Jan. 27, 1999 (PRIMEZONE) -- Outrider, the new media holdings division of Tempus Group PLC, announces today that it has acquired a 60% holding in BrainBug LLC, a Hartford-based new media agency.
BrainBug (http://www.brainbug.com) was established in 1996 and has developed a strong client list that includes several of the region's major insurance and healthcare groups including Phoenix, Medspan and Aetna, the State's major daily newspaper, and Metaserver, a leading software vendor.
Rob Norman, CEO of Outrider, comments, "BrainBug is a young and successful company that has consistently won and retained business. We particularly value the experience in financial services and see the company as being totally complementary to our other recent investments in Multimedia Marketing Group* and Kokopelli New Media**."
Matt Straznitskas, founder and General Manager of BrainBug, comments, "Outrider is a strong partner for BrainBug, they are committed to the development of a confederation of related but independent businesses that share some resources but retain their own identity. The New England market is showing great potential for new media service businesses like BrainBug and we are confident of strong growth in 1999."
*Outrider acquired a 20% interest in Multimedia Marketing Group in September 1998, MMG (http://www.mmgco.com) is an Oregon-based specialist in Internet marketing.
**Outrider acquired a 25% interest in Kokopelli (http://www.kokonet.com) in December 1998. Kokopelli is an interactive marketing agency based in New York.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
Tempus Group PLC 1. Tempus Group PLC is a UK quoted media buying communications agency with 39 offices in 24 countries throughout Europe, Asia Pacific and the USA, and employs more than 1,200 people.
2. Tempus Group PLC and its subsidiaries have existing new media investments in the following companies:
o IQ, a Dusseldorf based subsidiary of Mediahaus
o Muchomedia, a Madrid based subsidiary of CIA Medianetwork Espana
o CIA Interactive, a Stockholm based subsidiary of CIA Media Marketing
o Good Technology, based in London (minority interest)
o Multimedia Marketing Group, an Oregon based Internet marketing specialist (minority interest)
Tempus Group PLC is the holding company of CIA Medianetwork and Mediahaus / MQI.