Goodbye, Jamba and Jamster: Fox Mobile Group grows

By Tim Conneally | Published October 20, 2008, 12:58 PM

When News Corp. and VeriSign came together in the Jamba joint venture in 2006, Fox Mobile's then-President Lucy Hood was slated to take over as CEO of a "new venture." Now, VeriSign and Hood are out and Fox Mobile Group takes shape with the former Jamba CEO at the helm.

Two weeks ago, News Corp. announced that it had purchased VeriSign's remaining share of the mobile entertainment joint venture Jamba, which is known more familiarly for its Jamster brand in the US, after having already a majority stake in Jamba in September 2006.

Jamba and Jamster are therefore going away. According to Fox Mobile Group's new CEO Mauro Montanaro, as cited by the Washington Post this morning, these brands will become a part of a restructured Fox Mobile Group, under the Fox Mobile Distribution arm. The other arms of the group will include Fox Mobile Studios, the content-producing segment; and Fox Mobile Entertainment, the third party licensing segment which previously included the Mobizzo entertainment portal acquired in 2005.

Most recently, Jamster was integrated into News Corp.'s MySpace Music player as a means of selling popular music ringtones. Fox Mobile group is expected to launch a new brand in the US in a couple of weeks that will focus on cross-platform mobile content.