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Shares in mobile banking and payments service provider Monitise (LSE: MONI) lifted by more than 14% in early trade this morning, following the announcement of an alliance with US giant IBM.
The collaboration will see teams from Monitise’s UK development and integration business (Professional Services, comprising around 20% of its employee base) transferred into IBM, while the American technology and consulting corporation will deliver services back to Monitise.
Today’s agreement also means that Monitise’s ability to manage larger projects worldwide has been increased substantially, allowing the company‘s technology to be enabled, hosted and sold as an IBM cloud-delivered solution globally in the business-to-business space.
IBM’s resources and initiatives will become available to Monitise to pursue ‘Mobile Money’ opportunities, currently limited to financial institutions but the alliance hints at targeting retailers, mobile network operators and similar markets in the future.
The news strengthens Monitise’s target of 200 million users of Mobile Money products by 2018, each generating an average revenue of £2.50, as well as reaching a profitable status in the 2016 financial year, after having to lower its full-year guidance early last month after shifting to a subscription-based revenue model.
