Mobile firm sold in €2m deal

An Irish mobile payments company only set up last summer has been acquired by US mobile payments infrastructure company MoreMagic Solutions.

In a deal estimated to be worth close to €2 million, Dublin-based Agile will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of privately-held MoreMagic Holdings, the parent company of MoreMagic Solutions.

Agile founders Mr Enda Kyne and Mr Lee Travers, who held the positions of chief executive and chief technology officer, will see their shareholdings transferred to MoreMagic and will become shareholders in the merged companies.

Agile, which will remain in Dublin as a Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) base for MoreMagic, plans to hire five employees in technology support and services this year, growing to 20 employees in three years.

Self-funded Agile was set up last July to provide mobile payments solutions, wireless messaging and data application services to telecommunications operators and businesses.

The company has used an unusual ASP (application service provider) model, which allows clients to offer high-level mobile solutions and services on a licensee basis, without having to purchase applications and infrastructure themselves.

"The success of winning a major Cable & Wireless project last year brought in lots of interest in our services, and we were looking at ways of funding growth in the company in 2004," said Mr Kyne.

MoreMagic, a Boston-based company founded in Helsinki in 1997, worked in partnership with Agile on the C&W project and a request from Agile to speak with some of MoreMagic's investors brought an expression of interest from MoreMagic itself.

The acquisition allows MoreMagic to provide hosted mobile payments infrastructure technology, specialist data applications services and co-location services.