Bat-Briik
 | This article is incomplete because it is pending further input from participants, or it is a work-in-progress by one author. Please comment on this article's talk page to share your input, comments and questions. Note: To contribute to this article, you may need to seek help from the author(s) of this page. |
 | |
Formerly | Bat-Briik Corporation (2008-2010) |
|---|---|
| Public Company | |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | February 12, 2008 |
| Founder | Remzi Widdmann |
Area served |  Makko Oko |
Key people | Danny Suarez CEO |
| Products | ViChat |
| Owner | Riduur Corporation Majority Shareholder (67%) |
Number of employees | 56,000 (2022) |
| Subsidiaries | Bat-Briik Mobile Bat-Briik Banking |
| Website | briikmedia.com.mk |
Bat-Briik Media Holdings Limited, otherwise known as Bat-Briik, is a publicly-owned, state-authorized, telecommunications company in the Empire of Makko Oko. Bat-Briik Media Holdings was incorporated after Riduur Corporation acquired the company and voted in a shareholders meeting to restructure the company. Previously, the company had been known as Bat-Briik Corporation.
Bat-Briik is one of the only major companies in the empire to be founded by an original tribal member, being founded by Remzi Widdmann in 2008 during the development of the first mobile phone, the Riduur Internet Note, in collaboration and partnership with the then-CEO of Riduur, Jason Wesner, to make the first ever mobile phone successful. Riduur is the majority owner of Bat-Briik, having a 67% stake in the company.
Etymology
The name "Bat-Briik" is Makuri for On-Line, which without the dash means Online, an English word for being on the internet actively, or anything wirelessly connected.
History
Before Bat-Briik & Mobile Phones
Before the invention of mobile phones, all anybody had were flip phones, which did not or barely had internet connectivity and app support. Only a few companies dominated the phone app industry during the time of flip phones, but mobile phones had been a developing technology by multiple companies, one of them being Riduur. The invention of mobile phones was thought to be the doom of all the carriers at the time, due to the phone's use of new cellular technology.
Remzi Widdmann, at the time 40 years old, had an engineer friend who worked at Riduur Corporation, a major electronics manufacturer. The friend had told Remzi that Riduur was in the process of developing the first-ever mobile phone, not only by Riduur but also in Makko Oko.
Remzi Widdmann Biography
Remzi Widdmann was an entrepreneur and business executive who was born in a tiny tribe in the present day city of Seoul in 1945 and moved near the coast to the coastal city of Kekona in 1971. Remzi was a visionary leader and instrumental in the development of the company, which grew to become one of the most successful and respected tribal-founded companies in Makko Oko. He was renowned for his commitment to customer service and innovation, and was passionate about providing quality products and services to his customers. He was also a passionate advocate of the importance of education and was a supporter of numerous charities and causes. He passed away in 2019, leaving behind a legacy of success and innovation.
Founding Of Bat-Briik Corporation & Partnership With Riduur
Remzi Widdmann had been able to convince their engineer friend to get them in contact with the CEO of Riduur, Jason Wesner, who met with Remzi in December of 2007. Riduur was struggling with the development of their phone, not because of the technology, but because of incompatibility with every current carrier's infrastructure in the nation. While the phone could roam successfully, domestic calling was failing due to the carriers using GSM, as opposed to the new standard, UTSM that all other nations were switching to.
Remzi and Jason got together with the companies' engineering teams and agreed to a partnership, officially forming Bat-Briik Corporation, with Riduur merely being a silent partner, and not an owner of the company. The company was incorporated on February 12th, 2008 as a publicly-traded company on the Jorian Stock Exchange (JSE).
Due to the company just starting out, it got a very limited amount of shares to distribute in its IPO, being merely 50,000 shares. Remzi Widdmann got the majority of the shares through fundraising and approval by the Makko Okoan Government, meanwhile Riduur Corporation bought a 5% stake in Bat-Briik Corporation. The rest of the shares were mainly bought by individual people, since the shares were so cheap and the company, along with its popularity, was rather small.
Monopoly Breakup, Carrier Establishment
When Bat-Briik first started, the company lacked any foundations on building up the carrier. They couldn't build any infrastructure due to missing the necessary licensing and the current carriers in the nation having total control over the signals and wavelengths. Remzi Widdmann and Riduur Corporation had lobbied the Makko Okoan Government to grant them a carrier license and rights to control the 93.67 Ghz wavelength, but was turned down by the National Commission Of Communications (NCC) because "One more carrier would oversaturate the market and provide too much competition for butting heads with".
After the denial, the future of Bat-Briik looked grim, but Riduur Corporation took the NCC to court and fought the block, with their legal team claiming "No other carrier has a promise to move onto the future by establishing the new cellular protocols. To deny the license to establish would not only harm production and development of new and emerging technology, but it would also cause insecurity and incompatibility internationally, blocking roaming features."
After a 6-month fight, the Supreme Court Of Makko Oko ruled in favor of Riduur Corporation & Bat-Briik Corporation, stating "This atmosphere reeks of a monopoly, and the court hereby sees it forbade within codified law. Bat-Briik Corporation is to be granted their license and it shall not be impeded against."
Growth Of Bat-Briik Corporation
Bat-Briik officially launched their infrastructure on December 16th, 2008 exclusively for Riduur Internet Phone users who lived in major metropolitan areas, the same day the Riduur Internet Phone launched. On February 20th, 2009, Bat-Briik launched its infrastructure for all compatible phones and in all areas. Bat-Briik grew rather fast, mostly with tribal people, who saw Bat-Briik as the "Only Tribal Mobile Carrier". By mid-2009, Bat-Briik had an estimated 200,000 customers, with an estimated 50% of them being tribal people. The Makko Okoan Republic reported that Bat-Briik had the most tribal people acquisition of any other major telecom company, and was one of the fastest-growing startups.
Bat-Briik was said to have such high growth due to the popularity of the Riduur Internet Phone, which upon launch sold 200,000 units within the first week. Growth of the Riduur Internet Phone had been rather slow due to the weariness of the population to the new technology, with adaptation of the technology being rather slow, but had been accelerated by 2010. To help sales, Riduur supported GSM carriers infrastructure on the Internet Phone until 2012, wherein the functionality got removed completely after a system update.
Riduur Buyout, New Ownership
By June 17th, 2012, the official discontinuation of support for GSM infrastructure on the Riduur Internet Phone had taken effect. By the end of the year, Bat-Briik had 8 million customers, with 24% of them joining close to or after the discontinuation of GSM support. Only one other carrier at the time, Cellextrincs Wireless, had moved over or supported the UTSM standard. Due to the early adoption by Bat-Briik, and their smaller size, Bat-Briik had gained more customers in the nation's GSM transition to UTSM.
After the major successes seen by the UTSM transition, and the competition being crushed due to the only mobile phone technology at the time supporting it, Riduur Corporation saw an opportunity to further advance UTSM technology and its implementation within the nation, expanding to a new industry entirely. The CEO at the time, Jason Wesner, said that this was due to their company's engineers already working on carrier infrastructure and therefore gaining the experience to do so continuously.
Riduur Corporation sought to buy out the majority shares in Bat-Briik, advancing forwards before any other company had the opportunity, for an estimated value of IDH$870M. Remzi Widdmann approved the buyout by Riduur, taking all of the money in a cash and stocks deal, with half of the value being in Riduur stocks and the other half being in cash-only. Originally questioned by the Justice Department, the deal was allowed to go through with no issues raised.
The buyout was made official on December 4th, 2012.
Change To Bat-Briik Media Holdings Limited
After the buyout by Riduur Corporation was finalized, Riduur saw an innovative future past a mobile carrier for Bat-Briik, they envisioned a brand. On January 8th, 2013, Riduur in a stockholders meeting regarding Bat-Briik took to a vote a proposal to reincorporate the company as Bat-Briik Media Holdings Limited, as opposed to Bat-Briik Corporation. This proposal would've turned the company into a holding company, containing subsidaries of all of their businesses, something that Riduur and many other companies, were already doing.
A majority of stockholders approved of the idea, but a small minority of stockholders, 15% in fact, had voted against the proposal. The proposal had therefore been approved, and the company restructuring to Bat-Briik Media Holdings was completed on June 8th, 2013. After the change, they ended up appointing as the new CEO of Bat-Briik Media Holdings Limited, Danny Suarez, who was the former Director Of Product Development at Riduur Corporation until 2005.
Stability Before & During The Civil Transition War
As the economy was dwindling, many companies and organizations, from dozens of industries, had been reporting less profits and revenue due to poverty and the rapid increase of inflation. Bat-Briik was no exception, because with more of the nation's carriers supporting the new UTSM standard, Bat-Briik no longer had the dominance of being an early, and for a period of time, the only, adopter of the new standard. As the years went on and 2018 was approaching, Bat-Briik had done their best to make themselves cheaper against the competition, at one point in time charging IDH$10 for a single line of unlimited calling (but no texting).
The tactic had been rather successful, with Bat-Briik calling it the "Briiksomize Plan", allowing you to pick and choose what your plan had, even rather you could call or text. No other carrier in the nation followed in Bat-Briik's footsteps, with the other carriers moreso believing in convience than customization. The Briiksomize Plan is still available today, and is what their mobile subsidiary is mainly known for.
When the Civil Transition War hit, Bat-Briik continued to offer services to everybody, originally excluding the government but after Cellextrincs Wireless had been threatened, Bat-Briik CEO Danny Suarez put the greenlight back on offering services to the government, however, the government reduced discounts had been revoked, forcing the Republic Of Makko Oko to pay full price. The government, even though they were against that, relented and allowed it as a compromise.
On June 5th, 2019, during the war, Bat-Briik launched Bat-Briik Banking. Bat-Briik Banking was a revolutionary concept of not only mobile banking, but also for virtual money that you could control right through your phone. Bat-Briik Banking is only available within the Empire but the company has been considering expanding it to other nations. Bat-Briik Banking instantly made the company millions of do's in revenue, due to the fees, which some considered heavy and unnecessary, that were imposed on customers. The banking subsidiary had made the company the most money, over 20% of all profits from 2019-2020.
