• by November 3, 2000

More advertising clients are asking for performance-based ads so that they can track the effectiveness of their ad initiatives. Many clients are also seeking pricing based on the results they get, such as paying for each time a customer clicks on an ad.

On Wednesday, ValueClick, Inc., on of the top three providers of performance-based online advertising solutions, announced the acquisition of Click Agents.com, Inc., another leading provider of performance-based online advertising solutions. The merger of the two organizations considerably extends ValueClick's dominance in the pay-for-results advertising space, the fastest growing segment of the online advertising industry.

Gurbaksh Chahal, Chairman and CEO of Click Agents, who will retain the title of President of Click Agents, said, "Separately, both companies have had great success in taking the guesswork out of online media buys, providing accountability to advertisers and generating revenues for publishers. Together, we will be able to deliver even better ways for advertisers and publishers to achieve what they are most interested in...bottom-line results.''

The acquisition, which is intended to be a pooling of interests, is expected to approximately double ValueClick's domestic business, adding approximately $14 million in revenue and approximately $4 million in operating profit to ValueClick's 2000 results. Click Agent, which Value Click considered the number three player in the field, operates a CPC-based ad network of about 4,000 sites and serves about 1 billion impressions monthly, with about 120,000 click-throughs.

According to company officials, the combined organization will deliver over 320,000 qualified visitors every day to advertisers such as Providian Financial, Discovery Channel, Network Solutions, Egghead.com, Microsoft, Verizon, and Chase Bank.

ValueClick has approximately 110 U.S. employees and 90 abroad, while Click Agents has 31. Combined, they plan to reach to approximately 40% of U.S. households each month and increase their offerings for advertisers, ad agencies and Web publishers.

According to the announcement, for the immediate future, both brands will continue to be supported, while the main focus will be to leverage the best of the two technologies and networks. The acquisition is the latest in a series of recent ValueClick announcements that further expand the solutions available to publishers and advertisers seeking to maximize results, including performance-based wireless advertising, opt-in e-mail, and the acquisition of ROI Measurement firm StraightUP!