zanox: The market leader in performance-based multichannel commerce acquired France’s First-Coffee

Berlin/Paris, 6 September 2005 – With its purchase of First Coffee SAS, Berlin-based ZANOX.de AG, the European market leader in performance-based multichannel commerce, has gained a leading provider of performance-based sales and marketing solutions in the French market. The Paris-based company, along with all employees has been taken over in its entirety by zanox, with retroactive effect from 1 July 2005.

“This acquisition represents a significant step forward for zanox, allowing us to provide our services on the French market more effectively and more intensively”, states Thomas Hessler, member of the zanox management board. “Together with First-Coffee we can also further strengthen our role as a technological pioneer, and extend our cross-country selling services. Welcome on board!”

First-Coffee combines technical, marketing and statistic competencies and offers an integrated portfolio of services and technological solutions. The five-year-old company has more than 200 clients and an established affiliate marketing network, which was awarded the best network in France. The award was bestowed for the quality of the merchants and for the first-class service, among other factors.

Like zanox, First-Coffee provides a comprehensive package of technology, marketing and services. zanox plans to integrate First-Coffee gradually into its operation: The first priority is technical integration and harmonisation, and the adjustment of sales-related processes. Furthermore, First-Coffee’s established portfolio of services will be taken over and driven forward. First-Coffee will in future be responsible for managing zanox’s indirect sales offer (“Agency Solution”) in France. This offer is targeted specifically on agencies that can use it to add multichannel commerce services to their portfolio and thus effectively gain a stake in sales.

Cyril Toulet and Cyril Lherminé were the founders of First-Coffee, and have been running the company ever since. Both Toulet and Lherminé will continue to manage First-Coffee and are in charge of expanding zanox’ market position in France. Cyril Toulet explains: “zanox is en route to establishing itself as a global player in performance-based online marketing. Thanks to our first-class technologies and valuable customer base, zanox will be able to give a significant boost to its position in the French market.” His management colleague Cyril Lherminé adds: “We will profit from zanox’ great expertise, and from now on we will be able to offer our customers a more extensive range of services in a host of different countries.”

zanox and First-Coffee have agreed not to disclose details on the transaction, which was accompanied by the financial consultancy firm Corporate Finance Partners (www.cfpartners.com).



First-Coffee SAS:
First-Coffee was founded in September 2000, is based in Paris, and specialises in performance-based sales and marketing solutions. Its customers include such distinguished companies as Tiscali, Procter & Gamble, Pixmania, Aquarelle and La Redoute. First-Coffee operates at a profit and has more than
15 employees.

Further information can be found at:
www.first-coffee.com



zanox:
ZANOX.de AG is the European market leader in performance-based multichannel commerce. With its zanox XS platform, the Berlin-based company offers a globally unique marketing solution for effective online and offline sales. zanox offers its customers a comprehensive strategy including technology, services and an established network of sales partners. The modular zanox XS suite encompasses affiliate marketing and search engine management, as well as recommendation marketing, multichannel sales and customer loyalty.
zanox is positioning itself as a global player, offering multichannel commerce in more than 25 countries and 4 continents. Numerous prestigious companies from a wide range of industries rely on the sales power of zanox. These include Procter & Gamble, Jamba!, Vodafone, o2, Lycos, Expedia, Allianz, Citibank, Axa, Sixt, DaimlerChrysler, Quelle and Staples.
zanox was founded in 2000 by directors Thomas Hessler, Heiko Rauch and Jens Hewald, and operates at a profit. The multichannel commerce company currently has an approx. 100-strong workforce, and serves a market that is due to grow approx. 51% to more than 3.14 Trillion Euro in 2005 (Reference: Global Industry Analysts).

Contact details:
Thomas Hessler, Founder and CEO / Harald Oberhofer, Press Contact
ZANOX.de AG, Stralauer Allee 2, 10245 Berlin
Phone/Fax: +49 30 509691-0/ -99, press@zanox.com, www.zanox.com

This release was published on openPR.