Bullseye sells off controlling stake

Beverley Head
Monday, 12 December 2011 14:48

IT Industry - Strategy

Sydney based digital marketing business Bullseye has announced it has sold off 51 per cent of the company to listed advertising business STW Communications.

Bullseye which was founded in 2000 has a team of around 40 people in Australia and 60 in its development facility in Indonesia. Executive chairman and co-founder Jim McKerlie said that since the company was established 'digital has morphed into just another channel' which meant that was no longer any advantage in being an independent digital marketing company.

He said Bullseye had looked at its competitors in the market and determined those which were part of a broader marketing organisation were growing faster. He said that Bullseye would benefit from the referrals of work from within the STW group while STW would gain access to more skills in the digital area.

Mr McKerlie said that STW had approached Bullseye three months ago. 'STW are looking to expand beyond Australia and New Zealand - the real growth will come from Asia,' he said.

Bullseye's Bali development centre coupled with STW's scale and the resulting economies of scale were a 'great match,' he said. Mr McKerlie said the sale was a cash deal, although he did not reveal how much had been paid for the controlling interest.

He will remain with the business he said.

In an announcement to the Stock Exchange STW noted that it had also opened offices in Jakarta and Singapore for its digital marketing business Alpha Salmon and also taken a majority stake in Edge Marketing which operates in Thailand and Vietnam.