BOSS CEO STEPS DOWN

18 May 2007

Swedish provider elects new board...and CEO departs suddenly

Big moves were afoot at Boss Media, the Swedish online gambling turnkey provider this week when the company released its quarter 1 results and made changes to the board of directors that included the departure of the CEO, Johan Berg.

Operating profit was well up at 39 percent, and there was an 8 percent rise in sales although royalty revenues were down 3 percent.

The release of the quarterly results on May 10 coincided with the company's agm in Växjö, Sweden, where a dividend of 40 cents a share was announced, payable May 22. Director's fees were hiked to SEK 850 000 (last year SEK 780 000) with SEK 300 000 to the Chairman of the Board and SEK 150 000 each to the other members of the Board.

Meg Tivéus, Per Thunander and Jan Westholm were re-elected to the Board, together with newcomers Kenneth Axelsson and Göran Jansson. Tiveus is appointed chairman.

Taking industry observers by surprise was the announcement that the CEO and President of Boss, Johan Berg has left the post, a position he held since 2005, when he joined Boss from Intentia. Personal reasons were cited for Berg’s departure, and head of business development Markus Holm is filling the position in an acting capacity until a replacement for Berg can be found.

A company statement revealed that Berg's decision to leave had been made "...following a period of careful consideration." It added that under his leadership "....a great deal has been achieved including the restructuring and further development of the company's IT platform. Turnover increased from SEK 246 million in 2005 to SEK 320 million in 2006."

Chairman Meg Tiveus paid tribute to the departing executive, saying: "Johan has done a fantastic job as the President and CEO of Boss Media during a time where the market has been difficult and turbulent.

"The Board is very sorry that Johan's personal situation made it difficult to continue to act as President and CEO for Boss Media."

Berg left the company after the agm yesterday but will be available for consultation until June 15, 2007.

Boss Media’s first quarter results showed an 8 percent increase in sales to SEK 81.7 million (GBP 6.03 million), a drop of 3 percent in royalty revenues and a 39 percent increase in operating profit to SEK 15.4 million (GBP1.13 million). However, the company said that excluding royalty revenues related to Bwin Poker and US players, royalty revenue increased 19 percent.

American players accounted for around 5 percent of Boss Media’s total royalty revenues during Q3 of 2006.

Positive news for the future is that Boss has signed a three year contract with Sportingbet to develop its casino and poker software platform (see previous InfoPowa report).

An 8 percent fall in sales compared with the preceding quarter was attributed to the purchase of the Boss Media Gaming Management System by St Minver.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa