The Irish digital advertising industry’s largest consolidation to date has occurred. Electric Media has acquired the assets of Sales Online.

Electric Media, owned by Dermot Hanrahan, purchased Sales Online (for an undisclosed sum) from Simon Ferguson.

Electric Media handles the ad sales for such premium sites as entertainment.ie, myhome.ie and irishtimes.com and will now sell for Sales Online’s premium clients, including ft.com, breakingnews.ie, eBay and irishexaminer.com. Over sixty premium online brands/publishers will now be represented by Electric Media.

Dermot Hanrahan, chief executive, Electric Media says, “In both the US and the UK, online advertising is now the number one medium. While we do not yet have exact figures for online spend in this market – and we look forward to the new IAB Ireland’s figures later this year – we do know we are not yet near the UK online share. There, digital advertising accounts for 23.5% of all advertising spend – I estimate that in Ireland, we are still hovering in the late teens.”

The deal “provides for a centralised planning and buying point, delivering near 100% reach of the Irish mobile and online audience,” says Simon Ferguson.

You may also like: