binomsc » Buy

Acquisition of a market leader: aufeminin.com

Martin Scholz — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:20:52 +0000

One of the first projects I got in contact with turned out to be the biggest, most important and successful acquisition in online business for Axel Springer so far: auFeminin.com is the leading European women portal, number 1 in France, Germany, Spain, Italy and number 2 in UK. It offers a wide spectrum of informationen, services and communities for topics like trends and fashion, beauty, health and psychology. SmartAdServer, a unique adserver technology, completes the offer.

In June 2007 41,4% of the shares were acquired, after a successful public tender offer Axel Springer became majority share holder by owning more than 63% of aufeminin.com S.A in October 2007. Meanwhile the ownership is above 82% and the business was expanded by additional acquisitions (e.g. Onmeda) and new launches (e.g. MyBeautyCase). Additional growths is of course already in planning and implementation.

During the initial acquisition I was deeply involved in developing the business case, the due diligence, and the forming and adjusting of the offer. In particular I was coordinating the internal approval process.

Amiado AG – students.ch

Martin Scholz — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 17:01:05 +0000

The Amiado AG was acquired by Axel Springer Schweiz AG in summer 2007. The company has been operating the website students.ch since 1998, the leading Swiss student portal. At this time the Swiss online business of Springer was not worth mentioning. At a quick view this transaction seemed not to fit in the Swiss portfolio which consisted mostly of print business titles. What convinced us was the concept, the financial track record and most, the team itself. Here we expected a huge potencial. In this project I was involved in the management discussions and the due diligence as well as the company valuation and the preparation of the decision of the German board of Axel Springer AG.

And our expectations were even topped: the team of students.ch gave important impulses and valuable input for the extension of the AS online-portfolio (e.g. www.handelszeitung.ch).

Additionally, with the internationalization the own portfolio was extended as well. And with the acquisition of www.usgang.ch and www.partyguide.ch the third-biggest Swiss online network was established.

Anima Publishers – auto.cz

Martin Scholz — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 20:15:59 +0000

Anima Publishers is operating www.auto.cz since 1997, the leading car website in Czech Republic. Axel Springer acquired in total 74,9% with the option for 100% in Spring 2007.

It was the first M&A project which was closed successfully from the team of New Media International. With this purchase AS Praha could extend its leading position in the car segment from magazines to online. In this project I was involved in the management discussions and the due diligence as well as the company valuation and the preparation of the decision of the German board of Axel Springer AG.

Until today several other projects were realized. Among others I would like to mention www.autofun.cz, aiming for younger men, www.roadlook.tv as video show website, as well as www.roadlook.pl as internationalisation to Poland. The high quality video formats are meanwhile even to be seen as car show automotostyl in Czech television.