TORONTO--(Marketwire - January 9, 2008) - Marketwire, a full-service newswire and communications workflow solutions provider, today announced an agreement to acquire Miami-based International Media Services (IMS) Companies whose offerings include newswire, translation, financial news aggregation, media management, and clipping and monitoring solutions serving emerging markets including Asia and Latin America.
IMS is an emerging markets specialist with a deep understanding of doing business in multiple languages and dealing with multiple cultures in diverse regulatory and legal environments. IMS services hundreds of clients in half a dozen countries around the world, and boasts an impressive roster of past and present institutional partners.
"Asia and Latin America are increasingly important markets for our clients in North America and Europe," said Michael Nowlan, president and CEO for Marketwire. "The acquisition of IMS supports Marketwire's international expansion plans and broadens the company's portfolio of services to meet the needs of our growing global client base. Our clients rely on us to provide one-stop services to all the global markets that matter to them."
Resulting from the acquisition, Marketwire will add operations in Miami, Florida; Beijing and Shanghai, China; and gain an interest in operations in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo, Brazil, expanding Marketwire's presence into 17 offices on four continents. In addition, Marketwire acquires an equity position in the largest media database and press release distribution company in Latin America -- Comunique-se and, in Asia, gains exclusive, multi-year strategic relationships with Chinese Government and Asian News Agencies for distribution throughout.
Largest media community and financial market distribution in Latin America:
-- 70,000-plus registered journalists
-- 120,000 subscribers
-- 700,000 unique visitors per month
-- 400 big-brand clients
Proprietary Latin American financial news aggregator NoticiasFinancieras distributes financial news daily to major financial markets in:
[] Argentina [] Costa Rica [] Peru [] Brazil [] Ecuador [] Puerto Rico [] Chile [] Guatemala [] Uruguay [] Colombia [] Mexico [] Venezuela
Exclusive strategic relationships with the Chinese government and Asian news agencies ensure comprehensive regional reach:
-- China
-- Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST)
-- Institute for Science and Technology Information (ISTIC)
-- China Industry Newspaper Information Center (CINIC)
-- Dozens of Asian news websites
-- Xinhua InfoLink & Information Explorer
-- Direct links to top 75 industry newspapers in Greater China, via
China's State News Agency
-- Taiwan
-- Central News Agency (CNA)
-- Taiwan Stock Exchange
"Marketwire is one of the fastest growing newswires and communications services providers in the industry," said Hector Botero who founded IMS in 1996. "Having been in the newswire and media information services business for more than 10 years, I am very excited by the opportunity to further leverage my extensive experience in developing communications services businesses for emerging markets by working for a company as innovative and well-positioned as Marketwire. My entire team at IMS is thrilled to become a part of this company."
Botero will join Marketwire as vice president, emerging markets, and will work with the company's management team to further develop the Marketwire brand in regional markets around the world. Botero will report to Marketwire president and CEO Michael Nowlan.
Through IMS, Marketwire also adds new clipping, monitoring and translation services. Throughout 2008, the company plans to launch new products and services in each of its primary product sectors: news distribution, media management, social media, multimedia, monitoring and reporting for North American and European clients disseminating news into Asia and Latin America, and for clients issuing news from Asia and Latin America to the North American and European media and financial communities.
About Marketwire
The only fully integrated North America-based global newswire, Marketwire, Inc. is a full-service partner to IR, PR and MarCom professionals seeking top-tier news distribution, media management, multimedia and monitoring solutions. Marketwire's customer-centric corporate philosophy focuses on being the best by infusing every aspect of its business with the following core attributes: precision, adaptability, innovation and simplicity.
Marketwire delivers its clients' news to the world's media and financial communities, fulfilling disclosure requirements in North America in compliance with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), and serving as Primary Information Provider (PIP) with the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA). With a reputation for technology leadership, Marketwire offers innovative products and services -- including Social Media, Search Engine Optimization, Dashboard Mobile Financial, News Dashboard coverage reports, exclusive access to networks such as the Canadian Press Wire Network, Easy IR and Easy PR workflow solutions, and more -- that help communication professionals maximize their effectiveness while ensuring accuracy and best practices. Having merged companies (Market Wire and CCNMatthews) in April 2006, and enjoying a combined history of 25 years of service, Marketwire is now majority-owned by OMERS Capital Partners, the private equity arm of one of Canada's largest pension funds. Marketwire distributes the majority of press releases issued by publicly traded companies in Canada and serves more than 8,000 clients worldwide through 17 offices on four continents. For more information, visit us at www.marketwire.com.
About IMS
Launched in 1996, IMS provides multiplatform press release distribution services reaching greater China and Latin America combining distribution on web sites, databases, news agency wires, financial news services, email and RSS feeds. In addition to exclusive and non-exclusive distribution agreements network wide, IMS has its own proprietary distribution networks that specifically target media, editors, journalists, investors and consumers and is also able to deliver news to the hard to reach industry and trade publications. The IMS networks are constantly updated by regional offices and affiliates in Miami, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, Peru and Ecuador.
In all over 20 independent news agencies, financial news services and publishing organizations with news distribution systems make up the IMS network reaching more media, web sites, individuals and investors using more diverse technologies that any other "wire" in our markets. IMS acts as the management platform that coordinates contractual, legal, copyright, financial, foreign exchange and technical operations issues to navigate language, culture, legal and technical differences and barriers and assure the seamless performance of a large network of moving parts. Whether in Simplified Chinese, Spanish or Portuguese, over 15,000 press releases are translated a year, and our reputation for quality in the industry is unsurpassed.
Our equity investments have made us the largest press release, media database and public relations services company in Latin America -- our Brazilian company, Comunique-se, reached a milestone in 2007 with over 13,000 press releases published in the first six months -- these are press releases from Brazilian companies for the Brazil market. At the same time, Comunique-se is leveraging this regional leadership to sell global and international services from Marketwire.
Some of our affiliate partner relationships are now a decade old and the names represent a who is who of credibility, stability, reach and technology -- from Thomson Financial, Dow Jones (Factiva), Lexis-Nexis, Broadcast, Agencia Estado, Grupo de Diarios America (GDA), and NoticiasFinancieras (IMS owned). With long term agreements with the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) in China which provide extensive translation and distribution in the fastest growing region of the world to a full back up newsroom in Montevideo, Uruguay to a Portuguese translation center in Brazil. A decade of development, investment and technology updates make IMS and our parent Marketwire, leaders in our markets.
Contact Information: For additional information: Paolina Milana Marketwire (310) 765-3250 pmilana@marketwire.com Jamie Ernst Brodeur (210) 495-5757 jernst@brodeur.com
