ad pepper media acquires Italian online marketer Clickit

Online area of Clickit to be integrated in Italian affiliate Acquisition makes ad pepper media the leading Italian online marketer

Nuremberg, Milan, 16 October 2003
The European online marketer and supplier of interactive direct marketing solutions is tangibly increasing its position on the Italian market.

On October 15th, it was agreed that the complete online business area of the biggest independent Italian marketer, Clickit S.R.L., will be taken over by ad pepper media Italy S.R.L.

The companies jointly represent more than 150 websites with several 100 million ad impressions, with their advertising reaching practically all Italian online households.

With its main strengths in the media and eMail marketing areas, Clickit is the ideal complement to ad pepper media’s successful direct marketing activities. The combination of high-quality eMail databases and media products with proven direct marketing solutions will ensure a comprehensive, wide-reaching range of advertising and services for all Italian advertisers. In addition, Clickit’s present clients will enjoy particular benefits from the new international coverage and the expanded direct marketing facilities made possible by ad pepper media’s successful solutions and technology.

The business area of Clickit which has been acquired will continue to be run by company founder Giampiero Pelle, who will retain his successful team. Clickit will operate under the name of ad pepper interactive marketing services S.R.L. and will be owned 100 % by ad pepper media Italy S.R.L., which will continue to be run by Marco Locatelli.

“We have known Clickit as a successful marketing company for many years. This acquisition is an excellent addition to our structures, giving us a leading position on the online market in Italy, too. As well as Clickit’s important media business, we expect above all considerable growth in turnover and profits from the availability of our direct marketing solutions,” said Ulrich Schmidt, CEO of ad pepper media International N.V.

Giampiero Pelle, Chairman and one of the previous main partners of Clickit added: “After achieving break-even this year, this integration in an international network is the next logical economic step for a faster growth, that will be possible through the synergies with ad pepper media. With the European resources of ad pepper media, a whole new range of products and services is available for us that we look forward to providing our customers with.

The formal closing will be finalised beginning of next week. Confidentiality was agreed on the financial terms of the transaction.

About ad pepper media
ad pepper media is an internationally-oriented sales and marketing organization for electronic advertising, which realizes cost-effective target group-oriented marketing solutions for both advertisers and agencies, allowing them to successfully implement their product and advertising strategies. ad pepper media has 13 branches in 9 European countries and markets almost one billion advertising contacts every month on over 650 Web sites. ad pepper media is a one-stop-shop for advertisers and Web sites, offering end-to-end service based on the best available technology in each case, with innovative forms of advertising and a broad range of efficient marketing solutions – from branding and opt-in e-mail to address generation through to customer acquisition and customer loyalty models. ad pepper uses its tried and trusted European sales and service model internationally, and adapts this model to meet the needs of the local markets. Today, ad pepper media represents world-leading Websites, such as GelbeSeiten and Das Telefonbuch in Germany, Aftonbladet in Sweden, Marktplaats in Netherlands, Krak in Denmark, Interhotel in Spain as well as theme-specific sites including Monster and scores of others. ad pepper media is a listed company, and its shares are traded on the Prime Standard Segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (German Securities Code Number: 940 883).

About Clickit
Clickit is the first Italian independent advertising network entirely dedicated to the Internet. It was founded July 1999 by Giampiero Pelle, and financed by Kiwi 1 and three other VC funds. Trough its network of 90 selected sites and newsletters its database of more than 3.000.000 profiled e-mail addresses Clickit can provide its customers with a whole range of advertising and direct marketing instruments which reach virtually all Italian Internet users. IBM, Microsoft, Nokia, Sony, BMW, Daimler Chrysler, Vodafone, Unicredit, Oracle, Swiss are only some of the customers Clickit is currently serving in Italy.