August 5, 2004

Marketing technology and services firm ValueClick is making its first acquisition into the shopping comparison market, with the purchase of pan-European portal Pricerunner.

The company has today agreed to pay $29m (£16m) in cash and shares to the shareholders of Pricerunner. An additional $6m (£3.2m) will be paid if Pricerunner achieves certain performance milestones.

Pricerunner is the most popular comparison shopping site in Sweden and the third most popular site in the UK. The company also operates a site in France.

ValueClick's chairman and CEO James Zarley said that the group had been looking to add comparison shopping services as part of its strategic growth plan for some time.

'Comparison shopping is a strategic fit with our media, affiliate marketing and search offerings, we look forward to working with Pricerunner and helping them expand their presence in Europe,' he added.

The move comes at a time when competition in the European shopping comparison market, particularly the UK, is getting fierce.

In June, two of the large US players, PriceGrabber and NexTag, announced their entry into the UK, just several months after leading European player Kelkoo was snapped up by Yahoo!

Separately, ValueClick also announced a second quarter profit of $6.7m (£3.6m), before taxes and minority interest, up from $1.6m (£860,000) in the second quarter of 2003. Second quarter revenue rose 72% year-on-year to $34.6m (£19m).

Source: New Media Age

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