Engage takes Space
Stock buyout allows CMGI Inc. majority owned company, Engage, to extend their South Asian arm with acquisition of Space Asia.
SINGAPORE - Engage, Inc. which is a majority-owned operating company of CMGI, Inc., announced the acquisition of Space Asia Media Limited (Space), an Internet marketing network in Asia in a stock buyout. Through its online ad network, Space represents 270 Asian Web publishers and serves over 140 million ad impressions per month.
The deal strategically links the two companies' regional strengths, with Engage's presence in North America, Japan, Australia, and Europe, and Space's team of 64 employees in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Seoul.
"Research tells us that Internet users and online marketing are growing faster in Asia than in any other region," said Paul Schaut, president and CEO of Engage. According to Schaut, the acquisition of Space "gives us the ability to hit the ground running with a local team that has specific experience in Asian media programs to bring the entire Engage model to the region relatively quickly."
Space's network of sites will be integrated with Engage Media, and Engage Asia's sales team will represent the full range of products and services from all Engage divisions. Additionally, Space's network will be integrated with Engage's Knowledge database of over 70 million behavioral-based anonymous profiles.
In January of this year CMGI and Pacific Century Cyberworks formed a joint venture company to establish a platform for Asian expansion. Engage's presence in Japan and Australia will be fully fleshed out by the acquisition of Space Asia Media Limited, which has operations in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Seoul. The acquisition of Space Asia will also result in a name change of Space Asia to Engage Asia with the current CEO, Colin McIntosh, becoming president of Engage Asia.
Space currently resells some of Engage Media's branded site inventory, and also uses Engage AdManager to manage and serve its 140 million ad impressions per month for over 270 publishers.