SurfKitchen Announces Acquisition of Calaba

Dateline: 22 May 2002

Surfkitchen, a software platform provider, which enables any company to provide its customers with multi-channel access to personalised information, announced today an all stock acquisition of Calaba Ltd, a provider of information discovery and management software. Calaba's wireless directory and search service was chosen by mmO2 subsidiary, Manx Telecom, as the search and directory engine for Europe's first commercial 3G network.

The Surfkitchen/Calaba union will provide an end-to-end solution, which allows businesses to rapidly create and deploy any service, over any medium, to any device. The combination of the Surfkitchen and Calaba technology will deliver a solution that is based around the industry standard of XML, leveraging the knowledge and strength that both companies have in this area. Calaba's involvement will complement the applications already available on the Surfkitchen platform, and accelerate its ability to offer a zero-integration solution to ISPs and telcos.

"We believe that Surfkitchen's acquisition of Calaba will provide content developers with compelling applications and system integrators the opportunity to rapidly create and deploy any service, over any medium, to any device," said Phillip Letts, CEO, Surfkitchen. "The industry needs players with a long term vision and stability. The strength and commitment of the combined company's management and investors will provide this. Surf Kitchen and Calaba have worked together over the last two years and are both excited by the opportunity that the union offers to share goals more deeply."

ISPs and telcos have unique requirements and relationships with their users, therefore it is essential that they have the right products to address this. ISPs and telcos must offer services to users across a range of devices, including compelling content to the latest multimedia handsets, whilst not forgetting the huge base of users with simple browser and SMS access. This is termed zero Integration and means portal operators can deploy new applications quickly in order to take advantage of the market, and react to competition rapidly.

"The industry needs to attract and retain users by offering compelling applications that work seamlessly throughout the user's day. Users need choice and integration, and together Surkitchen and Calaba can provide the right product base with which to build this experience," explained James Carlyle, founder of Calaba. "The introduction of an open interface to the Surf Kitchen platform, will allow third party developers to bring new and innovative applications to a substantial market quickly."

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