MobiVentures to buy messaging specialist Purepromoter for $7.8M

By Mickey Alam Khan

April 9, 2008

A handshake to make hands shake

Mobile applications and content specialist MobiVentures Inc. has agreed to buy Purepromoter Ltd., a provider of email and messaging services to clients in 40 countries.

The deal, for $7.8 million, is expected to close by month’s end. MobiVentures has gained $2 million in financing from London’s Trafalgar Capital Specialized Investment Fund to finance the acquisition.

“We decided to acquire Pure due to the significant cross-selling opportunities," said Nigel Nicholas, CEO of MobiVentures, London. 

The acquisition comes soon after MobiVentures bought another mobile services firm, Move2Mobile.

A six-year-old firm, Pure offers email, MMS and SMS messaging campaigns.

Pure clients include Emap, Financial Times, Economist Conferences, Littlewoods, ultimatepoker.com and innocent drinks.

Via its agency channel Pure works with firms such as Barclaycard, Levi’s Europe, Halifax, Pepsi, O2, Starbucks and Red Bull.

Pure is expected to post revenue of $4.1 million for the fiscal year ended March 31, up almost 50 percent from $2.8 million in the year-ago period.

Operating income for Pure this year is expected to reach $1.1 million, from $670,000 last year.

"We believe Pure’s product suite will be an extremely valuable and compelling addition for our clients," Mr. Nicholas said. 

"Pure’s email and SMS marketing solutions go one step further than traditional campaigns by measuring results -- an extremely valuable program component for clients who need to assess the effectiveness of dollars spent on their marketing campaigns,” he said.