Australian mobile ticketing company that went international collapses

Mobile ticketing company bCODE has collapsed and administrators Armstrong Wiley are seeking a buyer.

The company owns and operates a mobile ticketing coupon and payments enabler which contains a code that can be used on any style of phone and helps people identify the payment of tickets and purchases.

It has offices in Dubai and Sydney and was advertised for sale yesterday by Andrew Wiley, of Armstrong Wiley, who was appointed as an administrator.

Wiley told SmartCompany that bCODE has “solvency problems” and so Armstrong Wiley asked for expressions of interest in purchasing the software and intellectual property for the bCODE business.

“A lot of the smartphones operate on certain types of code but bCODE is particularly useful for older style phones as it operates on an alpha numerical combination system which is predominantly SMS,” he says.

Wiley says bCODE’s solvency problems came about when its funding ended.

“There were a number of investors that invested in it and I think, like all these forms of new technology, they do require constant funding to a certain extent until they are up and running and … the funding dried up,” he says.

“Software businesses need a lot of water in the bucket to keep operating but if the water runs out the only option is to put the company into administration, bearing in mind the purchaser will have to spend quite a bit of money to fix it up.”

Wiley says he is unable to put a value on bCODE.

“It is a real crystal ball and typically with these types of businesses we have all sort of valuations,” he says.

“There is no doubt whoever buys this business will have to spend money to keep it operating. There are number of computer whizzes employed by the company, there’s around eight of them.”

Wiley declined to reveal bCODE’s turnover.

“I don’t think the turnover at the moment reflects its value as they are still trying to get contracts in certain markets,” he says.

“Over the last few years bCODE was really dependent on capital coming in from investors.”

The business owes around $800,000 in total to its creditors but Wiley is optimistic about a sale.

“We have had a few nibbles from people who are interested,” he says.