I had a reliable source tell me that MBlox, the world’s largest mobile transaction network, is up for sale.
My source’s choice of words:
“Up for sale”
As apposed to:
“About to be acquired”
… is interesting and rather telling. Either someone’s made a brilliant offer, or someone there wants an exit. I couldn’t remember if they were a public company. They’re one of those companies that I keep thinking is on AIM — but isn’t. I had a quick look at the investor section on their site. BA Ventures, Duff Ackerman & Goodrich, Novus Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, Trident Capital — they’re all going to want to knock back some spiffy returns to their main funds I’m sure.
MBlox got $25m in Feburary this year. Interesting that they didn’t raise $50m. Or $100m. That gives an indication as to the size and valuations. Roughly. So back-of-fag-packet calculations indicate that they’re nicely primed for an acquisition. It’s the sort of company you’d see Verisign or someone like that buy. You know, a company that wasn’t really into mobile per se, but wants send a signal to the market that it wants to be a mobile player too — and has loads of stock and a bit of cash to swap. Or perhaps an existing mobile conglomerate.
Have you heard any rumblings about MBlox?