Jupiter: (Open Musi).WAVE=?

Thomas Husson blogs at the Jupiter Analyst Weblogs about Openwave's acquisition of Musicwave. Husson states it was no secret the company was in play but was surprised Openwave was the suitor. He notes:

Openwave was traditionally focused on technology platforms. With this acquisition, Openwave will also be able to provide content & services on top of the technology applications. They will also benefit from an existing customer base (mainly the Vodafone contract for full-track music downloads) and from established credentials with record labels. The guys at Musiwave have a strong marketing know-how and it is a very innovative and dynamic staff.

Husson does warn that

The current revenues of Musiwave derive mainly from the ringtone market which is increasingly under pressure. Margins are decreasing, but Musiwave's marketing has some ideas on how to bundle music with ringtones and RBT. The big challenge is now to compete at an international level with the big players : Nokia-Loudeye (which btw lost the Orange France contract against...Musiwave), Ericsson/Napster, Sony and sooner or later RealNetworks.