April the 6th, 2023 - The Croatian company Span has successfully entered the market of one of the most demanding and digitally developed markets in all of Europe - Estonia.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Suzana Varosanec writes, with this new acquisition, the Croatian company Span is set to enter the market of Estonia, now known as one of the most digitally developed countries in all of Europe. In their notification to the Zagreb Stock Exchange, they state that they have signed an agreement with the seller, the Estonian trading company Fairway, to purchase 100% of the shares in the limited liability company GT Tarkvara, which is based in Tallinn, and which is a leading Estonian software asset licensing and management company with more than 25 years of experience under its belt.

The estimated value of the transaction stands at a massive 11,377,457 euros, where, as they stated, part of the purchase price that depends on the business results of the acquired company in 2023 and 2024 is subject to adjustment. The Croatian company Span's latest acquisition was made just one year after the takeover of the domestic software company Ekobit, so this current takeover only confirms the company's strategic focus on further growth and expansion into new markets, while the Baltic and Scandinavian countries are extremely digitally advanced and, as stated, show a growing need for additional expertise in the areas of Cloud and Cyber Security, a field in which Span is internationally recognised.

"With this acquisition, the Croatian company Span is going to enter the Estonian market, and Estonia is one of the most digitally developed countries in Europe. The expertise and market position of GT Tarkvara in combination with our advanced cloud and cyber security services are an excellent basis for further growth and business development on the markets of Northern Europe", stated the founder and president of the Span Management Board, Nikola Dujmovic.

GT Tarkvara is otherwise a reliable partner to the largest companies in the software industry, as stated, for example, such as Microsoft, Adobe, Veritas, Citrix, Symantec, VMWare and other big names. They have been recording impressive and continuous revenue growth over the years, they're focused on projects related to the digital transformation, as well as on cloud and cyber security. In addition to the private sector, they are also strongly positioned in the public and educational sectors.

"The Croatian company Span and GT Tarkvara are both leading Microsoft partners who will combine their many years of knowledge and experience with this acquisition. I'm happy that our existing clients will now have access to advanced cloud and cyber security services based on Span's many years of experience working with large, global companies,'' said Taivo Remmelgas, the owner and member of the Management Board of GT Tarkvara.

This acquisition also confirms the Croatian company Span's strategic focus on the growth of its services with high added value with a focus on the areas of cloud and cyber security. According to the unaudited GFI for the year 2022, Span has recorded growth in all key business indicators. The Span Group's revenues in 2022 amounted to 829.7 million kuna in total, which represents an increase of 8 percent compared to 2021.

EBITDA before one-off items also increased by 48 percent and amounted to 72 million kuna at the end of 2022. EBITDA after non-recurring items increased in the observed period by 65 percent and amounted to 70.1 million kuna. The Span Group's net profit at the end of 2022 stood at 50.7 million kuna, which represents an increase of 113 percent compared to 2021. The share of revenues that the Group achieved in foreign markets in 2022 amounted to 68 percent. The most significant growth was recorded by the markets of Croatia and the USA, and the highest growth in income within the Span Group was achieved by services with high added value.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

March the 2nd, 2023 - The Croatian company Span has marked the year 2022 as its most successful business year to date, with the most growth for the company seen right here in Croatia and across the pond in the United States of America.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Croatian company Span came out with its unaudited financial results for 2022 recently, and despite the current (and ongoing) challenging geopolitical and market circumstances, the year ended with growth across all key business indicators.

Span's revenues in 2022 amounted to an impressive 829.7 million kuna, which represents an increase of 8 percent when compared to pandemic-dominated 2021. EBITDA also increased by 48 percent and amounted to 72 million kuna at the end of 2022. EBITDA after non-recurring items increased in the observed period by 65 percent and amounted to 70.1 million kuna. The Croatian Span company's net profit at the end of 2022 therefore stood at a 50.7 million kuna, which is a very encouraging increase of 113 percent compared to 2021.

The highest growth in revenue within the Croatian company Span was achieved by services with high added value - mostly from the business area Software development and business solutions, which grew by 62 percent, and the area of Infrastructure services, Cloud and Cyber security, which achieved growth of 49 percent respectively in the observed period. The decrease in revenue in the Software Asset Management and Licensing segment results from a decrease in revenue over on the Ukraine market, where Microsoft provided Span's customers with free use of its products and services until the end of 2022. The decrease in revenue in that market was fully offset by revenue growth in other markets and in other segments business.

The share of revenues that the Croatian company Span achieved in foreign markets in 2022 amounted to 68 percent, with the markets of both Croatia and the USA recording the most significant growth of all.

"The circumstances that followed us in 2022 posed numerous challenges, but also created new business opportunities for us. It was a year in which we did everything to help our Ukrainian colleagues, but also a year in which we carried out some of the biggest projects in Span's history. The increased market demand presented us with the challenge of finding new experts, so during 2022, we hired as many as 228 new colleagues at Span and entered the new year as a team of more than 800 employees. Strategically, we remain focused on the growth of services with high added value with a focus on the areas of cloud and cyber security,'' emphasised Nikola Dujmovic, the company's founder and president of Span's Management Board.

Among the special events that marked the last quarter of 2022, the launch of the digital platform span.zone, which enables business users to manage existing licenses and cloud services, is worth noting. This was a tick in the box of achieving yet another of the company's strategic goals. The excellent business results achieved by the Croatian company Span after the IPO were also recognised by the European investment community. Span was included among the three best European small and medium-sized companies that entered the capital market, for which it was awarded the Rising Star award. For the second year in a row, Span also received HR Cloud's "Excellence in employee experience" award.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

April the 24th, 2022 - The Croatian company Span appears to be spreading its wings even further following its previously announced takeover of the Ekobit software company a few weeks ago. This time, its eyes are on fintech.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes, one of the leading IT companies in the whole of the Republic of Croatia, which was listed on the Zagreb Stock Exchange seven months ago after an IPO, recently informed the investment community about the establishment of Fintech Digital Services.

According to a stock exchange announcement, the Commercial Court in Zagreb issued a decision last week on the registration of the establishment of that company.

It is a joint project that the Croatian company Span entered into with two other co-founding partners. These are two companies from Varazdin - the technology startup Identity Consortium which was launched in 2018, and the company Karfijam.

Along with Span and Identity Consortium, which hold 35 percent of the share capital each, Karfijam has the remaining 30 percent of the business share. According to the data from the Court Register, the founder of the Identity Consortium, Robert Ilijas, is also the director of this brand new company.

As a global IT group, the Croatian company Span currently provides a wide range of cloud services to its clients, as well as cyber security and support services, and more details on the profile of the newly formed fintech company and the digital transformation niches it plans to position are announced for early May.

Until more information comes out early next month, it remains to be noted that the Varazdin-based Identity Consortium boasted that it had launched the Identyum NOW web portal. Further development plans, they say, include FinCheck for electronic and automated verification of the other party's financial parameters and even the development of a mobile application (app).

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated business section.

March the 17th, 2022 - The Croatian company Span has purchased Ekobit in its thirtieth year of existence, planning new market expansion and further strengthen their already enviable position.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Lucija Spiljak writes, the Croatian company Span has taken over Ekobit, one of the leading Croatian companies for development in transactions, worth a huge 37.4 million kuna. With this, they confirmed that according to the IPO, they want to continue to grow, expand and further strengthen their position on the market.

According to the decision of the previous owners of Ekobit, a part of the price in the amount of 3.2 million kuna will be paid to the Croatian company Span shares in order to fulfill the Share Allocation Plan for Ekobit's employees.

The Croatian company Span and Ekobit are technologically compatible, have a similar approach to human resource management, export 70 percent of their revenue, and are Microsoft's Gold Partners. This acquisition will enable Span to offer an expanded portfolio of its services to a wide customer base and expand into new markets.

"When we entered our thirtieth year of existence, we realised that we needed to take another step forward. In doing so, we wanted to become part of some bigger story, and Span was the natural choice. In addition to being technologically compatible and also being Microsoft's partners, Span also suits us in size - they're bigger enough than us to give us many new opportunities, and yet they aren't so big that they'd just end up swallowing Ekobit.

According to us, the approach in human resources management in both companies is based on similar starting points, meaning that we both understand how important each person is, we value each employee and we know what the situation on the labour market in Croatia is like. Since Span has gone public on the Zagreb Stock Exchange, it now allows us to take innovative approaches in rewarding our employees, both future and existing ones,'' said the President of the Management Board of Ekobit, Goran Glisic.

The Croatian company Span currently employs 603 professionals who will be joined by Ekobit’s 70 or so, and both companies expect that number to reach around 700 soon.

"The development of software solutions is one of the four strategic segments of Span's business, and by joining Ekobit, we're now further strengthening that part. If good opportunities arise, we won't hesitate before taking further acquisitions. It's important to us that the companies we talk to fit into our technology part of business, but also in terms of strategies and target markets. HR compatibility is especially important to us. We want to further expand into the markets of Western Europe, and our goal is currently the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) in which Ekobit has a strong presence,'' said the founder and CEO of Span, Nikola Dujmovic.

In addition to the development of software solutions, Ekobit stood out on the market with two products - BizDataX masking and BizDataX subsetting for the robust preparation of test data in safe secondary environments in accordance with GDPR regulations. Their experts from offices in Zagreb and Varazdin work for European clients such as Sauter, Rods & Cones, Aucxis, Erste Bank, Hrvatska postanska banka, and Posta Slovenije (Slovenian Post).

The Croatian company Span is also one of the largest IT exporters. In cooperation with 40 international partners, it operates with more than 1,200 customers, including leading global and regional corporations such as McDonald's, Tate & Lyle, Starbucks, Newsec, Infobip, Metinvest Group, Triglav, NLB, Helios, Atlantic Group, Valamar Riviera, and Croatia osiguranje (insurance).

The Span Group consists of three Croatian companies - Span d.d., Bonsai.tech and Trilix - and eight subsidiaries in neighbouring Slovenia, in the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Switzerland and Moldova.

For more, check out our business section.

As Bernard Ivezic/Novac writes on the 1th of September, 2020, Infobip, the first Croatian unicorn startup, and Span, the largest Croatian software exporter and one of the ten largest IT companies in Croatia, have entered into a sales partnership. Infobip became famous on the market for its SMS services, and now Infobip and Span are a force to be reckoned with.

As a result of previous business moves, the Croatian unicorn, Infobip, which is led by Silvio Kutic, has more than four billion end users and more than seven billion monthly transactions. The business, in turn, collaborates with huge clients such as Facebook, Google and Uber.

In the meantime, Infobip has expanded its offer and, in addition to SMS solutions, created complex IT solutions called Moments, Conversations and Answers. In addition to making it easier to reach a billion-dollar valuation, the new software products forced the Croatian IT ace to start building new, global sales infrastructure. That's where Span comes in.

Aleksandar Daic, strategic manager for users and partners at Infobip, says that today there is no organisation that isn't moving towards digital transformation. He stated that in cooperation with Span, he will accelerate the digital transformation of existing and new clients.

"That's why we believe that technology companies should join forces and bring their expertise together in order to deliver the best communication solutions to customers and accelerate business change," explained Daic.

Span is, much like Infobip, a global company. It has more than 1,500 clients on six continents. In Croatia, Span, led by Nikola Dujmovic, is one of the ten largest IT companies in terms of revenue, the largest software exporter and the longest-serving partner of Microsoft in Croatia, ie the longest-standing partner of the largest software company in the world. This means that it has vast experience in selling not only simple bundled software but also the most complex IT solutions.

This year, Span was even recognised as Microsoft Partner of the Year in Croatia. It is a title for which more than 3,300 companies from one hundred countries competed. The partnership with Microsoft is additionally interesting to Infobip, because Span has proven to be a great sales partner that is both very efficient and innovative in the way it sells solutions based on Microsoft technology. It is a winning combination that Infobip also wants to achieve.

The company Span is atypical for Croatian conditions. About 15 years ago, Span's management bought the company from the then owner, the Hungarian Synergon, for 10.56 million kuna. It was the first buyout management in Croatia. Soon, Span became one of the biggest cloud players in Croatia, boasting global contracts with the likes of McDonald’s, Heineken and eventually Rolls Royce Marine.

Infobip, on the other hand, is the fastest growing Croatian software company. In 2019, it had revenue growth of 38 percent to 602 million euros. Infobip has been growing at a similar pace for years, so it is on the list of the ten fastest growing companies that develop subscriber software which is purchased over the Internet, so-called SaaS. Atlassian, Salesforce and Slack are on the same list. This explains why Infobip has to look for new ways to sell its software and why Span is precisely the company to help them do it.

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