News Corp. (NWS) is starting to throw its weight around in the mobile space as it bought control of Berlin-based mobile company Jamba, or as its known in the United States: Jamster. The largest service offered by the company is ringtones.
The former control of the company was owned by Verisign, but the $188 million deal has put it under the News Corp. umbrella. It will now be part of the Fox Mobile Entertainment division.
Online Media Daily said that "Ringtones have been one of the most popular forms of content in the nascent world of mobile media, especially in the U.S. More than 10 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers purchased a ringtone in July, according to data released Tuesday by mobile market research firm MMetrics."
VeriSign said that although Jamba made around $500 million last year, they think that it will drop to only $300 million in 2006.
News Corp. plans on marketing the product across all of its properties and platforms which could give the company a good thrust forward beyond the current expectations. They are already in the process of introducing an online store that will be made especially for its MySpace users.
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