Hi-Media to acquire Fotolog for approx. $90 million

Today, Hi-Media (HIM.PA), a French publicly traded company, has announced that it is acquiring Fotolog (my employer) for approximately $90 million in a 23% cash and 77% stock transaction.

Hi-Media was founded in 1996 and currently the Hi-Media Network is the French leader in interactive marketing and the third largest in Europe.

Last year, in April, we had 3 million members and 100 million photos. Today, the number is more than 10.5 million. We are also very close to reaching 300 million photos.

"Hi-Media was attracted by Fotolog, which has only just begun converting its strong audience growth into revenues. We think that social networks are one of the pillars of what the Internet is and will be important in the years ahead, especially when underpinned by simple mechanisms. We are also convinced that Hi-Media can benefit substantially from Fotolog’s efforts to generate maximum revenues from its audience thanks to the advertising and micro-payment services that Hi-Media has developed over the past decade. In addition, we believe that the expertise and experience of the Fotolog teams who are joining us will allow us to reinforce and accelerate the development of our publishing division." -- Cyril Zimmermann, CEO of Hi-Media

Like everyone else here, I am excited. I think Fotolog will be a good match for Hi-Media.

More resources:
Official press release
Hi Media acquires Fotolog - Paid Content
Fotolog Acquired by French Ad Network - Om Malik

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For press enquiries, please contact:
New PR Group
Andrei Bogolubov, 917-849-9300
Andrei.Bogolubov at newprgroup.com

MySQL Camp II

Ok, so the MySQL Camp II officially starts in 8 hours and 9 minutes. If you are in New York, it behooves you to attend.

MySQL Camp II is sponsored by Polytechnic Institute, Logic Works, Too Many Connections (free MySQL Camp T-Shirts!), Proven Scaling (Lunch) and Google (Coffee).

I expect a lot of cool discussions and meeting with old and new friends. I will be interested in talking/discussing about:

Optimizing data architecture for InnoDB,
Speeding up MySQL replication,
MySQL disaster recovery,
Setting up QA environments that mimic production
Optimizing MySQL on Solaris 10
MySQL and DTrace

The Naked MySQL DBA: My ISAM is bigger than yours

I had a wonderful evening tonight with Jay Pipes, Paul McCullagh, Marc Simony, Ronald Bradford, Tania, Taso, Jeremy (not "the Jeremy" who along with Sheeri was missed) and my wife. We met at The Village Pourhouse for Pre-camp party organized by my good friend Ronald (thanks!).

One line said at the gathering (don't ask why):

"The Naked MySQL DBA: My ISAM is bigger than yours"

That called for a once-in-a-lifetime laughter. It was just so funny.