Digital Impact Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Marketleap, Leading Search Engine Marketer.SAN MATEO San Mateo (săn mətā`ō), city (1990 pop. 85,486), San Mateo co., W Calif., on San Francisco Bay; inc. 1894. It is a commercial and retail center with some high-technology manufacturing. San Mateo, Spanish for St. , Calif. -- Acquisition Expands Digital Impact's Integrated Digital Marketing Services Offering Digital Impact, Inc. (Nasdaq:DIGI DIGI Digital DIGI Digital Input ), a leading provider of integrated digital marketing solutions for Global 2000 enterprises, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Marketleap, a San Francisco-based Internet marketing See Internet advertising. firm specializing in search engine marketing services for clients such as Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente is an integrated managed care organization, based in Oakland, California, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney R. Garfield. , Primedia, SBC's SMARTpages.com and Tyco Electronics Tyco Electronics was the largest unit of Tyco International Ltd., and the world's leading supplier of passive electronic components. On June 29, 2007 Tyco Electronics became a wholly independent publicly-traded company, along with Covidien, from the breakup of the Tyco conglomerate . This acquisition will enable Digital Impact to enhance its robust integrated marketing solutions by offering clients industry-leading search engine optimization Designing a Web site so that search engines easily find the pages and index them. The goal is to have your page be in the top 10 results of a search. Optimization includes the choice of words used in the text paragraphs and the placement of those words on the page, both visible and hidden , paid inclusion and pay-for-placement solutions. Under the terms of the agreement, Digital Impact will acquire all of the outstanding equity of Marketleap for $1.5 million in cash and 1.25 million of Digital Impact's shares and options. Additional contingent consideration of up to 200,000 common shares of Digital Impact stock will become issuable at the end of Digital Impact's 2005 fiscal year if certain revenue milestones are met. While email marketing remains the primary online medium for customer retention, search engine marketing has rapidly evolved into the fastest growing online customer acquisition channel. The combination of Digital Impact's strengths in email marketing with Marketleap's expertise in search engine marketing will offer clients true closed loop online marketing. Digital Impact will be able to assist clients in managing their customers through the entire lifecycle of awareness-consideration-purchase-loyalty through a combination of email and search marketing strategy, analytics and campaign execution. Marketleap was founded in 1999 and has developed into a recognized leader in search engine optimization and online acquisition solutions. Marketleap combines innovative technology, intellectual capital, and key industry relationships with expert campaign management to achieve client business objectives online. Under the leadership of co-founders Noel McMichael and Paul Owen For the literary character, see American Psycho. Paul Andrew Owen (born June 9, 1969 in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a former cricketer. He played 3 first-class matches for Gloucestershire County Cricket Club in 1990. External links
"This is a strategic acquisition for the Company," said William Park, 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. of Digital Impact. "It reflects our strong commitment to broadening the digital marketing services and technologies we provide for our Global 2000 clients, and to integrating customer acquisition with retention, search with email marketing. Marketleap has delivered exceptional results for its clients in the hottest area of digital marketing and we look forward to making their technologies and expertise available to our clients." "We are extremely pleased to be joining forces with Digital Impact," said Noel McMichael, President and co-founder of Marketleap. "We know our clients are eager to expand their use of email to retain and grow their online customer relationships. We are equally eager to offer our acquisition tools and services to Digital Impact's blue chip base of clients, many of whom are expected to expand their search strategies this year." "As someone who's worked with Marketleap since 1999 and seen their growth and professionalism, the acquisition of Marketleap by Digital Impact is a good move for both companies," said Marshall Simmonds, Director of Search for Primedia. "Marketleap has provided About.com, MotorTrend, and other Primedia divisions reliable search marketing technology and service. Marketleap's expertise in search marketing is surpassed only by their passion and customer support. I look forward to seeing the results of this partnership." Outlook Digital Impact expects the acquisition to result in approximately $1.5 million in additional net revenues and approximately $300,000 in EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) A metric used to show a company's profitability, but not its cash flow. EBITDA became popular in the 1980s to show the potential profitability of leveraged buyouts, but has become (1) for fiscal 2005, before the impact of integration and transition costs. Due to non-cash charges Non-Cash Charge A charge off, made by a company against earnings, that does not require an initial outlay of cash. Notes: Non-cash charges are typically against the depreciation, amortization, and depletion accounts on a company's balance sheet. , related to the amortization of intangible assets Intangible Asset An asset that is not physical in nature. Notes: Examples are things like copyrights, patents, intellectual property, and goodwill. These are the opposite of tangible assets. and stock based compensation, the transaction is not expected to be accretive in GAAP GAAP See: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles GAAP See generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). earnings per share for fiscal 2005. The Company is maintaining its fiscal first quarter guidance, provided in April, of $10.0 to $10.5 million in revenues and a loss of $0.02 to $0.04 per share. Going into the seasonally slow summer quarter, the Company expects consolidated fiscal second quarter revenues to be in the range of $10.0 to $10.5 million. The company will be providing more definitive EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) A PostScript file format used to transfer a graphic image between applications and platforms. EPS files contain PostScript code as well as an optional preview image in TIFF, WMF, PICT or EPSI, the latter being an ASCII-only format. guidance during its quarterly earnings release and conference call on July 22. (1) EBITDA, or earnings before other income and expense, taxes, depreciation, amortization, and stock-based compensation, is a non-GAAP financial measure. The company believes that EBITDA is a useful measure of our business's operations, and can be used to supplement GAAP financial measures in evaluating company performance. At this time we are not providing a detailed reconciliation of EBITDA to GAAP net income because we have not completed the purchase price allocation which will determine the value of the intangible assets, in-process R&D and goodwill. Conference Call Digital Impact will host a conference call to discuss the acquisition at 11:00 a.m. PT today. The call is open to everyone and those wishing to participate should call 973-935-2100 or access the web cast at www.digitalimpact.com or www.fulldisclosure.com approximately 10 minutes prior. The web cast will be archived and a replay of the call will be available until July 26, 2004, by dialing 877-519-4471(international callers can access the replay by dialing 973-341-3080) and entering reservation #4956941. About Digital Impact Digital Impact is a leading provider of integrated digital marketing solutions for Global 2000 enterprises including Marriott, The Gap, and Hewlett-Packard. Digital Impact combines agency services with world-class campaign execution on a proprietary technology platform to deliver superior marketing results for clients. The Company's proprietary IMPACT(TM) platform combines campaign management with advanced analytics to assist account and client teams in designing, sending and analyzing direct marketing communications Marketing communications (or marcom) are messages and related media used to communicate with a market. Those who practice advertising, branding, direct marketing, graphic design, marketing, packaging, promotion, publicity, sponsorship, public relations, sales, sales . The company creates and executes campaigns across multiple media channels: including personalized email, targeted websites, banner and other web advertisements, search engines, and direct mail (print). Digital Impact is a member of the TRUSTe Privacy Program and the NAI's Email Service See Internet e-mail service. Provider Coalition and works only with companies that adhere to adhere to verb 1. follow, keep, maintain, respect, observe, be true, fulfil, obey, heed, keep to, abide by, be loyal, mind, be constant, be faithful 2. appropriate consumer privacy guidelines. Digital Impact was founded in 1997 and has approximately 280 employees in its Silicon Valley, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and London offices. The Company is publicly traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market Nasdaq stock market The first electronic stock market listing over 5000 companies. The Nasdaq stock market comprises two separate markets, namely the Nasdaq National Market, which trades large, active securities and the Nasdaq Smallcap Market that trades emerging growth companies. under the ticker symbol Ticker Symbol An arrangement of characters (usually letters) representing a particular security listed on an exchange or otherwise traded publicly. When a company issues securities to the public marketplace, it selects an available ticker symbol for its securities which investors DIGI. About Marketleap Marketleap is a recognized leader in search engine optimization and online acquisition solutions. The Company's innovative technology, industry relationships and intellectual capital have attracted such clients as Primedia, Kaiser Permanente and Tyco Electronics. Marketleap's tools and search engine optimization, paid inclusion and pay-for-placement services help clients effectively acquire and grow customer relationships to achieve their business objectives online. Marketleap was a founding board member of the Search Engine Marketers Professional Organization, where Marketleap founder Noel McMichael is Vice President. In addition, Marketleap is a trusted reseller for Overture's Paid Inclusion programs. Marketleap is also known for creating a series of free search engine marketing tools such as the Link Popularity Checker check·er n. 1. a. One, such as an inspector or examiner, that checks. b. One that receives items for temporary safekeeping or for shipment: a baggage checker. 2. , Keyword Verification Reporter, and a Search Engine Saturation Reporter. These tools allow marketers to gauge the success of their search engine marketing efforts and have become industry benchmarks for tracking campaigns. For more information: www.Marketleap.com. 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. Statement Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning 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. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "predicts," and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that the statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements also include any other passages that relate to expected future events or trends that can only be evaluated by events or trends that will occur in the future. The forward-looking statements in this release include, without limitation, statements regarding expected revenue and other measurements. The forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the time the statements were made and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements. Risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statement include, without limitation, the risk that the costs of integration following the transaction may be greater than expected and the risks of losing clients or failing to acquire new clients. Other information about factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted in Digital Impact's forward-looking statements is set out in its 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 reports on Forms 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon these forward-looking statements, which speak only as to the date of this release. Except as required by law, Digital Impact undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking or other statements in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Further risks are detailed in Digital Impact's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q Form 10-Q See 10-Q. . Digital Impact is a registered trademark of Digital Impact, Inc. All other brands or trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
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