Global Media merges with the British search market leader bigmouthmedia

Global Media GmbH, the Munich-based world leading web marketing provider has successfully concluded its merger with bigmouthmedia Ltd, leader of the UK search engine marketing sector, with the backing of The Carlyle Group.

As a result, it will become the largest independent search marketing company, with over 300 customers including Hilton, British Airways, AOL and Barclays. Global Media is the premier search engine marketing company for internationally focussed activities in Continental Europe and Asia. Bigmouthmedia is the leading Full Search agency in the UK, offering both pay per click paid search and search engine optimisation including multilingual search engine optimisation. This natural synergy will provide customers with a ‘one-stop shop’ on an international basis for brands looking to optimise their online advertising and presence.

The partnership means that bigmouthmedia will now employ more than 100 people across its existing London, Edinburgh and New York offices, as well as in the office in Manchester it will now gain from Global Media. Global Media offices retain a further 100 staff in Munich, Milan, Moscow, Oslo, Paris, Seoul and Stockholm.

As part of the deal, Global Media welcomes bigmouthmedia’s CEO, Steve Leach to the Global Media board. Thomas Gerteis, Global Media CEO will maintain CEO position for the group whilst Steve Leach remains in charge of all UK and US operations and, as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), will be responsible for both brands as they move forward.

Global Media CEO, Thomas Gerteis, commented:

“We’ve been involved in digital marketing for a decade now and have gained a very thorough understanding of the market. This merger presents an enormous enhancement of our international market attendance. Our philosophies show a perfect match as well: both Global Media and bigmouthmedia are uncompromisingly committed to customer focus.”

Online marketing is already approaching a global value of $20bn in 2006. As consumers spend more time online, advertisers are driven to shift ever greater proportions of their budgets to online media. Parks Associates estimate that by 2010, internet advertising will account for 10% of all global advertising budgets – up from less than 5% in 2004.

Gerteis added:

“Despite its huge value, our market is still very young; there is so much more for us to achieve. This deal brings together two absolute market leaders, with a combined client portfolio of many of the worlds largest brands. Our combined proven multilingual capabilities for companies like lastminute.de, Hilton and AOL sets us well ahead of our game. The partnership is great news for our clients as it promises to further strengthen our market-leading products. We’re very excited about the future.”

Group CSO and UK/USA Head, Steve Leach said:

“We’re delighted to be partnering with Global Media. It’s no secret that we have had a number of approaches for a deal but it wasn’t just about the investment for us, we needed to find a partner with shared chemistry & vision for growth. In Global Media we’ve found that. It’s very exciting to be at the cutting edge of this industry, and also filing the gap to be the world’s first fully integrated search provider.”

Leach added:

“This is a significant move for bigmouthmedia, our clients and for the industry. It brings together two market leaders with the ability to shape and mature the industry, leveraging widespread geographic footprints and a highly integrated product approach for the combined benefit of all of our clients so significantly.”

Speaking about the announcement, flagship bigmouthmedia client Hilton.com commented “As a bigmouthmedia client with numerous sites, this is exciting news for us. We will have the opportunity to further develop our search marketing activity in to-date uncharted territories all under one roof. It’s a great development.” Jamie Welsh, Hilton Corporation.

Nazo Moosa of The Carlyle Group stated:

“We invested in Global Media with the intention of building the company through mergers and acquisitions of other complementary companies. The merger with Bigmouthmedia is a landmark move for the two companies, and we believe together they will help to lead the way in the rapidly growing online advertising market.”

The Carlyle Group is one of the world’s largest private equity firms, with investments in over 150 portfolio companies in Europe, Asia, and the U.S.