After a year in quiet negotiation, the country’s largest mobile communications company bought wireless applications provider Chikka Asia for an undisclosed sum.
This was confirmed by Dennis Mendiola, Chikka Asia’s founder and chief imagination officer, in a text reply to adobo. Initial reports came from tweets, published by Mendiola and another Chikka executive, Gio Bacareza, pertaining to a new partnership between "Team SMART" and "Team Chikka". CEO Chito Bustamante declined to comment.
Chikka Asia is best known for its Chikka Messenger, which pioneered text-based communication between PC users and mobile phone users. Currently, Chikka Messenger has 38 million registered users around the world, mostly Philippine expatriates. The company also developed now-standard applications such as Pasaload, Ask G, celebrity ringback tones, and the precursor of Twitter, Startxt.
Chikka Asia is the latest acquisition of PLDT group of companies, which includes SMART Communications and MediaQuest. Recently, the latter bought Primedia, the Malaysian-led blocktimer of ABC TV5. It also owns 29 percent of Business World, majority shares of National Broadcasting Corp., a minority interest in CATV and operates 360media (formerly GV Broadcasting System). It is still negotiating to purchase 87.5 percent of The Philippine Star for over PhP4 billion.
