Sina purchases SMS operator
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-03-04 16:26

Sina Corporation, a leading Chinese online media company and information service provider, will purchase a mobile phone short message service (SMS) operator in South China, Sina sources said.

"Sina has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Crillion Corp, one of the leading mobile value-added service providers in China. The acquisition will add two million paying subscribers to Sina and further solidify Sina's dominant position" in China's mobile phone service market, said a statement issued by Sina, which is listed on the NASDAQ stock market in New York.

The statement said Sina would pay a maximum of US$125 million for the company in installments, 60 percent in cash and the rest in Sina shares.

Sina would first pay approximately US$17.9 million in cash and Sina shares as the first installment by mid-2004. The rest would be paid out over the next two years provided that Crillion's pre-tax net income for 2004 and 2005 was over US$6.7 million and US$13.3 million, respectively.

Based in Shenzhen, Crillion works with job centers around China to provide job referrals via SMS to job seekers. It generated around US$10.5 million of revenue and US$4.4 million of net income in 2003 on the basis of 2 million paying subscribers.

China's 277 million mobile phone users are fond of using SMS for its low cost and convenience. It's estimated that more than 15.6 billion short messages were sent in China in January 2004, 91.2 percent more than a year earlier.

Sina and other Internet portal sites get paid each time a mobile user downloads information or games from their sites, using short message service.

Close