blinkx plc confirms that it has delivered a letter to the Board of Directors and CEO of MIVA, Inc. in which blinkx proposes to acquire MIVA for a cash consideration of $1.20 per share.

MIVA is a Nasdaq-listed digital media company. It describes itself as having two focuses to its business: owning and operating a growing portfolio of consumer destination sites and interest-specific toolbars, through its MIVA Direct division; and running a third-party contextual Pay-Per-Click ad network focused on key vertical sectors, through its MIVA Media division. MIVA, Inc. operates across North America and Europe.

blinkx believes the proposal is highly attractive for MIVA shareholders. blinkx’s proposal represents a 54% premium above the closing price of MIVA common stock of $0.78 on August 7, 2008, and a 36% premium over the average closing price for the one month prior to August 7, 2008.

Commenting on the proposal, blinkx CEO and Founder Suranga Chandratillake said: “Our recent strong momentum in the business, and our positioning in the area of performance-based advertising which has shown itself to be robust in the current climate, has encouraged us to consider opportunities to accelerate our growth. We’re excited about the opportunities presented by a combination with MIVA. blinkx has been developing advanced monetization technologies, which we are now ready to introduce aggressively into the market. This transaction would enable us to accelerate the penetration of these more advanced technologies into the marketplace over the current planned organic approach. We hope that the Board of MIVA will appreciate the uniqueness of this opportunity.”

blinkx believes that a combination of the two companies would be mutually beneficial to both companies’ shareholders, employees, and customers. blinkx and MIVA have complementary businesses that could benefit ngreatly from blinkx’s technology and MIVA’s distribution network.

Specifically, blinkx’s advanced and scalable matching technology will enable immediate platform improvements for MIVA. As a result, large portions of relevant search traffic from MIVA’s search ad network will be monetizeable at higher rates through blinkx’s technology.