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London's Sponge Sell To NeoMedia Group

Mobile tech and services outfit NeoMedia has furthered it expasionary plans with the aquisition of London-based mobile boutique Sponge. It's the latest buy in the Florida-headquartered company's mobile shopping spree across Europe and the US...

Mobile tech and services outfit NeoMedia has furthered it expasionary plans with the aquisition of the London-based mobile application boutique Sponge. This comes on the back of a flurry of purchases by the Florida-headquartered company across Europe and the US.

By Deirdre Molloy

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In Europe, NeoMedia announced and completed the acquisition of Munich-based pan-European mobile services provider and developer 12snap (www.12snap.com), and announced the acquisitions of Gavitec-mobile digit (www.gavitec.com) of Würselen, Germany, while Stateside NeoMedia completed the acquisition of Mobot®, Inc, (www.mobot.com) of Boston and announced the acquisition of HipCricket, Inc. (www.HipCricket.com), of Essex, Connecticut.

The move has been widely interpreted as a clearcut case of strategic aquisitions in order to dominate the mobile apps and services market in Europe in particular.

When we talk about mobile and services, the agenda is about marketing, the side of mobile that has still been insufficiently developed and also tarnished by the sharp practices and expensive pricing schemes of certain mobile-based services to date.

Mobile marketing reach

In this regard Sponge looks like a smart purchase. The agency recently ran the UK's biggest ever SMS marketing campign - the Walkers text to win competition which was entered by 5% of the UK population, a collosal reach by the standards of any media. And proof - if poof were needed - that when it comes to effective marketing campaigns text has legs.

NeoMedia placed the purchase squarely in the context of its plans for "worldwide mobile marketing competency", praising Sponge as a "London-based leader in developing and implementing mobile applications and delivering content to U.K. and international customers."

Charles T. Jensen, president and CEO of NeoMedia, said the agreement with Sponge signed the week starting 20th February 2006 calls for an aggregate of £10 million consideration, including £3.45 million in cash and the remainder in NeoMedia shares, with an additional £2.5 million available under an earn-out if Sponge meet pre-determined earnings targets over the next two years.

The Sponge campaign portfolio

From its London headquarters, Sponge runs innovative, high quality premium and non-premium mobile solutions in the U.S., Europe and Australia, focusing on tools that its customers deploy in an extensive range of SMS- and MMS-based entertainment and mobile marketing applications. Sponge also develops handset software solutions for marketing and promotional agencies, and for media groups.

Sponge is now rolling out the Walkers promotion in other European markets, and has also licensed its platform to Bertelsmann in the U.S. - where it is used by clients including Cingular, Univision, Universal Music and Lifetime TV. Other major clients served by Sponge include NEC, Diageo, Vodafone, Endemol and News International.

Jensen commented: “Sponge has the most battle-hardened platform in the mobile marketing industry – which has run more than 21,000 messaging applications, with 600 campaigns running simultaneously at present – from voting to reverse auctions to m-coupons and many, many more. Now,” he continued, “as part of NeoMedia, those applications will be able to be accessed on the Mobile Internet via our PaperClick code-reader, GoWindow™ and CodeWindow™.”