EA to buy Jamdat

Electronic Arts is buying the only pure-play public mobile content company in U.S., Jamdat, for $680 million…more to come…
— EA will pay $27 per share in cash in exchange for each share.
— EA and JAMDAT together plan to publish over 50 games for mobile phones in the first twelve months following the completion of the acquisition
— Upon closing, JAMDAT CEO Mitch Lasky will lead EA’s mobile games business worldwide. The mobile businesses will be combined into one team.

BET Mobile Content

BET, a subsidiary of Viacom catering to African-American audiences, has launched its mobile brand called, well, BET Mobile. The company/channel will start marketing ringtones, graphics, games, alerts and social networking features, and will develop it in conjunction with Motricity.BET says it is among the first mobile services to integrate downloadable ring tones into music videos as they play. The vision is to “start with ring tones and progress into other personalized entertainment such as full-track music and videos”.

CBS and Verizon Partner to Deliver Mobile Video Shows

Verizon has signed a deal with CBS to put some hit shows from the network onto the operators V cast service. Starting this month, VCast will begin offering video from CBS ranging across news, drama, comedy and sitcom. Promised shows include:— Video news segments from both CBS News and Paramount TV’s “Entertainment Tonight” — produced specifically for mobile phones. This will include breaking stories as well as features from broadcasts.— Preview clips of many of CBS’s top series including “CSI”, “CSI: Miami”, “CSI: NY”, “Survivor”, “The Amazing Race”, and “The King of Queens”.— VCast will carry clips from David Letterman’s monologue and Top 10 list as well as highlights from “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson”.— Behind-the-scenes footage, such as making-ofs and interviews with the casts of shows from the CBS prime time lineup.

67 Million Euros Spent on Mobile Content in Finland

According to Prisma Research Finnish consumers spent 67 million euros on mobile content services in 2004, which will grow to 74 million euros in 2005 and 84 million euros in 2006.Directory and search services account for a bigger share of the Finnish market than in other countries but are predicted to increase that share… from 17.7 million euros in 2004 to 18.3 million euros in 2005 and 18.9 million in 2006.

via MocoNews