Groupe M6 Takes Over Oxygem
Groupe M6 has significantly strengthened its online footprint by acquiring the French media company Oxygem. According to the latest Médiamétrie analysis of November 2014, the French RTL Group company’s digital subsidiary M6 Web most recently attracted more than eleven million unique users to its websites. As the company said yesterday in Paris, the acquisition will increase this to an average of 15 million users per month, making it the eight-biggest French media company on the Internet.
Oxygem, which will be wholly owned by Groupe M6 from now on, was founded in Roubaix in 1998. The company operates several websites and portals, but also provides e-marketing services. Oxygem’s most successful and most important websites include the cooking and recipe portal CuisineAZ.com , the health guide Passeportsante.net, the shopping and coupon site Radins.com , the weather portal Meteocity.com and the slimming and dieting site Fourchette-et-bikini.fr .
So its portfolio is a cross-section of typical everyday topics from cooking, health and shopping to the weather. Oxygem says its websites are aimed especially at women under 50 – the same group that TV channels such as M6 target with their TV and online offerings, as it is particularly attractive for advertisers. The acquisition will enable M6 Web to expand its own online offerings as well as round off its range of content. Thanks to overlaps in audiences, content and technical implementation the company expects many more synergies, particularly in the fields of video content and price-comparison search engines. In addition, M6 believes the deal will strengthen its technological expertise in online marketing and data exploitation. And finally, it will strengthen M6 and M6 Web’s position in the digital advertising market.
Groupe M6 has bundled its digital activities in its M6 Web subsidiary for quite some time. Besides developing new media offerings and content for PCs, tablets and smartphones, M6 Web is responsible for operating the French media group’s many verticals and channel websites. In 2013, M6 Web generated revenues of €96 million and EBITA of €32 million. Oxygem had revenues of €11 million in fiscal 2013, and generated a positive result. The company employs a total of 110 people in Paris and Roubaix.
Contact
Oliver Fahlbusch
RTL Group, Executive Vice President Communications & Investor Relations, Chairman Corporate Responsibility
