Populis to Acquire Blogo - The International Network of 70 Thematic Blogs

DUBLIN, January 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- Acquisition Confirms Populis as Leader in Multilingual Content on Demand and Facilitates Entry to the South American Market

Celebrating the New Year in style, the European leader in content on demand, Populis (http://www.populis.com formerly GoAdv) has confirmed it is acquiring Blogo, one of the larger international thematic blog networks in Europe and South America for EUR 6 Million.

With over 250 bloggers covering 70 different subject areas from automotive and sport to finance and the arts, Blogo offers fresh content, a unique editorial voice and compelling stories to its audience in the UK, France, Spain, Italy and Brazil. The network produces approximately 100 million pageviews (Nielsen, November 2010) every month on its blogs including Dasmarias (http://www.dasmariasblog.com) in Brazil, Cotilleoblog (http://www.cotilleoblog.com) in Spain, Autosblog (http://www.autosblog.fr) in France, TwoWheels Blog (www.twowheelsblog.com) in the UK and Tvblog (http://www.tvblog.it) in Italy.

With the proven know how and successful business model developed by Populis for its 500 media properties including Excite Europe, Better Deals and Nanopublishing, the acquisition of Blogo provides the Group with a high volume of quality multilingual content in 5 key countries, bringing its content production to 35,000 items every month to 24.8 million unique monthly users (Comscore November 2010).

The acquisition of Blogo will increase the Group's international market share, content production and revenue streams significantly, as well as opening up the South American market. Populis will retain Blogo's office in Milan along with its international team of 16 content and social media experts, which will add to the Group's dynamic team of 130 in Dublin, Rome and Milan.

Populis is acquiring Blogo from Dada, the Italian web publisher part owned by RCS MediaGroup, an international multimedia publishing group listed on the Italian stock exchange, and the acquisition will complete during February 2011.

Commenting on the acquisition, Luca Ascani, President and Co Founder of Populis, said, "Adding Blogo to our portfolio of media properties has reinforced our position as international leader in multilingual content on demand. With strong organic growth and an innovative acquisition strategy, we are now able to cover new categories such as the highly popular automotive sector and new territories such as Brazil, a key target for Populis in 2011. We are delighted to welcome the high profile Blogo team to Populis."

Marco Magnocavallo, CEO and Co Founder of Blogo, said, "We are excited to enter a new phase of growth under Populis. A deep understanding of the crowdsourced content market place and unrivalled positioning in Europe as leader in content on demand makes Populis the perfect partner for Blogo to fully reach its potential internationally. We are looking forward to sharing our knowledge and experience with the team."

About Populis

Populis is one of Europe's fastest growing digital media companies (GP Bullhound Media Momentum 2010) and leader in the production of multilingual content on demand. Created in 2004 the Group crowdsources, distributes and monetizes over 35,000 items of compelling content in 8 languages per month for a vibrant network of 500 fully owned and operated websites including Excite Europe, Better Deals and Nanopublishing. The media properties generate over 24.8 million unique monthly users (Source: Comscore November 2010).

Populis is a pan-European company with a team of over 130 working across offices in Ireland and Italy, active in the UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, US, Australia, Russia and Brazil.

The company has experienced double digit revenue growth every year for the past 5 years, culminating in multiple award wins (Media Momentum, Red Herring 100) and the enviable position as European leader in content on demand, GoAdv's rebrand to Populis will increase its visibility with an easily recognizable name and identity, while strengthening its space in an increasingly competitive market sector.

http://www.populis.com