No Mickey Mouse job, this

Those smiling folks at the Walt Disney Internet Group today announced a mobile content agreement with Buongiorno of (where else?) Italy. Buongiorno is a multinational company in the field of multimedia content for telephony and digital channels. Under the terms of the deal, Buongiorno will make Disney mobile content including screensavers, wallpaper, ringtones and games available to consumers across Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Turkey. Presumably, they’ll also be making lots of euros.

Characters falling under the deal include Cinderella, Daisy and Donald Duck, the Finding Nemo gang, Goofy, the Lion King, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Peter Pan, Snow White and, oh yes, the Seven Dwarfs. In press material, Buongiorno cites statistics to pump up their cause. According to information and services provider Informa, the mobile entertainment market figures to be worth US $42.8 billion by the end of the decade. Informa goes on to postulate that US $11.2 billion of this will be generated from mobile games. Disney certainly will be giving Mario a literally run for the money here. At Buongiorno, all of Disney’s mobile content will be managed through B!3A, Buongiorno’s proprietary technology platform designed to design, build, manage and provide service to leading businesses and mobile consumers.

B!3A provides components that promise to allow a complete digital content marketplace including content acquisition, presentation, delivery, reporting, billing and CRM. Buongiorno currently operates value-added services for wireless and wired consumers and digital marketing services for business. All of Buongiorno’s production activities are managed through the proprietary technology platform B!3A, which operates by the means of three server farms, backbone internet connection, and grid server architecture. This platform delivers approximately 250 million messages and 70 million pages per month. Buongiorno claims a portfolio of over 300,000 services and “licensed contents” through a multi-channel strategy that includes direct distribution through Blinko and other telecom companies.

Exaggeration and self-promotion aside, Buongiorno has been making waves outside the Italian market for a couple of years now during its steady increasing international presence. In 2005, Buongiorno made the news in signing agreements for the acquisition of a Freever, a leading European mobile sector company; Tutch Mobile Media BV, a value added service provider based in the Netherlands; and DioraNews, a company active in francophone mobile value added services markets. In 2005, Buongiorno’s consolidated revenues were €1.358 billion, up 67 percent over 2004; consolidated gross operating margin was €12.3 million (€4.5 million in 2004).

For 2006, the company forecasts revenues of as high as €180 million. Buongiorno operates with local teams in Europe (Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany and Austria); Mexico; the United States; and Hong Kong. Buongiorno also distributes service Portugal, Switzerland, Greece, Poland, Croatia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, South Africa and Australia. Buongiorno employs 600 professionals in twenty countries.