Jitto Arulampalam laughs when asked whether he has Warren Buffett’s mobile phone number. But in reality, the chairman of small Melbourne-based company Media3Corp is now a lot closer to the investment guru than most Australian entrepreneurs will ever get.
Media3Corp announced yesterday that its subsidiary, cBox, has signed an agreement to provide a media distribution platform in Australia and New Zealand for US firm BusinessWire, which is a subsidiary of Buffett’s giant investment vehicle, Berkshire Hathaway.
Under the agreement, cBox will provide BusinessWire with a platform to distribute media releases and other announcements to media, regulators and financial markets.
BusinessWire, which is headquartered in San Francisco but has 30 offices around the world, specialises in investor relations and media relations services.
Arulampalam says the agreement is a big win for the small listed company, which is in the process of changing its focus from medical products (it is actually still listed on the ASX under the name Medic Vision; a name change is imminent) to media and marketing services.
The fact that the company (which has a market capitalisation of $11 million) is in the middle of this restructuring process meant BusinessWire’s due diligence was particularly thorough, with a particular focus on cBox’s media contacts database and its technigal capabilities.
“We’ve had to go through so many hoops to prove that we can deliver that. They had to see that we are now in the media space.”
Arulampalam says the agreement will lead to a wider relationship with BusinessWire, including gaining access to BusinessWire’s global media database.
“I can say we are also currently finalising an agency agreement to bring all of their products exclusively through us to this part of the world.”
And Arulampalam hasn’t given up hope that the relationship and BusinessWire’s “keen interest” in cBox might eventually take him all the way to Buffett himself.
“We are hoping that we get an audience sometime soon, hopefully sooner rather than later.”
For now, he’s keeping his big lesson from dealing with a Buffett company very firmly in his mind.
“One of the things that we noticed was how thorough they were with checks and processes. We certainly picked up a few things about the importance of that process that we will use when we come to choose partners.”
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
