Vodafone made its first acquisition in the mobile Internet space, paying $49 million in cash for Zyb, a private Dutch company that provides social networking and contacts management technology--two hot applications in the mobile space. Zyb enables mobile users to back up their contacts on a website and offers IM services and calendar-sharing with other users online, a service that could morph into a platform for mobile advertising. The deal is part of Vodafone's "total communications" strategy in the newly created Internet Services division to offer services beyond the mobile phone.

For more about Vodafone's Internet strategy:
- check out this article from the Financial Times

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