Half-year operating profits at Europe’s third-ranked online ad group Hi-Media were up to EUR 7 million (£4.87 million) after sales jumped 53 percent to EUR 49 million (£34 million). It’s now targeting full-year profit of EUR 15 million (£10.43 million), more than double last year’s EUR 7.2 million (£5 million) profit.

SEE ALSO: Photo Sharing Site Fotolog Acquired By French Company Hi Media For $90 Million

Why’s Paris-based Hi-Media important? Because in mid-August it announced a draft agreement to buy New York-based photo-sharing site Fotolog for EUR 65.8 million (£45.74 million) - a rare example of a US site being bought up from European shores (albeit one that’s especially strong in Spain and Latin America). In its earnings, which reveal its a mostly-stock acquisition with EUR 15.3 million (£10.64 million) in cash, Hi-Media notes Fotolog’s member base has grown from 10 million to 11 million since the deal was announced. There’s a press release to the same effect.

Silicon Alley Insider wonders: “Why is it still trumpeting growth stats via press release? To assuage Hi-Media investors, who are being asked to sign off on a highly dilutive deal that valued Fotolog at 39x its projected 2007 revenue of $2.3 million (£1.15 million). Hi-Media shares have dropped seven percent since the deal was announced.”

In fact, after a rally last week, Hi-Media is now trading around the same price it was the day the Fotolog deal was announced, and Fotolog’s unique monthly user count has grown 60 percent to 15 million since January. That doesn’t mean Fotolog isn’t a trophy acquisition for Hi-Media, which will put the takeover proposal to shareholders in a meeting in November. But it does mean the French ad group itself, at least, sees a pay-off both in Fotolog’s growing audience and in the opportunity to place only its clients’ ads on the site as the photo-sharing consolidation continues.

Earnings release