ValueClick to Acquire Commission Junction

[NeilDurrant]

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October 10, 2003 04:44 PM US Eastern Timezone

ValueClick to Acquire Commission Junction; Acquisition Would Form
Industry's Leading Affiliate Marketing Solutions Provider

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 10, 2003-- ValueClick, Inc. (Nasdaq:VCLK), the single-source provider of media,
technology and services that enable advertisers, agencies and
publishers to reach consumers in all major online marketing
channels, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement
to acquire Commission Junction, a privately-held affiliate marketing
technology and services company located in Santa Barbara,
California.

Today's announcement significantly enhances ValueClick's current
position in this channel through its Be Free subsidiary, which
powers the affiliate marketing programs of more than 200 online and
multi-channel retailers, including Best Buy, CitiFinancial, Staples,
and Travelocity.

ValueClick intends to combine Commission Junction with Be Free, and
expects to benefit from Commission Junction's strength in broad- ranging affiliate solutions, including the sophisticated
functionality of CJ Vantage, which serves clients such as MSN, eBay,
Overture, and Quicken Loans. Additionally, Commission Junction will
further strengthen ValueClick's international affiliate marketing
presence, with clients that include Expedia, Marbles and Marks and
Spencer.

Complete story at
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/...80&newsLang=en

[Supercod]

That's big news all right. Shake that money maker, come now

[Supercod]

Now if they can just get all the BeFree clients over to CJ that be great, I sure hope they don't try moving people from CJ to BeFree. That would be madness, of course the best and correct route is everything on the CJ platform from BeFree.

[Gray@Figleaves]

Wow. That's all I can say!

Graham
Figleaves.com

[5starAffiliatePrograms]

Wow this is BIG news in the affiliate community, kind of like MSN buying Google would be to the SEO community.

Don't know about this. I am totally shell shocked. Just found out. I have 4 clients on CJ. 1 of them is on both CJ AND BF. Will be interesting to see what happens.

[Ecco]

Yikes!

I could worry for a little bit...

[CMG]

Maybe they'll introduce the Brittish Currency to CJ, oh we can dream

[Qui Gon Jinn]

"Now if they can just get all the BeFree clients over to the CJ platform that be great"

I totally agree with you Supercod, please not the other way around.

[corgan]

WOW this has seriosuly suprised me in a big way, not only is CJ my biggest earner but I would never have thought that Valueclick were bigger than CJ, maybe I had underestimated Valueclick but will now have to check them out by the looks anyway, as said before in this thread theres no way they could revert back to the Befree days as i dropped that lark years ago as it was a waste of time.

I just hope that CJ continues as it is now, obviously any extra advertisers is a bonus and £ currency would be great but i don't want to see many other changes.

[Keith]

Under the deal, ValueClick will fold Commission Junction's business and customers, including its eBay part, into its own affiliate network, Be Free.

full article here http://news.com.com/2100-1024-5090014.html

[drivetowin]

Definitely looks like the plan is to roll CJ into BeFree - let's just hope they don't lose the good bits of CJ in the process.

Notice that they valued CJ at $58 million - at that price I"m surprised Aquanuke hasn't made a bid for it

[getvisible]

all I can say is OMG!

I wonder what will happen to all those negotiations CJ are having with some big-massive potential merchants?

Would those merchants wait post-christmas to get their campaigns live?

[benflux]

I REALLY hope they use the much better CJ platform.....

[Qui Gon Jinn]

So who's going to buy Valueclick?

Please, please use the CJ platform. The Befree platform is a nightmare.

[Supercod]

Originally posted by Qui Gon Jinn
Please, please use the CJ platform. The Befree platform is a nightmare.

I totally agree with Qui Gon Jinn, the BeFree platform is beyond a nightmare, as far as I am concerned it's unusable to the point that I just don't bother promoting any merchants on it any more.

I can see it now, keep CJ they way it is campaign getting under full swing LOL