The News

Emailvision announces the acquisition of Barnes & Richardson in Belgium and consolidates its European leadership in "on-demand" e-mail marketing software

29/05/2006

Emailvision, Europe's leader in on-demand software for managing and automating e-mail marketing campaigns, has announced the signature of a final agreement to acquire Barnes & Richardson, a major player in the Benelux countries specialising in viral e-mail marketing services and the owner of a complementary e-mail marketing technology platform, Deep[blue]eyesTM.

Formed in 2003, Barnes & Richardson has won the trust of more than 100 clients such as TOTAL Belgium, Fnac and Grey. The company generated revenues of € 1 million in 2005, representing growth of 70%, and operating income of € 0.3 million, an operating margin of 30%, significantly greater than the industry average. Forecasted revenue growth for the current year is around 60%.

This first acquisition is a strategic move for Emailvision and is in line with the plan announced when the group completed it’s IPO on the Alternext market of Euronext Paris in February 2006. This acquisition achieves three main objectives:
- to strengthen Emailvision's geographical position in Europe,
- to consolidate its technological offering,
- to enhance the Emailvision platform with complementary services.

A wider European presence
Already operating in France, the United Kingdom and Germany, Emailvision will use this step into the Benelux market to expand its European presence and ensure that its growing portfolio of international clients reap the benefit of additional local expertise. The move into this new territory is fully in keeping with Emailvision's market leadership strategy.

A technological consolidation supporting two complementary platforms
The e-mail marketing technology platform developed by Barnes & Richardson will be incorporated into Emailvision's technological offering. Deep[blue]eyesTM will become Emailvision's entry level software application complementing the Campaign CommanderTM  flagship product. This will allow Emailvision to tap into a new emerging market of “new entrant” clients with smaller but fast growing e-mail lists.

Enhanced platform and services
Viral e-mail marketing campaigns are recognised as the most cost effective means of acquiring new customers and growing e-mail lists. The viral e-mail marketing expertise and tools developed by Barnes & Richardson will broaden the range of Emailvision services and improve the performance of client e-mail marketing campaigns. Larger e-mail lists –driven by viral e-mail marketing campaigns, are expected to lead to accelerated growth in Emailvision’s monthly subscription revenues.

The deal, worth € 1.5 million, is in cash. It is accompanied by an earn-out of € 0.3 million linked to achieving the growth and margin targets set with the management team. In addition to a positive impact on Emailvision's revenue growth, the acquisition will have a positive effect on earnings.

"We saw Barnes & Richardson as the most appropriate organisation and the best fit to carry out Emailvision's expansion into the Benelux market. With the exciting viral e-mail marketing expertise and tools that the company has developed, we will also be able to enhance the services we provide to our clients across Europe", states Nick Heys, President of the Emailvision group.

"The Emailvision group is the best partner we could offer our clients", says Cédric Rainotte, Director and co-founder of Barnes & Richardson. "With Emailvision, we will now be able to guarantee our clients scalability and offer high end robust solutions to meet their most complex needs. The market opportunity for our combined services is tremendous and we will now work together as the undisputed European market leader in e-mail marketing technology services".

About Emailvision
Emailvision is the European technology and market leader in "on demand" software for automating e-mail marketing campaigns. Campaign Commander™ has become the e-commerce benchmark tool for managing, designing, automating and delivering e-mail marketing campaigns.
Emailvision operates a highly robust and secure technical platform capable of delivering over 300 million opt-in e-mail messages per month. The Company also offers high added value professional services including training, integration, support and best practice sessions. Emailvision’s clients enjoy one of the highest e-mail message delivery rates in Europe (> 95%).
Founded in France in May 1999, Emailvision currently has a workforce of 61 throughout its subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Germany and France.

About Barnes & Richardson
Barnes & Richardson is the Belgian market leader for « on demand » software for e-mail marketing and viral marketing services. The Barnes & Richardson technology platform, Deep[blue]eyes™  offers campaign management and automation tools for e-mail marketing, SMS marketing, Voice Broadcasting and Voicedeposit. Barnes & Richardson is specialised in full service viral marketing campaign management. Examples of recent Barnes & Richardson viral marketing campaigns can be found on http://www.buzzbang.net

Emailvision is listed on the Euronext Paris Alternext market - ISIN code: FR0004168045/MNEMO: ALEMV

Contacts

Emailvision Barnes & Richardson Actifin
  Financial Communications
Nick Heys Cédric Rainotte Frédéric Gameiro da Conceicao
President Président Stéphanie Roul
+33 1 41 27 27 17 +32 (0)2 656 05 97 +33 1 56 88 11 11
Investor relations@emailvision.com cedric@deepblueeyes.net fgameiro@actifin.fr