Ajo.net gets good returns from overseas investments

The overseas investments of publicly-listed investment holding technology firm Ajo.net have been providing good returns for the company with better than expected business results last year.

In a report to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), Ajo.net corporate information officer Lorraine Puyat said Bitmicro Networks Inc. and Mforma Corp., two of their investments in the US, continue to perform well despite the global economic crunch and stiff competition in the IT industry.

Bitmicro, for instance, has surpassed its sales projections during the fourth quarter of 2001 and for the entire year as well. Sales during the last quarter went up to $1.54 million, more than double the previous quarter, bringing total 2001 sales to $4.04 million, or 138 percent more than in the previous year.

Ajo.net has invested $500,000 in Bitmicro, a privately held corporation headquartered in Fremont, California, whose revenues are mainly derived from military applications and embedded/industrial/enterprise applications.

Another American company Mforma Corp. tied up recently with Cingular Wireless, the second largest wireless operator in the US, to further boost its Mserver platform, Puyat said.

Ajo.net has sunk $100,000 equity in Mforma, a Seattle-based company that provides content and services platform that enables wireless service providers to offer premium entertainment, location, and information services that can be easily integrated and accessed across different devices.

Mforma’s platform is currently integrated with 14 carriers worldwide, translating to about 120 million subscribers driving eight million minutes of wireless application protocol (WAP, a feature that integrates Internet applications in mobile phones) usage per month.

Aside from these investments, Ajo.net has branched out its network infrastructure abroad with the deployment of Qnet Kiosks and terminals in areas such as Hong Kong and the Middle East.

The Qnet facilities are capable of web surfing, video mail and other IT-enabled services which can be used and accessed by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to readily communicate with their families in the Philippines.

Qnet Communications, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ajo.net, is the premier provider of video conferencing facilities to OFWs and their families. At present, there are 24 Qnet kiosks and terminals in the Philippines and Hong Kong, which will be followed by the deployment of similar facilities in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and other Middle East markets this year. Over the medium term, there are plans to set up kiosks and terminals in key European cities.