2009 investment in Boston's mobile industry.

1.
2009
Investment
in
Boston’s
Mobile
Industry
March,
2010

2. Introduction
In
this
report,
Mobile
Monday
Boston
evaluates
the
100
Massachusetts
mobile
and
wireless
companies
that
saw
activity
in
venture
capital
funding
and
acquisitions
in
2009.
The
data
reveals
that
mobile
has
now
been
billion-­‐dollar
a
year
sector
in
Massachusetts
for
the
last
two
years,
despite
recent
drops
in
venture
funding
fueled
by
the
current
economic
climate.
Yearly
Mobile
Investment
Total
mobile
investment
in
the
Boston
area
increased
44%
from
1.01
billion
in
2008
to
1.49
billion
in
2009.
Venture
capital
funding
decreased
from
565.28
million
in
2008
to
338.65
million
in
2009,
while
acquisitions
increased
from
473.4
million
in
2008
to
1.16
billion
in
2009.
*2009
acquisitions
include
the
following:
• 72
Mobile
Holdings’
$530
million
acquisition
of
Airvana
• Acme
Packet’s
$22.8
million
acquisition
of
Convergence
• Prime
View
International’s
$215
million
acquisition
of
E
Ink
• Compuware’s
$295
million
acquisition
of
Gomez
• KPN’s
$93.3
million
acquisition
of
iBasis

3. The
total
number
of
Boston
mobile
companies
receiving
venture
capital
funding
decreased
to
32
companies
in
2009
after
reaching
a
new
high
in
2008
with
45
total
companies
receiving
funding.
This
decrease
is
in
line
with
the
all
investment
activity
(beyond
mobile)
throughout
New
England.
Based
on
PricewaterhouseCoopers
MoneyTree
report
for
Q4
2009/Full-­‐year
20091,
the
entire
New
England
area
experienced
a
27%
decrease
in
the
number
of
venture
deals
from
474
in
2008
to
348
in
2009.
Boston
based
mobile
firms
receiving
funding
mirrored
that
trend
with
a
29%
decrease
in
the
number
of
venture
deals
from
45
in
2008
to
31
in
2009.
1
Report
can
be
found
at
https://www.pwcmoneytree.com/MTPublic/ns/index.jsp

4. Venture
funding
began
strong
for
2009
with
207.8
million
invested
in
Q109,
but
quickly
dropped
off,
bottoming
out
at
24.15
million
in
funding
for
Q309,
and
recovering
with
40.2
million
in
funding
for
Q409.
While
Q3
was
the
lowest
quarter
for
funding,
we
still
saw
eight
total
investments
in
this
quarter,
about
the
same
total
number
of
investments
as
all
other
2009
quarters.
The
difference
in
Q3
was
in
the
small
size
of
VC
deals.
All
but
one
was
at
or
under
$3
million.
These
venture
capital
investment
numbers
were
overshadowed
by
several
large
acquisitions
in
the
mobile
space,
with
237.8
million
for
Q209
and
918.3
million
for
Q409.
These
numbers
combined
for
a
total
1.16
billion
in
acquisitions
for
2009,
a
144%
increase
over
the
473.4
million
in
acquisitions
for
2008.

5. Percentages
based
on
32
total
Boston
firms
receiving
funding
in
2009.
While
a
variety
of
companies
received
investment
in
2009,
applications
and
hardware
firms
were
among
the
most
prominent
categories,
both
with
more
companies
receiving
funding
than
all
other
sectors.
The
number
of
hardware
firms
receiving
funding
increased
from
four
in
2008
to
six
in
2009,
while
the
number
of
applications
firms
receiving
funding
increased
from
one
in
2008,
to
five
in
2009.
Applications
firms
include
companies
like
Apperian
and
Run
Keeper;
hardware
firms
include
Ember
Corp.,
IP
Wireless,
and
Lilliputian
Systems.