Mediasurface soars on bid approach

Mediasurface last night issued a statement saying "The Company notes the recent share price and announces that it has received apreliminary approach, which may or may not lead to an offer for the Company.The approach has been received from a UK company that does not compete directlywith Mediasurface". This morning Mediasurface shares have shot up by c50% to c10p.

I have always really liked Mediasurface which develops and markets content management software. So much so that Elderstreet (where I am an 'advisor') became an investor in 2000 via their Elderstreet Capital Partners fund. As I am an investor in that fund, I am indirectly an investor in Mediasurface too.

Our hopes for Mediasurface rose and rose as they successfully completed their AIM IPO in Aug 2004. In July 2007 they acquired Immediacy which also looks a very good deal and complements their offerings intop mid-sized companies. Less good was the launch of Pepperio - a version of Mediasurface's Morello product for SMEs. Losses here contributed to a EBITDA loss of £1.3m on revenues of £11.6m in the year to 30th Sept 07. This put the shares into freefall - falling from c20p to c4p. In Feb 08, Mediasurface raised £750K.

I await further news of the bid with more personal interest than usual!