Quarter Media & Olympia-Verlag

24. August 2021

With the acquisition of QUARTER MEDIA, the publisher behind Kicker magazine is bringing important competencies for the digital marketing of content in-house.

As part of the strategic development of their company, the shareholders of Quarter Media have sold 100% of their shares to the Nuremberg-based Olympia-Verlag. The sellers remain as managing directors and want to continue the dynamic company growth of the past years with the newly acquired partner. With the acquisition, the buyer, Olympia-Verlag from Nuremberg, has brought the necessary know-how for the internalization of the digital marketing of the wide-reaching KICKER brand in-house and can thus also take advantage of great economic opportunities in the future.

Atares* took over the entire management of the project. This included strategic advice on possible courses of action and transaction forms, the search and selection of the most suitable buyer, the negotiation of all deal terms including the managing director contracts, the coordination of the due diligence process up to the closing. Moritz von Laffert accompanied the deal the whole way, supported by Niladri Deb.

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About Quarter Media

Founded in 2001, QUARTER MEDIA GmbH, Hamburg, is one of the leading independent service providers for technology-based advertising financing of digital content and markets digital advertising space with auction-based processes on behalf of publishers. The team consists of experts in sales, ad technology, business development and marketing. QUARTER MEDIA currently reaches around 25 million users in Germany. Its offering includes classic display advertising formats, innovative special formats, outstream video and integrative concepts across all end devices. Tibor F. Gaddum and Oliver Lessing have been responsible for the management since the company was founded.

About kicker / Olympia-Verlag

kicker combines tradition, success and innovation – since 1920, kicker has been commenting on events on the international playing field, reporting on athletes, clubs and associations, and covering 2,500 sporting events a month with its live ticker. To date, the print magazine reaches 1.88 million soccer fans per issue. kicker.tv also relies on an extensive range of moving image content; in the voice sector, the brand is represented by various podcasts, such as “kicker MEETS DAZN.” According to IVW, the sports brand records over 247 million visits with 2.2 billion page impressions per month across its broad digital offering. In addition, 12 million unique users (AGOF) prove that kicker is Germany’s highest-reach sports media brand. Together with Olympia-Verlag, Nuremberg, kicker promotes innovative digital concepts in the sports and media industry and holds stakes in Tickaroo, SportPlatz Media and MateCrate, among others.

About atares

Atares is the digital M&A boutique for technology-driven midcap companies in Germany and sees itself as a pioneer for the digitalization of the M&A industry. Founded in 2001, atares has advised more than 200 transactions in more than 20 years. The focus is on transaction volumes between EUR 10 and 100 million of mostly owner-managed companies. Since November 2023, the company formerly known as Proventis Partners, Munich, has been operating under the new company name atares GmbH. Atares has long-standing personal contacts with corporate and Private Equity investors and M&A advisors in Europe, North and South America and Asia. Highly specialized expertise for the market, empathy for people and passion make atares a sought-after M&A partner for the tech champions of tomorrow. More than 20 employees at atares in Munich and Düsseldorf manage their projects via the in-house developed digital M&A dealfloor (dealfloor.co) – for value-adding, efficient transactions with the best user experience.