Valpak owner Cox Target Media said it has acquired Savings.com in a move to broaden the types of advertising it offers online and in the blue Valpak envelopes of coupons mailed to homes.
The deal for Savings.com and sister site in London, Savoo.co.uk, is worth about $100 million, but that figure could grow by hitting performance targets, according to Cox Target Media president Michael Vivio.
Cox Target Media, based in Largo, Fla., is owned by Atlanta-based Cox Media Group, a unit of Cox Enterprises that includes The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Savings.com will remain based in the Los Angeles area and, along with Savoo.co.uk, will continue to operate independently.
Savings.com functions differently from Valpak and Valpak.com, with a community of "DealPro" bloggers and websites and a focus on national advertisers. As an affiliate marketing company, Savings.com has a "pay-for-performance" model, Vivio said, meaning advertisers pay commissions on sales, rather than paying in advance.
Valpak, meanwhile, has national reach to targeted households with a focus on local advertisers. By adding capabilities from Savings.com, Valpak will increase the national advertising it offers and add the pay-for-performance model, while still reaching targeted audiences.
"The Valpak envelopes that arrive right now will get better," Vivio said. "It'll get better in that it'll have national merchants for stuff (consumers) buy every day, in addition to local restaurants and local nail salons and maybe the local oil change places like they do today."
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