Xora and Gearworks, two providers of location-based mobile business applications announced that they have joined forces. The combined company will retain the Xora name and service more than 16,000 customers deployed across the world’s leading wireless carriers.
The combined company will have the broadest wireless carrier distribution footprint in the industry, Xora says with partnerships with Sprint Nextel, Verizon, AT&T, Telstra, US Cellular, Cbeyond, and Procall. In addition to wireless carrier partnerships, Xora is the provides location-based mobile time clock and data collection solutions for companies that offer TLM (Time and Labor Management) and Payroll services. The combined product portfolio will consist of Xora’s GPS TimeTrack suite of products and Gearworks’ Field Force Manager, etrace, OnCare and Appmosphere offerings.
The transaction puts Xora in the position to continue to capitalize on the growing market for handset-based mobile resource management applications globally, and especially in North America, where the market is expected to reach 5 million subscribers and more than $1 billion in annual recurring software revenue by 2015 according to Frost & Sullivan, a leading industry analyst firm that tracks mobile and wireless communications.
“The Xora-Gearworks merger is exceptionally well-timed to give the company pole position in the burgeoning market for handset-based mobile resource management solutions,” states Jeanine Sterling, senior industry analyst, mobile and wireless communications, Frost & Sullivan. “With the most extensive product offering, spanning off-the-shelf to customizable mobile applications, and the broadest carrier coverage in the industry, the new Xora’s capabilities are top-tier and should be highly valued by customers of all sizes, as well as by wireless carriers seeking to deliver such applications to their business customers.”
As part of this transaction, venture investors from both companies, including Dawntreader Ventures, BlueStream Ventures, Split Rock Partners, and Rho Ventures all have made additional equity investments totaling $8.5 million dollars. In addition, Patrick Wack, former CEO and currently Chairman of Intralinks, a pioneer in the Software-as-a-Service space will join the Xora Board of Directors.
