• Edipresse is taking a 20% shareholding in Virtual Network SA
• Creation of an online advertising agency, which will be the leader in French Switzerland
Lausanne, 29 September 2006 – The Edipresse Group has just signed an agreement in principle to acquire 20% of the share capital of the internet publisher Virtual Network SA. Edipresse will have an option to increase its shareholding to 40% by the end of 2010. The transaction is expected to be effective in January 2007.
Edipresse and Virtual Network have also decided to join forces in the Swiss-French market by creating an online advertising sales structure. This structure will be operational from 1 January 2007 and will market the Swiss audience of Edipresse's and Virtual Network's websites, with the strategic aims of enhancing professionalism and increasing online advertising market share.
Under the proposed name of Romandie Online, 16 sites will be marketed, including Romandie.com, Lematin.ch, Tdg.ch, 24heures.ch, Humour.com, Jeux.com, Edicom.ch, Femina.ch and will total more than 50 million page views per month, in other words the largest audience in French-speaking Switzerland at the present time.
Through its offices in Nyon and Zürich, Romandie Online will offer advertisers targeted thematic packages, as well as packages for the general public.
For Tibère Adler, CEO of Edipresse: “This link-up confirms our increased focus on digital media. We will include the founders of Virtual Network in our overall strategic thought process concerning opportunities in the field of new information technologies”.
Stefan Renninger, one of the founders of Virtual Networks added “We are delighted to have a new shareholder of reference and to be joining together to respond to the strong growth of the Swiss online advertising market. The latter is now a standard element of media campaigns and should continue to take off in coming years”.
Concerning the Edipresse Group
The Edipresse Group is a quoted, Lausanne-based (Switzerland) media and communication company. It publishes more than 160 magazines and newspapers in 18 countries, including Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Romania, France, China and various other Asian countries. Edipresse is active in the Swiss online market with its many sites linked to its titles and its shareholdings in the Homegate.ch (real estate), Swissfriends.ch (dating) and JobUp.ch (employment) websites.
Concerning Virtual Network
Founded in 1999 by Stephan Pictet and Stefan Renninger, Virtual Network is a company based in Nyon (Switzerland). It publishes a network of vertical portals in the French-speaking market, including in particular Romandie.com, Annonces.com, Humour.com, Jeux.com and Musique.com. In August 2006, the net audience of the Virtual Network sites amounted to 185 million page views for 13.6 million visits (source: Médiamétrie).
Sites marketed under Romandie Online: www.romandie.com, www.jeux.com, www.humour.com, www.musique.com, www.romandie.fm, www.aufeminin.ch, www.24heures.ch, www.tdg.ch, www.lematin.ch, www.edicom.ch, www.femina.ch, www.bilan.ch, www.zannonces.ch, www.bleublog.ch, www.terrenature.ch, www.swissfriends.ch.
For further information, please contact:
Tibère Adler, CEO Edipresse
Tel. +41 (0)21 349 45 18
Email
www.edipresse.com
Stefan Renninger, Director Virtual Network
Tél. +41 (0)22 994 55 22
stefan@virtual-network.com
www.virtual-network.com
