The company’s assets have now been acquired for $4.5 million by SITO mobile.
Recent reports have shown that the Bellevue, Washington based mobile marketing company, Hipcricket, has now filed for bankruptcy as an independent company and that SITO Mobile has now acquired its assets for $4.5 million.
Hipcricket filed for bankruptcy protection, last week, despite its 21 U.S. patents and $26.7 million in annual revenues.
SITO Mobile was quick to recognize the opportunity and acquired all of the mobile marketing firm’s assets. According to its CEO, Jerry Hug, “Consistent with our goal to accelerate our growth, if completed, the acquisition of Hipcricket will bolster our services and solutions and increase our revenue from a customer base which would then include 38 of the Fortune 100 companies.”
The Hipcricket mobile marketing company’s press release announced that acquisition was its best direction.
In the release the CEO of Hipcricket, Todd Wilson, explained that selling its assets in a court-approved agreement was “the most viable option to protect our human capital and maximize recovery for our stakeholders.” Filing for bankruptcy was a decision that the company made in order to “facilitate the sale”.
The press release explained that throughout the process of filing for Chapter 11, as well as during the acquisition process, Hipcricket believes that its typical daily operations will remain the same, subject to the “first day” motions approval by the Court. Hipcricket is also working to obtain approval from the Court in order to be able to keep up its current payroll and benefits program, in addition to maintaining the cash management system that is already in place. It wants to be able to keep up its typical daily business activities.
To make it possible for the company to keep up those operations throughout the acquisition period, the press release explained that SITO Mobile has agreed to provide debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing of up to $3.4 million to Hipcricket. All of this, of course, is subject to court approval, but at the time of the writing of this article, those were the intentions of the two companies that are involved in this acquisition.
These augmented reality wearable technology devices will be the next ones hit by ads and promotions.
Hipcricket, an expert in mobile marketing engagements, has recently revealed that its AD LIFE platform will now be supporting text messaging and website rendering for wearable technology devices, such as Google Glass and other types of augmented reality glasses.
The AD LIFE platform from the company is already being used by many different brands.
The platform is being used by international and domestic agencies and brands for the purpose of powering their mobile marketing campaigns. The goal is to enhance the interaction between companies and consumers through the devices that these shoppers are using the most. Though this had previously been smartphones, it has expanded over the last while to include tablets, and now wearable technology, as well. The platform offers advertising and analytics, all in one place.
Mobile marketing for wearable technology is becoming increasingly important as these devices take off.
According to Canalys, this year will be the year in which wearable technology will suddenly explode among consumers, with an estimated 8 million shipments of smartwatches headed in our direction. It was also estimated by that firm that this number will skyrocket next year to 23 million units, and that by 2017, that will have reached 45 million units.
Hipcricket has explained that wearable tech will be including everything from the iWatch, which is rumored to launch at some point this year, as well as the already existent Google Glass, and a range of different fitness and medical devices. This notable shift in consumer behaviors is expected to reflect the same one that occurred when there was a movement away from desktops toward smartphones and tablets. Now consumers are thinking even smaller and more convenient than those already small screens.
The Hipcricket chief operating officer, Doug Stovall explained that “We believe mobile will evolve to become seamlessly integrated with our everyday actions in the form of wearable technology.” For that reason, the company is ensuring that its platform keeps in line with the consumer preferred devices and will gear its mobile marketing capabilities in those directions.
