Tech firm buys Swiss app maker

SARASOTA — MobileBits, a social media software and mobile marketing firm, signed an agreement to buy a company that makes one of the most popular iPhone and smarthphone apps in Switzerland.

MobileBits, a publicly traded firm with offices in Sarasota and Los Angeles, agreed to buy Switzerland-based Aixum Tec A.G., according to a press statement. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, and shareholders must approve it before it closes.

Aixum focuses on mobile marketing and customer loyalty programs for the hyper-local marketplace, according to the MobileBits release. Its flagship product, Samy4Me, has been the second most downloaded consumer app in the Swiss iTunes store since 2011. The app connects national and local merchants with targeted customers. Companies that use the app include McDonald's.

MobileBits (symbol: MBIT) has been growing in other ways, too. It completed a $7 million capital raise last year, and is in the middle of another raise, where it seeks at least $10 million. Founder Walter Kostiuk previously told the Business Review he thinks the firm will turn a profit by the second quarter of 2012.