NEW YORK/PRNewswire/ -- MOKO Social Media Limited (NASDAQ: MOKO, ASX: MKB), a provider of highly tailored mobile social community platforms for organized groups, announced today that the company has acquired an 80 percent stake in the Australian-based news and entertainment website, Tagroom.com (http://tagroom.com).
The agreement is comprised of both cash and shares in MOKO; in addition, there will be an option-based incentive package, which will be issued upon agreed performance targets over a two-year timespan. The consideration to be paid for the acquisition will not have a material impact on the financial position or issued capital of MOKO and at the request of the vendors, it has been agreed to keep the commercial terms of the deal confidential. Key personnel of Tagroom will also agree to a two-year employment and management contract with MOKO.
Tagroom is one of Australia's fastest growing online publishers and serves as a news and entertainment service that merges the use of social, mobile and graphic technologies, creating a native advertising platform for brands. Broadcasting trending content in pop-culture, Tagroom showcases viral news, product sightings, and appealing videos on the Internet.
Since its initial beta launch a year ago, Tagroom has generated over 5 million monthly page views and displays strong user engagement time, with an average user spending more than 11 minutes on the site daily.
The companies possess complementary advertising sales models of connecting brands and agencies aiming to engage with young audiences. Tagroom accomplished this with through its creative suite of native advertising offerings, and MOKO does so by targeting the 18-24 year-old audience through REC*IT, its college sports and fitness app in 850+colleges.
With this addition to MOKO's portfolio, the company will commence development of a native mobile app for Tagroom and utilize content across its portfolio of brands ? heavily focusing on cross-promotion to its key college audience through the REC*IT product.
The acquisition of Tagroom also introduces three new members to MOKO. CEO of MOKO Ian Rodwell states, "Nirojan Yamunarajan, Patrick Varden and Yasmin Walter are going to be an amazing injection of talent, style and creativity and bring enormous insight into the world of viral media and shareable entertainment content for the important 18-30 year old age demographic."
"I'm very pleased and excited to have Tagroom.com as part of the MOKO portfolio of products, but even more excited to have Nirojan, Patrick and Yasmin join our development team."
For more information contact:
Australia:
Rudi Michelson
Monsoon Communications 03 9620 3333 rudim@monsoon.com.au
About MOKO SOCIAL MEDIA Limited
MOKO identifies large user groups around common interests and provides them with tailored mobile applications with information relevant to that common interest. These are developed entirely by MOKO and then distributed at no charge to these groups and their members, in return for exclusive access and advertising rights.
MOKO's flagship mobile app is REC*IT: an application that reaches students at over 850 colleges and universities across the US and Canada. REC*IT provides free access to information about campus sports and recreational activities. Whether students are spectators or participants of campus sports, clubs and societies, this app provides the specific information they need, together with social functionality such as team chat.
In May 2014 MOKO launched Bluenationreview.com (BNR), which has grown to become one of the most visited active political groups on Facebook in the US. A new non-partisan user-generated political App called VOYCIT will also soon be launched. In December 2014 MOKO will also launch a specialist running community app called RunHaven. RunHaven.com is for US recreational runners with event, training, dietary and other runner-relevant information.
MOKO is listed on NASDAQ (MOKO) and the Australian Securities Exchange (MKB)
This announcement is for informational purposes only and is neither an offer to sell nor an offer to buy any securities, or a recommendation as to whether investors should buy or sell.
Special Note on Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains information that may constitute forward-looking statements and uses forward-looking terminology such as "anticipate" "propose" "expect" and "will," negatives of such terms or other similar statements. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statement due to its inherent risk and uncertainties, both general and specific. Although we believe the assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable and within the bounds of our knowledge of our business and operations as of the date hereof, any or all of those assumptions could prove to be inaccurate. Risk factors that could contribute to such differences include our ability to prepare required documents in connection with the proposed offering, the timing of regulatory review, performance of our shares on the Nasdaq Global Market, and the performance of the United States and global capital markets and companies in our sector, as well as factors relating to the performance of our business, including intense competition we face; failure to innovate and provide products and services that are useful to users; our ongoing need for capital for investment in new and existing business strategies and new products, services and technologies, including through acquisitions; our dependence on advertising revenues; the potential for declines in our revenue growth rate and downward pressure on our operating margin in the future; increased regulatory scrutiny that may negatively impact our business; legal proceedings that may result in adverse outcomes; failure to maintain and enhance our brand; uncertainty as to our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property rights; and uncertainty as to our ability to attract and retain qualified executives and personnel. The forward-looking information provided herein represents the Company's estimates as of the date of the press release, and subsequent events and developments may cause the Company's estimates to change. The Company specifically disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking information in the future. Therefore, this forward-looking information should not be relied upon as representing the Company's estimates of its future intentions as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Our plans may differ materially from information contained in the forward-looking statements as a result of these risk factors or others, as well as changes in plans from our board of directors and management.
Katie Lambert
Account Executive
SpecOps Communications
212.518.7721
Katie@SpecOpsComm.com
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SOURCE MOKO Social Media Limited