London (PRWEB) December 1, 2006
Directors in the fast growing Media Corporation plc this week gave the company a strong vote of confidence by buying shares.
Chairman Jason Drummond, Chief Executive Justin Drummond and Finance Director Paul Tuson bought a total of 3.65 million shares in the A.I.M.-listed Media Corp.
They bought the shares after the company announced record annual profits and issued a bullish statement about future opportunities in on-line related media and advertising.
It reported that after-tax profit jumped by over 650% in the year to end September compared with the previous year. The Group also reported it had more than £5 million in cash for further expansion and acquisitions.
CEO Justin Drummond said: "As we reported in our financial results statement, our media and search advertising businesses have performed very strongly during 2006 and we are now well placed to deliver our strategy focusing on profitable media businesses.
"So the other directors and I took the opportunity to increase our holdings in Media Corp both as a demonstration of our commitment to our strategy going forward and because we firmly believe they offered a good buying opportunity."
The share price has increased over 23% in the past week and the London-based Group's market capitalisation is now around £17 million.
Together, the Chairman and CEO, who founded the company in February 2000, hold almost 10% of Media Corp.
Justin Drummond saw Media Corp listed on the London Stock Exchange just a year after its formation through the reverse takeover of Chrome Technology plc in May 2001.
Since then he has steered the Group's rapid growth that has included the acquisitions of Eyeconomy Limited, a leading media agency, and Search Focus Limited, a specialist in sector specific search technology and marketing. Both are now integrated within the Group and growing strongly. In the last financial year Search Focus' grew revenues by 355% as advertisers paid more for new customers for their internet sites.
The Group has also just boosted Eyeconomy's capacity by investing in extra server infrastructure and delivery technology.
Chairman Jason Drummond is a high profile investor. As well as Media Corp, he has co-founded a number of highly successful technology firms which are listed on AIM, including, Coms plc, Nettworx plc and Betex Group plc.
He founded Virtual Internet, an online intellectual property protection and web hosting company, in 1996.
Mr Tuson, Group Finance Director, joined Media Corp earlier this year, bringing significant industry and finance experience.
The Group also this week announced the appointment of Michael Hawkes as a Non-executive Director.
Mr Hawkes was the finance director of Northern Europe for the internet marketing company Overture Services Limited, which is now part of Yahoo! He joined Overture in time for its launch in the UK and during his four and a half years of service he helped grow the company into a profitable multi million pound European business. He has had AIM director experience with Z Group PLC (ZGP), an internet technology services company.
Notes to Editors:
Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Media Corp, is a leading internet media and advertising Company focused on search, publishing and media sales. The company has three principal divisions:
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