2ergo targets six-times bigger Indian market by acquiring Active Media
By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 29 July 2009, 17:03 IST   |    14 Comments
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Bangalore: U.K. based 2ergo group has acquired an Indian owned, London based Active Media Technologies Private (AMT), one of India's top mobile marketing and value-added service providers, a subsidiary of Active Media Technologies. This is 2ergo's third acquisition in the current year, after acquiring Broca, and Australia's Wapfly Technologies. This deal will enable 2ergo to access a much bigger Indian market than the U.K. in terms of subscribers. "There are 453 million mobile phone users in India, approximately six times the size of the U.K. market, and numbers are increasing by more than 11 million per month. The Indian market holds vast potential for us with 10 percent of users choosing internet enabled mobile phones in a technology leap that forgoes computers in favor of straight to mobile data," said Chris Brassington, Group Managing Director, 2ergo. 2ergo provides technology for major mobile marketing, customer relationship management and entertainment and media campaigns. Its clients include O2, ABC, FOX News, Yahoo! and AT&T. AMT is a global provider of mobile ticketing and couponing services, which has the longest running mobile promo for cinema campaign, "Orange Wednesdays". The campaign was carried in India as "Hutch Tuesdays". AMT provides mobile VAS services and solutions deploying mobile coupons, vouchers, ticketing and loyalty programs. It is the first company to launch nationwide cross-operator short code based services. 2ergo will initially pay $295,350, with the balance to be paid between November 2009 and November 2013, dependent on AMT achieving agreed levels of financial performance. The company informed that the rest of the amount will be calculated as four times Indian profit after tax and 2.8 times U.K. operating profit for the year to 31 August 2012. "We have been looking to invest in one of the BRIC regions for some time and this deal in one of the world's fastest growing economies provides a platform for further investment and growth for 2ergo in Asia which not surprisingly includes some of the fastest growing mobile phone markets in the world," said Barry Sharples, Joint CEO, 2ergo Group. AMT has more than 50 people across its operations in London, New Delhi, and Mumbai. It serves country's major mobile phone operators including Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance and Tata. Its blue chip clients include British Airways, Blockbuster, Proctor & Gamble, ABN AMRO, ING, Monster, Hyundai and Western Union. The acquisition has come after AMT incorporated into 2ergo's business partner program at the beginning of the year. "2ergo has an impressive track record in developing innovative mobile enabling technology that will lead to accelerated growth for our mobile ticketing and couponing platform globally," said Ariya Priyasantha, Managing Director, Active Media Technologies. The combined sales of U.K. and Indian businesses of AMT were $1,963,500 and made a profit before tax of $377,850, in its most recent results. AMT has estimated net assets of $907,500. Also, Ramesh Krishnan, former Vice President, Global Channel Sales, Comviva Technologies has joined Active Media, India as Chief Operating Officer.

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