Cheatsheet of SingTel acquisitions

2012 has shaped up to be a landmark year for SingTel, Singapore’s largest telecom company. Motivated by a need to transform itself into a multimedia and IT company, it has embarked on a wave of acquisitions of mobile and web startups. Israel, China, and India are reportedly in its sights. The acquisitions are aimed at innovative mobile technologies and portals that diversify SingTel revenue stream and create future growth possibilities. In this cheatsheet, we take a quick look at recent SingTel acquisitions.

TheMobileGamer

TMG is a startup that aggregates, distributes, licenses and develops mobile gaming software.

City/Country: Singapore
Acquired for: SGD1.8M (USD1.5M) by SingTel for 35.5% stake.
Date announced: 25 September, 2012
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Pixable

Pixable, based in New York, has created a free web and mobile app that offers users a personalized photo experience created from predictive analytics and artificial intelligence. The technologies analyze users’ interactions and consumption habits to prioritize photos from friends and family. Users are presented with the most interesting photos through feeds such as ‘Top of the Day’ and ‘New Profile Pics’. It has 4 million users.

City/Country: New York City, United States
Acquired for: USD 26M
Date announced: 20th September 2012
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Eatability

Eatability is one of Australia’s leading restaurant review sites, containing more than 235,000 reviews and 37,000 restaurant listings. The acquisition was made through Australia’s second largest telco Optus, which is wholly-owned by SingTel.

City/Country: Australia
Acquired for: USD 6.2M
Date announced: 26th July 2012
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HungryGoWhere

HungryGoWhere is Singapore’s leading restaurant review site. Following the SingTel acquisition, they introduced a new online restaurant reservation service to compete with Chope and Reserveit.sg. A regional expansion is also in the works. Currently, it faces pressure from Yelp, which recently entered Singapore.

City/Country: Singapore
Acquired for: USD 9.4M
Date announced: 22nd May 2012
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