February 15, 2008 (Tokyo, Japan)—In an effort to deliver within Japan and globally the world’s first stress-free mobile services for Second Life and video streaming through mobile telephone terminals, and in a further effort to advance Internet services closer to consumers in general, Acrodea, Inc. (CEO and President: Junya Tsutsumi), headquartered in Meguro-ku, Tokyo, and SUN, Inc. (CEO and President: Kotaro Okui), headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo announced that the two companies have executed a business alliance as of Feb. 15, and an equity alliance as of Jan. 31 in which Acrodea has acquired equity in SUN for 100 million yen through a capital increase.
Through this alliance, based on the Second Life platform architecture technology dedicated to mobile phone terminals that SUN provides, and the VIVID UI user interface technology and X-FORGE platform technology effective for optimizing 3D animation effects in systems that Acrodea provides, the companies will develop the world’s first platform with outstanding operability and visual effects for mobile phone terminals accessing the Second Life virtual world. By fusing the technological strengths belonging to each company, the world’ first connectivity via mobile terminal between the virtual and physical worlds will enable access at any time from any place as a consequence of the platform and services provided, for greater enjoyment than before.
In terms of business operations, the two companies will leverage their expertise and trust gained in the industry to aim for establishment of the official sites for mobile Second Life service and video streaming service among the three mobile carriers in Japan (NTT DoCoMo, au, and SoftBank). Moreover, the formalized development towards all mobile carriers around the world will involve joint marketing activities to bring the mobile Second Life service and video streaming service closer to general consumers. Acrodea and SUN also intend to develop partner alliances with companies expressing keen interest in these service models, and to promote a licensing business.
“Through this business alliance announced today, I feel that SUN will be able to optimize its technologies and services offered to date, and vastly improve them. By fusing the engineering and operating forces of SUN and Acrodea, I look forward to delivering a stress-free environment that will allow people around the world to enjoy Internet services, such as Second Life and video streaming, through mobile terminals,” said SUN CEO and president Kotaro Okui.
“We have concluded this business alliance in order to enhance the utility value of networked services and mobile terminals. I look forward to attaining the stress-free mobile life that Acrodea aims for, from any place; and to delivering new avenues of usage for mobile services to consumers in Japan and around the world through our software development capacity commanding high reliability, and through SUN’s system development and service development abilities,” commented Acrodea CEO and president Junya Tsutsumi.
SUN, Inc., is a leading company for 3D Internet business operations, such as Japan’s first full-scale entertainment mall Tokyo Zero-Banchi opened in 2007 in Second Life, and is also engaged in the development of mobile streaming e-delivery systems, and the operation of call centers. The company is working on technology development to enable stress-free services on low-spec terminals, such as mobile phones, and on low-speed Internet lines. In December 2007, SUN launched a Second Life grid viewer service for mobile phones. SUN was established in June 2006, and has paid-in capital of 326,740,000 yen. For more information, please visit http://www.suninc.jp/.
Acrodea, Inc., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a software technology R&D firm involved in middleware technology for mobile terminals. The company is particularly focused on interface technologies connecting between the user and terminal, and currently provides UI (user interface) technologies and email enhancement technologies to the market. We are also applying R&D energy towards the enhancement of graphics performance, which is indispensable in facilitating usage of mobile platform interfaces. Our stance and efforts are a continual commitment to superior products and improving technology, for which we have received recognition worldwide. In addition to Japan and Korea, Acrodea is engaged in business on the global market, including China, Europe, and North America. The company listed publicly on Mothers Exchange of TSE on Oct. 19, 2006, just two years and three months after establishment in July 2004. Acrodea is headquartered in Tokyo, and maintains an overseas presence in Seoul, Korea; Helsinki, Finland; and Newport Beach, California, U.S.A. For more information, please visit http://www.acrodea.co.jp.
Marketing Department at Acrodea, Inc.
TEL：+81 3-5768-8603 email: pr@acrodea.co.jp
Public Relations Officer Meguro at SUN, Inc.
SUN Annex Building, 2-7-3 Iwamoto-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-0032 Japan
Tel: +81 3-4530-3150 Fax: +81 3-3864-1280
Email: meguro@suninc.jp
