Press Release in accordance with CONSOB Regulation No. 11971/1999 and subsequent modifications
Dada increases its stake to 70% in Blogo, the most popular vertical blog network in Italy and one of the most important in Europe
Blogo is one of the top ten Italian Web Properties and one of the leading vertical blog networks in Europe and has already successfully internationalized its presence in numerous English speaking countries and in Brazil.
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Dada has finalized its Group corporate reorganization process.
Florence, July 3, 2008 – Today Dada Group, through Dada S.p.A., acquired a further 40% stake in E-box S.r.l. (the company that owns Blogo), bringing its total shareholding to 70%. The acquisition of the majority of the Company took place earlier than its forecasted March 2009 deadline.
Blogo is the most popular vertical blog network nationally and the fourth largest Italian web property in the news sector (following Corriere.it, Repubblica.it and Gazzetta.it), boasting more than 42 million pageviews per month and 5.4 million unique monthly visitors (source: Nielsen/Netratings, June 2008).
In the financial year 2007 E-box reported €870,000 in total revenues, with a 107% growth compared to the previous year. E-box’s EBIT reached €170,000 in 2007, with an increase of 240% compared with the 2006 EBIT, equal to a 20% marginality. According to the preliminary information of the first few months of this year, the Management of the Company expect revenues for the 2008 full financial year at over €1.2 million and EBIT is expected to exceed €300,000. Pageviews are estimated to grow to 48 million per months by the end of the year.
The total consideration paid for the acquisition of 40% of the company’s will be of €1.6 million – including the premium for the acquisition of the majority stake – and will be funded with Dada’s own funds.
The price will be paid to the four founders of Blogo in two tranches of equal value, the first upon today’s closing and the second by the end of the 2008 financial year. At completion, both parties will underwrite reciprocal put/call options on their respective own shares.
The founders, to state their commitment to Dada Group’s project, agreed to invest part of the payment received for an amount equal to € 516,000 in the acquisition of Dada’s stock and to hold those shares until the approval of the 2009 financial results.
It must be noted that the previously projected objectives communicated to the market by Dada on December 4, 2007 did not take into consideration the related impact of the acquisitions and any impact of this operation on the guidance will be eventually communicated at a later date.
Furthermore Dada Group has completed the contributions foreseen in the Group’s corporate restructuring project as announced in the press release on May 9, 2008, aimed at maximizing the focus of the business divisions on their respective core activities and at improving the decision making process. The contribution of the activities related to the Dada.net services (web and mobile community services) currently offered to the public from Dada.net S.p.A. and of the Dada.Adv activities (advertising on web and mobile services) respectively into the wholly owned subsidiaries Dada.net S.p.A. and Register.it S.p.A., shall be effective as of July 1, 2008.
