Maximiles Europe (Alternext, ALMAX) has announced a signed agreement to acquire 100% of the company Badtech SAS, the company which operates the TellMeWhere mobile service in Europe.
This acquisition will allow Maximiles to position itself in the high growth sector of SoLoMo that combines Social networking, Local, and Mobile.
TellMeWhere is the established SoLoMo leader inFrancewith both iPhone and Android apps. It allows its members to find surrounding addresses, to post information and reviews about places, and to access good local deals. With location technology, users receive suggestions and offers from all type of retailers close to their location.
These recommendations are personalized and tailored to the tastes of each user using algorithms derived from the opinions issued by the user and the behavior of their “friends”. The service also provides good deals by offering targeted voucher codes.
The SoLoMo leader inFrance, TellMeWhere is also present in theUnited Kingdom,Italy,Spainand theUnited States. The company, which does not yet have a significant turnover, has already won over a million mobile users who have downloaded the application. The content is self-generated by the users and more than 1.2 million reviews were posted, providing comments on more than 320,000 places.
This acquisition is an important step in the development of Maximiles Europe in the growing market of mobile. The number of smart-phone users in the Europehas doubled over the past year and now exceeds 22 million people[1]. With 73% of mobile users who have already researched geotagged, market prospects for mobile marketing represents a significant potential: it is now the fastest growing marketing segment (38% in H1 2011) .
Building on its expertise in data mining and customer knowledge, Maximiles wishes to accelerate development and improve the monetization of TellMeWhere through creating new value-added services. Also, the Loyalty and CRM activities of Maximiles will benefit from TellMeWhere’s expertise in mobile and location-based marketing.
This merger, which will temporarily impact the margins of Maximiles, offers significant opportunities for synergies, particularly in increasing member databases by cross-recruitment, complementary offers, sales forces and complementary technology.
The acquisition of 100% of Badtech is wholly cash-based, with a portion related to future results (earn-out). The transaction will be financed entirely from equity and Badtech will be consolidated into the Maximiles’s financial statements from 1st November 2011. The TellMeWhere management team will remain in place. The completion of the agreement is expected in the coming days.
Gilles Barbier, President of Badtech SAS, said:
“After four years of innovation and development, we felt the need for us to lean on a group to help us quickly get the full potential of services developed and markets mobile and local. Joining Maximiles gives us the means to take the next step in our development by both benefiting from increased sales force and capitalizing on the expertise of the Maximiles group in terms of customer knowledge, data mining and loyalty.”
Marc Bidou, Chairman and CEO of Maximiles, said:
“We are very pleased with this operation that opens up considerable new prospects for Maximiles. Our companies are very complementary and this combination is a source of added value both for Maximiles and for TellMeWhere. For Maximiles, this represents a tremendous opportunity to expand our offering and our position on the growing market of mobile marketing. This gives us access to both a sharp team, innovative technology and an installed base of members with a very efficient viral marketing system.”
