Event
Summary
SAN JOSE, Calif., Puma Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: PUMA), a leading provider of
mobile device management and synchronization software, announced it has signed
a definitive agreement to acquire NetMind Technologies, Inc., a leading provider
of Internet infrastructure software for personalization. Under the terms of
the agreement, Puma will exchange five million shares of Puma common stock for
all of NetMind's outstanding capital stock, warrants and options.
The
merger is expected to qualify as a tax-free reorganization and the parties expect
to account for the transaction as a pooling of interests. Closing of the merger
is subject to certain closing conditions and approval by the shareholders of
both Puma and NetMind. Certain affiliates of NetMind have agreed to vote their
shares in favor of the merger. The transaction is expected to close in Puma's
third fiscal quarter ending April 30, 2000.
Market
Impact
Puma
Technology produces mobile device management and synchronization software called
Intellisync. Intellisync has become one of the global standards for synchronization
between handheld devices and desktops, corporate databases, e-mail, and Internet
Sites. In 1999, Puma Technology's stock was the number one performer on the
Nasdaq Exchange, gaining over 3700%, with a low of $2 and a high of $142 per
share.
NetMind
produces personalization software solutions for e-business. NetMind's Mind-it
application allows over 6,000,000 current clients to track information on the
Internet or Intranet and receive immediate notification of changes via e-mail
from NetMind's Minder Application Server.
The
merger is expected to close in the 2nd Quarter of 2000 (probability 90%) and
will add personalization technology to Puma's synchronization and management
software. The merger targets the rapidly emerging Internet access based wireless
industry, which is expected to reach more than 600 million users by 2003 (probability
70%). The combined packages will allow for data mining, extraction, notification,
delivery, targeting and analytics.
User
Recommendations
With
the relatively recent explosion of hand-held devices and the up-and-coming wireless
access phones (WAP), the demand for synchronization, personalization, and management
will become more and more evident. Most organizations have seen more and more
users accessing corporate information via a PDA and wonder how to manage e-mail,
database access, and security.
We
recommend that an organization that has reached a critical mass of PDA's (defined
by Puma as >500 PDAs) should look to implement some type of management control.
While a combined Puma/NetMind product is not expected until the 1st quarter
of 2001, organizations considering a complete management solution for PDAs and
WAPs should consider Puma Technologies as an alternative.