ProSiebenSat. expands its expertise in programmatic advertising

ProSiebenSat.1 expands its expertise in programmatic advertising

Munich, June 30, 2015. ProSiebenSat.1 and United Internet are making a joint move in the rapidly growing market for programmatic advertising. ProSiebenSat.1 Digital, the digital entertainment unit of the ProSiebenSat.1 Group, will acquire a 51-percent interest in Virtual Minds AG, in which United Internet invested in 2008 and in which it will still hold a 25.1-percent interest after ProSiebenSat.1 comes on board. The founders and management of Virtual Minds AG will also remain involved in the company. The agreement is subject to review by the relevant antitrust authorities.

The Virtual Minds group in Freiburg is one of the leading European specialists in the field of digital advertising and media technologies, and operates its own data processing center. Virtual Minds and its subsidiaries are respected solution providers for performance-driven, innovative digital advertising technology products for publishers and advertisers. These products enable the increasingly automated selling and buying of digital advertising, particularly in the important video and moving-image segment.

Dr. Christian Wegner, Digital Director at the ProSiebenSat.1 Group, said, Virtual Minds is one of the pioneers in the dynamically growing market for programmatic advertising and has had an impressive success story. We now intend to continue that success story together with the excellent management team and United Internet. Our goal is to further establish Virtual Minds on the German and European market as a first-rate alternative to products from global advertising technology players.

The Virtual Minds Group unites an extensive advertising technology ecosystem under one roof. Core elements of Virtual Minds programmatic advertising solutions are the Yieldlab platform, which allows publishers and marketers to sell their ad inventory in real time through a fully automated process, the Active Agent platform for real-time media purchasing for agencies and advertisers, and ADITION Unified ad servers. There are also minority interests, including in the ADEX data management platform in Berlin. The customers of Virtual Minds subsidiaries include leading German publishing and TV content marketers, international agency groups, and numerous top advertisers.

Andreas Kleiser, founder and CEO of Virtual Minds, said, ProSiebenSat.1s entry as an additional strategic investor alongside United Internet will allow us to sustainably expand our extensive digital and media technology expertise for the future market in digital and programmatic advertising. This will allow us to provide display and video advertising platforms to publishers, marketers, agencies, and advertisers from a single source in the future that are geared even more specifically to their specific needs and the quality demands of the German and European digital market.

We are pleased that ProSiebenSat.1 will be involved at Virtual Minds as an additional strong player on the German online advertising market. Together we will be even better able to further develop the products and services of our strategic partner Virtual Minds, commented Ralph Dommermuth, CEO of United Internet, on the entry of ProSiebenSat.1 as shareholder at Virtual Minds.

With growth rates of nearly 46 percent annually (2014-2018), the German programmatic advertising market is exhibiting extremely dynamic development. It is estimated that more than half of the online advertising inventory will be sold programmatically in Germany in the coming years.

About ProSiebenSat.1 Digital

ProSiebenSat.1 Digital combines the online and video business and the strategic areas closely connected to the core TV business, such as mobile, social TV, and HbbTV. For instance, its portfolio includes the broadcaster sites such as ProSieben.de, SAT1.de, kabeleins.de, and sixx.de, and the video community MyVideo.

LINK:	http://en.prosiebensat1.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/press-lounge/pr...
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