Vivendi

Palm Inc.’s European plans for its Pre Plus and Pixi Plus devices received a date today as the company said French operator SFR would begin offering the company’s smartphones through SFR’s online store on April 27 and in its retail …

Too bad Canada’s ultra strict Telecommunications Act forbids foreign ownership to non-Egyptian companies, otherwise we might be getting some of the hundreds of millions of dollars that Telefonica and Vivendi are putting into Brazil, and benefit from the fact that …

PlayPhone Inc. notched its fourth and final major record label, securing a deal to distribute mastertones from Universal Music Group.A division of Vivendi, UMG claims nearly 20 subsidiary labels and artists such as 50 Cent, Kanye West, Mariah Carey, The …

While a tiny handful of entrenched mobile game makers cement their place at the top of the industry, a small army of startups are throwing all sorts of ideas against the wall to see what sticks. And community may be …

Direct-to-consumer content vendor PlayPhone Inc. is expanding its footprint by merging with London’s Pitch Entertainment Group.Pitch Entertainment delivers off-deck content, social networking applications and mobile marketing solutions in 20 markets primarily in Europe and Asia. PlayPhone operates its own content …

A new, pro-market advocacy group has formed to focus on business, technological and social aspects of mobile communications.The Mobile Future Coalition debuted yesterday at CTIA Wireless 2008. “American consumers have been well-served by the robust competition in the wireless market,” …

Vivendi Mobile Entertainment announced that Sandrine Dufour will take over as chairwoman of the company. She will take over for Robert de Metz who recently left Vivendi. The business unit’s zaOza service will continue to be led by Cedric Ponsot, …

Vivendi Games said it will distribute some of its mobile titles through Nokia Corp.’s Download Application and Nokia Catalogues.Download is embedded on more than 50 Nokia handsets including NSeries and ESeries devices and offers a rotation of recent mobile game …

Digital Chocolate Inc. is the latest mobile-game maker to distribute its games for free.The publisher said it will make five of its games available through Greystripe, a San Francisco-based distributor of free mobile games. The titles will come wrapped in …

Ad-subsidized mobile content appears to be gaining steam even as the paid gaming segment treads water.MobileRated, a Canadian ad-subsidized gaming subsidiary of Kalador Entertainment Inc., said it has seen downloads increase one-third over the past three months, delivering more than …

Editor’s Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect the …

No wonder people can’t agree on a cure for the mobile gaming industry. Some insiders don’t even think it’s sick.There’s no question that the space-which just a couple of years ago was envisioned as the pace-setting genre of mobile content-has …

The ad-subsidized mobile gaming space gained another backer as Vivendi Games Mobile said it will offer 10 of its titles free through Greystripe.The mobile division of Paris-based Vivendi Games said games such as “After Dark Flying Toaster,” “Amy’s Hangman” and …

Nokia Corp. is hoping to build a doorway directly to mobile consumers. Again.But whether carriers will tolerate the move is far from clear.The manufacturer-cum-mobile-media company last week outlined a surprisingly broad cross-platform play, introducing Ovi-which means “door” in the Finnish …

Editor’s Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect …

Amp’d Mobile Inc. blamed its rapid growth, back-office systems and collection problems as the reasons for its need to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and said that nearly half of its youthful customer base were not paying their bills by …

North American game developers are looking to Adobe Systems Inc. to help Lite-n the load.Flash Lite-essentially a stripped-down, mobile version of the company’s ubiquitous Flash Player for computers-has gained substantial traction in Japan and North Korea, where it has won …

French media-telecom conglomerate Vivendi S.A. sharpened its charges against T-Mobile USA Inc. and its global affiliate, alleging corporate corruption helped the No. 4 U.S. mobile phone operator bid successfully on $4 billion worth of advanced wireless services licenses to support …

“Idealistic” isn’t a word commonly associated with venture capitalists. But Brian Biniak, founder of the new wireless venture-capital firm Provenance Ventures L.L.C., believes there is a business case for making the world a better place. “Some people complain about it, …

PARIS-French mobile operator SFR launched an HSDPA network in Paris and southern France, using network technology from Nokia Corp. SFR has about 17.3 million customers in France, about 1.5 million of which are 3G customers; the company is owned by …

PARIS—French mobile operator SFR launched an HSDPA network in Paris and southern France, using network technology from Nokia Corp. SFR has about 17.3 million customers in France, about 1.5 million of which are 3G customers.; the company is owned by …

PARIS-Openwave Systems Inc.’s new subsidiary Musiwave said it is powering a new subscription-based, full-track music download service for French carrier SFR. SFR, an affiliate of Vivendi Universal and Vodafone Group plc., launched the service with 80,000 songs from Universal Music’s …

If Amp’d Mobile Inc.’s bargain-basement full-track download music service was designed to get attention, it’s working. The recently launched mobile virtual network operator made headlines a few weeks ago when it said it would match the price of Apple Computer …

Kristen Beckman Following are ratings changes and other financial information for wireless companies announced this week by investment banking and financial firms. CIBC raised its estimates on Powerwave Technologies Inc. following the company’s strong second-quarter report. CIBC said it expects …

PARIS-French company Vivendi Universal has filed a complaint in Poland against its co-owners of wireless carrier Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa. Vivendi Universal filed a complaint against Elektrim and Deutsche Telekom related to the bilateral agreement between France and Poland for the …