Glam Media Acquires Leading Men's Online Media Company Fantastic Zero to Extend Leadership in Women to the Men's Market in Germany

MUNICH and SILICON VALLEY, Calif., Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Glam Media Germany (de.glammedia.com), the number one vertical media company for women online in Germany and worldwide, has acquired Fantastic Zero (www.fantasticzero.com), a leading German vertical media company for men online reaching 5.4 million unique users, from Holtzbrinck Digital GmbH and Publigroupe S.A. One year since the launch of the German men's vertical, Brash.de, Glam Media is focused on expanding the Brash Media brand with the Fantastic Zero sites targeting men in key categories including lifestyle, sports, entertainment, gaming, and autos. Fantastic Zero Founder and CEO Aric Austin has been appointed "the man for men" at Glam Media Germany. Fantastic Zero, based in Berlin and Munich, will be integrated into Glam Media, extending Glam's number one leadership in women to male audiences.

"Glam stands for significant reach with a high degree of engagement by women in Germany and around the world," said Ralf Hirt, CEO of Glam Media Germany and VP International. "With Fantastic Zero and Brash, we can now further expand our reach with male audiences. More than ever, this means marketing solutions that cater to the strong demand from agencies for premium advertising environments that appeal to men and have significant reach at the same time. The team at Fantastic Zero has created a highly successful business model, which we will roll out in other European countries in the future."

Fantastic Zero was established in August 2007 as the first vertical for men in Germany, and has quickly become the market leader in this segment. More than 50 partner sites including Cineastentreff, Comicgate, Gamenews, and Sport2 engage with men online, and have represented a compelling offering for brands right from the start. Categories across Fantastic Zero include movies, entertainment, comics, technology, hardware, and gaming.

"Glam Media is the logical next step in our development and simply a perfect fit," said Aric Austin, founder and CEO of Fantastic Zero. "Together we will provide the vertical market with new ideas and innovations through Glam Media's next generation technologies."

"After the successful growth and startup work under the leadership of Holtzbrinck eLab, the deal with Glam Media will enable the next stage of expansion for Fantastic Zero," said Markus Schunk, CFO of Digital and Managing Director of Holtzbrinck eLab.  "Congratulations to Aric Austin for his excellent management and building the company—together with Glam, Fantastic Zero will create a leader targeting male audiences."

"After reaching number one for women, Glam Media is expanding to target men with the acquisition of Fantastic Zero," said Dr. Marcel Reichart, Managing Director, DLD Media and DLD Ventures, and Member, Glam Media Board of Directors. "Glam Media now has even broader reach for its innovative technology and digital marketing solutions."

Glam has an outstanding position in delivering efficient and effective solutions to brands and agencies in today's complex digital advertising marketplace. Just a few weeks ago, Glam Media Germany launched the social media real-time application Tinker that connects both Twitter and Facebook audiences with more than 1,500 sites in the Glam and Brash verticals. In addition, Glam Media Germany recently launched GlamAdapt, the first alternative ad serving platform to DoubleClick, enabling brands to make a greater impact online. (For more information, please visit: de.tinker.com, glamadapt.com).

About Glam Media

Glam Media is the pioneer of vertical media that connects the world's top brand advertisers with targeted vertical audiences online. Glam invented the first commercial Blog Network in 2005 to harness the power of Social Media for Brands. Since then, it has grown to a reach of 97.9 million unique monthly visitors in the US and 167 million users globally and is #1 for Women and #6 in Top 100 Web Properties. Glam Germany was launched in 2008 and now has monthly reach of 8.7 million users (before the Fantastic Zero acquisition).

Glam Media has more than 1,500 publishers organized in vertical networks: Glam.com for Women, Brash.com for Men and Tinker.com for real-time Social Media.

Glam Media is headquartered in New York City, New York and Silicon Valley, California, with international headquarters in London and offices in Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Duesseldorf, Tokyo and Paris.

SOURCE Glam Media

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