INM Makes Massive Profit On Mobile Firm Sale

Independent News & Media (INM) has sold its 37% stake in European mobile content company iTouch for €100 million to Japanese company For-Side.com, making a profit of £51 million.

For-side are hoping that the acquisition of iTouch will give them a greater share of the mobile content market in Europe.

iTouch deals with games, news content and ringtones, and its sale has made Independent News & Media profits worth nearly half of the group’s total pre-tax profits of £118.1 million for 2004.

Commenting on the deal, Sir Anthony O’Reilly, INM’s chief executive said: “We are happy that a small idea, started in South Africa, has worked to the benefit of the whole group in such a spectacular fashion.”

He added: “This very attractive return on our investment reflects our stated objective of consistently delivering superior returns for our shareholders. The disposal of this non-core asset follows the recent announcement of the group’s expansion into the fast-growing Indian newspaper market and record 2004.”

The increasing adoption of mobile phones with internet access and 3G technology has opened new platforms for advertisers to access consumers and extend brands.

Last month, hellomagazine.com launched two new mobile services to help further its brand. SMS celebrity news and Java celebrity news allows subscribers to receive a message containing the latest four headlines from hellomagazine.com each weekday. Java service users are able to download daily updates of photos and stories and then read them at their leisure without having to enter a browser session (seehellomagazine.com Launches Mobile Services).

Research published at the end of last year by the Mobile Data Association (MDA) revealed a rapid increase in the take-up of both GPRS and MMS enabled handsets (see Mobile Internet And Picture Messaging Enjoy Massive Growth).

The MDA claimed that from a total active customer base of over 53 million, GPRS enabled devices reached 26 million during September 2004, an increase of 10% on the previous quarter and double that of the last quarter of 2003.

Independent: 020 7005 2000 www.independent.co.uk