Centaur, the specialist business publishing and information company, is pleased to announce that it has acquired the entire share capital of the online sales lead service company Pro-Talk Ltd for an initial consideration of 4 million in cash. Further payment of consideration may be made, subject to earnings in the twelve month periods ending 30th September 2006 and 30th September 2007. The final consideration payable under the earn-out is based on a multiple of six times operating profit and is capped at 14m.
Pro-Talk Ltd has developed and currently operates 13 web sites serving specific vertical business sectors, mainly in the engineering, construction and technical products areas. It also publishes regular email newsletters for readers in these sectors. It currently has circa 170,000 registered readers of these newsletters and receives in excess of 1.5 million unique visitors to its sites each month. Pro-Talk's principal objective is to provide sales leads to companies from prospective customers. Its profit before tax for the 12 months to 30th September 2005, the date of the last published accounts, was 0.15m. The acquisition is expected to be earnings enhancing in the current financial year. The company currently employs 30 staff and is based in offices in Hertfordshire, from where it will continue to operate.
Graham Sherren, Chairman and Chief Executive of Centaur, said: "Search Engine Marketing (see note 3) is by some margin the largest category of online advertising expenditure in the UK and continues to grow rapidly. Pro-Talk is taking advantage of this trend and has developed a successful online sales lead generation business that is demonstrating strong growth in its specialist sectors. We believe that we can leverage Pro-Talk's technology and Centaur's brands and apply this model both to extend Pro-Talk's success in its existing market sectors and to establish a number of additional services in sectors that are important to Centaur. This acquisition is central to Centaur's strategy as we extend the range of online services we offer to our specialist business communities. I am pleased that the founders of Pro-Talk , Chris Rand and Andrew Pye, will remain with the business. We look forward to working with them to deliver further growth."
Chris Rand of Pro-Talk said "We are delighted to be joining Centaur and to have the opportunity to enhance Pro-Talk's potential by working in partnership with Centaur's market-leading brands."
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