Vodafone jumps into Web 2.0 and snaps up Zyb for $48m

Hot, hot news if you’re keen on watching the slow lumbering pace of your common-or-garden mobile operator swap into a brief canter. Yes, the pace is hotting up! Zyb, everybody’s favourite mobile contact backup company (and a HECK of a lot more) has sold out to Big Red for a whopping $48m (31.5m EURO) in cash. No stock. Just plain cash. A nice exit for the venture capitalist and the team there — congratulations all.

The news comes not long after I wrote about Zyb’s new mobile socialising strategy that, if it turns out to be anywhere near as good as it looks, could certainly be ground-breaking.

This news is, according to Vodafone, a further advancement toward the implementation of Vodafone’s Total Communications strategy, to deliver new revenues around fixed broadband, mobile advertising and an integrated set of internet services (mobile and PC based). They clearly aren’t messing around.

The Zyb technologies could — if added into the Vodafone mix in the right way — pave the way for an extremely compelling experience from the company.

How about a quote from Pieter Knook, top chap heading up Internet Services for Vodafone Group?

“Vodafone understands that the core of any customer’s personal and business network is the set of contacts they hold on their mobile phone.

“Using a web portal as a link between the PC and the mobile device, ZYB provides an interactive way for people to nurture, contact and develop their relationships with their most important friends and colleagues and builds links with those contacts’ wider networks. This is Web 2.0 in action.”

Well. There you go. Let’s see what’s next? Congratulations one and all.

I don’t have any news yet on whether this will alter Zyb’s plans to launch their mobile address book application shortly. Here’s hoping it’s still on track for the announced ‘Q2’ launch.

If, by the way, you haven’t actually backed up your mobile contacts recently, please, please, please do it soon with either Zyb or Mobyko.