- Total audience of more than 120 million people in Europe for combined Hi-media and AdLINK Media ad network(1)

- More than 280,000 total clients served across around 20,000 sites for the ad network services and more than 260,000 for Hi-media micropayment services

- Deal consideration: 29.4m euros in Hi-media shares & cash

- Accretive impact as early as 2010

PARIS, July 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Hi-media, the online media group, (Code ISIN FR0000075988 - HIM, HIM.FR) announced the signature, on the 5th July 2009 of an agreement protocol with respect to the acquisition of AdLINK Media, the display advertising network of AdLINK Internet Media AG. The acquisition will make Hi-media the European leader in Internet audience monetization.

Cyril Zimmermann, founder and CEO of the group said: 'With the acquisition of AdLINK Media, Hi-media becomes one of the major players in the European online advertising network market. For several years, we have been developing a unique model, building strong synergies between our advertising network and our micropayment platform, Allopass, whose deployment in Europe will be accelerated thanks to the acquisition. By generating new synergies, our consolidated position will benefit all of our ad network sites, those we publish as well as those of our clients. Through this opportunity, we welcome a new major shareholder along with IDI and BV capital, AdLINK Internet Media AG with c.11% of our capital, whose competences will be a further asset in pursuing our strategy and in achieving of our goals in terms of growth and profitability in the coming years.'

Stephane Cordier, CEO of AdLINK Internet Media AG, said: 'By combining AdLINK Media, our display marketing business, into Hi-media, and becoming a major shareholder of the combined Hi-media Group, we are contributing to the consolidation of the market. We will, in addition, benefit from the significant synergies being created from economies of scale as well from cross-selling.'

1 - Consolidation of the online advertising market and emergence of a European leader

AdLINK Media is the display marketing specialist within AdLINK Group(2). With more than 4,000 high-reach, premium international websites, AdLINK Media is one of the display marketing leaders throughout Europe, reaching over 94 million Unique Users a month(3). AdLINK Media has offices in several countries (Germany, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Italy).

        AdLINK Media (display marketing) : main figures as of March 31st 2009
                                  (non audited figures)
    Sales (MEuro)                           14.2
    Headcount                                192
    Unique Users per month (in million)     94.6
    Impressions per month (in billion)      10.6
    Source: AdLINK Group Q1 2009 report, published April 17, 2009

Facing the economic downturn in the European Internet advertising market, advertisers and agencies are intensifying their focus on investments in the most powerful, comprehensive and innovative media and advertising networks. Becoming the leading European Internet advertising network with over 120 million unique users across 9 countries(3), Hi-media will be in a position to:

- Offer global coverage of Internet users in Europe;

- Double the size of its activities in Germany;

- Expand into the Netherlands, Italy and the United Kingdom;

- Strengthen its entertainment, women's, automotive and B2B verticals.

This combination will create strong value-added and is expected to generate cost synergies of approximately 5 million euros from combining the organizations and achieving economies of scale. Furthermore, in a market where power and segmentation are key differentiating competitive advantages, the new combined entity is expected to benefit from (i) a premium on size and (ii) commercial dynamics at the local and European levels.