Xiam Technologies sold to Qualcomm for $32 million

DELTA PARTNERS and Enterprise Ireland have got an eight-fold return on their €2 million investment in software company Xiam Technologies, which has been sold to Qualcomm for $32 million (€20.87 million).

Xiam chief executive Colm Healy and chief technical officer Hugh O'Donoghue will be the primary beneficiaries among the company's management team. The remaining staff have a stake in the company through a share option scheme.

Xiam has developed software called My Personal Offers System (MPOS), which recommends purchases to mobile phone users based on their tastes and preferences. MPOS has been sold to a number of network operators including Orange in Britain, Vodafone in Ireland and Hutchison Telecom in Indonesia.

San Diego-based Qualcomm develops technologies for third generation mobile phones, which it licenses to handset manufacturers, network operators and publishers. It had revenues of $8.87 billion in its 2007 financial year.

Xiam was founded in 2004 and has had about €2 million in backing from Delta and Enterprise Ireland.

A predecessor company, Xiam Limited, raised over €8 million in venture capital from Delta, London-based Add Partners and Singapore's Vertex Management. It developed technologies to deliver content to mobile phones but struggled to make sales in a highly competitive market and was put into liquidation.

The current investors backed the management team to restart the company in 2004 and focus on the more promising area of recommendation and personalisation technology.

Xiam currently employs 30 staff and Mr Healy said they would all be retained. He said Xiam would remain a stand-alone subsidiary within Qualcomm as a "centre of excellence" for profiling and targeting technologies on mobile phones.

The two companies have been working together since last year when MPOS was integrated with Qualcomm's products. Qualcomm expects the acquisition will be neutral to its earnings per share for the 2008 financial year.