London -- SEAT Pagine Gialle S.p.A., a European telephone directory publisher, will invest US $100 million in mondus, a b2b marketplace for small to medium sized businesses, by means of a share exchange which is expected to be completed by the end of this year. SEAT has also agreed to acquire exsisting shares for US $50 million, resulting in a total post transaction ownership of 40.7% of mondus' fully diluted share capital. US $140m of the investment will consist of SEAT shares and US $10m in cash.
The agreement will establish both SEAT and mondus as key market drivers in the European business-to-business e-commerce space, by enabling mondus to deliver its range of services to the 5.9 million businesses currently listed in SEAT's European directories (as well as Pagine Gialle, this includes Thomson Directories and Europages).
On Tuesday this week, SEAT also announced the acquisition of TDL Infomedia Ltd., publisher of Thomson Directories, the second largest publisher of local directories in the UK. The combination of mondus' technology and e-commerce experience, with Thomson and SEATs' European directories and client base in the SME area, presents a powerful proposition for exploiting current opportunities available in the European business-to-business market.
Rouzbeh Pirouz, Chief Executive Officer of mondus commented:" This agreement is one of the first alignments of its kind between an Internet business and directory business - mondus and SEAT share a common vision of how our businesses are moving forward, and are both committed to aggressive expansion in the European business-to-business space.
