Adwanted Group, a media and tech business with offices in New York and Paris, has made a significant strategic investment in Mediatel as both companies look to accelerate their international growth. There are notable synergies from the deal, with both companies providing media trading systems, media planning data and media industry news.
Adwanted is buying the shares of retired shareholders including Mediatel founder Derek Jones, who will remain as Chairman. The existing Mediatel management team, led by CEO Greg Grimmer, will all continue in their roles. The Mediatel brand will not be affected.
Mediatel operates J-ET, the automated trading system that handles 90% of national UK radio advertising, and provides the SPACE and Route solutions that improve out-of-home media trading. The company is also home to the UK’s largest single source of media data (Mediatel Connected). Mediatel Events, part of the Mediatel group, produces industry leading strategy conferences including the Future of TV Advertising series, Connected TV World Summit, and The Future of Brands and Marketing, plus the publications Videonet and Mediatel News.
Adwanted Group, led by CEO Emmanuel Debuyck, operates a press planning and trading system and a radio trafficking system, and includes SRDS, an industry standard for U.S. media planning data.
Greg Grimmer comments: “This is a great opportunity for everyone at Mediatel to harness the future potential of the business together with a strong strategic international partner. The synergies are very attractive to both parties. For Mediatel, we have the opportunity to export our successful tech products outside the UK, plus we can expand our events footprint into Adwanted’s existing markets.
“For Adwanted group, this is a chance to enter the fourth largest advertising economy in the world via a successful and established player. Whilst this change takes place with immediate effect, it will be business as usual for all clients across the UK media industry, with the same high level of customer support and trusted products that we are famous for.”
