Buongiorno

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Buongiorno is an Italian company that provides content (such as games, music, and information) for mobile phones.

In 2006 the group Buongiorno delivered almost 1.4 billion "digital objects" (ringtones, Java games, wallpapers, etc.) to over 60 million end users (unique mobile phone numbers)^[1] In 2007, Buongiorno acquired South African mobile content provider iTouch for €141 million (R1.34 billion).^[2]

[edit] History

Buongiorno started out in 1995 when current chairman Mauro Del Rio started sending humorous e-mail messages with the subject "Buongiorno" (Italian for "good morning") to 11 friends. The business expanded quickly—by 1998 he was sending e-mail newsletters to 25,000 people.^[3] Del Rio launched Buongiorno SpA to provided services for the telecommunications market, beginning a policy of growth through international acquisitions, the first of which was of the Spanish company MyAlert in 2001. Buongiorno merged with Vitaminic in July 2003 to form Buongiorno Vitaminic SpA. The company continued with its policy of acquisitions, the most significant of which were the Italian company Gsmbox in 2004, and the French company Freever as well as the Dutch company Tutch in 2005.

On May 16, 2006 the company changed its name to Buongiorno SpA.

More recent acquisitions which led to the current structure of the Buongiorno group were the British firm Inventa which was purchased at the end of 2006 and the American company Rocket Mobile in the early months of 2007. A significant partnership was established with the Mitsui corporation of Japan, creating the joint venture Buongiorno Hong Kong. The partnership's first major transaction was the acquisition of eDong Asia, a leading Chinese provider of mobile content.

[edit] Financial Information

As reported on the balance sheet dated 31 December 2006, the Buongiorno group has a consolidated investment of about €157.2 million, with a net worth of around €76.9 million, a consolidated turnover of about €191.8 million and consolidated net profit of about €12.6 million.

Investment in the parent company amounts to approximately €124.2 million, with a net worth of around €76.9 million, a turnover of about €50.5 million and a net profit of about €13.8 million, with extraordinary income (capital gains on sale of shares) of about 10.9 million euros.

In 2006 the Buongiorno group employed on average 659 employees, including 173 staff in the parent company.