omniture

Buongiorno Enters the Chinese Market Acquiring eDongAsia's Majority Stake

2007-01-15 12:10 1009

Buongiorno Hong Kong, the Buongiorno-Mitsui Joint Venture, Signed the Agreement to Acquire eDongAsia - a Company Operating in the Chinese Mobile Phone Premium Content Production

MILAN, Italy, Jan. 15 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- Buongiorno, a leading multinational operating in the market of digital entertainment, announces its entrance in the Chinese market by acquiring eDongAsia through Buongiorno Hong Kong Ltd., the Joint Venture founded by Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (51%) and Buongiorno SpA (49%).

Under the agreement's terms, Buongiorno Hong Kong will acquire up to 80% of eDongAsia's share capital by cash for a total amount of about USD 2.7 million. The remaining percentage (about 20%) will stay under the current shareholders' control.

According to Chinese Industry Ministry's latest figures, the local mobile market is the world's largest with 449 million customers (34% of the active population) and the most dynamic with a year-over-year growth of about 65 million new users.

For Buongiorno Hong Kong, the entrance in the Chinese mobile market is another important step of its expansion plan in the Asia-Pacific. This new expansion follows the entrance and business development in Russia and India and strategic deals for provision of technological services, content and marketing for mobile digital entertainment in several fast growing Asian markets like Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Buongiorno's plans in China confirm the Company's balanced approach: Buongiorno will offer both B2B services for telecom companies and large media groups and B2C services with the Blinko brand.

"The Chinese mobile content market is burgeoning and it represents a tremendous opportunity for global companies operating in the digital entertainment market, as Buongiorno. We therefore decided to cautiously enter the Chinese market by leveraging on a small-sized fast-growing entity in which our joint venture Buongiorno Hong Kong will invest in terms of know-how, people and capitals. This will allow our Group to seize the local challenging business opportunities without facing risks in the short term" stated Andrea Casalini, Chief Executive Officer of Buongiorno SpA.

eDongAsia operates through eDongCity (translation = The mobile city), a Shangai-based firm perfectly fitted to be the launching platform of Buongiorno services in the Chinese market. eDongCity's core business has focussed on the provision of SMS services and mobile services through its local strategic partner company. eDongCity's management has an international background and deep and solid local market knowledge.

For more information, contact:

Eleonora Villanova

PR Executive

Tel: +39-02-582131

Email: eleonora.villanova@buongiorno.com

Source: Buongiorno Vitaminic SPA
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