In this interview with CalvinAyre.com’s Becky Liggero, Morten Klein of Cherry explains why business consolidation is a good thing for operators.
Company consolidation has always been part of a business cycle. One misconception about business consolidation is that many people take it as a sign that a company is in deep financial trouble.
It can’t be denied that business consolidation reflects the booms and busts of the economy but there are other reasons why firms undergo such process. There are companies who undergo business consolidation due to cutthroat competition, while others try to eliminate redundancies.
Mortein Klein of Cherry pointed out that conglomerates usually acquire smaller businesses in order to solidify their footing.
The Swedish gaming operator is actually not a stranger to business consolidation. Over the last few years, Cherry has made large investments in order to make its in-house system offerings as well as its qualitative platform and improve them by adding reliable technologies.
Klein explained that the movements in Cherry, including the restructuring, is in line with its plan for their company to be able to widen their reach.
“What’s happening is we are following our plan for the last five years and the next five years. We will be a big company. And we have the 360 view of the iGaming business, that’s the goal to be a part of everything. And I think we have succeeded doing this,” Klein told CalvinAyre.com
Just like what’s happening in Cherry, he believes that the gambling industry will see more companies merging and consolidating their businesses in the future.
Nothing’s wrong with consolidating businesses, according to Klein, just as long as they know what companies to acquire, have a deep understanding of the financial and operational impact of blending to sets of systems and philosophies.
“We never in western company acquire companies that want to sell. We acquire companies that doesn’t want to sell,” he said. “I think that is healthy. In the future, we will see more of this to happen. I think small operators can earn more money together with the big operator or two smaller operators together could do more good business together.”
