Leading Domain Registration and Hosting Provider Namesco Acquired by Dada

July 24, 2007; 04:50 AM
Dada, a European market leader in internet domains, hosting and professional e-mail, through its subsidiary company Register.it S.p.A., has acquired 100% of the share capital of UK company Namesco.

Founded in 1996, Namesco is the fourth largest provider in the UK of domain name and hosting services and among the top 50 worldwide (source: Netcraft Company Analysis, January 2007). Based in Worcester and with offices in London, Namesco employs 59 highly qualified professionals and manages roughly 265,000 domains for a total client base of more than 80,000 paying customers. Thanks to agreements with the main international registries, Namesco is able to offer both its business and consumer clients Internet domain registration and management in over 100 countries.

In the financial year 2006/2007 (4/1/2006 - 3/31/2007) Namesco recorded revenues of approximately 8.3 million pounds (around 12.2 million euros at current exchange rate) and EBITDA of 1.8 million pounds (around 2.7 million euros), roughly equal to a 22% margin. For the 2007/2008 financial year, the company forecasts a turnover of 9.8 million pounds (around 14.5 million euros), an EBITDA margin of 29% and net profits of 1.7 million pounds (around 3.5 million euros).

“Following the acquisition of the Spanish company Nominalia in August 2006, Dada’s purchase of Namesco is part of Dada Group’s expansion strategy, indicating Dada's priority in strengthening its presence in the professional online services business,” commented Paolo Barberis, Chairman of Dada. “The investments in the domain and hosting sector which are represented by the Dada.pro division and already characterized by a solid international customer base, will allow Dada to further expand its offerings towards more and more advanced services for companies’ and professionals’ online presence in a Web 2.0 perspective.”

In the first quarter of 2007 the Dada.pro division headed by Claudio Corbetta recorded a turnover of 3.9 million euros (equal to 11% of consolidated revenues for the Dada Group), an EBITDA of 1.1 million and an EBIT of 840,000. With the acquisition of Namesco the total number of clients in the Dada.pro division rises to 200,000 while domains grow to over 700,000, of which over 60% are international.

The acquisition was executed today as Register.it S.p.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of Dada S.p.A., bought 100% of the share capital of Namesco for 24.5 million pounds cash (around 36.2 million euro) fully paid at closing. The acquisition was financed in part by Register.it liquid assets and in part by means of a medium-long term bank loan valued at 30 million euros.

As of March 30, 2007, the short-term net financial position of the Dada Group was +15.2 million euros and in the first quarter of 2007 international activities represented 47% of consolidated turnover.

The guidance previously communicated by Dada to the financial community did not take into account the effects of extraordinary activities. Any relevant impact of the present transaction on Dada’s financial forecasts will be communicated where necessary.

Dada S.p.A. (dada.dada.net), is a leading international provider of web and mobile community and entertainment services. Dada is listed on the Milan Stock Exchange in the STAR segment (DA.MI) and includes the RCS MediaGroup (which holds approximately 43.8%) among its shareholders, in addition to the management and founding shareholders with approximately 14.6% of the share capital.

Dada’s services are provided through the community Dada.net (www.dada.net) and offers its customers a rich range of fee-based community and entertainment products and services to communicate, entertain and educate, and are accessible both via PC and mobile phone (through the SMS/MMS channel and the micro-portals of the main mobile phone operators). The Dada consumer offering is available, in Italy, in the USA, through its subsidiary Dada USA, in Spain, through its subsidiary Dada Iberia, in Brazil through its subsidiary Dada Brazil, in China through its subsidiary Dada China, and in Portugal, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Canada, Australia, Indonesia, India, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Columbia and Uruguay.

The Dada Group includes Register.it (www.register.it), established leader in the registration of Internet domains, which has recently acquired Nominalia S.L., leader in Spain in the same sector; Upoc Networks Inc., a well established provider of web and mobile value added services in the US, Tipic Inc., an international leader in the blog and social networking sector with the Splinder and Motime brands and E-Box S.r.l., owner of Blogo platform, the most visited Italian network of vertical blogs.