Aloha Conferencing
purchased by
French firm

Star-Bulletin staff

A Honolulu-based teleconferencing company, Aloha Conferencing, has been sold for $15 million to the French firm Genesys SA.

From its 16,000-square-foot offices in the Pauahi Tower on Bishop Street, Aloha Conferencing's 100 employees manage audio and video conference calls and electronic data exchange around the world 24 hours a day.

Richard Moody, who founded the business in 1989 with a $200,000 state loan, sold 90 percent of the company for $4 million in 1995 to London-based Cable & Wireless Plc, a global provider of telecommunications and Internet services. Cable & Wireless later purchased the remaining 10 percent.

Aloha Conferencing expects revenues of $8.5 million and a profit of $1 million for its fiscal year ending March 31, according to an announcement by New York-based Mille Capital, the investment bank that advised Genesys.

Genesys said the deal enables it to make a major expansion in the United States.

Founded in 1987, Genesys provides audio, data and video teleconferencing in several European countries as well as in Singapore, Australia and the United States.