United Internet AG

M&A Activity • Mar 16, 2005

News Details

Ad-hoc | 16 March 2005 17:46

United Internet AG and WEB.DE AG plan comprehensive alliance

Ad hoc announcement §15 WpHG Mergers & Aquisitions United Internet AG and WEB.DE AG plan comprehensive alliance Ad hoc announcement transmitted by DGAP. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. —————————————————————————— Ad hoc announcement acc. to § 15 WpHG United Internet AG and WEB.DE AG plan comprehensive alliance: negotiations on take-over of WEB.DE AG’s business segment Internet portal and on distribution in the field of Web Telecommunications United Internet AG, Montabaur and WEB.DE AG, Karlsruhe intend to enter into a comprehensive alliance in the fields of Internet portal business and Web Telecommunications. Within this alliance the companies currently exclusively negotiate about the take-over of WEB.DE AG’s entire business segment Internet portal with all the employees, technologies, assets as well as trademarks and licenses against a cash volume of EUR 200 million and 5.8 million shares of United Internet AG. An respective Letter of Intent was signed today. The implementation of this basic agreement is subject to the usual prerequisites, Due Diligence and Signing of the contracts to be negotiated. The execution of the contracts will depend on the consent of the antitrust commission and the relevant bodies. The contracts are expected to be signed in April. As a result of the take-over of the portal http://www.web.de (10.47 monthly users according to AGOF 9/2004), United Internet (7,59 Mio monthly user acc. to AGOF with GMX alone) with a consolidated market reach of then more than 16 million monthly users (unduplicated reach in accordance with AGOF/Nielsen/WEB.DE) will become the largest portal- and internet service company in Germany, ahead of T-Online (13.15 million monthly users acc. to AGOF), MSN-Tomorrow Focus and Yahoo. United Internet will thus be in a leading position and benefit above-average from the future developments in online advertising, E-Commerce, DSL, online services, web hosting and web telecommunications. With this comprehensive alliance under the umbrella of United Internet, the leading marketer of online advertising in Germany in terms of market reach and advertising space volume (more than 2.5 billion page views a month and more than 16 million monthly users) will evolve. Within the scope of the alliance United Internet will offer WEB.DE AG’s next generation Web Telecommunications products, currently being developed, to the entire user base of United Internet. Marcus Schaps Press spokesman United Internet AG United Internet AG Elgendorfer Strasse 57 56410 Montabaur Germany Tel: +49 2602/96-1076 Mobil: +49 173/5112703 Fax: +49 2602/96-1013 E-mail: mschaps@united-internet.de Internet: http://www.united-internet.com United Internet AG Elgendorfer Str. 57 56410 Montabaur Deutschland ISIN: DE0005089031 (TecDAX) WKN: 508903 Listed: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr in Berlin- Bremen, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, München und Stuttgart End of ad hoc announcement (c)DGAP 16.03.2005 161746 Mär 05