BroadVision, others team on wireless B2B services

E-commerce software maker BroadVision today said it has teamed with four other companies to form a new venture that will provide wireless business-to-business software and services.

The new company, named B-Mobile, is slated to begin operations by early October. The other companies involved in the venture are California-based H&Q Asia Pacific; Itochu, a Japanese trading company, and its information processing unit, Itochu Techno-Science; and Access, a Japanese browser-software maker for non-PC devices.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

B-Mobile, to be headquartered in Tokyo, will provide software and services for Internet-based business transactions over wireless networks for mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), the companies said in a joint statement.

The new company is also teaming with NTT Communications, a unit of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, to use NTT Communications' network system and data center, the companies said.

B-Mobile will base its services on BroadVision's One-To-One e-business applications and XML (Extensible Markup Language) content-management technologies, the companies said. XML is a Web standard for data exchange that is rapidly becoming the preferred language of online business.

In May, Redwood City, Calif.-based BroadVision said it was teaming with Bank of America, Hewlett-Packard and Amadeus Global Travel Distribution to form a new company that will build internal corporate Web sites for businesses.