United Internet AG

M&A Activity • Oct 31, 2005

News Details

Corporate | 31 October 2005 16:01

United Internet and WEB.DE execute announced alliance

Corporate-news transmitted by DGAP. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. —————————————————————————— United Internet and WEB.DE execute announced alliance: Takeover of the Internet Portal business of WEB.DE AG by United Internet AG successfully completed Montabaur / Karlsruhe, October 31, 2005. United Internet AG, Montabaur and WEB.DE AG, Karlsruhe today confirmed the successful completion of their announced strategic alliance. Effective October 31, 2005 United Internet AG takes over the Internet Portal business of WEB.DE AG with all employees, technologies, assets as well as trademarks and license rights. The economically relevant date is September 30, 2005. The takeover is based on a cash compensation of EUR 200 million and 5.8 million shares of United Internet AG. At the same time WEB.DE AG has applied for the change of its company name to ComBOTS AG, to be entered into the commercial register; in future it will do business under this new trade name. The change in stock exchange name and abbreviation will take place at the same time as the conversion to registered shares decided by the Annual General Meeting, i.e. in December 2005. WEB.DE (http://web.de) is the second largest German Internet Portal with a monthly 12.4 million Internet users (Source: AGOF internet facts 2005-II). With the takeover of the WEB.DE Portal, United Internet positions itself as the new market leader amongst the German Portal and Internet Service Providers. In this way it will be able to benefit in an above-average manner from future developments in the fields of Online Advertising, E-Commerce, DSL, Online Services, Web Hosting and Web Telecommunications. Within the framework of their alliance, United Internet AG and ComBOTS AG will work closely together in the development and marketing of Internet services. With over 4.7 million customer contracts, United Internet AG is one of Europe’s leading Internet Service Providers (ISP). In its “Product” segment, the Group’s value-added internet services and fast internet connections are directed at private users, small/home offices (SoHos) and small to mid-size enterprises (SMEs). These groups are served by the brands GMX, WEB.DE, 1&1 and Schlund+Partner. In addition to its “Product” business, the Group is also engaged in “Outsourcing” (via the brands InterNetX and twenty4help) as well as “Online Marketing” (via the brands AdLINK, Sedo and affilinet). Contact partner: Marcus Schaps United Internet AG Press spokesman Phone: +49 2602/96-1076 Fax: +49 2602/96-1013 E-mail: mschaps@united-internet.de End of announcement (c)DGAP 31.10.2005 —————————————————————————— WKN: 508903; ISIN: DE0005089031; Index: TecDAX Listed: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr in Berlin- Bremen, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, München und Stuttgart 311601 Okt 05