Shares in Calgary-based app-maker Poynt Corp. (CVE:PYN) have risen more than 130 percent in five days on a spate of good news. First, the company was awarded a U.S. patent for “delivering location-based offers and coupons to mobile smart phones based on GPS location and user profile.” The announcement, which came out on Jan. 12, seems to be picking up steam in media outlets, and risk-tolerant investors are speculating that the company might have a lock-down on Groupon-style, location-based coupons for mobile users.
The Poynt app gives users the ability to search for local business results, movie theaters and gas stations. When you’ve found what you’re looking for, you can book movie tickets, call a business from within the app, get directions or book a table at a participating restaurant on the go. The app comes pre-loaded on Blackberries, and it’s also available on the iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7s. Users seem to like it, too, as the app has been downloaded more than 5 million times, and Poynt handles some 20 million queries a month.
The company’s also partnered with some heavyweights that have vested interests in mobile search. Among them: Superpages, Bing and Thomson UK. Earnings results at the company are yet to impress, though, with Poynt posting a loss of more than $2.6 million on revenues of just $236,000 in the quarter ended Sept. 30, according to CanTechLetter.com.
That might change with Poynt’s Feb. 3 acquisition of go2 Media, Inc., a local advertising publishing platform. The move shows Poynt’s poised to get serious about exercising its newly-won patent by delivering coupons to mobile users when they’re searching for a nearby business or service.
“With more and more mobile consumers turning to their smartphones for timely information based on where they are and what they are searching for at that moment in time, we expect Poynt will have a rapidly growing audience of new and existing users that will benefit from location-specific advertising and coupons,” Poynt Corp. CEO Andrew Osis said in a recent press release.
It remains to be seen whether Poynt’s patent will actually bar other app-makers from using GPS-based coupon delivery via the mobile Web (something that I have a lot of trouble believing), but it’s clear that Poynt has captured the imagination of a lot of investors. If Poynt does have the ability to padlock mobile coupon delivery, expect buyout offers to start rolling in.
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Tags: Canadian stocks, mobile stocks, mobile web, Poynt, PYN
Google internal mandate is to improve local search density dramatically by the end of the year, so it’s just a matter of time before Poynt is acquired.
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