10 Comments

AOL Time Warner to buy TradeDoubler

Jan 15, 2007
by

Reported this morning on MorningStar: AOL LLC Makes $900 Million Bid For TradeDoubler AB

STOCKHOLM -(Dow Jones)- AOL, a majority-owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. ( TWX), Monday said a cash tender offer, through an indirectly wholly owned subsidiary, to acquire TradeDoubler AB (TRAD.SK), a European provider of online marketing and sales solutions, was made for SEK215 per share.
…
AOL said the total value of the proposed transaction is SEK6.33 billion or about $900 million, for all TradeDoubler shares (including warrants that are subject to the offer).

TradeDoubler’s Board of Directors unanimously recommends that its shareholders accept the offer. In addition, shareholders representing in aggregate 20% of the outstanding shares, including TradeDoubler’s largest shareholder, Arctic Ventures, have irrevocably undertaken to accept the offer.

Not a done deal, but the board is in favor. Seems likely.

The UK affiliate bloggers (mooseontheloose and Fraser Edwards are talking about this already and their takes are interesting for sure.

This event is sort of the UK’s equivalent of Commission Junction (Valueclick) getting gobbled up by a big company. The reactions from the UK affiliates sound just like what you might expect on the same news of CJ — hoping for improved product, reports, etc. plus some fear of big-company changes. A sign of more to come?

This is big. Keep an eye on the tradedoubler news and commentary from the affiliate marketing community.

About Scott Jangro

You can find Scott on Twitter: @jangro.

Filed under: Affiliate Marketing
  • http://www.NETexponent.com Peter Figueredo

    I know one of the execs over at trade doubler and they have a great product from what I hear. I have always wondered why they have stayed out of the US market…perhaps an acquisition like this would change that.

    Does something like this open the doors for new potential acquireres for US affiliate companies?

  • http://www.cumbrowski.com Carsten Cumbrowski

    Unless AOL comes up with some more cash it ain’t going to happen. The main shareholder is greedy.

    http://www.thelocal.se/6100/20070115/

    Anyway, its a bit surprising. What is AOL Time Warner up to?

  • http://www.costpernews.com/2007/01/15/aol-time-warner-buys-tradedoubler/ Cost Per News

    AOL Time Warner Buys TradeDoubler

    Well, it’s almost a done deal for close to a billion dollars.

    The ramifications are huge for Europe and potentially for working with international affiliates via Advertising.com.  I still can’t believe AOL/Time Warner is the buyer, but it…

  • http://www.thoughtshapers.com Jeff Molander

    Peter:
    Not IMO. Affiliate is an increasingly small segment of TD’s revenue.

  • http://www.affiliateblog.co.uk/ Fraser Edwards

    Jeff – where are TD making their money if it’s not affiliates?

  • http://www.thoughtshapers.com Jeff Molander

    They’re a very large ad network and tools company (Media Toolkit). The latest I have on them (research done in Spring of last year):

    1045 advertisers, 384 publishers;
    Tracked and generated 5.5 million sales worth over €1 billion in sales value for clients in 2005.
    - Founded 1999
    - Approximately 256 Employees
    - 16 European Markets
    - 980+ advertisers
    - 93,000+ active publishers

    I do not have a breakdown on sales but my conversations with execs there indicate affiliate is significant but that they are by no means an “affiliate marketing” company. They are dead-on competitors w/ ValueClick.

  • http://www.thoughtshapers.com Jeff Molander

    The deal is dead, btw. Details here:

    http://www.thoughtshapers.com

  • http://www.costpernews.com Sam Harrelson

    Spanking just became illegal in California, so I’m glad I live in NC so that I can share this link with you, Jeff…

    http://www.comrange.com/VD73/default.asp?PSID=20&AID=112

    “The overall affiliate market is estimated to be growing at 30 to 40 per cent per annum, but we’ve been outpacing the market with 91 per cent growth in Q1 this year. Sectors like finance, retail, travel and consumer electronics will continue to grow. But there’s a lot of potential in other markets such as the automotive and FMCG sectors that make little use of affiliate marketing at present. I think they will wake up to the potential.”

    And the deal isn’t dead yet. Stay tuned for next week :)

  • http://www.thoughtshapers.com Jeff Molander

    Don’t make me tell you to define affiliate marketing, bub ;)

  • Pingback: Tradedoubler Launches The Zoo Project, UK’s First Affiliate Marketing Incubator - SEO Traffic Backlink | SEO Traffic Backlink