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[The Rainmaker]

Heard of Vringo? It’s Mark Cuban’s Newest Toy.

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban has taken a major stake in a small video-ringtone maker with annual revenue of less than $1 million, a disclosure that comes a day after he made an investment in another applications maker.


Zuma Press
Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire investor Mark CubanThe 7.4% stake in Vringo Inc. makes Cuban the company’s largest shareholder, according to data from FactSet Research. Hedge fund Iroquois Capital LP has the second-biggest stake in Vringo at 6.4%.

Vringo develops mobile video, personalization and social-application platforms. In February, the company said its Facetones app, a Facebook Inc.-integrated visual ringtone based on pictures from a user’s friends, reached 1 million downloads.

After the news, Vringo’s shares jumped 18% to $3.59 after hours. Through the close, the stock has more than tripled since the start of the year.

Neither Vringo nor Cuban was immediately available for comment.

Yesterday Mention Mobile, a social-gaming applications maker, reported that Cuban had invested an undisclosed amount in the company. Cuban’s other significant holdings include stakes in media-measurement company Rentrak Corp. and LodgeNet Interactive Corp., a television-systems operator that delivers on-demand movies, among other things. He also owns the Dallas Mavericks.

Last month, Vringo reported its full-year loss narrowed to $7.5 million from a year-earlier loss of $9.9 million as revenue more than tripled to $718,000. Chief Executive Jonathan Medved resigned from the CEO post in March and was replaced by President Andrew Perlman.

In March, Vringo agreed to an all-stock merger with intellectual-property firm Innovate/Protect Inc, a firm founded in 2011 that holds eight patents related to relevance filtering technology acquired from Lycos Inc. The company contended the deal will allow it to better produce revenue.