NEDLANDS, Australia , Nov. 11, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- Australian-based Search Engine Marketing specialist ineedhits.com, keen to explore recent trends of consolidation among industry players, has retained the services of San Francisco-based Bandwidth Capital and Australian-based Atrico to explore and present strategic options.
ineedhits.com's Founder and Chairman, Clay Cook said, "We want to stay on top of market developments, and are keen to review various alternatives with our investment bankers."
Since its foundation in 1996 ineedhits.com has built a solid customer base of over 500,000 clients, 97% of which are located in the United States, UK and Canada. According to Mr. Cook, the company's rapid growth can be attributed to its service to small and medium-sized businesses keen to take advantage of the growth in online advertising. "We've seen a huge growth in online advertising, primarily driven by paid search engine listings, increased broadband penetration and technological developments that enable customer-targeted advertisements," he said.
Mr. Cook continued, "There are over 400 million online searches conducted every day. In 2003 the U.S. online advertising market alone spent US$7.3 billion, and that amount is expected to increase to US$16.1 billion by 2007. Advertisers are shifting more of their marketing budget into online promotion to catch the change in online viewing habits."
ineedhits.com plans to enrich its customer experience through launching an entirely new Web-based user- and subscriber-friendly interface before the end of the year, plus the addition of new products.
About ineedhits.com
ineedhits.com, a pioneer in Search Engine Marketing, services over 500,000 customers and subscribers. Founded in 1996, ineedhits.com has provided search engine optimization and submission services to small and medium-sized businesses for over eight years. With over 90% of ineedhits.com's' customers located in the United States, the company itself is based in Perth, Western Australia and employs 30 staff. Partners include Yahoo! (Overture), Kanoodle, WhatUSeek, Net Applications and ExactSeek. ineedhits.com has received numerous awards including Deloitte Touche Fast 50 (2003 & 2004) and BRW Fast 100 (2002 & 2003).
About Bandwidth Capital
Bandwidth Capital is an independent financial advisory firm based in San Francisco. The firm advises and assists small companies (sub-US$75m revenues) -- whether listed or privately held -- on strategic and commercial initiatives, capital-raising, balance-sheet restructurings, corporate development and M&A. Further, the firm advises private equity funds on obtaining liquidity in their portfolio of companies whilst maintaining valuation and confidentiality. As an advisor, Bandwidth Capital works particularly with companies where there is an asymmetry of expectations, and where it can structure financial instruments that exploit uncertainty for the benefit of existing shareholders. Bandwidth Capital has advised companies domiciled in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and the European Union.
About Atrico
Atrico is a corporate advisory firm specializing in technology deals. Atrico was formed in 1995, with offices in Perth and Sydney. It provides advisory services to technology product and services groups and leverage strategies to companies with substantial intellectual property asset portfolios. Atrico has completed over 200 assignments related to technology investments, marketing, and transactions.