Facebook deal sends Bango stock sky high
SHARES in British mobile payments business Bango rocketed yesterday as the company did a deal with Facebook, despite both parties refusing to disclose the terms of the agreement.
Bango said in a statement it will “provide payments services to Facebook”. This follows last week’s confirmation – after a rise in share price around the time of Facebook’s IPO filing – that the Cambridge-based company was in the final stages of discussions with “a leading platform”.
While 85 per cent of its revenues come from advertising, Facebook does not currently display adverts on its mobile platform.
This deal reflects Facebook’s move to capitalise on its mobile market, which currently accounts for half of the website’s monthly active users, in the run-up to its long awaited IPO.
Bango has been considered a market leader in carrier billing, which allows consumers to put payments for purchases via mobile on their network bill, since its 2005 deal with AT&T.
However, Bango also offers analytics for mobile websites and could also be working with Facebook in this area.
A similar level of secrecy surrounded the deal Bango signed with Amazon in December which has been linked to the retail giant’s app store for Android, featured on the Kindle Fire.
The AIM-listed company also provides mobile payments services to RIM’s App World on BlackBerry.
Bingo shares jumped 40 per cent to close at 137.5p.