Fresh from its acquisition of Irish mobile content player Eirborne Text Services for €8.5m, Zamano chief executive John O’Shea has confirmed further acquisitions are in the pipeline.
“Absolutely,” he confirmed. “The reason we raised cash on the IEX stock market in Dublin was to have the currency to use, and acquisition is the key element to the growth we foresee.”
He said the company is forecasting 45pc growth in 2007, combining both organic growth and growth through acquisition.
Zamano made a turnover of €13.5m and if the 45pc growth is achieved this year it will be on the road to recording a turnover of €19.5m for 2007. “This should reflect the impact of acquisitions as well as high growth activity.”
The company recorded a profit of €2m on its 2006 revenues of €13.5m.
Asked if Zamano is likely to diversify into fixed web or other markets for mobile content O’Shea said the company intends to stay focused on the mobile consumer market.
“We focus on where we operate the best and mobile consumer services have the best potential.”
R&D remains at the heart of Zamano’s plans, said O’Shea, with 18 out of the company’s 38 employees engaged in product development.
Zamano operates a hybrid business model within the mobile data services market space. The business-to-business (B2B) business units serve business customers and brands wishing to interact and sell mobile services to mobile phone users. The business-to-consumer (B2C) business unit operates a brand, Mobile X, and sells directly to phone owners.
However, it is in the consumer business market that Zamano is projecting significant growth. “In the UK some 16 million people downloaded content onto their mobiles last year. That’s almost 30pc of the population of the UK. That’s the market we are targeting and we’re helping that to happen.”
Explaining Zamano’s business model, O’Shea said the company does not work with mobile operators but through mobile operators. “Mobile operators aren’t customers of Zamano, rather we go via the operators to access all the subscribers. We go direct to consumers or via partners. The operator retains the billing relationship and share the revenue with us in a defined way,” O’Shea said.
By John Kennedy
