Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. announced Thurs. that it has reached an agreement to acquire Jumpstart Automotive Media, the San Francisco-based advertising network focused exclusively on the automotive industry, writes MediaBuyerPlanner.

Jumpstart will immediately assume responsibility for the online advertising sales of Hachette Filipacchi's CarandDriver.com, RoadandTrack.com and CycleWorld.com, significantly expanding its advertising inventory.

Hachette said an initial cash payment of $84 million is payable under the terms of the agreement, according to Thomson Financial, with additional considerations of up to a maximum amount of $26 million, to be paid in 2008 and 2010, if specified earnings targets are met.

Jumpstart will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hachette, retaining the Jumpstart brand and all of its employees.

The Hachette sites will be aggregated with Jumpstart's network to bring the total number of unique visitors to 5 million per month (ComScore, March 2007), making Hachette and Jumpstart among the leading players in the online automotive industry.