Jamdat Mobile files for IPO

Russell Beattie has a thorough post on Jamdat Mobile's IPO filing. This is significant because this is the first so-called "wireless application" play to hit the market. For those of you that don't know, Jamdat is a provider of global wireless entertainment applications and enabling technologies that support multiple wireless platforms to wireless carriers, handset manufacturers, media companies, and independent content developers. Looking at Venturesource, I see that Jamdat was first funded in March 2000 precisely the time when VCs thought wireless was the next big thing. Many of these companies are no longer around, but it is nice to see Jamdat make it through such turbulent times, only with $33 million in VC funding.

As an investor, the difficult part of any consumer wireless play is that the wireless world is a walled garden and not an open network like the Internet. This means you are dependent on the carriers for deals and access. This is starting to change but even if you want to go to your own sites through your wireless phone, it is not easy. In addition, imagine the competition to get distribution from the carriers-there are lots of little guys knocking on the door. On the upside, if you are able to get the deals, you have an incredible ability to scale. Just look at Jamdat's numbers: $90k revenue in 2001 with a $5mm loss and $7mm revenue in Q1 2004 with $740k profit which is an annualized revenue runrate of $28mm-not too bad in a few years. As Russell points out, I am sure a successful Jamdat offering will spur renewed interest in wireless companies. That being said, I just view wireless as another pipe, an increasingly important one that every software or web-based company will have to be aware of and leverage.

Speaking of wireless, there has been lots of talk about Time Warner launching its own branded wireless service over someone else's wireless network. Not only does this make a ton of sense in terms of the phone company/cable bundle packaged wars but also from a content and programming distribution perspective. If you believe that wireless devices and phones will continue to become an increasingly important way for end users to access data and eventually music, photos, and video, then what better way to control the economics of distribution then by reselling your own service.