Bango acquires DCB rival BilltoMobile to become US market leader

Bango has acquired US direct carrier billing (DCB) rival BilltoMobile from its Korean parent company for an initial $3.5m mostly in cash.

The purchase will allow the London-listed company, which claims to be the leading provider of DCB technology to mobile networks and app stores, to accelerate end user spend growth in the high value US market, it said.

BilltoMobile, which is integrated into all four major US mobile network operators, processed roughly $80m (£55m) of end user spend in 2015, making it the largest carrier billed payments processor in the US by volume.

Bango said its end user spend grew by more than 100% over the course of last year and is expected to more than double again in 2016 even before this acquisition.

The AIM-listed company will pay $3m (£2.15m) in cash immediately plus $500,000 in new shares at an issue price of 60p, with a deferred consideration of roughly $35,000 cash likely in the first quarter next year depending on the performance of one revenue stream.

Bango has also agreed to pay $215,000 fees relating to the migration of services from parent company Danal.