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TOMORROW FOCUS AG acquires a majority shareholding in online advertising exchange AdJug

Media release

TOMORROW FOCUS AG acquires a majority shareholding in online advertising exchange AdJug, further consolidating its position as a leading digital marketing company

Munich, Germany, 08 December 2009 – TOMORROW FOCUS AG has acquired a further 37.8 percent to its previous 18 percent of the shares of AdJug Ltd. from shareholders. Balderton Capital, the founders and some business angels have sold shares totalling 37.4 percent.

This acquisition gives TOMORROW FOCUS AG a 55.8 percent stake in AdJug Ltd. The majority of the remaining shares are held by founders Michael Stephanblome and Satish Jayakumar who will stay in the business and continue the aggressive growth the business has seen over the last two years.

AdJug currently operates two ad exchanges for online performance advertising in the UK and Germany. AdJug has built a proprietary ad server and multiple currency exchange technology which enables online publishers to clear their unsold inventory and agencies and advertisers to efficiently buy online campaigns on real time basis on such unsold inventory. AdJug has also developed its own real time conversion tracking, auto optimisation, remarketing and behavioural targeting systems. Using this technology, AdJug gives agencies and advertisers complete data transparency and control by allowing them to measure the campaign performance on site or ad space level and optimise accordingly.

Launching in November 2007, the AdJug ad exchange currently trades over three billion ad impressions per month in more than 5000 remnant publisher placements in the United Kingdom and Germany. The company has grown to 54 people in 3 countries with offices in London, Munich and Bangalore.

The majority acquisition of AdJug adds another cornerstone to TOMORROW FOCUS AG’s digital marketing unit in Germany in the area of performance marketing, in addition to the established premium marketing business of TOMORROW FOCUS Sales. The German units will remain legally independent because of their different marketing approaches, but will work even more closely together. AdJug will focus exclusively on marketing remnant display advertising space for the majority of TOMORROW FOCUS AG’s advertising inventory.

Members of the Board will be Christoph Schuh (Chairman), Dr. Klaus Hommels, Stefan Winners, Michael Stephanblome, Satish Jayakumar, Dr. Philipp Goos and René Rechtman.

Christoph Schuh, CMO of TOMORROW FOCUS AG, commented: “The majority acquisition of AdJug is an important strategic step in the expansion of our performance marketing. It will strengthen our position as one of the most important online marketing companies in Germany, while giving us a stake in a proprietary ad serving and exchange technology and also international access to the strongly growing business segment of performance marketing. AdJug has developed very rapidly since its establishment about two years ago – for the coming year we already see potential for sales revenues of an eight-digit euro figure. Our next step is to expand our German business significantly, and to invest further in increasing our staff numbers.”

Michael Stephanblome, CEO and Co-Founder of AdJug Ltd said: “With the help of TOMORROW FOCUS, we will be able to fulfill our vision of a European online exchange for display advertising. This strategic partnership will accelerate our strong growth and enable us to aggressively expand AdJug further internationally. We also see a big potential for AdJug to collaborate on advertising technology and to help the e-commerce businesses of TOMORROW FOCUS with regards to user acquisition and retention.”

Dharmash Mistry, partner of Balderton Capital, commented: “Michael and Satish have built an innovative and market leading online advertising exchange in the UK. As the model further scales, especially in Germany, TOMORROW FOCUS AG will significantly advantage the business: They bring synergy and scale in their local German market. This is an obvious next step for the company.”

About AdJug:
AdJug Ltd., based in London, Munich and Bangalore, operates an automated internet advertising exchange. AdJug helps advertisers and owners of websites to link up more easily and to buy and sell advertising space and advertisements transparently at www.adjug.com and www.adjug.de.

AdJug currently trades over 3 billion ad impressions in the UK and Germany, making it one of the biggest ad exchanges. AdJug was launched in Germany in January 2009, and already has an advertising inventory of more than a billion ad impressions. AdJug was founded in 2007 by Satish Jayakumar and Michael Stephanblome to optimise the trade in online advertising carried out on advertising networks, and to create an exchange platform for direct contact between advertisers/agencies and publishers.
AdJug’s objective is to become Europe’s leading exchange for digital advertising.

About TOMORROW FOCUS AG:
TOMORROW FOCUS AG (ISIN DE0005495329) is based in Munich, Germany, and is an independent and broadly based internet media group. The company’s shares are publicly traded on the stock exchange. The main shareholder is Hubert Burda Media GmbH & Co KG.

The Group’s business operations are divided into the three divisions E-Commerce, Digital Marketing and Technologies:

The E-Commerce division includes HOLIDAYCHECK, the Group’s hotel rating and holiday/travel booking portal; ELITEPARTNER, a premium online dating portal; and PLAYBOY, the leading men’s lifestyle magazine in Germany.

The Digital Marketing division includes TOMORROW FOCUS SALES, which has established itself as one of the leading German online marketing providers, marketing not only partner portals such as CHIP Online, FAZ.NET and MEINESTADT.DE but also the Group’s own internet portals such as FOCUS Online, FINANZEN100, JAMEDA and NACHRICHTEN.DE.

Within the Technologies division, TOMORROW FOCUS TECHNOLOGIES GmbH and CELLULAR GmbH provide comprehensive services for the stationary and mobile internet.

Media contact:
TOMORROW FOCUS AG
Katharina Kirsch
Steinhauser Str. 1-3
81677 Munich
Germany

phone: 49 (0)89 9250-1208
fax: 49(0) 89 9250-2403
email: k.kirsch@tomorrow-focus.de
www.tomorrow-focus.de