Adconion Shortlisted for Audemars Piguet 'Changing Times' European Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award

LONDON, Oct. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Adconion Media Group has won a place on the final shortlist of seven companies for the Audemars Piguet 'Changing Times' European Technology Entrepreneur of the Year Award, co-sponsored by Schroder & Co Banque and the European Tech Tour Association (ETT). The winner will be announced on November 19th 2009 at the award dinner in Geneva.

The Audemars Piguet awards have grown in popularity every year since their initial launch in 2006; this year saw more than 180 entrants. The 2009 entries were judged by a selection committee composed of representatives from Google, Good Energies, the European Tech Tour Association (ETT), Wellington Partners, Sofinnova, Go4Venture, Partech, Accel Partners, Index Ventures, Balderton Capital and Northzone Ventures. The final award will be presented to the high-tech company that has made the greatest impact on the largest number of people, in the least amount of time.

The Audemars Piguet awards are presented to companies that reflect the watchmaker's ideals of innovation, high technology, precision and audacity. Companies submitting entries must be able to demonstrate an annual growth rate of at least 50% for the past three years, be founded no more than 10 years ago and have revenue originating from several countries. European origin management is preferred and ideally the company should still be run by the founders.

Past winners have been consistently successful after achieving their prizes. The 2006 winner, SQL, was sold for US$1 billion to Sun Microsystems soon after winning the award. QlikTech, the winner in 2008, has demonstrated revenue growth of 80% over the last three years. They have over 425,000 users at 9760 customers in 90 countries; are projecting to take US$500 million by the end of 2011 and they have an ecosystem that is generating another US$500 million in revenue.

Arndt Groth, Adconion's president of Europe, says, "Over the past year, we have worked hard to distinguish ourselves from the crowd. Spurred on by the success of our new online video offering, carried under the banner of Adconion.TV, we have continued to expand our presence across Europe and spearhead the evolution of the traditional network model in a completely new direction. It's great to see our achievements recognised by our peers and the industry at large, and we are honoured to be one of the seven finalists."

Sven Lingjaerde, founder and president of European Tech Tour, says, "Entrepreneurship in Europe remains buoyant and the pipeline is very exciting. European companies are typically more capital efficient than their US counterparts, which helps particularly at a time when cash is a scarce resource. Online and mobile gaming are obviously big right now; software as a service, IT dematerialisation and cleantech are the hot areas to watch. Interestingly, many European e-commerce companies succeed at a national level but only a few are able to do a successful international roll out in that space."

Further details can be accessed at http://www.techtour.com/apdinner2009/index.php.

About Adconion
Adconion Media Group (www.adconion.com) is the largest independent global audience and content network. Dedicated to true partnerships with agencies and marketers, Adconion arms agencies with customised technology and products designed in-house, while delivering massive global reach across multiple platforms through a single network.

Adconion reaches nearly 300 million unique users worldwide - 1/3 of the total global Internet population - and is ranked number two in the global comScore ratings. Adconion is also an international leader in evolving the ad network model to create, distribute and monetise video content.

The company completed a record 40.9 million pounds Sterling (US$80 million) Series C round of funding led by Index Ventures in February 2008, and won the Investor AllStars award for 2008 "Deal Envy of the Year," in addition to being named in the Library House list of the hottest 100 private mediatech companies in Europe.

Adconion has 16 offices in 7 countries around the world, including London, Munich, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Paris, Madrid, Toronto, Los Angeles, New York, San Diego, Chicago, Sydney, Melbourne, Detroit, San Francisco and Brisbane. Adconion is a member of the International Advertising Bureau (IAB) and a founding member of IASH Europe.

About Audemars Piguet
Founded in 1875 by Jules-Louis Audemars and Edward-Auguste Piguet in the Swiss village of Le Brassus, Audemars Piguet is the oldest fine watchmaking manufacturer never to have left the hands of the founding families. At the heart of the Vallee de Joux, its master-watchmakers dedicate their unique expertise and know-how to creating a range of exclusive products composed of high-precision watches and jewellery watches, designed and crafted with legendary care. Throughout its history, Audemars Piguet has adopted avant-garde technologies which have enabled it to develop an unparalleled number of world firsts in the field of Haute Horlogerie. www.audemarspiguet.com

About Schroders
Schroders, a global investment-management company, was established in 1804 and the Schroder family still controls 47% of the voting shares. Schroders Plc, one of Britain's major listed private companies, has been present in Switzerland since 1967. Its offices in Zurich and Geneva (since 1984) look after local and international private and institutional investors. Schroder & Co Banque SA offers a wide range of asset-management and credit services (with 115 billion pounds Sterling, group-wide, currently under management). As part of a leading international asset-management organisation, the company combines a well-established local presence with the international resources and global perspective of the Schroder Group. www.schroders.com

About the European Tech Tour Association (ETT)
European Tech Tour (ETT) is an independent, not-for-profit organisation which recognises that continued prosperity in Europe lies in its ability to transform today's innovative projects into tomorrow's global technology leaders. Its goal is to promote European entrepreneurship and provide a platform for entrepreneurs and investors to meet, ideally leading to funding or facilitation of high technology companies looking to expand internationally. ETT organizes two country specific tours per year to identify the best emerging companies in a geographical region, as well as two vertical industry events to capture the most innovative European companies in a specific industry segment, such as Semiconductor, Cleantech, Medtech and Web & Mobility. www.techtour.com