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Press Release
Palm Ventures Invests in Kenamea to Speed Enterprise Application Deployment For Handheld Computers
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SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Palm Ventures, the strategic
venture investment group of Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM), the world's leading
provider of handheld computers, has made an investment in Kenamea, Inc., a
company that is building an innovative Internet application communications
platform.
Kenamea's platform addresses the continuing strong demand in the
enterprise market segment, promising to accelerate the availability of
next-generation enterprise applications and make it easier to extend them to
Palm OS(R) based handheld devices. The platform is expected to change the way
users interact with information and services using the Internet. The
software, which is device- and network-independent, is well suited to Palm's
wireless infrastructure, where interactivity, performance, and reliability are
crucial.
"This investment in Kenamea is a perfect example of our focus on
supporting companies that provide leverage to the Palm Economy," said
Robert Hayes, director of Palm Ventures. "We believe that the platform that
Kenamea will deliver later this year will be an important factor in growing
the wireless infrastructure for handheld devices and speeding the availability
of a new generation of software for our growing enterprise-customer base. We
also believe that our global community of industry-leading licensees and
enterprise developers will find Kenamea's application communications platform
an important vehicle for delivering a broad array of new capabilities for
Palm OS devices."
"Kenamea and Palm have the same vision: to make it easy for users to
access and manage their most critical information wherever they go," said
John Blair, Kenamea's co-founder and chief executive officer. "Working with
the Palm OS development community, we expect to make possible an entirely new
generation of mobile applications of unprecedented power and dependability."
The Kenamea platform is currently in test deployment with selected
enterprise customers and partners. General availability and public launch is
scheduled for mid-2001.
Kenamea completed its first round of venture funding, led by
Crosspoint Venture Partners, in June 2000. "Palm's investment is a major
milestone for Kenamea," said Bob Lisbonne, Crosspoint general partner and
Kenamea board member. "We believe this will lead to compelling and reliable
enterprise applications that will empower handheld devices in a way that was
previously impossible."
Companies funded by Palm Ventures have a unique opportunity to work with
Palm and leverage the resources and business opportunities that Palm has to
offer. More information on Palm Ventures is available at
http://www.palm.com/company/venture1.html.
About Kenamea
Kenamea is an Internet application communications platform that transforms
the way users interact with information and services over the Internet. The
San Francisco-based company was founded in August 1999 by John Blair and
Bob Pasker. CEO and president John Blair was previously a partner at
Regis McKenna Inc. and co-founded Hypertec Pty. Ltd, one of Australia's
premier IT companies. Bob Pasker, co-founder and CTO, was co-founder and
chief architect of the WebLogic Application Server, which created, and now as
part of BEA Systems dominates, the Java application server market. In June of
2000, Kenamea completed its first venture funding, led by Crosspoint Venture
Partners. The Kenamea product is currently in test deployment with selected
enterprise customers and partners. Kenamea anticipates a public launch in
mid-2001, at which time access to the product, and detailed information on its
capabilities will be made publicly available.
About Palm, Inc.
Palm, Inc. is a pioneer in the field of mobile and wireless Internet
solutions and a leading provider of handheld computers (source: IDC,
December 1999). Based on the Palm OS(R) platform, Palm's handheld solutions
allow people to carry and access their most critical information with them
wherever they go. Palm(TM) handhelds address the needs of individuals,
enterprises and educational institutions through thousands of application
solutions. The Palm OS platform is also the foundation for products from
Palm's licensees and strategic partners, such as Franklin Covey, Handspring,
IBM, Kyocera, Sony, Symbol Technologies, and TRG. Platform licensees also
include Nokia and Samsung. The Palm Economy is a growing global community of
industry-leading licensees, world-class OEM customers, and more than 130,000
innovative developers and solution providers that have registered to develop
solutions based on the Palm OS platform. Palm went public on March 2, 2000.
Its stock is traded on the Nasdaq national market under the symbol PALM. More
information is available at http://www.palm.com.
NOTE: Palm OS is a registered trademark and Palm is a trademark of
Palm, Inc. or its subsidiaries.
SOURCE Palm, Inc.
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