any of which could materially
harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
We have incurred losses in certain periods and may incur
substantial net losses in the future and may not achieve profitability.
We have incurred losses in certain periods since inception. We
expect to continue to increase expenses as we implement initiatives designed to
continue to grow our business, including, among other things, the development
and marketing of new games, further international expansion, expansion of our
infrastructure, acquisition of content, and general and administrative expenses
associated with being a public company. If our revenues do not increase to
offset these expected increases in operating expenses, we will continue to incur
losses and will not become profitable. In future periods, our revenues could
decline. Accordingly, we may not be able to achieve profitability in the future.
Our financial results could vary significantly from
quarter to quarter and are difficult to predict.
Our revenues and operating results could vary significantly
from quarter to quarter because of a variety of factors, many of which are
outside of our control. As a result, comparing our operating results on a
period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. In addition, we may not be able to
predict our future revenues or results of operations. We base our current and
future expense levels on our internal operating plans and sales forecasts, and
our operating costs are to a large extent fixed. As a result, we may not be able
to reduce our costs sufficiently to compensate for an unexpected shortfall in
revenues, and even a small shortfall in revenues could disproportionately and
adversely affect financial results for that quarter. Individual games and
carrier relationships represent meaningful portions of our revenues and net loss
in any quarter. We may incur significant or unanticipated expenses when licenses
are renewed. In addition, any payments due to us from carriers for revenues that
are recognized on a cash basis may be delayed because of changes or issues with
those carriers processes.
The markets in which we operate are highly competitive,
and many of our competitors have significantly greater resources than we do.
The development, distribution and sale of mobile games is a
highly competitive business. For end users, we compete primarily on the basis of
brand, game quality and price. For wireless carriers, we compete for deck
placement based on these factors, as well as historical performance and
perception of sales potential and relationships with licensors of brands and
other intellectual property. For content and brand licensors, we compete based
on royalty and other economic terms, perceptions of development quality, porting
abilities, speed of execution, distribution breadth and relationships with
carriers. We also compete for experienced and talented employees.
Our primary competitors include Digital Chocolate, Electronic
Arts (EA Mobile), Gameloft, Hands-On Mobile, I-play, Namco and THQ, among
others. In the future, likely competitors include major media companies,
traditional video game publishers, content aggregators, mobile software
providers and independent mobile game publishers. Carriers may also decide to
develop, internally or through a
- 15 -
managed third-party developer, and distribute their own mobile
games. If carriers enter the mobile game market as publishers, they might refuse
to distribute some or all of our games or might deny us access to all or part of
their networks.
Some of our competitors and our potential competitors
advantages over us, either globally or in particular geographic markets, include
having significantly greater revenues and financial resources, stronger brand
and consumer recognition, the capacity to leverage their marketing expenditures
across a broader portfolio of mobile and non-mobile products, pre-existing
relationships with brand owners or carriers, greater resources to make
acquisitions, lower labor and development costs, and broader distribution.
If we are unable to compete effectively or we are not as
successful as our competitors in our target markets, our sales could decline,
our margins could decline and we could lose market share, any of which would
materially harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Failure to renew our existing brand and content licenses
on favorable terms or at all and to obtain additional licenses would impair our
ability to introduce new mobile games or to continue to offer our current games
based on third-party content.
Even if mobile games based on licensed content or brands remain
popular, any of our licensors could decide not to renew our existing license or
not to license additional intellectual property and instead license to our
competitors or develop and publish its own mobile games or other applications,
competing with us in the marketplace. Many of these licensors already develop
games for other platforms, and may have significant experience and development
resources available to them should they decide to compete with us rather than
license to us.
We currently rely on wireless carriers, content
aggregators and value added resellers to market and distribute our games and
thus to generate our revenues. The loss of or a change in any of these
significant carrier, content aggregator or value added reseller relationships
could cause us to lose access to their subscribers and thus materially reduce
our revenues.
Our future success is highly dependent upon maintaining
successful relationships with the wireless carriers, content aggregators and
value added resellers with which we currently work and establishing new
relationships in geographies where we have not yet established a significant
presence. Our failure to maintain our relationships with these carriers, content
aggregators and value added resellers would materially reduce our revenues and
thus harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
If any of our carriers, content aggregators and value added
resellers decides not to market or distribute our games or decides to terminate,
not renew or modify the terms of its agreement with us or if there is
consolidation among carriers, content aggregators and value added resellers
generally, we may be unable to replace the affected agreement with acceptable
alternatives, causing us to lose access to that carriers, content aggregators
and value added resellers subscribers/customers and the revenues they afford
us, which could materially harm our business, operating results and financial
condition.
End user tastes are continually changing and are often
unpredictable; if we fail to develop and publish new mobile games that achieve
market acceptance, our sales would suffer.
Our business depends on developing and publishing mobile games
that wireless carriers, content aggregators and value added resellers will place
on their decks and end users will buy. We must invest significant resources in
licensing efforts, research and development, marketing and regional expansion to
enhance our offering of games and introduce new games, and we must make
decisions about these matters well in advance of product release in order to
implement them in a timely manner. Our success depends, in part, on
unpredictable and volatile factors beyond our control, including end-user
preferences, competing games and the availability of other entertainment
activities. If our games and related
- 16 -
applications are not responsive to the requirements of our
carriers, content aggregators and value added resellers or the entertainment
preferences of end users, or they are not brought to market in a timely and
effective manner, our business, operating results and financial condition would
be harmed. Even if our games are successfully introduced and initially adopted,
a subsequent shift in our carriers, content aggregators and value added
resellers or the entertainment preferences of end users could cause a decline in
our games popularity that could materially reduce our revenues and harm our
business, operating results and financial condition.
Inferior deck placement would likely adversely impact our
revenues and thus our operating results and financial condition.
Wireless carriers provide a limited selection of games that are
accessible to their subscribers through a deck on their mobile handsets. The
inherent limitation on the number of games available on the deck is a function
of the limited screen size of handsets and carriers perceptions of the depth of
menus and numbers of choices end users will generally utilize. Carriers
typically provide one or more top level menus highlighting games that are recent
top sellers, that the carrier believes will become top sellers or that the
carrier otherwise chooses to feature, in addition to a link to a menu of
additional games sorted by genre. We believe that deck placement on the top
level or featured menu or toward the top of genre-specific or other menus,
rather than lower down or in sub-menus, is likely to result in games achieving a
greater degree of commercial success. If carriers choose to give our games less
favorable deck placement, our games may be less successful than we anticipate,
our revenues may decline and our business, operating results and financial
condition may be materially harmed.
We have depended on no more than 20 mobile games for a
majority of our revenues in recent fiscal periods.
In our industry, new games are frequently introduced, but a
relatively small number of games account for a significant portion of industry
sales. Similarly, a significant portion of our revenues comes from a limited
number of mobile games, although the games in that group have shifted over time.
We expect to release a relatively small number of new games each year for the
foreseeable future. If these games are not successful, our revenues could be
limited and our business and operating results would suffer in both the year of
release and thereafter.
If we are unsuccessful in establishing and increasing
awareness of our brand and recognition of our mobile games or if we incur
excessive expenses promoting and maintaining our brand or our games, our
potential revenues could be limited, our costs could increase and our operating
results and financial condition could be harmed.
We believe that establishing and maintaining our brand is
critical to retaining and expanding our existing relationships with wireless
carriers, content aggregators, value added resellers and content licensors, as
well as developing new relationships. Promotion of the Tracebit brand will
depend on our success in providing high-quality mobile games. Similarly,
recognition of our games by end users will depend on our ability to develop
engaging games of high quality with attractive titles. However, our success will
also depend, in part, on the services and efforts of third parties, over which
we have little or no control. For instance, if our carriers fail to provide high
levels of service, our end users ability to access our games may be
interrupted, which may adversely affect our brand. If end users, branded content
owners and carriers do not perceive our existing games as high-quality or if we
introduce new games that are not favorably received by our end users and
carriers, then we may be unsuccessful in building brand recognition and brand
loyalty in the marketplace. In addition, globalizing and extending our brand and
recognition of our games will be costly and will involve extensive management
time to execute successfully. Further, the markets in which we operate are
highly competitive and some of our competitors, such as Glu Mobile, already have
substantially more brand name recognition and greater marketing resources than
we do. If we fail to increase brand awareness and consumer recognition of our
- 17 -
games, our potential revenues could be limited, our costs could
increase and our business, operating results and financial condition could
suffer.
Our business and growth may suffer if we are unable to
hire and retain key personnel, who are in high demand.
We depend on the continued contributions of our senior
management and other key personnel. The loss of the services of any of our
executive officers or other key employees could harm our business. We do not
maintain a key-person life insurance policy on any of our officers or other
employees.
Our future success also depends on our ability to identify,
attract and retain highly skilled technical, managerial, finance, marketing and
creative personnel. We face intense competition for qualified individuals from
numerous technology, marketing and mobile entertainment companies. Qualified
individuals are in high demand, and we may incur significant costs to attract
them. We may be unable to attract and retain suitably qualified individuals who
are capable of meeting our growing creative, operational and managerial
requirements, or may be required to pay increased compensation in order to do
so. If we are unable to attract and retain the qualified personnel we need to
succeed, our business would suffer.
If we fail to deliver our games at the same time as new
mobile handset models are commercially introduced, our sales may suffer.
Our business is dependent, in part, on the commercial
introduction of new handset models with enhanced features, including larger,
higher resolution color screens, improved audio quality, and greater processing
power, memory, battery life and storage. We do not control the timing of these
handset launches. Some new handsets are sold by carriers with one or more games
or other applications pre-loaded, and many end users who download our games do
so after they purchase their new handsets to experience the new features of
those handsets. Some handset manufacturers might give us access to their
handsets prior to commercial release. If one or more major handset manufacturers
were to cease to provide us the opportunity to access new handset models prior
to commercial release, we might be unable to introduce compatible versions of
our games for those handsets in coordination with their commercial release, and
we might not be able to make compatible versions for a substantial period
following their commercial release. If, because of game launch delays, we miss
the opportunity to sell games when new handsets are shipped or our end users
upgrade to a new handset, or if we miss the key holiday selling period, either
because the introduction of a new handset is delayed or we do not deploy our
games in time for the holiday selling season, our revenues would likely decline
and our business, operating results and financial condition would likely suffer.
Wireless carriers, content aggregators and value added
resellers generally control the price charged for our mobile games and the
billing and collection for sales of our mobile games and could make decisions
detrimental to us.
Wireless carriers, content aggregators and value added
resellers generally control the price charged for our mobile games either by
approving or establishing the price of the games charged to their
subscribers/customers. Some of our carrier, content aggregator and value added
reseller agreements also restrict our ability to change prices. In cases where
carrier, content aggregator or value added reseller approval is required,
approvals may not be granted in a timely manner or at all. A failure or delay in
obtaining these approvals, the prices established by the carriers, content
aggregators and value added resellers for our games, or changes in these prices
could adversely affect market acceptance of those games. A failure or delay by
these carriers in adjusting the retail price for our games, could adversely
affect sales volume and our revenues for those games.
Carriers and other distributors also control billings and
collections for our games, either directly or through third-party service
providers. If our carriers, content aggregators and value added resellers or
- 18 -
their third-party service providers cause material inaccuracies
when providing billing and collection services to us, our revenues may be less
than anticipated or may be subject to refund at the discretion of the carrier.
This could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
We may be unable to develop and introduce in a timely way
new mobile games, and our games may have defects, which could harm our brand.
The planned timing and introduction of new original mobile
games and games based on licensed intellectual property are subject to risks and
uncertainties. Unexpected technical, operational, deployment, distribution or
other problems could delay or prevent the introduction of new games, which could
result in a loss of, or delay in, revenues or damage to our reputation and
brand. If any of our games is introduced with defects, errors or failures, we
could experience decreased sales, loss of end users, damage to our carrier
relationships and damage to our reputation and brand. Our attractiveness to
branded content licensors might also be reduced. In addition, new games may not
achieve sufficient market acceptance to offset the costs of development,
particularly when the introduction of a game is substantially later than a
planned day-and-date launch, which could materially harm our business,
operating results and financial condition.
If we fail to maintain and enhance our capabilities for
porting games to a broad array of mobile handsets, our attractiveness to
wireless carriers and branded content owners will be impaired, and our sales
could suffer.
Once developed, a mobile game may be required to be ported to,
or converted into separate versions for, more than 100 different handset models,
many with different technological requirements. These include handsets with
various combinations of underlying technologies, user interfaces, keypad
layouts, screen resolutions, sound capabilities and other carrier-specific
customizations. If we fail to maintain or enhance our porting capabilities, our
sales could suffer, branded content owners might choose not to grant us licenses
and carriers might choose to give our games less desirable deck placement or not
to give our games placement on their decks at all.
Changes to our game design and development processes to address
new features or functions of handsets or networks might cause inefficiencies in
our porting process or might result in more labor intensive porting processes.
In addition, we anticipate that in the future we will be required to port
existing and new games to a broader array of handsets. If we utilize more labor
intensive porting processes, our margins could be significantly reduced and it
might take us longer to port games to an equivalent number of handsets. This, in
turn, could harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
If our independent, third-party developers cease
development of new games for us and we are unable to find comparable
replacements, we may have to reduce the number of games that we intend to
introduce, delay the introduction of some games or increase our internal
development staff, which would be a time-consuming and potentially costly
process, and, as a result, our competitive position may be adversely
impacted.
We rely on independent third-party developers to develop our
games. If our developers terminate their relationships with us or negotiate
agreements with terms less favorable to us, we may have to reduce the number of
games that we intend to introduce, delay the introduction of some games or
increase our internal development staff, which would be a time-consuming and
potentially costly process, and, as a result, our business, operating results
and financial condition could be harmed.
- 19 -
If we do not adequately protect our intellectual property
rights, it may be possible for third parties to obtain and improperly use our
intellectual property and our competitive position may be adversely affected.
Our intellectual property is an essential element of our
business. We rely on a combination of copyright, trademark, trade secret and
other intellectual property laws and restrictions on disclosure to protect our
intellectual property rights. To date, we have not sought patent protection.
Consequently, we will not be able to protect our technologies from independent
invention by third parties. Despite our efforts to protect our intellectual
property rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy or otherwise to obtain
and use our technology and games. Monitoring unauthorized use of our games is
difficult and costly, and we cannot be certain that the steps we have taken will
prevent piracy and other unauthorized distribution and use of our technology and
games, particularly internationally where the laws may not protect our
intellectual property rights as fully as in the United States. In the future, we
may have to resort to litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights,
which could result in substantial costs and diversion of our management and
resources.
Third parties may sue us for intellectual property
infringement, which, if successful, may disrupt our business and could require
us to pay significant damage awards.
Third parties may sue us for intellectual property infringement
or initiate proceedings to invalidate our intellectual property, either of
which, if successful, could disrupt the conduct of our business, cause us to pay
significant damage awards or require us to pay licensing fees. In the event of a
successful claim against us, we might be enjoined from using our or our licensed
intellectual property, we might incur significant licensing fees and we might be
forced to develop alternative technologies. Our failure or inability to develop
non-infringing technology or games or to license the infringed or similar
technology or games on a timely basis could force us to withdraw games from the
market or prevent us from introducing new games. In addition, even if we are
able to license the infringed or similar technology or games, license fees could
be substantial and the terms of these licenses could be burdensome, which might
adversely affect our operating results. We might also incur substantial expenses
in defending against third-party infringement claims, regardless of their merit.
Successful infringement or licensing claims against us might result in
substantial monetary liabilities and might materially disrupt the conduct of our
business.
Indemnity provisions in various agreements potentially
expose us to substantial liability for intellectual property infringement,
damages caused by malicious software and other losses.
In the ordinary course of our business, most of our agreements
with carriers and other distributors include indemnification provisions. In
these provisions, we agree to indemnify them for losses suffered or incurred in
connection with our games, including as a result of intellectual property
infringement and damages caused by viruses, worms and other malicious software.
The term of these indemnity provisions is generally perpetual after execution of
the corresponding license agreement, and the maximum potential amount of future
payments we could be required to make under these indemnification provisions is
generally unlimited. Large future indemnity payments could harm our business,
operating results and financial condition.
We may need to raise additional capital to grow our
business, and we may not be able to raise capital on terms acceptable to us or
at all.
The operation of our business and our efforts to grow our
business further will require significant cash outlays and commitments. We need
to seek additional capital, potentially through debt or equity financings, to
fund our growth. We may not be able to raise needed cash on terms acceptable to
us or at all. Financings, if available, may be on terms that are dilutive or
potentially dilutive to our stockholders, and the prices at which new investors
would be willing to purchase our securities may be lower than the initial public
offering price. The holders of new securities may also receive rights,
preferences or
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privileges that are senior to those of existing holders of our
common stock. If new sources of financing are required but are insufficient or
unavailable, we would be required to modify our growth and operating plans to
the extent of available funding, which would harm our ability to grow our
business.
Risks Relating to Our Industry
Wireless communications technologies are changing
rapidly, and we may not be successful in working with these new technologies.
Wireless network and mobile handset technologies are undergoing
rapid innovation. New handsets with more advanced processors and supporting
advanced programming languages continue to be introduced. In addition, networks
that enable enhanced features, such as multiplayer technology, are being
developed and deployed. We have no control over the demand for, or success of,
these products or technologies. The development of new, technologically advanced
games to match the advancements in handset technology is a complex process
requiring significant research and development expense, as well as the accurate
anticipation of technological and market trends. If we fail to anticipate and
adapt to these and other technological changes, the available channels for our
games may be limited and our market share and our operating results may suffer.
Our future success will depend on our ability to adapt to rapidly changing
technologies, develop mobile games to accommodate evolving industry standards
and improve the performance and reliability of our games. In addition, the
widespread adoption of networking or telecommunications technologies or other
technological changes could require substantial expenditures to modify or adapt
our games.
The complexity of and incompatibilities among mobile
handsets may require us to use additional resources for the development of our
games.
To reach large numbers of wireless subscribers, mobile
entertainment publishers like us must support numerous mobile handsets and
technologies. However, keeping pace with the rapid innovation of handset
technologies together with the continuous introduction of new, and often
incompatible, handset models by wireless carriers and handset manufacturers may
require us to make significant investments in research and development,
including personnel, technologies and equipment. We may be required to make
substantial investments in our development if the number of different types of
handset models continues to proliferate. In addition, as more advanced handsets
are introduced that enable more complex, feature rich games, we anticipate that
our per-game development costs will increase, which could increase the risks
associated with the failure of any one game and could materially harm our
operating results and financial condition.
If wireless subscribers do not continue to use their
mobile handsets to access games and other applications, our business growth and
future revenues may be adversely affected.
We operate in a developing industry. Our success depends on
growth in the number of wireless subscribers who use their handsets to access
data services and, in particular, entertainment applications of the type we
develop and distribute. New or different mobile entertainment applications, such
as streaming video or music applications, developed by our current or future
competitors may be preferred by subscribers to our games. In addition, other
mobile platforms such as the iPod and dedicated portable gaming platforms such
as the PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo DS may become more widespread, and
end users may choose to switch to these platforms. If the market for our games
does not continue to grow or we are unable to acquire new end users, our
business growth and future revenues could be adversely affected. If end users
switch their entertainment spending away from the games and related applications
that we publish, or switch to portable gaming platforms or distribution where we
do not have comparative strengths, our revenues would likely decline and our
business, operating results and financial condition would suffer.
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Our industry is subject to risks generally associated
with the entertainment industry, any of which could significantly harm our
operating results.
Our business is subject to risks that are generally associated
with the entertainment industry, many of which are beyond our control. These
risks could negatively impact our operating results and include: the popularity,
price and timing of release of games and mobile handsets on which they are
played; economic conditions that adversely affect discretionary consumer
spending; changes in consumer demographics; the availability and popularity of
other forms of entertainment; and critical reviews and public tastes and
preferences, which may change rapidly and cannot necessarily be predicted.
A shift of technology platform by wireless carriers and
mobile handset manufacturers could lengthen the development period for our
games, increase our costs and cause our games to be of lower quality or to be
published later than anticipated.
End users of games must have a mobile handset with multimedia
capabilities enabled by technologies capable of running third-party games and
related applications such as ours. Our development resources are concentrated in
the Java platform, and we have experience developing games for the BREW
platforms. If one or more of these technologies fall out of favor with handset
manufacturers and wireless carriers and there is a rapid shift to a technology
platform such as Adobe Flash Lite or a new technology where we do not have
development experience or resources, the development period for our games may be
lengthened, increasing our costs, and the resulting games may be of lower
quality, and may be published later than anticipated. In such an event, our
reputation, business, operating results and financial condition might suffer.
System or network failures could reduce our sales,
increase costs or result in a loss of end users of our games.
Mobile game publishers rely on wireless carriers networks to
deliver games to end users and on their or other third parties billing systems
to track and account for the downloading of their games. In certain
circumstances, mobile game publishers may also rely on their own servers to
deliver games on demand to end users through their carriers networks. Any
failure of, or technical problem with, carriers, third parties or our billing
systems, delivery systems, information systems or communications networks could
result in the inability of end users to download our games, prevent the
completion of billing for a game, or interfere with access to some aspects of
our games or other products. If any of these systems fails or if there is an
interruption in the supply of power, an earthquake, fire, flood or other natural
disaster, or an act of war or terrorism, end users might be unable to access our
games. Any failure of, or technical problem with, the carriers, other third
parties or our systems could cause us to lose end users or revenues or incur
substantial repair costs and distract management from operating our business.
This, in turn, could harm our business, operating results and financial
condition.
The market for mobile games is seasonal, and our results
may vary significantly from period to period.
Many new mobile handset models are released in the fourth
calendar quarter to coincide with the holiday shopping season. Because many end
users download our games soon after they purchase new handsets, we may
experience seasonal sales increases based on the holiday selling period.
However, due to the time between handset purchases and game purchases, most of
this holiday impact occurs for us in our first quarter. If we miss these key
selling periods for any reason, our sales will suffer disproportionately.
Likewise, if a key event to which our game release schedule is tied were to be
delayed or cancelled, our sales would also suffer disproportionately. Further,
for a variety of reasons, including roaming charges for data downloads that may
make purchase of our games prohibitively expensive for many end users while they
are traveling, we may experience seasonal sales decreases during the summer,
particularly in Europe. If the level of travel increases or expands to other
periods, our operating results and financial condition may be harmed.
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Our business depends on the growth and maintenance of
wireless communications infrastructure.
Our success will depend on the continued growth and maintenance
of wireless communications infrastructure internationally. This includes
deployment and maintenance of reliable next-generation digital networks with the
speed, data capacity and security necessary to provide reliable wireless
communications services. Wireless communications infrastructure may be unable to
support the demands placed on it if the number of subscribers continues to
increase, or if existing or future subscribers increase their bandwidth
requirements. Wireless communications have experienced a variety of outages and
other delays as a result of infrastructure and equipment failures, and could
face outages and delays in the future. These outages and delays could reduce the
level of wireless communications usage as well as our ability to distribute our
games successfully. In addition, changes by a wireless carrier to network
infrastructure may interfere with downloads of our games and may cause end users
to lose functionality in our games that they have already downloaded. This could
harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Changes in government regulation of the media and
wireless communications industries may adversely affect our business.
It is possible that a number of laws and regulations may be
adopted in the United States and elsewhere that could restrict the media and
wireless communications industries, including laws and regulations regarding
customer privacy, taxation, content suitability, copyright, distribution and
antitrust. Furthermore, the growth and development of the market for electronic
commerce may prompt calls for more stringent consumer protection laws that may
impose additional burdens on companies such as ours conducting business through
wireless carriers. We anticipate that regulation of our industry will increase
and that we will be required to devote legal and other resources to address this
regulation.