Telecom Lead India: Mobile VAS major OnMobile Global is set to buy Livewire Mobile for $17.8 million.
Livewire Mobile is the first significant acquisitions after 2010.
Earlier, OnMobile acquired VAS companies such as Dilithium, Telisma, Vox mobile and ITfinity Solutions.
The acquisition of Livewire Mobile, a provider of managed mobile entertainment solutions for network operators and consumer device manufacturers, will strengthen OnMobile’s presence in the U.S. telecom markets.
Livewire Mobile powers ringback tone and mobile music solutions for Sprint, MetroPCS, and Public Mobile amongst others.
OnMobile is already one of the largest B2B digital music service provider providing path-breaking music services for top Telecom operators in Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe.
Mouli Raman, CEO & co-founder, OnMobile Global, said, “The acquisition of Livewire Mobile, with its reputation for providing music services, will help us consolidate our global leadership position in RBT and music by firmly establishing our presence in North America for these services.”
By integrating OnMobile and Livewire’s products and by extending OnMobile’s managed services model, OnMobile will create a compelling value proposition to telecom operators and consumers.
OnMobile’s revenue for Q4 FY 2013 was Rs 1,841 million, up 3.7 percent over Q4 FY 2012. EBITDA and net profit normalized for exceptional income and Forex impact increased by 2.5 percent and 233.6 percent y-o-y, respectively. For the full year FY 2013, revenue increased 13.7 percent to Rs 7,253 million. EBITDA and Net Profit normalized for exceptional income and Forex loss increased by 13.2 percent and 12.1 percent, respectively.
OnMobile’s recent acquisitions
Dilithium
On October 05, 2010, OnMobile acquired 3G video technology and mobile solutions developed over eight years by Silicon Valley-based Dilithium Networks. Dilithium pioneered mobile video, authored the global standard for 3G video telephony, and is the largest customer validated 3G video solution for mobile operators globally.
This acquisition enabled OnMobile to deploy Dilithium’s technology in the mobile video solutions space, piggybacking on OnMobile’s 2G and 2.5G VAS platforms embedded into telecom operators, and hence accelerating the launch of 3G VAS services.
The acquisition provided OnMobile with Dilithium’s extensive patent portfolio – over 175 patents in advanced video technologies.
Telisma
On 1 July 2008, OnMobile acquired 100 percent stake in European Speech Recognition company, telisma.
The addition of telisma’s standards compliant speech recognition products & expertise enabled OnMobile to accelerate its penetration into emerging markets by developing new speech recognition language models.
Vox mobili
On September 10, 2007, OnMobile completed the acquisition of Vox mobili, a provider of telecommunications related value added services focused on global management of personal and group data.
ITfinity Solutions
A mobile data specialist Company, ITfinity is a provider of various mobile products like On-Device Portals, phone back up, managed messaging, technology platforms, applications and turn-key services to mobile operators, handset manufacturers and VAS portals.
