In an attempt to give users better access to corporate data, 3Com Corp yesterday announced it has invested $6m in Aether Technologies, a wireless data service provider and systems integration company. The Owings Mills, Maryland-based Aether will use the funds to build out its existing enterprise wireless data center, the companies said. The investment expands an existing alliance between 3Com and Aether. Mike Dolbec, 3Com’s vice president of business development, said the money wasn’t intended to enable Aether to develop any specific Palm-related technology. Rather, with Palm being the preferred handheld computer on the service provider’s network, it makes sense for us to invest in them, he said, we benefit from their business as they grow. Currently, Aether offers real-time financial market information, via Reuters news service, to wireless-enabled Palm III devices on a monthly subscription basis. But according to Dolbec, the two companies want to expand this offering to enable enterprise customers to access specified corporate data, such as ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications, in real time as well. And any new service will also be engineered to work on 3Com’s recently-announced (CI No 3,551) Palm VII device too. Specifically, George Davis, COO of Aether said the company would use the investment to capture more engineering talent, to continue to develop and grow its AIM (Aether Intelligent Messaging) middleware, and to build out its customer support and fulfillment system. Davis said AIM was the cornerstone of Aether’s enterprise wireless data center; the middleware that provides the wireless access over networks such as Mobitex, CDPD, CDMA and GSM.
