In late 2012 M2 acquired a 32% stake in Aggregato Global through the divestment of the company’s calling card business, which was an asset acquired with iPrimus in May 2012. Aggregato is a company operating in both the Australian and American calling card market, and the broader prepaid mobile market
Aggregato Global
Aggregato Global Limited provides optimised prepaid telecommunication solutions in Australia and the United States. The company provides mobile, long-distance international, and voice over IP via mobile applications services. It serves consumer, corporate and wholesale market segments. The company was founded in 2012 and is based in North Sydney, Australia.
They acquired or merged with the calling card operations of Access International, Australian Telecom and US-based Krush Communications LLC, before taking over Tele.Pacific
The largest acquisition so far happened in early 2014 when Aggregato bought Tel Pacific, which had been struggling in the rapidly declining traditional calling card market. Tel Pacific’s earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the six months ending 31 December 2013 was $3.1 million, which was down 36.5% compared with the same period one year earlier. Aggregato Global bought the company for $19 million. This brought in an extra 400,000 customers, bringing the total of regular calling card business to 700,000 customers.
The prepaid calling card business continues to face a challenging future, with ongoing competition and declining revenue growth, particularly driven by the trend towards prepaid mobile products.
Calling card and prepaid companies face rising competition from internet-based service providers like WhatsApp and Skype, which often provide free messaging and video calls overseas.
The calling card business is now largely targeted towards customers who cannot afford the internet connection that other services depend on. This is a very cost-conscious and largely ethnic customer market.
The future for any company operating in the market needs to be based on the lowest possible cost model. What makes the Aggregato business interesting in this respect is the fact that it taps into a new US-based technology that runs on a pinless platform. This technology removes the hassle factor from the procedures as there is no longer the need for customers to dial a service number before entering the pin code from the back of their calling cards. It also means a totally automated process.
This platform recognises the customer’s phone number and enables them to dial directly at the heavily discounted calling card rates.
Pinless Retail Web Portal from Krush
Krush Communications LLC was a privately held telecommunications company known for the Homies brand and a pinless retail web portal space. The merger with Aggregato created a US entity focused on the development and consolidation of prepaid pinless services, white-label MVNO options. The key reason for the merger was Krush’s patented pinless web portal technology that will be made accessible from more international destinations.
Paul Budde
See also: Australia – Telecoms – International prepaid calling market
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