PARIS, September 8, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- The Wikio group, who operates the social media portal Wikio.co.uk (http://wikio.co.uk/) and the blog monetisation platform E-Buzzing, is to merge with OverBlog, Europe's leading blog platform.

A group will for the first time combine a blog network, a news and blog portal and a monetisation platform that allows advertisers to take part in the conversations taking place at the heart of the blogosphere and social networks.

The new Wikio group resulting from this merger will become one of the most important internet platforms in Europe, a leading social media reference point, and an important RD centre for web based content. The group will employ around 110 co-workers, with a revenue of more than 10 million euros in 2010.

The Wikio group will reach 26,5 million unique visitors (Comscore stats).

An experienced team

Successful start-ups are those who concentrate the best talents, explains Pierre Chappaz, CEO of the group (and founder of Kelkoo, one of the biggest European internet success stories). At Overblog, we have found a unique group of social web entrepreneurs and experts. Our partnership was like love at first sight, our areas of expertise are so complementary!

Having created, with OverBlog, a product used by more than 10 million French internet users has already been an extraordinary adventure! This merger is a major change for us since Wikio will allow us to strongly develop Overblog in six countries and significantly improve the monetisation of our audience, adds Frédéric Montagnon, co-founder of OverBlog, who will become Marketing Director of the Wikio group.

This merger will allow us to offer to our clients the most powerful social media network in the market to broadcast their videos and engage in conversation within UK communities, Paul Coggins, UK Managing Director Ebuzzing.

About the Wikio Group

The Wikio group already has offices in France, Italy and the UK.

E-Buzzing: Europe's leading blog monetisation platform and distributer of quality content and videos for advertisers across the internet Wikio: Leading European social media portal (3 million indexed sources) OverBlog: Leading European blog platform Promodigital: Leading blog monetisation platform in Italy Wikio Buzz (formerly Neotia): e-reputation consulting

Wikio was consulted by Mirabaud Financial Planning SA (Etienne Mouthon) and OverBlog by Amparo Corporate Development (Pedro Mendoza).

SOURCE: Wikio Group

CONTACT: Press contact: Agence Bermudes-rp. , Frédérique Boyer / AdelineKroetz, +33(0)1-40-54-23-40, fboyer@bermudes-rp.com ,akroetz@bermudes-rp.com . Frédéric Montagnon, fred@nomao.com .