Axel Springer buys shares in French women's portal

 The publishing house Axel Springer is also continuing its digitization strategy outside Germany. It is buying 41.4 percent of the French women's portal Aufeminin.com. The shares are being sold by the platform's founders. Aufeminin.com is present in eight European countries and, according to the press release, is the market leader in Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium and Switzerland. Turnover last year amounted to 13.4 million euros. In May 2007, the company recorded 14.6 million visitors to its website. In addition to operating the online portals, Aufeminin.com has its own server technology for advertising called Smart-Adserver. The company has been selling the technology for managing online advertising campaigns to advertising agencies and website editors since 2003.
Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer, commented on the purchase in the communiqué with the following words: "The takeover bid for Aufeminin.com is a further step in our digitization and internationalization strategy." And Andreas Wiele, Chief Magazine and International Officer of the publishing house, points out that women's magazines are the largest market segment in almost every European country. They account for a significant proportion of advertising expenditure.