Ansearch Aquires Aussie.com.au
Ansearch Ltd (ASX:ANH) is pleased to advise that it has
entered into a Heads of Agreement with listed property group,
Aspen Group ("Aspen") in regards to the acquisition of online
business directory company, Aussie.com.au (2000) Pty Ltd.
("Aussie.com.au")
Aussie.com.au is a wholly owned subsidiary of Aspen (previously
named Aussie Online Limited) and was established to acquire the
online directory business known as aussie.com.au
On the back of aussie.com.au, Aussie Online Limited was
capitalized at its peak at around $180 million. Aussie.com.au
spent in excess of $10 million developing its online business
directory and established over 1.5 million business listings in
a database that also includes some 200,000 email addresses.
Ansearch regards the intended acquisition highly and considers
it an integral step in the Group's strategy to aggressively grow
its Search and Directory business, Phonebook.com.au
The ownership of Aussie.com.au will assist Ansearch in its
endeavours to position Phonebook.com.au as a highly influential
force in the online directory and business listings market.
Ansearch CEO, Dean Jones said... "The opportunity is there and
the timing is right for us to really accelerate the growth of
Phonebook.
"Expansion of our audience and consequent increases in our
revenues will occur through a combination of rapid internal
growth, strategic alliances and select acquisitions.
Aussie.com.au compliments our plans perfectly. The company's
Intellectual Property and extensive database together with its
well known and well established brand name has intrinsic value
and appeal to us. "It will significantly contribute to the
further development of our search infrastructure, provide
additional utility to our growing audience and expand our
growing portfolio of search brands.
"We see huge new opportunities in this space for us both in
Australia and globally. In the short term we believe Australia
will start to mirror what is occurring in the US in this
industry with substantial growth and market recognition being
experienced. Online advertising, for example, has seen dynamic
expansion in the US. We are now starting to see the early signs
of that in Australia. The online advertising dollars for the
Australian market for the 6 month period from January to June
'05 were $488 million, an increase of about 63% on the
immediately prior 6 month period. Although we don't have the
official figures as yet for the past 6 months there would be
little doubt that those figures are up again."
The acquisition of Aussie.com.au (achieved by the purchase of
all of the issued capital in Aussie.com.au from Aspen) is
subject to the completion of a due diligence review to the
Company's satisfaction and thence in turn, Ansearch shareholder
approval at a forthcoming EGM. Completion of the due diligence
review is set down for 31 January 2006.
Consideration to be paid following shareholder approval will be
5 million ordinary fully paid shares and 5 million unlisted
options in Ansearch.
About Ansearch Ltd
The Ansearch Group of Companies is focused on delivering
technically advanced search and online media solutions that
service the needs of users, advertisers and publishers globally.
Ansearch.com.au
Ansearch.com.au is a leading search engine which was launched in
early December 2004 and since then it has quickly become one of
Australia's leading search engines. By providing search results
for only the most popular websites, Ansearch possesses a smaller
data footprint than competing search engines. This enables
Ansearch to focus on delivering the most relevant results to a
search query. For more information please visit http://www.ansearch.com.au
soush.com
The soush network delivers and distributes sponsored search,
display and sponsorship-based advertising across websites,
search engines & directories and e-newsletters. Soush provides a
variety of solutions to help advertisers generate effective
results. http://www.soush.com
Phonebook.com.au
Phonebook is a search directory for local businesses. Phonebook
delivers location details, email addresses and often website
addresses all at the touch of a button. Phonebook provides users
with the flexibility to type in keywords, business names and
locations, including street names to find what they're searching
for. It is uncluttered, simple and easy to use. http://www.phonebook.com.au