AT&T Acquires Plusmo to Further Mobile Applications Strategy
DALLAS—(BUSINESS WIRE)—AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T - News) today announced the acquisition of privately-held Plusmo, Inc., a leading provider of cross-platform mobile application solutions, bringing to AT&T an open standards technology …
Context & Ripple Effects
The Plusmo deal closes out a crowded September for AT&T: inside three weeks the carrier filed an FCC letter pressing for intervention over Google Voice, switched on iPhone MMS after months of delay, confirmed the 3G MicroCell femtocell rollout, and announced a hybrid satellite-cellular partnership with TerreStar — a burst of moves all aimed at defending its position as the iPhone carrier while the application layer consolidates around Apple and Google.
Within this coverage, AT&T's previous appearance was a 2007 network-side purchase of an Oklahoma-based carrier; Plusmo is the opposite kind of acquisition — a small, privately-held software capability buy, bringing open-standards cross-platform application technology in-house rather than adding spectrum or subscribers.
First-order effects
- Plusmo's cross-platform, open-standards technology moves inside AT&T, giving the carrier a way to field applications across devices it does not control — timely as it readies Android hardware such as the rumored HTC Tilt 2 alongside its iPhone lineup.
- AT&T gains an in-house mobile applications team overnight, converting its stated 'mobile applications strategy' from press language into shipped capability.
Second-order effects
- A carrier-built application layer hands AT&T a lever against Apple's and Google's storefronts at precisely the moment its public Google Voice complaint has put carrier-versus-platform power in front of the FCC.
- Developers and handset partners acquire a second route to AT&T subscribers beyond the Apple App Store, shifting some distribution leverage back toward the operator.
Third-order effects
- If carriers respond to platform consolidation by acquiring software firms rather than building them, the US wireless industry hardens into a split between platform owners and network operators who buy their way onto the application layer.
- Capability acquisitions of this size signal that regulators and investors will increasingly judge carriers on their software position, not just their networks — the dynamic already visible in AT&T's own FCC filings.
The trend: US carriers are responding to Apple- and Google-controlled mobile app ecosystems by acquiring software capability outright, attempting to keep the application layer tethered to the network.