Online retailing giant Amazon.com said Tuesday that it has taken a minority interest in Geoworks Corp, the Alameda, California based company that supplies software and services for wireless communications devices. Amazon paid $5m for a roughly 7.0% interest in Geoworks and will take over the company’s Seattle office and staff. The deal appears to have been made primarily because Amazon wanted the services of the 19 software engineers working at the location, and the company said it had no plans to enter the software market for wireless devices, describing the stake as passive. Amazon paid $4.10 a share for 1.2 million newly-issued shares, or a 31% premium Friday’s closing price of $3.03. Geoworks, which last year expanded its business model to include the delivery of content over digital phones and other devices, has announced that advertising will be a key component of that strategy. The idea is that ads on the devices could be linked directly back to retailers such as Amazon through a one- button response to a call center, where the user can complete purchases.
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