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France Telecom has opened a subsidiary named France Telecom-Orbiscom that will deliver m-commerce solutions based on technology from Irish company Orbiscom.
France Telecom has invested in excess of EUR5 million into the new venture, however Orbiscom has not made a financial investment in the company and currently does not have plans for any of its employees to join France Telecom-Orbiscom.
A spokesperson for Orbiscom told ElectricNews.Net that France Telecom chose the name to capitalise on the recognition of Orbiscom in the marketplace, and said that the new company would be like a "sister company" to Orbiscom.
He said that France Telecom-Orbiscom plans to make new products available in France through two French banks in the next two to three months. The two unnamed banks are members of the Carte Bleue group, which is a Visa association comprising the largest banks in France.
The technologies that France Telecom-Orbiscom plans to develop are based on Orbiscom's O-Power technology and its initial products will be targeted for France Telecom's ISPs and mobile payment products. O-Power is a controlled payment number platform that allows consumers to generate an authenticated, unique card number in real-time for each payment or merchant instead of transmitting their actual credit card number.
Orbiscom is to host the technology platform in France and provide the new subsidiary with technical support. In addition to the subsidiary's 14 employees, staff from Orbiscom, France Telecom's R&D centre in Caen and other personnel from their subsidiaries Orange and Wanadoo will work together on the products.
Thursday's news follows Orbiscom's second round funding completed in late September. The company raised the USD17.5 million its global expansion plans and following the funding the company said it was now valued at USD144.5 million. At the time Orbiscom said it would reach profitability in 2003.
The USD144.5 million valuation placed on the business is significantly less than the USD250 million valuation put on the company in October 2000, when investor ITG sold a five percent stake in Orbiscom for around USD12 million. However, Orbiscom stressed that despite the slowdown in technology funding, it had managed to raise the entire amount it had been seeking, and that the funds were raised in just four months.
Orbiscom employs 130 people in six offices around the world and can be found at http://www.orbiscom.com.
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