Now that Arch Wireless Inc.’s acquisition of Paging Network Inc. is complete, former PageNet subsidiary Vast Solutions Inc. is free of the dead weight its former parent company represented and can begin establishing its place in a marketplace it originally helped define.
Vast was born in June 1999 out of PageNet’s desire to evolve into a wireless information services firm. In many ways, the company was far ahead of its time. Vast featured both custom solution capabilities as well as outsourced management tools in a wireless application service provider model. Another small company at the time, Aether Systems Inc., was developing much the same thing.
But while Aether has sprinted ahead to lead the industry in terms of wireless Internet positioning, Vast has largely remained motionless. The reason-Vast depended entirely on PageNet to fund its operations, which for the last 18 months was very much like trying to draw water from a stone.
“They’ve had very little revenues and it’s very difficult to figure out exactly what they do because the parent company has been in bankruptcy,” said Mike Gill, head researcher at Tejas Securities Group Inc. “At this time last year, Vast was way ahead of Aether. But Aether went public, raising huge amounts of money and increasing its view in the market. They really caught the wireless Internet wave perfectly. They left Vast far behind because Vast was saddled with a bankrupt parent company.”
But Vast is now free of that lodestone. Last week, shares of Class B common stock in Vast were distributed to the former shareholders and bondholders of PageNet, which they can exchange for shares of public stock when Vast embarks on its IPO, which likely won’t occur for several months.
Officials at Vast did not return numerous requests for comment.
Vast initially was formed around three businesses-wireless information services, custom wireless solutions for business customers and wireless Internet gateway services.
On the wireless information front, Vast was charged with hosting content from a number of providers-such as Yahoo!, ESPN, Bloomberg and CNN-and providing it to wireless carriers, PageNet being just one. To do this, it needed to have a platform supporting all wireless interfaces in use today.
In association with Tibco Software Inc., Vast created the Wireless Content Engine to fill this need, which represents the cornerstone of Vast’s wireless Internet gateway services mission.
The engine was designed to accept information from the Internet and other sources and filter, process, format and deliver it to any wireless user, customized to each.
If this sounds at all familiar, it should. Virtually every content aggregator offering wireless information services subscriptions was developed under a similar platform, including Intelligent Information Inc., Geoworks Corp. and others.
Now, just like those aggregators, Vast is less concerned about being a content provider and more interested in being a wireless ASP, leveraging its content engine to host various business applications for clients to extend enterprise data out to mobile employees.
However, the original Vast also aimed to create custom solutions for its clients, the primary function of its custom wireless solutions focus. This took the form of Vast’s Advanced Wireless Integration Group. AWIG’s goal was to develop integrated software and hardware applications connecting business customers with back-office data.
Since then, Vast silently shed much of its original management structure and changed its division and product names. Gone are several founding executives, including Scott Grimes and former president and chief operating officer Mark Knickrehm, who was replaced by Chris Sanders in May. Remaining at the helm, though, is former PageNet head-honcho John Frazee Jr.
The software architecture and technology that is the foundation of Vast’s solutions is now called Viaduct, a platform that manages the wireless network and device necessities and provides the standards interface to all networks. The platform also provides a toolkit of software modules for creating wireless applications.
Specifically, the Viaduct platform provides the interface to all wireless networks and devices and manages user profiles, security, carrier management and billing, message transformation and device rendering.
On top of this platform sit several specific applications Vast created to differentiate itself from the host of other wireless ASPs crowding the market today.
They include @ware, an e-mail extension product; Volley, a field-force automation application; and Telepath, GPS location determination combined with asset tracking software for remote monitoring applications.
When the merger with Arch was announced, many looked at Vast as the wildcard in the transaction, the value of which could represent huge gains for disenfranchised PageNet stockholders then suffering through bankruptcy. While there was no official comment on Vast’s worth, executives often pointed to Aether as a means of comparison.
Whether this will remain a fair association is difficult to answer. Vast sounds a lot like Aether, but has not positioned itself as far across industry verticals as Aether has. While Aether has made a big noise with various acquisitions, partnerships and alliances, Vast has remained largely quiet. To say that Vast’s net worth equals Aether’s today would be grossly inaccurate.
“Aether has morphed into a completely different animal,” Gill said. “It’s created a venture-capital arm and has diversified in new spaces. Vast must concentrate on blocking and tackling when Aether is off soaring with the eagles.”
Vast did announce two significant deals immediately after launching. One was a wireless extension of Computer Associates’ Unicenter TNG product, enabling IT managers to remotely manage their enterprise systems. The other was a wireless trading application for the Chicago Board of Trade. Vast also has a relationship with Siebel Systems.
But is it too late now for Vast to reclaim lost ground?
“Vast lost 12-18 months of time while the rest of the market has been evolving and maturing,” Gill answered. “Clearly, this puts them back. Had events not conspired against them, there’s no telling how much they could have done.
“If PageNet this time last year had been healthy, Vast would have spun off and gone public by this time and everybody would have been fat, dumb and happy,” he continued. “Telecom is a hot area, and wireless is an emerging part of that. Vast just hasn’t had a chance to spread its wings yet.”
