Irvine-based Ubiquity Inc. has signed its first major licensing agreement to integrate its operating system software after years of development and patent approvals.
Its deal with Australian security software maker iWebgate Ltd. is valued at several million dollars, according to Ubiquity Chief Executive Chris Carmichael.
“This is really a turning point for Ubiquity,” said Carmichael, who launched the company in 2007. “We’re getting into revenues, and we have licensing deals going down.”
iWebgate has a partnership with Australia’s largest telecom, Telstra Corp. Ltd., which will make Ubiquity’s Sprocket product available to about 800,000 of its 16.7 million customers.
The offering allows users to search and organize dashboard features, including social media feeds, lifestyle interests, digital banking, mobile wallet, coupons and loyalty gifts, among other features, and link with app stores developed by wireless carriers, opening potential revenue streams.
The revenue-share agreement with iWebgate is based on the number of monthly users and active applications, valued at $1 to $2.50 per user, minus Telstra’s service fee.
Carmichael has spent more than $25 million acquiring more than 100 patents around the world for Ubiquity. It’s taken regulators more than five years to approve a fraction of them. The company’s only other licensing deal came in 2011 when it generated about $1.2 million in a Sprocket beta test for 3C networks, a unit of Lowe’s Companies Inc.
The Business Journal in September 2014 reported that Ubiquity signed a letter of intent with Hong Kong-based motherboard maker American Tec Co. to imbed its software, but the deal hasn’t materialized.
The company’s market value has evaporated since then from $560 million to about $64 million on the Over-the-Counter Bulletin Board.
E-Repairers Target OC
Two electronic device repair shops are aggressively targeting Orange County as part of a nationwide expansion plan.
Orlando-based UBreakiFix last month opened its first location here at 3611 S. Bristol St. and plans to establish four more outlets in OC. The four-owner team was attracted to the independent business landscape in Santa Ana and growing business-to-business opportunities in the area.
“Santa Ana is a unique community where residents of the city and local business converge within a 3- to 5-square-mile radius,” said co-owner Mark Weber.
UBreakiFix plans to add more than 100 stores in the U.S. and Canada by 2017, bringing its total to about 275 locations.
Denver-based startup TekDry, which developed a patented system to fix waterlogged smartphones in 20 minutes, recently opened several outlets inside Staples locations in Santa Ana, Irvine, Garden Grove, Newport Beach and Irvine, among others.
The patented technology lowers the air pressure in the chamber that holds the damaged device, essentially acting as a vacuum.
“The success is highly dependent on quick responses. When it’s immediate, it’s always going to come back,” said co-founder Craig Beinecke. “The longer you wait, the more your phone corrodes or rusts. That’s the problem.”
Phone Maker Avoids Debate
Alcatel, the Irvine-based unit of TCL Communication in China, isn’t weighing in on the ongoing Congressional and legal fight between Apple Inc. and federal law enforcement agencies to unlock an iPhone used by San Bernardino terrorist Syed Farook.
“We won’t be able to make a comment at this time,” a spokesman told the Business Journal.
TCL, which posts annual sales topping $5 billion, is now among the 10 largest phone manufacturers in the world and the top five in North America, according to market trackers Gartner Inc. and IHS Technology.
