TMN, August Equity End Takeover Discussions

TMN Group plc, a British online marketing company, said Thursday that it has ended takeover discussions with venture capital firm August Equity llp because August wasn’t able to secure enough third-party debt financing.

"Whilst we understand that difficult debt market conditions has resulted in August Equity being unable to deliver an acceptable offer to the board, the board is united in its confidence in TMN's future as a listed company,” said Peter Harkness chairman of TMN, in a statement.

Earlier this year, TMN acquired Tapps b.v. an online marketing company in the Netherlands, for 5.7 million pounds ($11.2 million) (Direct Newsline, Jan 8).

"The online direct marketing sector is experiencing rapid growth and TMN is exploiting opportunities to grow its presence in the sector and control more of the advertisers online spend," said Smith, at the time. "Tapps has built an excellent reputation in The Netherlands and is the ideal partner to support TMN's expansion into the European market."