Cheatsheet of SingTel acquisitions

September 20, 2012 by     Email the Author

singtel acquisitions

2012 has shaped up to be a landmark year for SingTel, Singapore’s largest telecom company. Motivated by a need to transform itself into a multimedia and IT company, it has embarked on a wave of acquisitions of mobile and web startups. Israel, China, and India are reportedly in its sights. The acquisitions are aimed at innovative mobile technologies and portals that diversify SingTel revenue stream and create future growth possibilities. In this cheatsheet, we take a quick look at recent SingTel acquisitions.

TheMobileGamer

TMG is a startup that aggregates, distributes, licenses and develops mobile gaming software.

City/Country: Singapore
Acquired for: SGD1.8M (USD1.5M) by SingTel for 35.5% stake.
Date announced: 25 September, 2012
More info

Pixable

Pixable, based in New York, has created a free web and mobile app that offers users a personalized photo experience created from predictive analytics and artificial intelligence. The technologies analyze users’ interactions and consumption habits to prioritize photos from friends and family. Users are presented with the most interesting photos through feeds such as ‘Top of the Day’ and ‘New Profile Pics’. It has 4 million users.

City/Country: New York City, United States
Acquired for: USD 26M
Date announced: 20th September 2012
More info

Eatability

Eatability is one of Australia’s leading restaurant review sites, containing more than 235,000 reviews and 37,000 restaurant listings. The acquisition was made through Australia’s second largest telco Optus, which is wholly-owned by SingTel.

City/Country: Australia
Acquired for: USD 6.2M
Date announced: 26th July 2012
More info

HungryGoWhere

HungryGoWhere is Singapore’s leading restaurant review site. Following the SingTel acquisition, they introduced a new online restaurant reservation service to compete with Chope and Reserveit.sg. A regional expansion is also in the works. Currently, it faces pressure from Yelp, which recently entered Singapore.

City/Country: Singapore
Acquired for: USD 9.4M
Date announced: 22nd May 2012
More info

AdJitsu

AdJitsu is a wholly owned business unit of US-based Cooliris, a company that turns digital content into interactive visual experiences to improve user experience. AdJitsu’s technology is used to create and display 3D mobile ads. The acquisition was made through Amobee.

City/Country: Silicon Valley, United States
Acquired for: Undisclosed
Date announced: 8th May 2012
More info

Amobee

Amobee’s flagship product is an end-to-end advertising platform for publishers, advertisers, and operators. Since the SingTel acquisition, it has launched PULSE Create, a platform that lets users make 3d and rich media ads.

City/Country: Redwood City, California, United States
Acquired for: USD 321M
Date announced: 7th March 2012
More info

OrSiSo

OrSiSo is a desktop-based social media dashboard. SingTel acquired the intellectual property rights of the company.

City/Country: Singapore
Acquired for: Undisclosed
Date announced: 21st September 2011
More info

SingTel

Company: SingTel

SingTel, a publicly-traded company in the Singapore stock exchange, is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. It has a total mobile subscriber base of 462 million users in 30th June 2011, up 11% from a year ago. It is now reinventing itself for the digital age.

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About The Author

Terence LEE
Terence LEE - Editor

Terence writes mainly about technology trends and startups in Asia. He believes in crafting smart content: Not just a regurgitation of text, but well thought-out pieces that serve the reader using a combination of data, design, narratives, analysis, and visual impact. His articles have been published on Venturebeat, Yahoo!, Straits Times, Today, and The Online Citizen. He also co-founded NewNation.sg, a satirical news site covering Singapore affairs. Engage him on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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