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Guvera puts another subsidiary into administration

By | Published on Tuesday 11 April 2017

Guvera

Flagging streaming firm Guvera has reportedly put another of its Australian subsidiaries into administration. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, it is Guvera Employment that is now in administration, a move that could lead to a further 25 jobs being lost at the streaming music company that last year saw its attempt to float on the Australian Securities Exchange blocked.

In the wake of the failed IPO last summer, Guvera pulled out of numerous markets and put two of its Australian companies into administration: Guvera Australia and Guv Services. A deal was subsequently done with those companies’ creditors in which Guvera Limited agreed to pay over chunks of money to said creditors each month. Meanwhile in January this year the parent company successfully defeated a bid by an investor owed a reported $1.8 million to wind up the whole operation.

The administrator of Guvera Employment – Worrells Solvency – is now also working on a proposed deal for creditors, aka a ‘deed of company arrangement’. A representative of the administrator told Fairfax Media: “At this stage, we have been advised that there is an intention to put forward a proposal for a deed of company arrangement. We have commenced our investigations and will provide our report in relation to these investigations and any proposed DOCA prior to the second meeting of the company’s creditors”.

Guvera is now seemingly focused on two markets, India and Indonesia, and is basically repositioning itself as a service provider to brands looking to engage consumers through music. Although, like Spotify, the Guvera streaming service had both ad-funded and premium levels, the company began as a brand-led digital music platform, and has always claimed that ad-funded on-demand streaming could in itself be a business, rather than just a freemium platform via which to upsell paid-for subscriptions.

In an update to investors last month, Guvera founder Claes Loberg said: “Over the past six months we have been getting back to our core as a tool for brands as you all know”. To that end, much of the shareholder email outlined the firm’s alliances with ad agencies in India and Indonesia, and the development of new data and targeting tools for advertisers, including a new app called DragonFli which Loberg brags is “hands down the most sophisticated brand marketing tool available today”.

Again confirming the company’s shift away from being a conventional streaming music platform, Loberg’s email also noted a change in the firm’s relationship with the music industry, stating that “Rather than us maintaining the expense we once had providing a full music streaming platform, we are outsourcing this to third party providers. All content will now be delivered only inside brand channels, and only at the request and expense of the brands using the content in separate deals with content owners”.

The company, which retains its base in home country Australia despite no longer operating there, is yet to comment on the administration of Guvera Employment.



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