TradeDoubler acquire The Search Works for 56 million
A fantastic purchase on behalf of TradeDoubler and one that will strengthen their search technology and product offering way beyond anything rival affiliate networks are currently offering. Congratulations TD.
- TradeDoubler has acquired all shares in The IMW Group, which includes The Search Works and those companies trading as The Technology Works
- The newly combined entity will confirm TradeDoubler as one of the largest online marketing companies in Europe
- The acquisition expands TradeDoubler’s performance-based product portfolio into the search market and provides opportunities for further geographic expansion
TradeDoubler AB (publ) today announced its acquisition on July 25th of all the issued shares in Interactive Marketing Works Ltd and its subsidiaries (‘The IMW Group’). The purchase price amounts to £56 million.
The IMW Group consists of two trading entities, ‘The Search Works’, a well established search engine marketing agency and ‘The Technology Works’, a technology provider for search engine marketing, whose products include ‘BidBuddy®’ - a search management technology.
The IMW Group is a profitable and well managed company which has built up a significant client base, including such brand names as Asda, Comet, EasyJet, First Choice, Interflora and The Carphone Warehouse. The Group has a strong reputation within the industry for professionalism and driving return on investment for its clients. The Group was founded in 1999 and currently employs 108 staff. Turnover for the rolling twelve months preceding June 2007 amounted to £69 million and gross profit for the same period was £7.8 million.
The acquisition complements and expands TradeDoubler’s existing performance-based product portfolio which includes affiliate marketing, online advertising campaigns, pay-per-call and an online tracking and ad-serving technology. The newly combined offering has great synergies for both TradeDoubler’s and The IMW Group’s client bases. Search engine marketing and affiliate marketing are the largest direct response online marketing channels, with significant growth forecasted in both areas.
The Search Works is active in the UK, while The Technology Works has additional presence in Europe and in Asia. TradeDoubler has an extensive presence throughout Europe which spans 18 countries.
“Product expansion and further internationalisation are key components in TradeDoubler’s growth strategy. The acquisition addresses both these areas by rolling out The Search Works and The Technology Works throughout Europe and by utilising The Technology Works’ Asian foothold to assess the roll out of TradeDoubler’s product offerings into Asian markets.” says William Cooper, CEO, TradeDoubler.
Nick Hynes, CEO, The IMW Group adds, “There is a natural affinity between TradeDoubler’s products and services and the search management technology that we offer. We also believe there is a strong cultural fit between our two organisations. Together we will be able to offer unprecedented online marketing services and tools to a range of clients across Europe and beyond.”
TradeDoubler also released its second quarter financial results today and reported strengthened gross profit margins and solid revenue and gross profit performance. Revenues for the period from April to June 2007 increased by 27.9%, compared to the same period in 2006, to reach SEK 512.6 million (approx €56m) and gross profit was up 25.4% to SEK 143 million (approx €15.5).
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Still reluctant to now how this will all work - lots of affiliates have been worried about agencies running their own networks who also do PPC because of the data they have, and now the biggest European networks are also one of the biggest search agencies…
Would be good, I guess, if they start to offer affiliates some of their search technology though..
Fair point James. For me this is about strengthening what was a pretty weak area for TD - Search.
They have been promoting their media tool box and cross channel deduping functionality for as long as I can remember but due to the weak search product it incorporated agencies have always opted for separate 3rd party providers such as The Search Works. With the acquisition now in place they have one of the most popular bid optimisiation tools at their disposal which changes everything. I know I’ll be inquiring about their new pricing structure and the possibility of reducing our affiliate and search overrides.
How will it benefit affiliates? Well I’m not sure if that’s the goal behind this purchase and I imagine things will pretty much stay the same. However, if TD were to roll out a product where affiliates could easily track ROI from a keyword level when sending traffic via an affiliates own website then that would be a killer.
Paul.
If that solves the tracking problem we were discussing the other day it would be awesome.
Still working on it, and a little plugin for WP so I can roll it out across a few sites.
Exactly what we spoke about the other day Stephen. Your WP plugin sounds like a little gem. ;)