E-MARKETING

The publishing group Lagardere pursues its development strategy on the Internet via an acquisition: it takes a stake of 53.38% in the Doctissimo site. "The transaction is based on a price of 30.5 euros per share," says the group in its news release. This represents a premium of 21.7% compared to the average over Doctissimo over the last six months, the transaction valuing the company at 138 million euros.

"This acquisition allows the group Lagardere to raise significantly its critical mass in terms of number of unique visitors on the female market, thus strengthening the power of its offer to advertisers," added the press release. Doctissimo and its affiliated sites (Ados.fr, Momes.net, Gyneweb.fr, Fluctuat.net ...) claiming a total of 7.2 million unique visitors per month. Lagardere publishes on its side Elle.fr sites, Psychologies.fr, Infobebes.fr or Public.fr.

The publishing group also benefits to replicate its German rival Axel Springer, which had blown acquired Aufeminin.com for 78 million euros in June 2007.

Doctissimo displays a turnover of 11.47 million euros in 2007, an increase of 75%. For 2008, the company "is expected to generate a net operating profit up sharply, with an operating margin of about 40%.