Link Mobility is expanding internationally with the acquisition of E24-billion

Link Mobility has acquired Sydney-based company Soprano Design, which provides connectivity services to app developers. This is their first major expansion outside of Europe.

Soprano Design started in 1994 and has more than 4,000 companies and government clients in industries such as finance, health, logistics, and education, according to the acquisition announcement.

The company is a global provider of so-called CPaaS services, which stands for “communication platform as a service”, that is, a corporate cloud communications platform. The services facilitate interaction through, among other things, SMS, MMS, email and WhatsApp.

Through acquisitions, Link Mobility enters markets such as the Asia Pacific region, the USA and Latin America.

Entrepreneur becomes the owner of the link

The purchase price is NOK 3.59 billion. Soprano is currently 75 percent owned by founder Richard Favero and the remaining 25 percent is owned by HT&E Digital Pty, which is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. These will be Link Mobility shareholders as 95 percent of the settlement is through the issue of new shares in Link Mobility.

88.7 million new shares will be issued for 38.65 NOK a share, just over NOK 3.4 billion, while the remainder of the settlement will be in cash.

The acquisition of Soprano will contribute an estimated NOK 717 million to “initial” revenue and NOK 174 million to IBDTA, according to the announcement.

The arrow jumps

Link Mobility’s share price increased after trading began on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The rate rose 10.9 percent to 40.3 kroner in early trade.

The acquisitions are an important part of the Norwegian IT company’s growth strategy. Link Mobility went public last fall, before the list price was around NOK 10 billion. The company’s market value at Friday’s closing price was 9.9 billion Norwegian kroner on the Oslo Stock Exchange. Then the closing price was 36.34 kroner.

Link Mobility’s comeback on the exchange occurred two years after American Abry Partners bought an IT company from the exchange for NOK 3.4 billion. Link Mobility was founded by Jens Rugseth and Rune Syversen. They started with one-way texting solutions for businesses, but gradually established themselves as a mobile tech platform offering multi-channel messaging for physical and online sales.