Examiner appointed to mobile phone data firm

The High Court has appointed an examiner to a company involved in providing mobile phone data services around the world.

MobileAware Ltd, formerly of Citywest Business Campus and now based in the Digital Hub in Dublin, sought the protection of the court last month after it ran into financial difficulties.

An interim examiner was appointed and that court protection was extended yesterday when Mr Justice Frank Clarke confirmed Tom Kavanagh as examiner.

In its petition to the High Court seeking to have an examiner appointed rather than see the business wound up, the company said there was a reasonable prospect of survival.

Creditors include the Revenue Commissioners.

The company, which has been in existence since 1999, sells software products for European mobile phone operators to provide WAP (wireless application protocol) services to their customers.

In its early years, it won accounts with Irish, Spanish and Portuguese mobile providers and its technology is used by more than 80 other customers around the world, including AT&T, Boeing, Hertz, Coca-Cola and the Pepsi Bottling Group.

The company suffered between 2001 and 2003 as a number of customers went out of business during a difficult period for the telecommunications industry.

It negotiated a series of licensing agreements with industry heavyweights such as HP, Ericsson and BEA before winning contracts in Europe and Asia Pacific as the industry regained confidence.

It opened foreign sales offices in Beijing and Melbourne, and broke into the North American market.

However, despite raising investment of €21 million over the years and having a turnover of €7 million per year, Mobile-Aware continued to incur losses - amounting to nearly €4 million over the last 12 months.

In the last nine months, Ericsson, its largest revenue-generating partner, had acquired a competing company and this resulted in a shortfall of about €1 million. Business development in Asia Pacific was slower to materialise and it took much longer than anticipated to collect from trade debtors, the company said.

Severe cash flow difficulties meant it could not meet obligations to the Revenue Commissioners, who sent in the Revenue Sheriff demanding payment for amounts owed, the company said.

In an effort to deal with its problems, it had closed its offices in China and Melbourne, cut staff in Ireland from 25 to 14 and relocated to a smaller low cost facility (in the Digital Hub). It had also reduced staff in its UK subsidiary from seven to two.