ADDING MULTIMEDIA America Online, Inc. to Acquire Advertising.com; Acquisition Will Provide Unmatched Opportunities for Advertisers.DULLES, Va. & BALTIMORE -- America Online See AOL. , Inc., the world's leading interactive services company, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Advertising.com, Inc., a leading provider of results-based interactive marketing services, in a $435 million all-cash transaction. Combining America Online's advertising inventory with the Advertising.com network will provide advertisers with an unprecedented opportunity to reach more than 140 million Internet users Internet user n → internauta m/f Internet user Internet n → internaute m/f (1) and will enable AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. to offer advertisers an expanded suite of customized solutions, including branding, paid placement, and multimedia delivered on a CPM (1) (Critical Path Method) A project management planning and control technique implemented on computers. The critical path is the series of activities and tasks in the project that have no built-in slack time. or performance basis. Advertising.com works with more than 800 advertisers to optimize the performance of their online marketing campaigns. Advertising.com's proprietary ad delivery and optimization tools enable advertisers to increase and measure their return on investment. Advertising.com also works with over 1,500 online publishers by providing a large and consistent customer base for their available advertising inventory and by licensing its ad serving technologies. Jonathan Miller This article is about the British physician, theatre and opera director, and television presenter; for other people named Jonathan Miller, see Jonathan Miller (disambiguation). Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller , Chairman and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. , America Online, Inc., said, "Online advertising is showing very strong growth across the industry, and the acquisition of Advertising.com underscores AOL's determination to strengthen its competitive position. Advertising.com has built a profitable, scalable and highly attractive business. This acquisition is a strategic move that will bolster AOL's advertising business, building on the strides made in the past year." Ted Leonsis, Vice Chairman America Online, Inc., and President, AOL Core Service, said, "Advertising.com will extend our advertising footprint on the Web, giving us unparalleled reach, and allow us to serve our advertisers better with more efficient campaigns. This is an exceedingly talented group of people, who, in a very short time, have created a very sophisticated and successful model for allocating and optimizing advertising online and selling it through a pay-for-performance model. Advertising.com brings a new dimension to our advertising offerings, enabling us to more fully participate in the growth in performance-based advertising." Largest Third-Party Advertising Network Advertising.com operates the industry's largest third-party advertising network, reaching more than 110 million unique visitors A count of how many different people access a Web site. For example, if a user leaves and comes back to the site five times during the measurement period, that person is counted as one unique visitor, but would count as five "user sessions. monthly and over 70% of all U.S. Web visitors, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. comScore Media Metrix in May 2004. Advertising.com acquires ad inventory from Web sites, search engines and e-mail publishers and uses its proprietary AdLearn technology to optimally segment and allocate the inventory, based on its advertisers' objectives - such as lead generation, customer acquisition or product purchase. Advertising.com is growing rapidly and is profitable. Revenues increased almost 80% in 2003 to reach $132 million, and 2003 income from operations was $12.1 million. Advertising.com's optimization tools allow advertisers to plan, place, track and adjust ad campaigns in real time. Its AdLearn technology, which maximizes advertising revenues across the network, learns from the results of previous campaigns and gets smarter with each advertisement placed. As Advertising.com runs more ad campaigns, the technology becomes more adept at matching the ads with the right inventory on the network, at the right times, to reach the advertiser's specific objectives for the campaign. Similarly, as the size of the advertising network grows, Advertising.com's ability to reach the segments that will meet its advertisers' objectives increases. The acquisition complements AOL's Search business and CPM-based relationships by strengthening its position in the fast-growing pay-for-performance area of online advertising. Across the industry, performance-based media accounted for a greater share of advertising than CPM-based deals for the first time ever in Q4 2003. Advertising.com Chief Executive Officer Scott Ferber said, "We're looking forward to the opportunity to build on what we've accomplished - taking our company from startup to industry leader in six years - as part of America Online. We're excited about growing the size of our advertising network, continuing to provide advertisers with creative solutions that meet their needs, and helping AOL increase the value of their inventory." Acquisition Builds on AOL's Advertising Momentum In the past year, AOL has rebuilt its advertising business, growing ad revenue from $204 million in Q4 2003 to $214 million in Q1 2004 and achieving two consecutive quarters of sequential advertising growth for the first time since the year 2000. Michael J. Kelly, President, AOL Media Networks, said, "The acquisition of Advertising.com will enable us to better serve our customers. We will offer advertisers a full suite of customized solutions that will allow them to reach consumers in new, creative and targeted ways. We now have all of the pieces in place - premium inventory, a strong and growing search business, and the ability to deliver customized pay for performance programs. I'm very excited about the campaigns we'll be able to put together for advertisers." Advertising.com will remain in Baltimore and will be managed as a separate company reporting to Mr. Kelly. The company has more than 300 employees and operates principally in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. , with operations in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. The transaction is expected to close in late summer of 2004, subject to various conditions including customary regulatory approvals. Media Conference Call America Online will hold a conference call to discuss the transaction with members of the media at 10:00 am Eastern Time today, June 24, 2004. Top executives from America Online and Advertising.com will participate in the call. The telephone number in the United States is 888-391-6571. Passcode is AOL. International callers should call 1-517-319-9290. There will be a replay of the call beginning at 12:00 PM Eastern and available until Midnight. The number for the replay is 402-998-1453. No passcode is needed for the replay. About America Online, Inc. America Online, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : TWX (TeletypeWriter eXchange Service) A U.S. and Canadian dial-up communications service that became part of Telex. In 1971, the Bell System sold TWX to Western Union. TWX transmitted 5-bit Murray code or 7-bit ASCII code at up to 150 bps. See Telex. ). Based in Dulles, Virginia Dulles, Virginia is an unincorporated census-designated place located in Loudoun County, Virginia, part of the Washington Metropolitan Area. The headquarters of AOL, Orbital Sciences Corporation and ODIN technologies and the former headquarters of MCI Inc. are located in Dulles. , America Online is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies and e-commerce services. About Advertising.com(TM) Advertising.com, Inc. is a leading provider of results-based interactive marketing services to advertisers and publishers. It operates a large network consisting of advertising inventory purchased from Web, search engine and email publishers. Through this network, and its proprietary technologies, Advertising.com helps advertisers develop and execute marketing programs that generate measurable results. Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements forward-looking statement A projected financial statement based on management expectations. A forward-looking statement involves risks with regard to the accuracy of assumptions underlying the projections. This release includes certain forward-looking statements related to the pending acquisition that are within the meaning of the "safe harbor Safe Harbor 1. A legal provision to reduce or eliminate liability as long as good faith is demonstrated. 2. A form of shark repellent implemented by a target company acquiring a business that is so poorly regulated that the target itself is less attractive. " provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA) implemented several significant substantive changes affecting certain cases brought under the federal securities laws, including changes related to pleading, discovery, liability, class representation and awards fees and of 1995. These statements are based on management's current expectations or beliefs, and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the statements herein due to changes in economic, business, competitive, technological and/or regulatory factors, as well as other factors affecting the businesses of America Online, Inc. or Advertising.com, Inc. More detailed information about the factors may be found in filings made by Time Warner Inc. with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent annual report on Form 10-K Form 10-K A report required by the SEC from exchange-listed companies that provides for annual disclosure of certain financial information. Form 10-K See 10-K. and quarterly report on Form 10-Q Form 10-Q See 10-Q. . Time Warner and America Online are under no obligation to, and expressly disclaim dis·claim v. dis·claimed, dis·claim·ing, dis·claims v.tr. 1. To deny or renounce any claim to or connection with; disown. 2. To deny the validity of; repudiate. 3. any such obligation to, update or alter the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. (1) comScore Media Metrix May 2004 data. |
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