Munich, Germany, 5 June 2014 – TOMORROW FOCUS AG is increasing its shareholding in WebAssets B.V. by acquiring an additional 49.01 percent, taking its stake from 50.99 percent to 100 percent. Based in the Dutch town of Zeist, WebAssets B.V. operates the Zoover-branded hotel reviews and holiday booking portals as well as the WeerOnline and MeteoVista weather websites.
The purchase price is based on an overall valuation of WebAssets B.V. corresponding to seven times the EBITDA for 2014. According to company estimates, WebAssets B.V. is expected to generate revenue of between EUR of approx. 14 million and EBITDA of EUR 5 to 6 million in the current financial year.
The original plan was to acquire the outstanding shares between 2015 and 2017 as part of a three-tranche deal. A sum of EUR 22.2 million was recorded under other liabilities in TOMORROW FOCUS AG’s consolidated balance sheet for the takeover. This balance sheet item will be reduced by the early acquisition of the remaining shares, resulting in a one-off figure of EUR approx. 1 million being posted to other operating revenue.
In the course of the complete takeover of WebAssets B.V., Dr Philipp Goos will join the company’s management team along with Stephan Bosman effective 1 September. Dr Philipp Goos is currently Managing Director of Germany’s leading physician ratings portal jameda, a wholly-owned subsidiary of TOMORROW FOCUS AG.
Dr Philipp Goos will report to Toon Bouten, CEO of TOMORROW FOCUS AG.
Zoover has the highest reach figures of any holiday and travel booking and review portal in the Benelux region. MeteoVista is the second-largest weather portal in Benelux and will further strengthen the Publishing segment.
In addition to WebAssets B.V., TOMORROW FOCUS AG owns 100 percent of HolidayCheck AG, the number one German-speaking hotel reviews portal.
Toon Bouten, CEO of TOMORROW FOCUS AG, had this to say about the deal: “For our Travel segment we are planning to build one integrated travel company based on one IT platform, one content platform and shared competence centres. Getting the full ownership of WebAssets B.V. is the next step in building one integrated travel company for TOMORROW FOCUS AG. MeteoVista adds the weather segment to the existing publishing portals such as FOCUS, HuffPost, NetMoms and Finanzen100.”
About TOMORROW FOCUS AG
TOMORROW FOCUS AG (ISIN DE005495329) is based in Munich, Germany, and is one of the leading exchange-listed Internet groups in Germany. The Group has a workforce of around 750. On 1 January 2014, its business operations were restructured into three new segments: Travel, Publishing and Subscription.
The Travel segment includes HOLIDAYCHECK AG, which operates a number of hotel review and travel booking portals by the same name; the travel division of WEBASSETS B.V., which operates the ZOOVER hotel review portals; TOMORROW TRAVEL B.V., which operates the Dutch online travel agent TJINGO; and RPC VOYAGES SAS, which operates the French online travel agent ECOTOUR.
The Subscription segment is made up of ELITEMEDIANET GmbH, which operates the premium online dating agency ELITEPARTNER.de; JAMEDA GmbH, which operates the physician ratings portal JAMEDA.de; and ORGANIZE.ME GmbH, which operates an app-based document organisation and reminder system.
The Publishing segment includes TOMORROW FOCUS MEDIA GmbH, one of Germany’s leading digital marketing providers; TOMORROW FOCUS PUBLISHING GmbH, which operates a number of Internet portals such as the news and utility journalism site FOCUS Online; the news portal and platform for views and blogs THE HUFFINGTON POST; the finance and stock market information portal FINANZEN100; the parent portal NETMOMS GmbH; and the meteorological arm of WEBASSETS B.V., which operates the METEOVISTA and WEERONLINE weather portals.