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Emerging telco player Uniti Wireless (ASX: UWL) has picked up Brisbane-based tech startup Fone Dynamics.
Founded by serial entrepreneur and Young Entrepreneur of the Year (2016) Jordan Grives, Fone Dynamics is a specialist communications platform-as-a-service ('CPaaS') company.
The group focuses on modern inbound voice and business-grade SMS services, comparable to global players in the sector like Twilio, Nexmo, and CallRail.
The base acquisition price for Grives' tech company is $5.04 million but could be as much as $8.4 million depending on Fone Dynamics' earnings in FY2020.
Grives is a serious figure in the CPaaS industry, having previously founded Fonebox which he sold in 2016 to a NASDAQ-listed company J2 Global for $30 million. Grives founded Fonebox when he was just 18 years old.
As part of the transaction Grives will join the Uniti Wireless executive leadership team and will also become a sizeable shareholder in Adelaide-based Uniti.
Uniti says the acquisition is forecast to be significantly earnings per share accretive to shareholders in FY2020 and beyond.
"This is a fantastic transaction for UWL shareholders, which will deliver sizeable and growing cash earnings, in a space with substantial scope for expansion, given Fone Dynamics has only a small fraction of the available market," says Uniti Wireless CEO Michael Simmons.
"Jordan and his team are proven deliverers, with remarkable year-on-year revenue growth since inception, whilst maintaining very respectable margins and high customer retention. Jordan will become a member of my senior executive line-up, providing UWL with strong pedigree in business-to-business sales, a customer segment into which we are committed to grow."
"The Brisbane base of Fone Dynamics also provides us with a Queensland 'beachhead', enabling us to also better support and expand our fixed wireless and private fibre footprints in that part of the country."
"Fone Dynamics is a great example of the sort of opportunities which are available to UWL within speciality telco services, the third 'pillar' of our growth strategy."
The acquisition is scheduled to complete on 1 June 2019.
Shares in Uniti Wireless are up 8.33 per cent to $0.58 per share at 11am AEST.
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