Aether Systems to Acquire IFX, Europe's Largest Provider of Mobile Financial Information

$85 Million Acquisition of Technology-Rich Wireless Data Company Expected to Become Part of European Venture with Reuters

Aether Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:AETH), a leading provider of wireless data services and systems, announced today that it has acquired IFX Group plc, Europe's largest provider of mobile financial data, for $85 million. The acquisition will become a key asset in Aether's previously announced planned European wireless data venture with Reuters, owned 60 percent by Aether and 40 percent by Reuters.

The new joint venture will be called Sila Communications and will develop and provide wireless data applications in Europe, initially focusing on financial markets. The company will be independently managed and headquartered in London. Aether plans to contribute IFX to Sila, providing a strong building block for the joint venture. IFX is an established company with a pan-European presence, operating regional data centers in Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Madrid, Paris and Singapore.

Founded in 1992, IFX is the leading provider in Europe of real-time financial information services on mobile devices. The company has approximately a 60 percent market share in countries where its services are available, including Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Benelux and Scandinavia.

IFX is developing leading-edge technologies to optimize the delivery of data over the next generation of digital networks being rolled out across Western Europe. The company's "Value Added Service Platform" (VAS) application operates over today's European GSM wireless networks, as well as next-generation high-speed networks including GPRS and UMTS.

The VAS platform compresses, distributes and presents data in a way that allows wireless operators to quickly and easily offer a wide range of value-added data services to handheld devices including WAP phones, pagers and PDAs. Services include real-time financial information and trading, general news and sports information and vertical data services such as corporate information management. Using IFX's VAS platform, Sila Communications would become a prominent "wireless ASP" (applications services provider) serving the European carrier, enterprise and consumer markets.

"The model IFX has followed is very similar to that of Aether in the United States, which makes this acquisition a very natural fit. We also started out by targeting the financial services sector before extending our wireless data expertise to other vertical markets," said David Oros, chairman and chief executive of Aether Systems. "By acquiring IFX and bringing the company's resources to our planned European venture, we will significantly increase our speed to market in becoming the leading wireless ASP in Europe."

The market for wireless data services - such as web content, stock quotes, news, sports scores and customized information - is large and growing. According to research firm IDC, Western Europe will have 10 million mobile data users by the end of this year, with the number expected to reach 40 million by the end of 2002.

"By combining the wireless data software expertise of Aether, the strong European presence of IFX and the brand name, content and market penetration of Reuters, we will quickly create a strong new company poised for success," said Bo Kroll, CEO and founder of IFX.

The IFX acquisition is the latest step in Aether's strategy to become the leading provider of wireless data services and systems. Other recent moves have included the acquisitions of Riverbed Technologies (now Aether Software), a leading provider of enterprise mobile data management software, and LocusOne (now Aether Logistics), a leader in mobile data services for fleets of delivery vehicles. In March, Aether took a 27.5 percent interest in Inciscent, a new company formed with Metrocall, PSINet and other investors to develop wireless email, Internet access and other applications for the small office and home office market segments. In addition, Aether is a joint principal owner, along with 3Com Corp., of OmniSky, Inc., a wireless Internet service provider based in Palo Alto, Calif.


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