ad pepper media announces acquisition of UK Affiliate Marketing Network “Webgains Ltd”

Acquisition provides ad pepper media with a sophisticated Affiliate Marketing technology platform and enables entry into fast growing affiliate and eCommerce market.

London, Hoofddorp, Nuremberg 9th of May, 2006

ad pepper media today announced the acquisition of Webgains  Ltd, one of the fastest growing Affiliate Marketing Networks in the UK.

Founded in 2004, the company has focused on providing merchants and affiliates a unique mix of proprietary state of the art Affiliate Marketing technology and world-class customer service.

The Webgains technology – which was designed as a highly scalable platform and ready for international expansion – brings to ad pepper media the fruits of over 5 years experience in the affiliate marketing industry, including cookieless tracking technology, data aggregation, anti-fraud mechanisms and a highly sophisticated reporting system.

The Management and Founders Robert Glasgow and Peter Dunham have over 20 years collective experience in on-line marketing, with much of that specifically in affiliate marketing. Both have signed long term agreements and will respectively continue to lead the company´s business and development initiatives, working closely with ad pepper media to integrate the Webgains platform into existing ad pepper media product and service offerings and to jointly explore new business opportunities in the online advertising markets internationally.

As a result of the acquisition, Webgains Ltd will become a wholly owned subsidiary of ad pepper media. As part of the acquisition, the companies have agreed to make significant further investments into technology developments as well as international expansion into all markets where ad pepper media is already represented.

With this acquisition, ad pepper media is further enhancing its one-stop-shop online marketing services position by adding one further key service offering. Webgains’ merchants and affiliates and ad pepper media’s client and website partners will respectively benefit from the expanded product offering and reach. Webgains’ reach and performance will be significantly enhanced through ad pepper media’s networks and especially through its Webstats4u network with more than 1 Million websites worldwide.

“The affiliate market is one of the most dynamic sectors in the online industry. With Webgains we have acquired one of the best affiliate marketing technology platforms that have been built so far. Combining this with our distribution and sales capacities, we will not only be participating in this growth sector but will strengthen the overall development of our company. This acquisition dramatically enhances our existing product and service set up for our advertisers and website partners. In addition, it adds an attractive new line of business for ad pepper with innovative affiliate offerings not only in the UK but also in our other countries”, explained Ulrich Schmidt, CEO of ad pepper media.

Managing Director, Robert Glasgow, commented “This is a fantastic opportunity for Webgains, allowing us access to ad pepper’s products, resources and infrastructure to accelerate our already-strong growth. Strategically, we couldn’t have chosen a better partner; with complementary products and strengths that we will be able to leverage going forward. Just as importantly, there is a great cultural fit between the two companies, with the emphasis on delivering outstanding customer service within the context of a flexible work environment. We envisage that ad pepper’s infrastructure, resources and global positioning will enable us to leverage the full power of our product solutions and will help us to roll out new services and business models faster.”

The total purchase price consideration ranges between 1.8 and 2.9 MM GBP and consists of an initial payment in cash and shares and an additional earn-out component based on achievement of various objectives.

About Webgains Ltd
Webgains is a leading UK-focused affiliate marketing platform developed specifically to provide cutting-edge tools and features to allow sophisticated advertisers and affiliates to maximise their returns on investments. Founded by Peter Dunham and Robert Glasgow in 2005, Webgains has grown rapidly to now serve 180 advertisers and over 8000 websites. 

For further information:
Webgains Ltd.
Robert Glasgow
Tel.: +44 (0)20 7808 7890
Fax: +44 (0)20 7808 7893
Email: rglasgow@webgains.com