French e-commerce and advertising firm Rentabiliweb has failed in a reverse takeover bid for its main rival Hi-Media, an offer the latter described as “groundless” and not in the interests of shareholders or employees. Hi-Media last night published a brief statement confirming it had turned down the offer of an “alliance”.

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The company’s board certainly didn’t need very long to come to a decision after Wednesday’s bid. French media site Neteco.com reports that although Rentabiliweb has a lower turnover, €51 million (£40.1 million) compared to Hi-Media’s €104 million (£81.9 million), it has a higher market cap than its rival at well over €104 million compared to Hi-Media’s €69 million (£54.3 million). Hi-Media predicted a tougher environment for the French online ad market in the near future, as it posted revenues up 17 percent year-on-year to €30.4 million (£24 million) and both it and Rentabiliweb have diversified into sectors away from advertising like micropayments. Development in that area helped Hi-Media to triple the online sales of Fotolog, the photo site it bought last year, to $2.5 million (£1.9 million), adding to the revenues from its other content sites like JeuxVideo.com, ActuStar.com and the Blogorama network of blogs. Rentabiliweb has yet to respond to our request for clarification on the offer.