Ringier and Tamedia plan takeover of jobs.ch – cooperation in international competition

Zurich, 12 September 2012 - The media company Ringier and the Tamedia media group plan to jointly takeover jobs.ch Holding Ltd. Among other things, this company operates one of the most extensive job search platforms, jobs.ch, on the Swiss market, in addition to the Swiss online executive job search platforms, topjobs.ch, and also holds a 49 per cent stake in the Austrian online job search platform karriere.at. In 2007, the US investment company Tiger Global Management took a majority stake in jobs.ch from its founders, and has gone on to successfully develop the company since then.

Through the cooperation of Ringier and Tamedia, jobs.ch Holding Ltd is now back in Swiss hands. Together, the two media companies wish to further expand the innovative job search platform in an increasingly internationally competitive field and to develop multilingual solutions for job seekers and corporate clients. Ringier and Tamedia shall each hold 50 per cent of jobs.ch Holding Ltd. In addition, Tamedia will bring its online job search subsidiary Jobup Ltd into the partnership. Jobup Ltd operates one of the leading job search portals in French-speaking Switzerland, jobup.ch, as well as the job search platforms jobwinner.ch and alpha.ch.

Jobs.ch Holding Ltd can look back at over 10 years of successful growth, from start up to the most innovative and successful online company on the Swiss job market. In 2011, jobs.ch Holding Ltd achieved net earnings of CHF 45.9 million, with EBIT results of CHF 20.2 million. The enterprise value of relevance for the sale comprising 100 per cent of the share capital of jobs.ch Holding Ltd, amounts to CHF 390 million. Jobup Ltd to be brought into the partnership by Tamedia, is valued at CHF 120 million. In addition, both partners have agreed upon sale and purchase options which will allow Ringier to consolidate its holdings according to Swiss GAAP FER, and Tamedia to consolidate according to IFRS.

After the takeover, jobs.ch Holding Ltd will continue to be run by its current management, under the leadership of CEO Mark Sandmeier. The deal is subject to the consent of the Swiss Competition Commission and the Austrian Competition Authority.