By Carmen Nobel

August 17, 2005

Wireless technology giant Qualcomm Inc. on Tuesday announced that it had acquired Elata Ltd., a British mobile content delivery software company, for some $57 million in cash.

Officials at Qualcomm, which specializes in CDMA technology for cell phones, said that Elata`s software will help operators consolidate their content delivery systems into a single framework, supporting a variety of devices.

``Qualcomm`s acquisition of Elata is a further demonstration of the Company`s commitment to offering operators in Europe and around the world an innovative and flexible set of solutions for managing and delivering wireless content,`` said Peggy Johnson, president of Internet Services at Qualcomm in San Diego, Calif., in a prepared statement.

``The benefits of this acquisition are threefold,`` Johnson added. ``Supporting the overall delivery of content while maintaining backwards compatibility with operators` current devices through open standards; strengthening our commitment to meeting the needs of operators worldwide; and quickly bringing new value-added services to market without additional hardware requirements.``

The move follows Qualcomm`s acquisition of Flarion Technologies Inc. earlier this month. Flarion, of Bedminster, N.J, specializes in wireless broadband technology.