Jamster, the mobile content provider perhaps best known for its obnoxious and controversial “Crazy Frog” character, is now sole property of News Corp for a cool $200 million.
The move marks an end for VeriSign’s venture into the mobile content world*, and gives the media conglomerate full control over a company with a questionable future.
News Corps paid the Internet security company $187.5 million for a 51 percent stake back in May of 2007, so it seems the value of the company hasn’t increased much over the past year. And it has a history of legal controversy, including a lawsuit in 2005 involving accusations of false advertising and confusion over its subscription services.
Shares in VeriSign rose this morning by 5.5 percent, while shares of News Corp. dropped 1 percent.
*Correction: Dave Reddy, a VeriSign rep, points out that this move marks the end of VeriSign’s venture into the mobile content world, but not mobile in general. They still have numerous holdings related to mobile, including the Mobile Messaging division and parts of the VeriSign Communications Services (or VCS) division. Those divisions will eventually be sold off, he says.
VeriSign sells Jamba stake to News Corp [Reuters]
