GROUPM AGREES TO ACQUIRE GERMANY’S PLISTA

Digital Advertising Specialist Becomes Key Part of Digital Portfolio of Companies

GroupM, the world’s leading global media investment management operation, announced yesterday that it has agreed to acquire plista, a digital media specialist in Germany. The announcement was made jointly by Rudiger Wanck, GroupM Global Digital COO and Chief Digital Officer EMEA, and Dr. Dominik Matyka, co-founder and Managing Director of Corporation & Business Development at plista who were supported by Corporate Finance Partners.

Founded in 2008 and funded by DuMont Venture, High-Tech Gründerfonds, NWZ Digital and Omnes Capital plista employs about 100 people and specializes in innovative solutions for targeted real-time digital advertising and content marketing. The company currently operates in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, working for blue chip clients including Volkswagen, Sony, and Coca-Cola, among others.

“plista is a pioneer when it comes to innovative solutions for targeted digital advertising.” Wanck said. “The company brings advertisers and publishers together via its data-driven content and advertising platform that perfectly complements other units in GroupM’s digital specialist portfolio. It is our ambition to develop plista from a multi-market operation into a global player; business in the DACH region will therefore continue as usual.”

With thousands of premium websites using plista’s recommendation and advertising technology delivering billions of ads each month, plista is the leading recommendation and advertising platform in the German-speaking world. plista develops high-quality recommendation technology and uses it to deliver personalized reading recommendations and advertisements on websites and mobile devices.

“All of us at plista look forward to being part of the GroupM family and, by extension, part of WPP,” said plista’s Matyka. “This agreement will allow us not only to realize our growth objectives, but more importantly to make substantive and forward-looking contributions to the marketing plans of our and GroupM clients across Europe.

In addition to the global media agencies Maxus, MEC, MediaCom and Mindshare, GroupM’s global network includes digital specialist services such as Xaxis, Quisma and H-art. The acquisition also marks a further step towards WPP’s declared goal of developing its networks in fast-growth markets and sectors and continues WPP’s strategy of strengthening the Group’s capabilities in digital media.

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ABOUT PLISTA
plista is a pioneer when it comes to innovative solutions for targeted digital advertising and content marketing. Starting in 2008 the Berlin-based company brings advertisers and publishers together via its data-driven content and advertising platform. Its specially developed targeting and real-time optimization technology enables plista to control both content and advertising based on the interests of the individua l user. By using the plista recommendation and advertising technology, i.e. optimally delivering advertising and content, publishers benefit from prolonged visit durations and additional monetization of their mobile services and websites. The highly specialized plista platform makes it possible for advertiser to display scalable text/image advertisements, interactive proprietary video formats, and native advertising in an extensive network of partner websites. To do this, plista operates its specially developed, innovative advertising formats on exclusive inventory space. plista employs +100 people and operates its services in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

ABOUT GROUPM
GroupM is the leading global media investment management operation. It serves as the parent company to WPP media agencies including Maxus, MEC, MediaCom, and Mindshare.  Our primary purpose is to maximize the performance of WPP’s media communications agencies on behalf of our clients, our stakeholders and our people by operating as a parent and collaborator in performance-enhancing activities such as trading, content creation, sports, digital, finance, proprietary tool development and other business-critical capabilities. The agencies that comprise GroupM are all global operations in their own right with leading market positions. The focus of GroupM is the intelligent applic ation of physical and intellectual scale to benefit trading, innovation, and new communication services, to bring competitive advantage to our clients and our companies.

ABOUT DUMONT VENTURE / CAPNAMIC VENTURES
Capnamic Ventures is a Multi-Company / Multi-Family Office Venture Capital Fund with offices in Cologne and Berlin. Capnamic focuses on business models along the digital value chain and invests with a focus on consumer and prosumer oriented businesses that can be scaled and distributed through digital media. This includes growth markets such as Mobile, E-Commerce, Gaming, Payment, Advertising or Software as a Service. The Capnamic Team combines expertise from over 100 investments and 30 years of investment experience. In addition to its own fund Capnamic Ventures is managing the entire DuMont Venture portfolio (the investment vehicle of Mediengruppe M.DuMont Schauberg) with currently over 20 portfolio companies.

ABOUT OMNES CAPITAL (FORMERLY CRÉDIT AGRICOLE PRIVATE EQUITY)
Omnes Capital is a major player in private equity, with a commitment to financing SMEs. With €1.8 billion in assets under management, Omnes capital provides companies with the capital needed to finance their growth and with key expertise in a number of areas: Mid and Small Cap Buyout & Growth Capital, Venture Capital in technology and life sciences, Renewable Energy, Mezzanine, Secondary Funds of Funds, Co-Investment. Omnes Capital, formerly Crédit Agricole Private Equity, was a subsidiary of Crédit Agricole until March 2012 when the company gained its independence. Omnes Capital is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).

ABOUT NWZ DIGITAL
NWZ Digital, being the strategic venture capital division of publisher NWZ Media Group, invests in young online companies in the fields of e-commerce, B2B and mobile networks. With an investment focus on new trends and business models in digital media, NWZ Digital usually provides not only series A funding but also strategic counseling and management expertise to actively support its portfolio companies. The networking of portfolio companies with each other as well as external networking is highly appreciated in the course of NWZ Digitals’ funding process. Joint strategic concerns given, NWZ Digital is likely to syndicate with its’ many investment partners.

ABOUT HIGH-TECH GRÜNDERFONDS
High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests in young, high potential high-tech start-ups. The seed financing provided is designed to enable start-ups to take an idea through prototyping and to market launch. Typically, High-Tech Gruenderfonds invests EUR 500,000 in the seed stage, with the potential for up to a total of EUR 2 million per portfolio company in follow-on financing. Investors in this public/private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, the KfW Banking Group, as well as strategic corporate investors including ALTANA, BASF, B. Braun, Robert Bosch, CEWE, Daimler, Deutsche Post DHL, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, Lanxess, media + more venture Beteiligungs GmbH & Co. KG, METRO, Qiagen, RWE Innogy, SAP, Tengelmann and Carl Zeiss. High-Tech Gruenderfonds has about EUR 573.5 million under management in two funds (EUR 272 million HTGF I, EUR 301.5 million HTGF II).

MEDIA CONTACT:
Nina Schwarze
plista GmbH
O: +49 30 4737573-820
M: +49 170 2824241
E: nina.schwarze@plista.com