JEGI Represents Tomorrow Focus in Sale of Stake in AdJug to Dentsu
New York, NY August 16, 2011 TOMORROW FOCUS AG (www.tomorrow‐focus.de) has sold 35.86% of its stake in AdJug Ltd. (www.adjug.com) to international media and advertising group Dentsu Inc., giving it an 80% stake of AdJug and strengthening its New York‐headquartered digital technology division IgnitionOne (www.ignitionone.com). As a result of the transaction, TOMORROW FOCUS’s stake in the London‐based online marketing firm AdJug was reduced from 55.86% to 20%. TOMORROW FOCUS and IgnitionOne will enable AdJug to aggressively expand its global footprint, and AdJug’s co‐founders, Michael Stephanblome and Satish Jayakumar, will continue to run the company.
The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (www.jegi.com) of New York, NY, the leading independent investment bank for the media, information, marketing services, and technology sectors, represented AdJug in this transaction and acted as its exclusive financial advisor.
AdJug operates two successful Internet advertising marketplaces in the UK and Germany and markets over three billion advertising spots from over 4,000 web sites every month. Following the majority takeover of AdJug, there are plans to open several new international branch offices alongside existing locations in London (UK), Munich (Germany) and Bangalore (India). The aim is also to link AdJug’s product portfolio closely to that of the New York‐headquartered digital marketing solutions company IgnitionOne, which offers product solutions in areas such as search and display campaigns, on‐site optimization and targeting.
TOMORROW FOCUS will continue to be represented on AdJug’s international board by Christoph Schuh, who is on the Management Board of TOMORRROW FOCUS. There was also agreement on the further expansion of the existing partnership between AdJug and TOMORROW FOCUS subsidiary TOMORROW FOCUS Media for unsold advertising inventory. As Germany’s second biggest ad network, TOMORROW FOCUS Media will continue to provide AdJug with unsold advertising inventory.
“Michael Stephanblome and Satish Jayakumar have developed the company into a successful European advertising marketplace. Once AdJug reached profitability at the end of last year, our joint aim was to achieve further international growth as quickly as possible with the help of a strategic partner. IgnitionOne is the ideal partner for building AdJug into a global brand,” commented Mr. Schuh.
As to the company’s future prospects, Mr. Stephanblome noted: “We are very much looking forward to the next stage of expansion at AdJug and would like to thank our staff for their tremendous work in growing the company. By driving ahead with further internationalization and combining our Dynamic Creative Technology (DCT) with Ignition One’s Audience Scoring Technology, we can create a real USP (Unique Selling Proposition) that will help us stand out from existing advertising marketplaces.”
“Our majority holding in AdJug represents a decisive step forward in our efforts to construct the best global marketing products for our customers. Our centralised digital marketing platform will now be able to expand massively into the European market,” said Will Margiloff, CEO at IgnitionOne.
About TOMORROW FOCUS AG
TOMORROW FOCUS is based in Munich, Germany and is one of the leading exchange‐listed Internet groups in Germany. The company has a workforce of around 600, and its business operations are divided into three divisions: Transactions; Advertising; and Technologies. The Transactions division includes HOLIDAYCHECK, the Group’s hotel rating and holiday/travel booking portal; ELITEPARTNER, a premium online dating portal; and JAMEDA.de, the physician recommendations portal. The Advertising division includes TOMORROW FOCUS Media, one of the leading German online ad networks. The Technologies division includes CELLULAR GmbH, one of Germany’s leading full‐service agencies for mobile platforms, and TFT GmbH, which provides technology and creative services for web‐based IT solutions. For more information, visit www.tomorrow‐focus.de.
About AdJug Ltd.
AdJug, based in London (UK), Munich (Germany) and Bangalore (India), is the largest and longestrunning transparent display ad exchange for premium unsold inventory in Europe and the UK. The AdJug exchange serves over three billion ad impressions to more than 67 million unique users per month. Currently, the company has over 500 advertisers and relationships with more than 2,000 publishers and 4,000 sites worldwide. AdJug helps advertisers and agencies to achieve superior campaign performance. Its optimisation technology uses data aggregation to build dynamic re‐targeting segments that find conversions across the ad exchange inventories. For more information, visit www.adjug.com.
About IgnitionOne
IgnitionOne is the world’s first closed‐loop Digital Marketing Suite, offering multiple solutions to improve online performance within a single interface. Solutions include ad management and optimisation (search, display and Facebook), cross‐channel attribution and on‐site optimisation – all through a single, simple–toimplement web site tag. The company was formed in 2011 by combining the online ad management platform SearchIgnite with audience profiling and on‐site optimization from Netmining. Ignition One currently generates over USD 20 billion in revenue each year for some of the world’s leading online marketing customers, including General Motors, Chico’s, Ann Taylor, Fiat, and advertising agencies such as MRM Worldwide and CyberAgent. For more information, visit www.ignitionone.com.
About The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc.
The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI) of New York, NY is the leading provider of independent investment banking services for the media, information, marketing services and technology sectors. Since 1987, JEGI has completed more than 500 high‐profile M&A transactions for global corporations; middlemarket and emerging companies; entrepreneurial owners; and private equity and venture capital firms.
“We have never worked with an investment bank like yours, where the bankers took part in all discussions through the final contract negotiations and worked as a mediator in critical situations.”
– Christoph Schuh, CMO, Tomorrow Focus AG