MobileMonday Global

^{Russian and Baltic operations} Jippii Mobile Entertainment becomes Laika Mobile

Laika Mobile Media Ltd has acquired Jippii Mobile Entertainment’s business operations in Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania Ltd as part of a management buy-out. Financing for the transaction came from a group of investors led by Small Planet Ltd, a provider of mobile content delivery and community products.

More than 600 000 consumers every month buy their content from Jippii. As the new owner of these operations, Laika Mobile aims to regain Jippii’s position as the leading provider of direct-to-consumer mobile content by focusing purely on Russian (FSU) and Baltic markets. In addition, by utilizing Small Planet’s platforms and capabilities.

Delivery channel for international content

Besides consumer content Laika Mobile plans to offer a business-to-business premium connectivity and white-label platform service for Russia, the largest mobile service market in Europe with 125 million mobile phone users.

Currently Laika Mobile has direct connectivity to over 30 mobile operators in Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This unique position, which has so far been in utilized only in Jippii’s direct-to-consumer operations, will now also be made available for other service providers so that they can get a reliable and secure access to the one of the fastest growing mobile service markets in the world.

A significant partner in funding Laika Mobile has been Small Planet’s majority shareholder Access Propeller Holdings, Inc. and its majority owner Nordberg Capital Inc. As a founding financial investor of FGI Wireless, the original US partner in creating Vimpelcom, Nordberg Capital has a 13-year history in the Russian mobile market.

Related News

• Small Planet’s ownership transferred to New York (27 Jan 2004)
• Jippii USA becomes Downplay (6 Aug 2003)
• Forget market share, be profitable instead (6 May 2003)

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