We first heard about the AOL-TradeDoubler rumors in a comment to a blog post, and it looks like it’s happening. AOL is acquiring Sweden-based TradeDoubler, a performance marketing company, for €695 million in cash, or about US$900 million. TradeDoubler, which is strong in Europe, will complement AOL’s advertising.com, which has made little headway there. The company has about 350 employees.
See here for a translated version of a French article announcing the deal. This is a 9% premium on TradeDoubler’s Friday close price. The board of directors of the company has accepted the bid, and it is now going to a shareholder vote.
TradeDoubler’s revenue last quarter was about US$60 million, with operating profits of around US$6.7 million. 90$+ of the company’s revenues are generated outside of Sweden. The UK is by far TradeDoubler’s biggest market. The company has about US$54 million in cash on hand.
Update: Press Release (in English) is here.
Update: A 10% TradeDouble stockholder opposes the deal.
See http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/07.....html?.v=36 for a English, non-translated version.
Thanks very much Eivind. I updated the post with that.
Wow, they sure did get a good valuation.
Nice to see some Europe based news as well.
Clearly advertising+search is where the cash flow is and platform buys will continue to be important for AOL and Yahoo. The NYT reported that the UK is ahead of the US in internet advertising (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/04/technology/04adcol.html?ex=1322888400&en=05b0dcf2bba31217&ei=5088partner=rssnyt&emc=rss).
I’d be interested in any color on whether that’s a case of technology, adoption or both.
Tradedoubler’s biggest shareholder just declined the offer (pension group Alecta): http://today.reuters.com/news/.....m=business
Associated Press are reporting this story as confirmed:
http://business.bostonherald.c.....eid=177260
Pls read again…
In the AP paper it says “the company’s board has unanimously recommended its shareholders accept the offer”: this does not mean the bid has been accepted… Alecta as rejected the bid (for the moment), as said in the above article.
Seems like AOL would have a much better chance succeeding outside the U.S. now that they’ve bruised their reputation so badly here. Seems like a good move, but it’s hard to believe they can easily afford acquisitions in this price range anymore.
Anita
News reports are now saying that Tradedoubler’s largest shareholder is voting against the deal and may be able to block it
AOL giving such a valuation is akin to a wealthy (and thirsty) drunk bidding for the last bottle of beer in the bar …
See this link for more Swedish insider IT news.
Hmm, what a great innovation coming out of Europe… An ad-network with no obvious competitive advantage (at least to me)!!! We rule
And just a while ago TradeDoubler was in serious financial problems
Im surprised. We tried TradeDoubler a while ago and was not impressed at all. But for products aimed at the consumer market it might be better, we aim at small and medium sized businesses. We found that websites in the network did not have a suitable audience, mostly personal homepages, and fraud was also a problem. Google AdWords works much better.
As of now, the bid was rejected and valueclick’s share rises 8% because of that.