XURPAS Inc., a company that makes online casual games for mobile-phone operators, said it signed a deal to have a controlling stake in a local technology company, as the publicly listed firm tries to veer away from just developing content to telcos.
The company said in a statement that it bought a 51-percent stake in Storm Flex for about $4.3 million (P189 million).
Storm Flex is a developer of technology that allows company employees to exchange their current employee benefits and transform them into a wide range of products and services such as gadgets and dining, a private carpool system, doctor consultations on demand, all the way to donations for charitable causes.
The firm’s flex benefits system is currently used by some of the country’s leading local conglomerates, business-process outsourcing companies both in Manila and in Cebu.
Since inception, Storm Flex’s revenue increased fivefold from 2013 to 2014, Xurpas said without mentioning any figures.
“Until today, we have been distributing digital products to users on mobile telcos’ networks. The acquisition of Storm Flex signals our expansion into an entirely new distribution network, and into the selling of physical goods and services. And because Storm’s clients are able to provide their employees with an effectively wider range of benefits, it is yet another example of how technology can provide companies an ‘unfair advantage’ in the most unlikely areas such as employee attraction and retention,” said Nico Jose Nolledo, the company’s president and CEO.
“We are joining forces with Xurpas because we strongly believe that it is the ideal partner to help us realize our vision of building better employee lives through the provision of better benefits. We feel this partnership will allow us to achieve the next stages of growth and development in the region. There is a tremendous opportunity ahead of us,” Storm Flex CEO Peter Cauton said in a statement. Xurpas said it completed the sale on Thursday and money raised for the transaction would be used by Storm Flex to further accelerate its local growth locally, and branch out to other markets in Southeast Asia, the same expansion target of Xurpas.
The total number of client employees served by Storm Flex currently stands at 15,000, with the company expecting to substantially increase this figure to 30,000 in 2015 after the acquisition by Xurpas.
Storm Flex is the second acquisition by Xurpas after its wildly initial public offering in December 2014.