Fox Acquires Spanish-language Online Advertising Directa Network

After the acquisition of ClickDiario (Agus, vincula con el articulo de Click Diario) last week, Fox buys the Directa Network. The new combined operation manages and will serve +1,000 publishers, serves +7bn impressions per month.

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Fox International Channels announced the acquisition of Directa Network, the largest online advertising network specialized in Spanish— and Portuguese—speaking audiences. The company will be part of a new online unit, .”FOX" (pronounced "punto Fox"), alongside with other online sales and publishing units recently acquired or launched by Fox, including ClickDiario.

Fox International Channels acquired Digital Ventures, the parent of Directa Network, InZearch, Afiliados Hispanos and Performa Network, from its founders, Damian Voltes and Ariel Arrieta. Messrs. Voltes and Arrieta have agreed to stay on board, and will report to Hector Costa, Fox's long-standing SVP of Advertising Sales, who will add the role of Managing Director of Online Ad Networks.

Directa Network, www.directaclick.com, the largest online ad network in Latin America, and ClickDiario, will merge into “DirectaClick.FOX.” With offices in Buenos Aires, Mexico, Guatemala, Sao Paulo and Madrid, DirectaClick will now take advantage of Fox International Channels'extensive network of sales offices in Miami, Santiago, Bogota and other markets.

Directa Click's network will reach an estimated 40m unique users and serve more than 7 billion impressions per month. DirectaClick will offer both "Performance" and "Branding" solutions.

Fox International Channels' integrated TV-and-online sales and publishing unit in Latin America will be rebranded "Integra.FOX.” Operating a collection of 35 websites such as mundofox.com, natgeo.tv, utilisima.com, canalfx.tv and others, Integra.FOX reaches a combined 2m uniques per month and has recently signed a deal with Marchex to jointly publish another 30 sites such as "cocina.com" and "universidades.com.” Integra.FOX will specialize in internet video.

Digital Ventures' search marketing arm, rebranded inZearch.FOX, will continue to provide search engine marketing and search engine optimization services to advertisers and agencies seeking to generate traffic, leads, and sales.

Digital Venture's affiliate network will be rebranded as "Afiliados Hispanos.FOX," and ClickDiario's lead generation services will be rebranded as "Coregistracion.Fox.”

Co-Registración is a service that automatically segments users or potential buyers (commonly known as leads in the advertising industry) based on profiles previously defined by clients. This tool is ideal for creating personalized user information databases.

Performa.FOX will specialize in contextual and in-text advertising, and will work with the Integra.FOX unit on developing solutions for contextual video advertising.

Commenting on the announcement, Hernan Lopez, President and Chief Operating Officer for the FOX International Channels (FIC) Group, said: "Online ad spend in Latin America, Iberia, and the US Hispanic market is estimated at $800m, only 2% of the total pie. As this market grows, Fox is now very well positioned to capture a fair share in most segments – publishing, ad networks, affiliate networks, lead generation, contextual ads, video ads, and search engine marketing and optimization."

Damian Voltes and Ariel Arrieta, co-founders of Digital Ventures, said in a joint statement: "This transaction will allow Digital Ventures to make a quantum leap in the evolution of interactive advertising towards convergence. We share Fox's forward-looking vision."

Milbank Roy acted as financial advisor to the founders of Digital Ventures.

Related Articles:

July 17, 2007 Implications of Fox’s Acquisition of ClickDiario

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