Tomorrow Focus

TOMORROW FOCUS AG

Type	Public
Industry	Digital media content provider
Founded	2001
Headquarters	Munich, Germany
Key people	Toon Bouten, CEO Christoph Schuh, Member of the board Dr Dirk Schmelzer, CFO
Products	Online portals
Revenue	EUR 188.6 million (2013)^[1]
Number of employees	725 (FTE 2013)^[2]
Website	www.tomorrow-focus.com

Tomorrow Focus AG, which has its registered office in Munich, Germany, is an exchange-listed internet group and one of the leading providers of digital media content in Germany. Its principal shareholder is Hubert Burda Media. TOMORROW FOCUS AG was created at the end of 2001 by the merger of Focus Digital AG and Tomorrow Internet AG.^[3] The company’s Management Board comprises Toon Bouten (Chief Executive Officer),^[4] Dirk Schmelzer (Chief Financial Officer) and Christoph Schuh.

Revenue amounted to EUR 188.6 million in 2013 (2012: 149.1 million). Earnings before tax (EBT) amounted from EUR 12.5 million to 15.6 million.^[1]

History

Focus Digital AG was established in 2000, and went public in the same year. Focus Digital AG merged with Tomorrow Internet AG in 2001 to create TOMORROW FOCUS AG. In 2002, TOMORROW FOCUS AG acquired the licence to publish the German edition of Playboy Magazine. For its first few years in operation, TOMORROW FOCUS AG concentrated on its advertising-based online portals business. The company’s portfolio initially included various online brands of the Verlagsgruppe Milchstrasse publishing group, in addition to the news portal FOCUS Online.

In 2003, TOMORROW FOCUS was admitted to the Prime Standard of Deutsche Börse AG and listed at FWB Frankfurt Stock Exchange for the first time. In order to tap the internet potential of travel rating and dating agency portals, the company began the expansion of its Transactions division in 2006 by acquiring majority shareholdings in HolidayCheck AG and EliteMedianet GmbH. In 2008, it acquired an interest in AdJug Ltd., an international marketplace for online advertising inventory. In the same year it acquired a major stake in jameda, a physician ratings portal, and Finanzen100, a portal for finance and stock market news.

In 2010, TOMORROW FOCUS sold its shares in Playboy Deutschland Publishing GmbH to Focus Magazin Verlag GmbH in order to streamline its portfolio and concentrate on online products and services. In 2011, the company acquired the remaining outstanding shares in Finanzen100 GmbH and jameda GmbH.^[5]^[6] In the same year TOMORROW FOCUS sold around a third of its stake in AdJug.

In 2012 it acquired majority holdings in the Dutch online travel agent Tjingo and in WebassetsB.V., which operates the Zoover and MeteoVista portals.^[7] Shortly thereafter, TOMORROW FOCUS also became a majority shareholder of the French online travel agent Ecotour.com (RPC Voyages SAS).^[8] Moreover Toon Bouten is appointed new CEO at TOMORROW FOCUS AG with effect from 1 January 2013.^[4] In 2013 the company completed its takeover of the parentportal NetMoms GmbH. In June Stefan Winners succeeded Paul-Bernhard Kallen as Chairperson of TOMORROW FOCUS AG’s Supervisory Board. Furthermore TOMORROW FOCUS AG acquired remaining minority shares in HolidayCheck AG.^[9] In October 2013 TOMORROW FOCUS launched the German Huffington Post.^[10] With effect from 2 December TOMORROW FOCUS AG sold TOMORROW FOCUS Technologies GmbH to TIE Kinetix N.V.^[11]

In February 2014 organize.me GmbH, the latest start-up of TOMORROW FOCUS AG, has launched version 1.0 of organize.me, their online service for document storage of the same name.^[12]

Chronology

2000 Foundation of Focus Digital AG; IPO on the Neuer Markt of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange
2001 Merger of Focus Digital AG and Tomorrow Internet AG into Tomorrow Focus AG
- First listing as Tomorrow Focus AG (German securities code (WKN) 549 532, stock exchange symbol TFA, Neuer Markt, Frankfurt)
2002 Tomorrow Focus AG and Focus Magazin Verlag GmbH take over the license to publish the German PLAYBOY magazine from the Heinrich Bauer Verlag publishers
2003 Tomorrow Focus AG is listed in Deutsche Börse's Prime Standard trading segment
2004 Dr Paul-Bernhard Kallen is appointed as chairperson of the Tomorrow Focus AG supervisory board
2005 Stefan Winners is appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer of Tomorrow Focus AG
2006 Tomorrow Focus acquires a majority shareholding in HolidayCheck AG, Kreuzlingen, Switzerland
2007
- Tomorrow Focus Technologies sells the Travelnet software to Lufthansa Systems; Tomorrow Focus acquires an approximately 63 percent stake in Elitemedianet GmbH, which operates the online dating portal ElitePartner.de; The Handelsblatt publishing group acquires Tomorrow Focus AG's shares in Bellevue and More GmbH
- Tomorrow Focus takes over another 29 percent of shares in HolidayCheck AG, taking the total up to 80 percent
2008
- Reappointment of the management board members Stefan Winners and Christoph Schuh and extension of their contracts by another five years
- Tomorrow Focus AG and ADJUG Ltd., London, operator of an international online marketplace where advertisers can buy and sell available inventory, found Adjug Germany
- Tomorrow Focus acquires a 17 stake in ADJUG
- Acquisition of a shareholding in the physician rating portal jameda
- Tomorrow Focus acquires a 60 percent stake in Finanzen100,Cologne, Germany.
- Tomorrow Focus takes over 51 percent of Munich based jameda GmbH
2009
- Tomorrow Focus acquires another 14 percent of shares in HolidayCheck AG, Bottighofen, Switzerland
- Acquisition of the remaining 36.93 percent of the shares outstanding in EliteMedianet GmbH, giving TOMORROW FOCUS 100 percent ownership of the company
- Interest in AdJug Ltd., London, increased to 55.8 percent
2010
- Establishment of AdAudience, a joint marketing venture by TOMORROW FOCUS, G+J Electronic Media Sales (EMS), IP Deutschland and SevenOne Media
- TOMORROW FOCUS Portal GmbH renamed as TOMORROW FOCUS Media GmbH
- TOMORROW FOCUS AG sells its shares in Playboy Deutschland Publishing GmbH to Focus Magazin Verlag GmbH
- Dr Dirk Schmelzer appointed CFO at TOMORROW FOCUS AG
2011
- TOMORROW FOCUS AG acquires the remaining 40 percent of Finanzen100 GmbH and 49.01 percent of jameda GmbH, making them wholly owned subsidiaries
- The company sells 35.86 percent of its stake in AdJug Ltd. to IgnitionOne
2012
- TOMORROW FOCUS AG acquires 55 percent of the Dutch online travel agent Tjingo
- TOMORROW FOCUS AG purchases a 51 percent interest in Webassets B.V., which operates the Dutch hotel and holiday reviews portal Zoover and the MeteoVista weather platforms^[7]
- TOMORROW FOCUS AG adds a 55 percent stake in the French online travel agent Ecotour.com (RPC Voyages SAS) to its Group holdings^[8]
- CEO Stefan Winners moves to Hubert Burda Media in October and takes over the Burda Digital division
- Toon Bouten is appointed new CEO at TOMORROW FOCUS AG with effect from 1 January 2013^[4]
- Takeover of NetMoms for EUR 2.5 million^[13]
2013
- Successful capital increase from EUR 53,012,390 to EUR 58,055,588
- Partnership with the German Huffington Post^[10]
- Stefan Winners succeeds Paul-Bernhard Kallen in June as Chairperson of TOMORROW FOCUS AG’s Supervisory Board
- TOMORROW FOCUS AG acquires remaining minority shares in HolidayCheck AG^[9]
- TOMORROW FOCUS AG sells TOMORROW FOCUS Technologies GmbH to TIE Kinetix N.V.with effect from 2 December^[14]
2014
- Launch of start-up organize.me GmbH^[15]

Business Operations

Structure

TOMORROW FOCUS AG performs the central management and holding function for the equity investments held by the TOMORROW FOCUS group. On 1 January 2014, TOMORROW FOCUS business operations were restructured into three new segments: Travel, Publishing and Subscription.^[16]

The Travel division includes HolidayCheck, which operates a hotel reviews and holiday booking portal by the same name; the travel division of WEBASSETS B.V., which operates the ZOOVER hotel review portals; TOMORROW TRAVEL B.V., which operates the Dutch online travel agent TJINGO; and RPC VOYAGES SAS, which operates the French online travel agent ECOTOUR.
The Publishing division includes TOMORROW FOCUS MEDIA GmbH, one of Germany’s leading digital marketing providers; TOMORROW FOCUS PUBLISHING GmbH, which operates a number of Internet portals such as the news and utility journalism site FOCUS Online; the news portal and platform for views and blogs The Huffington Post; the finance and stock market information portal FINANZEN100; the parent portal NETMOMS GmbH; and the meteorological arm of WEBASSETS B.V., which operates the METEOVISTA and WEERONLINE weather portals.
The Subscription segment is made up of ELITEMEDIANET GmbH, which operates the premium online dating agency ELITEPARTNER.de; JAMEDA GmbH, which operates the physician ratings portal JAMEDA.de; and ORGANIZE.ME GmbH, which operates an app-based document organisation and reminder system.

External links

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