Microsoft made an offer of $486 million in late August 2008 to purchase Greenfield Online, the owner of Ciao GmbH and Ciao, Inc. Representatives from Microsoft said the purchase was primarily made to boost the company's Internet search and e-commerce business in Europe.

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Ciao claimed that it reached an audience of 28.4 million monthly unique visitors (ComScore, January 2013) in Europe.

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Ciao was a European-based online-shopping portal with websites in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Sweden. In February 2008, the company launched an American version of the site, Ciao.com. The site provided a forum where registered users could write reviews and give their opinions on a wide variety of products to help others make decisions. These reviews were available to the general public to help consumers, but also rated by other Ciao users on their usefulness on a scale ranging from exceptional to off-topic. 

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Greenfield Online acquires Ciao AG for a total of $154M

by Bettina Engert | April 7, 2005

Ciao.de exit Germany USA

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Munich/Wilten, Connecticut, April 7, 2005 – Exit Ciao AG: Greenfield Online has announced the completed acquisition of fellow online E commerce specialist Ciao AG for cash plus shares to a total value of $154 million. The move creates a major new global force in Internet E commerce. According to Max Cartellieri, Ciao AG’s Co-founder and CEO, the two companies are coming together at ‘a very opportune time.’

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“The online E commerce market is growing rapidly as more and more clients worldwide demonstrate a preference for online buying.”

Max Cartellieri, Ciao AG

 

The acquisition is expected to be accretive to 2005 and future years’ earnings per share. The $150m consists of $57.7m in cash and 3,947,367 shares of Greenfield Online common stock valued at $19.00 per share. The amount is subject to certain post closing adjustments. Greenfield’s principal aim is to accelerate the growth of its market share in Europe: “From a revenue perspective, we believe Ciao AG is the largest independent E Commerce platform in Europe’ says Greenfield President and CEO Dean Wiltse, “with an established online community that spans fifteen countries and a large, diverse client base.”

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“Together Greenfield Online and Ciao AG have the global E commerce and panel capabilities, the sales and delivery teams and technology infrastructure to meet our worldwide clients’ broad data collection requirements.”

Dean Wiltse, Greenfield

 

Greenfield will also adopt Ciao’s online community platform as a model for its US panels. Wiltse says the platform has delivered success for Ciao “in terms of their ability to recruit, retain and entertain panelists”. Ciao recruits for its panel through a variety of other sources, including partnerships with major ISPs, banner ads and text links on affiliate sites, but its own site and online community are the key.

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Ciao is headquartered in Munich, Germany and in 6 years since its founding has grown to 150 employees. It has four other European offices in London, Paris, Madrid, and Timisoara, Romania, as well as a small office with 5 employees in the US. Ciao saw exceptional growth in 2004 with revenue up 80% on the previous year to €18.1m ($22.5m USD), operating income doubling to c.€6.9m ($8.6m), EBITDA up 91% to €7.3m ($9.1m) and marketing research client base almost doubling to 210 companies.

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Ciao’s online community sites in Europe have over 10 million unique visitors per month, across five different countries (Germany, France, UK, Italy and Spain), and are unusually interactive with participants writing product reviews as well as taking surveys. In addition to these five countries, the acquisition gives Greenfield increased reach across Sweden, The Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Austria, and Switzerland.