Product category:
Web Publications and Portals
News Release from: SPECIAL REPORT by the Editor | Subject:
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 10 May 2006
Centaur Holdings acquires Pro-Talk
business
Centaur, a specialist business publishing and information company, announces the acquisition of the entire share capital of the online sales lead service company Pro-Talk, publishers of Processingtalk
The following press release was issued by Centaur Holdings plc, a UK company, on 5 May 2006 Centaur Holdings, the specialist business publishing and information company, is pleased to announce that it has acquired the entire share capital of the on-line sales lead service company Pro-Talk, for an initial consideration of GBP4 million in cash
Further payment of consideration may be made, subject to earnings in the twelve month periods ending 30 September 2006 and 30 September 2007.
The final consideration payable under the earn-out is based on a multiple of six times operating profit and is capped at GBP14m.
Pro-Talk has developed and currently operates 13 web sites serving specific vertical business sectors, mainly in the engineering, construction and technical products areas.
It also publishes regular email newsletters for readers in these sectors.
It currently has circa 170,000 registered readers of these newsletters and receives in excess of 1.5 million unique visitors to its sites each month.
The Pro-Talk principal objective is to provide sales leads to companies from prospective customers.
Its profit before tax for the 12 months to 30 September 2005, the date of the last published accounts, was GBP0.15m.
The acquisition is expected to be earnings enhancing in the current financial year.
The company currently employs 30 staff and is based in offices in Hertfordshire, from where it will continue to operate.
Graham Sherren, Chairman and Chief Executive of Centaur, said: "Search Engine Marketing is by some margin the largest category of on-line advertising expenditure in the UK and continues to grow rapidly.
Pro-Talk is taking advantage of this trend and has developed a successful on-line sales lead generation business that is demonstrating strong growth in its specialist sectors.
We believe that we can leverage Pro-Talk technology and Centaur brands and apply this model both to extend the Pro-Talk success in its existing market sectors and to establish a number of additional services in sectors that are important to Centaur.
This acquisition is central to the Centaur strategy as we extend the range of online services we offer to our specialist business communities.
I am pleased that the founders of Pro-Talk , Chris Rand and Andrew Pye, will remain with the business.
We look forward to working with them to deliver further growth".
Chris Rand of Pro-Talk said "We are delighted to be joining Centaur and to have the opportunity to enhance the Pro-Talk potential by working in partnership with the Centaur market-leading brands".
The Processingtalk website is one of the Pro-Talk family of websites, having commenced operations at the end of December 2002.
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