Sunghy Mobile recently received USD20 million in new funding from Kingsoft and Chinese antivirus software giant Qihoo360. Sunghy is the developer of Android app Go Launcher, which has 42 million active users across its portfolio of apps per month.
The new funding received by Sunghy was just ahead before its planned initial public offering. Go Launcher's parent company filed to get listed two weeks ago, and intended to sell 7 million in American depositary shares. The depositary shares, explained TechCrunch, represented 42 million ordinary shares in Sunghy. Sunghy had priced its shares that it would be selling in its debut at a range of USD9.50 pe share to USD11 per share. Based on the price range, Sunghy will expect to raise around USD66.5 million to USD77 million in its IPO. The IPO will put the value of Go Launcher's developer at around USD300 million.
Sunghy's app had been around for more than a decade, and had been a stable cash cow for the Beijing, China-based company. Go Launcher recorded USD22.7 million in revenue in the first half of this year, which was an 87% increase from the same period in 2012. Go Launcher earned net income for its parent company at USD5.5 million for the same period. Go Launcher's revenue were earned from selling advertising and purchases of literary content, paid apps and premium themes and extra features. The premium themes and paid apps alone accounted for 40% of the company's revenue in the first six months of this year. Mobile reading services came in second at 31.8% of revenue.
One of Go Launcher's apps in its portfolio is the GO Launcher Ex, which is popular among many Android users for customizing mobile home screens. GO Launcher Ex had over 10,000 themes for Android users to choose from. Go Launcher is also behind GO Locker, which allows users open apps on their Android phones from the lock screen, virtually eliminating the need to unlock the phone and search and select the specific app.
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