HOOFDDORP, Netherlands and NUREMBERG, Germany, March 16 /PRNewswire/ --
-- Acquisition Adds Contextualization and Targeting Relevance to ad pepper media's Range of Offerings for Website Publishers, Advertisers, Search Engines, SEOs, Ad Networks and Adserving Providers.
ad pepper media today announced the acquisition of Crystal Reference System Ltd, the parent company of Crystal Reference (www.crystalreference.com), the leading provider of reference content, and Crystal Semantics (www.crystalsemantics.com) an innovative leader in contextual search and advertising technology and the developers of Textonomy, the worlds first Sense Engine technology, patented in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
Unlike current search technologies, which are based solely on statistical algorithms, Textonomy uses techniques from linguistic science to determine the semantic relationships between words and the contexts in which they occur. The Textonomy solutions have been proven to dramatically enhance search results and significantly increase advertising relevance through contextual targeting.
Textonomy was developed by leading linguist and one of the world's foremost authorities on reference publishing and language, Dr. David Crystal. Textonomy is the result of 8 years and US$8 million investment in research. Its ground-breaking technology harnesses human linguistic intuition, tapping into the semantic relationships between words and the context in which they occur, going beyond the mathematical algorithms currently used by other contextual systems and major search engines that do not produce similarly relevant results.
The acquisition will significantly enhance ad pepper media's contextual search and advertising solutions for its Website Publisher partners and Advertising clients as well as for Search Engines, SEOs, Ad Networks and Adserving Providers. ad pepper media will immediately deploy the Textonomy contextual advertising solution across its global advertising network including its Webstats4u (www.webstats4u.com) advertising network of over 1,000,000 websites worldwide.
As a result of the acquisition, Crystal Reference Systems Ltd will become a wholly owned subsidiary of ad pepper media. Founders Ian Saunders and David Crystal will respectively continue to lead the company's business and Research and Development initiatives. Both Ian and David will work closely with ad pepper media to integrate into existing product and service offerings and to jointly explore new business opportunities in the online advertising and search markets internationally.
"This acquisition dramatically enhances our existing product and service set up to our advertisers and website partners. In addition, it adds an attractive new line of business for ad pepper with innovative search and content offerings. In David Crystal, we have secured the services of one of the world's leading authorities in the world of linguistics and semantics, who will help us to strengthen ad pepper's role in the online market," explained Ulrich Schmidt, CEO of ad pepper media. "We expect to register the first results of our sustainable investment in this new field of business later this year, as a result of the improved targeting of campaigns within our existing website portfolio and our proprietary tools like webstat4u.com," added Ulrich Schmidt.
"We are delighted to complete this transaction. In ad pepper media, we have found an ideal partner to take our ground-breaking technology to a new level. We are very excited about being part of this highly dynamic international enterprise," says David Crystal, Chairman of Crystal Reference. "We envisage that ad pepper's infrastructure, resources and global positioning will enable us to leverage the full power of our product solutions and will help us to roll out new services and business models faster."
The total purchase price ranges between 1,5 and 2,0 Mill GBP and consists of an initial payment in cash and shares and an additional earn-out component depending on achievement of various objectives.
About ad pepper media
ad pepper media is an international interactive media and direct marketing solutions and services provider currently operating 15 branch offices in 10 European countries and the United States whilst also marketing its services in more than 40 countries.
Thanks to state-of-the-art technology, ad pepper media links thousands of small, medium-sized and large websites to make up a premium quality-advertising network which has global coverage and specifically addresses the relevant target groups.
Besides being represented in regional, national and international marketing, the website partners receive a variety of other important products and services, such as adserving, traffic analysis and performance optimization, which are offered by ad pepper media and its associated companies, adapted to the local conditions in every case.
Apart from the gigantic international coverage of approx. 4 billion exclusive advertising contacts per month, advertisers primarily benefit from the multitude of advertising formats and the invoicing model adapted to the advertising objective. Both branding and direct marketing offers can be delivered efficiently to various electronic channels via the company's technology platform. With in excess of 4 million opt-in email profiles of its own, ad pepper media also operates one of the largest pan-European databases. In this context, iLead and mailpepper are well-known brand names, which are unequalled in terms of both quality and coverage.
ad pepper media is an enterprise, which is quoted on the stock exchange. Its stocks are listed in the Prime Standard of the German Stock Exchange in Frankfurt (Security Identification Number: 940 883).
About Crystal Reference Systems Limited
Based in Holyhead, UK, Crystal Reference Systems Limited is a leading Internet content and search technology provider. The company was founded in 2001 by Professor David Crystal, a world authority in linguistics, and managing director, Ian Saunders.
Crystal Reference provides online content for many major publishers including Penguin Books and A&E Television Networks, and is one the fastest growing content publishers in Europe.
Crystal Semantics has developed Textonomy, the first Sense Engine to deliver significantly more accurate and powerful Internet search results. By applying human "senses" and concepts that current algorithms, semantic systems and other statistical techniques cannot match, Textonomy uniquely uses human linguistic intuition, tapping into the semantic relationships between words and contexts in which they occur. The Textonomy suite of products includes solutions for search and navigation, e-commerce and contextual advertising.
About David Crystal
Professor David Crystal OBE is one of the world's foremost authorities on reference publishing and language. He held a chair in linguistics at the University of Reading for 10 years, and is now Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor. He published the first of his 150 or so books in 1964, and became known chiefly for his research work in English language studies. He has been a consultant, contributor, or presenter on many radio and television programmes and series. In recent years he has devoted most of his time to developments in general reference publishing.
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