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CMS Hasche Sigle advises Holtzbrinck Networks on voluntary takeover bid for shares in Abacho AG

10/07/2007

Holtzbrinck Networks GmbH, a company in the Georg von Holtzbrinck publishing group, has announced its decision to make a voluntary public takeover bid to the shareholders of Abacho AG. For this purpose Holtzbrinck has secured access to 29.72 % of the shares in Abacho AG from its founder and the chairman of its board. Holtzbrinck had already acquired approx. 2.98 % of the share capital in Abacho. A team from CMS Hasche Sigle led by Stuttgart partner Dr Thomas Meyding advises Holtzbrinck Networks on the transaction.

This interest in Abacho reinforces Holtzbrinck's market position in the area of Internet portals and search engine technologies and indirectly extends its interest in the Abacho subsidiary My-Hammer AG in which Holtzbrinck already has an interest through Holtzbrinck Ventures GmbH. My-Hammer AG operates "My-Hammer.de" the market-leading Internet platform for auctions for work and services.

Strategic interests in Internet companies such as studiVZ, buecher.de, parship.de, bol.com, my-photobook.de and meinestadt.de are brought together by Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck in Holtzbrinck Networks. Since 1998 Holtzbrinck Ventures has invested risk capital in young companies and, with over 30 interests, is one of the largest and most successful venture capital investors focussed on the new media.

Adviser to Holtzbrinck Networks GmbH

CMS Hasche Sigle:
Dr Thomas Meyding (M&A, Lead Partner)
Dr Karsten Heider (Corporate, M&A)
Dr Tobias Schneider (Corporate, M&A)
Dr Heiko Wiechers (Corporate, M&A)
Philipp Glagowski (Corporate, M&A)
Dr Thomas Klink (Corporate)

Contact CMS Hasche Sigle:

Dr Thomas Meyding
Tel.: +49 (0) 711 / 97 64- 388
E-mail: Thomas.Meyding@cms-hs.com

About CMS Hasche Sigle:

CMS Hasche Sigle is one of the leading German law firms with more than 480 lawyers. It covers the entire area of commercial law and provides legal advice to major German and international companies from a wide spectrum of industry. It has offices in Berlin, Cologne, Duesseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich, Stuttgart, Chemnitz, Dresden, Brussels, Belgrade, Moscow and Shanghai.

CMS Hasche Sigle is a partnership of lawyers and tax consultants; for register details / list of partners see www.cms-hs.com

CMS Hasche Sigle is a member of CMS, an alliance of leading independent European law firms. With over 595 partners, a total of 2,000 lawyers and tax consultants and around 4,200 support staff we advise our clients at commercial locations in 48 business centres in Europe and further afield on legal and tax issues.

In addition to CMS Hasche Sigle, the following firms are also members of the CMS alliance: CMS Adonnino Ascoli & Cavasola Scamoni (Italy), CMS Albiñana & Suárez de Lezo (Spain), CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre (France), CMS Cameron McKenna LLP (Great Britain), CMS DeBacker (Belgium), CMS Derks Star Busmann (the Netherlands), CMS von Erlach Henrici (Switzerland) and CMS Reich-Rohrwig Hainz (Austria). CMS has 58 offices in 25 countries around the world.

For further information on CMS Hasche Sigle see www.cms-hs.com and on the CMS alliance see http://www.cmslegal.com.

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