17th Nov 2006 07:00
Media Corporation plc ("Media Corp" or the "Company") Update regarding US Legislation and current trading Further to our announcement on 3 October 2006 regarding the impact of the recentchanges in the US regulatory environment, Media Corp, a leading media andmarketing company, provides an update on current trading. As previously stated the Board recognised that Search Focus Limited, theCompany's vertical search business, which operates a gaming related searchengine, could be affected. The Board has now implemented various technicalchanges to the search functionality and back-end systems and has had time toassess the likely impact of these changes to daily revenues. Search Focus Limited has implemented a new geographic targeting tool within thesearch engine which allows advertisers to reorganize their search listings intotwo separate non-US territories: The Rest of the World (excludes USA and UK) andthe UK only. As a result of this geographic targeting technology, advertisersare now able to prevent US residents from viewing their search listings. Inaddition to these technical changes to the online search engine, theGambling.com magazine is no longer distributed in the US; it is now distributedto 18,000 platinum members from around the world, including UK, Europe, Canadaand Asia. It is estimated that despite these changes, the US legislation will result in a20% to 30% reduction in gaming related search marketing revenues, representingan annual reduction to group operating profits of approximately £0.5 million to£0.9 million. However the Company is at an advanced stage of launching a searchengine for the personal finance and travel markets and the Board believes thatthere is still potential for the search business to grow substantially intoother vertical markets. As previously stated the Company has continued to see an increase in advertisingrevenues derived from the Company's non-US facing gaming portals and searchengine traffic. In addition, the Board can confirm that it is having ongoing discussions inrelation to the sale of its online and mobile gaming business, incorporating theCasino.co.uk brand. The Board believes that the recent changes in US regulationsare positive for the value of both Casino.co.uk and the mobile gaming businesssince these businesses have no US customers and derive over 95% of theirrevenues from the UK market. It is anticipated that the sale proceeds wouldenable the Company to accelerate the growth of its media and advertisingbusiness further. Enquiries: Justin Drummond, Chief Executive, 020 7618 9000 Paul Tuson, Group Finance Director, 020 7618 9000 Trevor Phillips, Holborn PR, 020 7929 5599 Notes to Editors: Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Media Corp, is a leading internet media andadvertising Company focused on search, publishing and media sales. The companyhas three principal divisions: -- Search - The vertical search specialists - building sector specific search engines for advertisers to communicate in a highly targeted environment with their particular audience. All of our Search and Media products are powered by our own high performance proprietary technology. We can therefore partner with your online businesses to offer "White Label" services across a number of key vertical markets. www.searchfocus.co.uk. -- Publishing - Media Corp has a diverse publishing division ranging from online to printed media. Our impressive stable of websites includes a number of market leading sites including www.onthebox.com, www.casino.co.uk. -- Media - Eyeconomy was formed in 1996, and is a separate operating division of Media Corporation. Eyeconomy specialises in the various sectors of online marketing and advertising, such as online media planning and buying, as well as managing online media campaigns for clients including AOL, Dell and American Express. Visit www.mediacorpplc.com. Copyright Business Wire 2006Related Shares:
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