After a successful 2008 during which OmniTicket Network (OTN) increased its 2007 revenue by 37%, OTN accepted the offer from Best Union Company (BUC), an Italian ticketing and service provider listed on the Milan stock exchange, to merge its operations with BUC via the sale of 100% of its capital.
Following the merger the OTN operating companies will continue doing business as usual under the OTN name. Paolo Moro, former OTN President and CEO, will remain with the company as Corporate Business Development Executive and will work side by side with Luca Montebugnoli, BUC’s CEO.
The merger of BUC and OTN forms a new group that worldwide is one of the top five global providers for ticketing systems, ticket distribution and related services, one of the top three in Europe and by far the top company in Italy. In terms of ticketing and access control system sales this further enhances our already established worldwide leadership.
BUC was established in 1999 with the purpose of providing HR outsourcing and technology for events and is now the leader in Italy in ticketing distribution and event services. In addition to the experience brought by BUC for stadiums (providing technology and/or services for the top 25 soccer stadiums in Italy) and for exhibitions (BUC clients represent 90% of the exhibition business in Italy), BUC brings experience in providing HR resources for clients who wish to outsource these services for their events. BUC manages 4, 500 events per year in the Italian market and has an available resource pool of approximately 12, 000 people (It has recently been announced that BUC will provide all services for the final soccer match of the 2009 UEFA European Championship in Rome). Based on BUC’s experience managing such a large number of events, we plan to be able to soon offer these added services to all clients worldwide.
This strategic merger brings together companies that very much complement each other:
• OTN clients are typically in the leisure, cultural, major event and destination/city-wide pass markets while BUC clients are primarily in the sport, concert and exhibition markets.
• OTN has a platform to allow real time sales via various distribution channels and BUC has a strong, highly secured platform to allow top level banks to interact in real time with the events for selling tickets.
• OTN is mainly a technological company in the process of releasing its new platform while BUC is very strong in providing human resources to events.
• OTN is a private, international company while BUC is primarily active in Italy, but is publicly traded and has strong contacts with financial institutions which can support any type of investment whenever justified.
The newly merged group is capable of providing a unique onsite technology for managing all types of venues even in a multi-site environment and has a unique infrastructure for offering worldwide ticket distribution in real time. The new group is also able to provide operation-related services, which allows our clients to purchase HR infrastructure so that their attention can be dedicated to their core activities. It is clear that integration of the two organizations clearly brings value to both companies and to our entire client base and we believe that this merger of businesses represents a real opportunity for all parties.
We can confirm that the merged group will maintain our entire geographical presence via the current subsidiaries and we are now closely evaluating plans for further expansion. The existing management has responded enthusiastically to the opportunity and will continue in its existing role. We also plan to unify the two companies’ R&D teams (which already use the same technology standards) and thus improve the efficiency and the quality of our system development.
Revenue wise, we are projecting to close 2009 at over US$ 30M despite the market slow down and we have high growth expectations in 2010 when the general economic situation is expected to change for the better.
For further information on Best Union Company and the OmniTicket Network transaction, please contact: Kim Breland at kbreland@omniticket.com.
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