Mitsui Invests in Mobile Multimedia
Japanese corporate powerhouse Mitsui is making moves on international mobile markets. The company has invested US$8.2 million in Buongiorno Vitaminic’s US operations. Mitsui’s equity investment gives the Japanese trading company a minority position in Buongiorno US with shares totaling 19.9 percent. While Buongiorno Vitaminic may sound like a health drink, the company is actually a five-year old Italian multinational handling multimedia content for telephony and digital channels. The company maintains a presence in all major European markets and is pushing into the US as well.
Mitsui’s Mobile Division, on the ground with Buongiorno, is working on leveraging some of the Japanese company’s vast trading power to push forward in the fast-growing wireless data market and beyond. Plans are already underway for exporting the Buongiorno business model to Russia, India, China, Indonesia and Thailand. Buongiorno gives Mitsui a broad regional base from which to kick-start its mobile investments.
Carlo Frigato, Chief Financial Officer of Buongiorno Vitaminic SpA, who managed the capital increase operation of Buongiorno USA, commented in a prepared statement: “We strongly believe the partnership with Mitsui represents a tremendous competitive advantage going forward. The prime mover experience we have gained from the very fast set-up of our US operations coupled with the financial muscle that Mitsui is providing us, puts us in a unique position to take full advantage of the very promising, fast growing US wireless data market.”
— Editors