Singapore (PRWEB) July 2, 2004

Streamlines business into two key focus areas Â? Global Network Services and Full Services. Having established Singapore as its Asia Pacific headquarters since January 2001 and a springboard for mobile Internet players in the region in mid-2002, Mobileway, the global leader in mobile messaging, marketing and entertainment, today reaffirmed its commitment with the launch of its global hub operations in Singapore.

MobilewayÂ?s investment in Singapore as its global hub will total to S$ 15 million within the next three years. The hub will serve as the nerve centre for developing and deploying next generation mobile application platforms and campaigns, reaching out to over 90 per cent of the global mobile users and creating opportunities for Singapore-based companies to launch their innovative and enterprising applications globally.

Â?Singapore’s excellent communications infrastructure, highly skilled workforce and the government’s proactive support to the industry are reasons behind our decision to establish operations here in 2001 and to continue to invest in Singapore today,Â? emphasized Russ Shaw, CEO of Mobileway. Â?Locating the hub in Singapore will make it more cost effective to operate while providing greater resiliency and redundancy, enabling a better quality of service for our customers.Â?

With the launch of the global hub, Mobileway continues to create more jobs for Singapore residents. From staff strength of 22 in October 2003 to 51 presently, the company plans to increase its headcount to 70 by the end of March 2005.

Mr Ko Kheng Hwa, Managing Director, Economic Development Board said, “Mobileway’s move to locate its global hub in Singapore is a big boost to our rapidly growing mobile Internet industry. Mobileway’s hub here will bring both mobile Internet applications and content from all over the world to Singapore, and from Singapore to the world. It helps local and foreign mobile content providers and applications developers export their products and services to the global market. We believe this combination will attract many partners to launch their innovative products and campaigns from Singapore and help to enhance Singapore’s position as a hub for the global infocomms business.”

Driving the company forward, Mobileway streamlined its business into two key focus areas:

Global Network Services Â? Operated globally out of Singapore with smaller regional hubs located in Paris and the US. Emphasis is on expanding SMS and MMS interconnect opportunities with network operators across the world as well as settlement services over the companyÂ?s global infrastructure.

Full Services Â? Focused on driving value-added services with emphasis on revenue share/premium business in mobile marketing for the FMCG; mobile interactive solutions for TV networks and production companies; and mobile entertainment delivery for record labels, movie studios, mobile game providers and many more.

Mobileway achieved over US$ 55 million revenues in financial year ended March 2004, of which Asia Pacific contributes 25 per cent. With the global hub located in Singapore, the companyÂ?s Asia Pacific revenue contribution is expected to increase to 50 per cent.

Mobileway counts the National Kidney Foundation Singapore, CNN Asia, MSN Mobile Asia, StarHub, Celador International, Sony Pictures as some of its customers locally and regionally.

About Mobileway

Mobileway is the leading global provider of mobile content services. For more than 450 leading brands, Mobileway facilitates the delivery of content to consumers with wireless devices. This is achieved through a combination of advanced project management capabilities and a portfolio of innovative tools to develop creative, fun and revenue generating mobile entertainment and marketing campaigns.

Mobileway has unrivalled worldwide SMS and MMS reach to all (500+) network operators and the largest Â?billing-on-behalfÂ? agreements for premium content including more than 150 direct connections essential in the delivery of time-critical interactive campaigns. This global network is supported by carrier-grade data centers in Paris, Silicon Valley and Singapore, 24/7/365 technical support and local commercial teams in the 12 Mobileway offices in Hamburg, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, London, Madrid, Milan, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Singapore, Sydney and Taipei. This comprehensive network capability also ideally positions the company to handle interconnect traffic on behalf of wireless network operators for both SMS and MMS services anywhere in the World.

Mobileway is funded by 3i, Citigroup, InvestCorp, Mayfield, Nexit Ventures, Vertex Management, Capital Technologies CDQ Inc, and Intel Capital Corporation, among others. For more information visit http://www.mobileway.com.

For further information on Mobileway, please contact:

Jean Loh

Senior Marketing Manager

Mobileway Asia Pacific

Tel: +65 6477 1964

Jean.loh@mobileway.com

Jann Yip

Asian Publicis

Tel: +65 6455 2812

Mobile: +65 9651 2844

Jann@asianpublicis.com

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“Hardware group, Mitre 10, staged its annual convention on 23 September 2008. The organisation’s CEO, Bernie Bicknell, claimed that in the past 12 months, a lack of funds prevented the company from purchasing about half a dozen strongly performing stores. Bicknell reaffirmed that Mitre 10 is considering options such as an outright trade sale or a capital injection”

Well I believe it may well be Metcash who is the preferred bidder or injector. The complex franchise structure of Mitre 10 is proving a bit too much of a challenge for the Corporate Heads at Woolworths and they are getting cold feet. Without ultimate control of the entity they think it will be too hard to turn around this loss making network. Metcash on the other hand has the buying experience and understands the challenges of dealing with individual owners at store level.

The numbers being talked about are between $730m to $1billion for an outright purchase but I think this is the most unlikely outcome. A capital injection into the business by Metcash and management and buying integration seems the best outcome for all parties.

On another front the ACCC has woken up to the fact that Wesfarmers‘ purchased five Mitre 10 stores over the past 2 years. This must have come from them sniffing around the Mitre 10/Woolworths talks. Anyway they may request that Wesfarmers divest these stores in the near future.

Watch Singapore for the next move in Woolworths’ expansion!

Tim