US Meredith Corporation acquires The Hyperfactory
Local mobile marketing business The Hyperfactory has fully sold out to US media/marketing company Meredith Corporation.
The deal comes a year after Meredith took a strategic stake in the company - apparently for a Navman-league price.
READ ALSO: Handley on Apple iAds’ strengths ... and flea-like weakness
The Hyperfactory was founded by New Zealanders Derek (32) and Geoffrey Handley (35) in 2001. It specialized in marketing through mobile, a growing advertising market.
Derek Handley said the completion of the deal between the Hyperfactory and Meredith is evidence of the ability New Zealand entrepreneurs have to make it on the world stage, “in the most competitive and fast-paced industries”.
“Globally, Kiwi companies are at the cutting edge of the use new technology, and by having the courage to take our ideas and capabilities off shore, we are able to become a significant powerhouse within some of the world’s leading corporations.”
Mr Handley said the company’s dual headquarters of New York/Auckland has been pivotal to its success – though it has a network of offices in LA, Chicago, Hong Kong, Sydney and Hyderabad.
The Hyperfactory’s client list includes Coca-Cola, BlackBerry, L’Oreal, Vodafone, Disney and Kraft.
Terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed by Meredith, but Mr Handley says it’s comparable to recent leading technology deals for Kiwi companies.
MORE: A Navman-league deal
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Comments and questions7
TV3 say it sold for $70m - what a load of rubbish.
A good business with some good people but in a very tough market, especially domestically. But they aren't making any money
The ex-42 below guys are very good at painting a positive picture
[I think TV3 was maybe looking at one of the ballpark figures implied by Derek in NBR's story on the initial Meredith stake http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/us-media-company-takes-199-stake-the-hyperfactory-106115 - CK]
Well done to the Handley brothers, the remmers golf club mafia, and the barcardi boys. Great to see Meredith follow up on their initial investment last year. As one of NZ's finest young entrepreneurs (didn't he win that award last year ?) he is living the dream. He has proven that there is substance behind their model, even though they never turned a profit.
@anon: love it. how do you know they're not making any money?
they took millions off the table last year and didn't need to fund it any further...how else would they be around if they were still losing cash...
esp domestically? who cares...they have dozens of people in the US and almost all of their revenue is US based...
it's an exploding market and they are the best in the industry...this stuff doesn't just happen out of sheer luck.
as chris keal wrote about, admob was bought for US750m last year and their revenues were barely USD10m
when will new zealanders believe in their own people?
@short poppy obviously not behind the scenes. There's PR and then there's success. List an actual price on the record and then I might believe some of the hype.
from the Stuff website today:
"Since 2006, Meredith's marketing arm has acquired several digital communications start-ups to complement its print and online publications.
The corporation says The Hyperfactory acquisition "is expected to be accretive to earnings''.
if meredith (publicly listed on Nasdaq) publicly state they expect accretive earnings i guess they must be either fibbers or stupid if Hyper is losing bucket loads of cash...?
then again...
@accretive looks about right, from herald today..
"Acquiring the business just one year after its initial investment gave Meredith a financial advantage. "We were able to consolidate our operating profits."
wouldnt be able to do that i suspect if there weren't any profits to begin with..? :)
Who cares if hyperfactory was making money or not....remember Skype when it was brought by Ebay...its just good to see kiwis that are brave enough to take risks and back themselves rewarded. Well done guys!
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