Openwave Systems

Openwave Systems has a complex history marked by several transformations, mergers, and strategic shifts, positioning it as a key player in the evolution of the mobile internet. The company's origins trace back to 1996 when it was founded as Libris, Inc., later changing its name to Unwired Planet. As Unwired Planet, it pioneered the Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML), a precursor to the Wireless Markup Language (WML), and was a founding member of the WAP Forum. In 1999, the company became Phone.com and went public. A significant milestone occurred in 2001 when Phone.com merged with Software.com, giving rise to Openwave Systems. This merger expanded the company's portfolio to include mobile email and multimedia messaging (MMS) infrastructure.

Through a series of strategic divestitures, Openwave's core businesses were spun off. In 2012, its Mediation and Messaging product businesses were sold to Marlin Equity Partners, which established them as two separate entities: Openwave Mobility and Openwave Messaging. Following this, Openwave Systems rebranded back to Unwired Planet to concentrate on its intellectual property and patent portfolio. The 'Unwired Planet' name became prominent in legal circles, particularly in a landmark UK Supreme Court case against Huawei concerning global licensing for standards-essential patents (SEPs).

The spun-off entity, Openwave Mobility, focused on providing mobile operators with solutions for video traffic management and monetizing encrypted traffic. Its offerings included a Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) platform designed to analyze the data network and subscriber habits to alleviate data congestion. This business unit served top-tier mobile operators globally. In a strategic move to bolster its presence in the telecom sector, Enea, a Swedish software company, acquired Openwave Mobility in February 2018 for $90 million. This acquisition integrated Openwave Mobility's traffic management and subscriber data management solutions into Enea's broader portfolio for communication service providers. The other entity, Openwave Messaging, continued to develop messaging software and was eventually acquired by Lumine Group in 2023.

Keywords: mobile internet, WAP Forum, subscriber data management, video traffic management, mobile traffic management, network functions virtualization, mobile messaging, telecommunications software, patent licensing, mobile browser