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For Kansas City-based Handmark Inc., one benefit of the dotcom bust was the way venture capitalists soured on the sector - nobody was financing new competition.
Those days are over for the maker of software for mobile devices.
Consider what Handmark's competitors did in the summer: JAMDAT filed for an $86 million initial public offering, Mforma raised $44 million from VCs, INTUSIO raised $27 million, Sorrent raised $20 million, and Airborne Entertainment raised $22 million.
"Our phone is ringing off the hook with VCs trying to find a place to put their money," Handmark CEO August Grasis III said.
Handmark is the nation's largest retail maker of game and productivity software for personal digital assistants (PDAs) but a relative newcomer to the suddenly hot business of making downloadable...