UK mobile TV player gets on the Nasdaq OTC board through a share exchange with CyberFund

Dan Jones, Mobile Editor

November 15, 2007

2 Min Read
ROK Rolls to Nasdaq

U.K. mobile TV maven ROK Corp. Ltd. has gone public in the U.S. through a share exchange deal with CyberFund that the company says is worth around $1 billion.

The combined company will operate initially under the name of CyberFund and will continue to be listed on the Nasdaq Over-the-Counter (OTC) Bulletin Board under the trading symbol, CYFD. ROK is currently headquarted in Wolverhampton, England. The new company, however, will be incorporated in Delaware.

In the transaction, CyberFund acquired substantially all of the outstanding ordinary shares of ROK. As a result of the share exchange, ROK will be a subsidiary of CyberFund and continue existing operations as a publicly-traded company.

ROK styles itself as a mobile entertainment company and has developed data compression systems and software for delivering games and content over 2.5G and 3G networks. It has three patents to its name and has applied for more.

Lately, however, the company has been pushing into the mobile TV space. The company has tried to increase the popularity of mobile TV through free trials and working with the world's number one phone vendor Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK). The Finnish vendor has embedded the ROK player on some of its E series phones, while ROK has added support for the popular N series multimedia handsets.

The company is even attempting to bring its player to the masses by loading TV programs onto an SD card and selling the "plug and play" system for around $30 a pop. The company is currently selling these "Rok Player Chips" in Nokia stores in the U.K.

The Nokia tie-up gives ROK a big leg-up in the mobile TV game over many of its startup rivals. Nonetheless, there are many other players in this growing niche, such as PocketTV and Player X. Like ROK, all of the companies face the issue of how to get the player on the phone in the first place.

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Unstrung

About the Author(s)

Dan Jones

Mobile Editor

Dan is to hats what Will.I.Am is to ridiculous eyewear. Fedora, trilby, tam-o-shanter -- all have graced the Jones pate during his career as the go-to purveyor of mobile essentials.

But hey, Dan is so much more than 4G maps and state-of-the-art headgear. Before joining the Light Reading team in 2002 he was an award-winning cult hit on Broadway (with four 'Toni' awards, two 'Emma' gongs and a 'Brian' to his name) with his one-man show, "Dan Sings the Show Tunes."

His perfectly crafted blogs, falling under the "Jonestown" banner, have been compared to the works of Chekhov. But only by Dan.

He lives in Brooklyn with cats.

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