By James A. Loyola
Listed technology firm Xurpas Inc. is suspending the business operations of its wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore, Art of Click Pte. Ltd which had been losing money even before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Art of Click, a start-up firm established in 2011 and purchased by Xurpas in 2016, specializes in mobile marketing solutions for advertisers, publishers, app developers and other operators.
The firm encountered financial difficulties in 2017 because it lost several key clients and there was a decline in the ad network industry due to the growing dominance of companies such as Facebook and Google.
Throughout this period, Xurpas has been supporting its subsidiary and has implemented drastic cost-cutting mea¬sures,” Xurpas said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.
H o w e v e r , X u rpas said it expects further losses to be incurred by Art of Click as a result of business challenges brought on by the Corona Virus (Covid-19) pandemic, and as such, will suspend the business operations of the said subsidiary to better manage Xurpas’ funds.
“Majority of Art of Click’s staff will be retrenched, and the company’s ad network platform will be deactivated, while Xurpas reassesses Art of Click’s situation once we have recovered from this pandemic,” the frim said.
Meanwhile, Xurpas sold 80 percent of CTX Technologies Inc. to Fernando Jude F. Garcia, founder of Xurpas.
CTX was incorporated in 2018 primarily for the proposed virtual currency exchange business of the Xurpas Group.
With the decline of the virtual currency market in 2019 and the unclear regulations involving digital assets, Xurpas’ Manage¬ment has previously decided to place CTX’s business on hold.
CTX has not provided any material business for Xurpas, and has no revenue contribution to the Group since its incorporation.
Xurpas has decided to sell 80 percent of CTX to Garcia at a price of P4 million. Current equity of CTX is at approximately P1 million as of December 31, 2019.
The Purchase Price shall be deducted from Xurpas’ payables that is due to Garcia.