TripAdvisor acquires GateGuru

tripadvisorTripAdvisor has acquired GateGuru, a mobile resource for flight and airport information around the world.  Built on a mix of user-generated content and information from the airports, flyers can view detailed maps and insights on stores, restaurants, amenities and gate locations.  Combined with weather forecasts, estimated security wait times and real-time flight status information, the app aims to take the stress out of flying. The terms of the deal were  not  disclosed.

gateguru

“Flying is often an essential part of a trip and we have continually developed our suite of flights products, from the pricing andavailability search on TripAdvisor, to our award-winning SeatGuru.com, with seat maps and more,” said Steve Kaufer, co-founder and CEO TripAdvisor, Inc.  ”GateGuru nicely complements our existing flights products and we look forward to working with the GateGuru team as they continue to manage the GateGuru app and add great functionality to the TripAdvisor mobile experience.”

The GateGuru team will continue to operate out of New York City, and report to Bryan Saltzburg, General Manager New Initiatives and leader of the TripAdvisor Flights product and SeatGuru brand.

USA, Newton, MA & New York, NY

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Live Nation Entertainment acquires a majority stake in BDG Music Group,

LIVE NATION ENTERTAINMENT LOGOLive Nation Entertainment has acquired a majority stake in BDG Music Group, the Baltic region’s largest concert promotion company.

Since early 2012, BDG Music has produced more than 50 shows in the Baltics and sold more than 200,000 tickets. The group will bdgretain its current management team, although upon completion of the deal, it will be renamed Live Nation Baltics. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Michael Rapino, President and Chief Executive Officer of Live Nation Entertainment, said: “With this acquisition we now have operations in 43 countries. This further demonstrates our ongoing commitment to expanding our global footprint, which enables us to bring live entertainment to even more fans around the world.”

This year Live Nation Baltics is on the bill for major concerts featuring Robbie Williams and Depeche Mode, among others.

USA, Beverly Hills, CA & Estonia, Tallinn

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ITV acquires US TV production company Thinkfactory Media

itvITV plc is acquiring a controlling stake in Thinkfactory Media, a US producer of reality, entertainment and drama, including the Emmy award-winning Hatfields & McCoys. Based in Los Angeles, the company was founded by Emmy-nominated Producer, Leslie Greif. Think Factory Media produces programming in most genres for television including:  features, unscripted series, documentaries, mini-series, branded entertainment projects, concerts, music specials and various movies of the week.

thinkfactorymedia

ITV will pay an upfront cash consideration of $30m for a 65% stake in Thinkfactory Media, with a put and call option to buy theremaining 35% of the company. The put and call option could be exercised from between 3 years after the initial deal and at the end of year 5 with the total amount paid linked to the performance of the company over that period.  ITV says that the multiple paid is similar to the range paid on their previous acquisitions.

UK, London & USA, Losa Angeles, CA

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Northstar Travel Media acquires digital publishing firm Your Travel Insider

NorthStar Your Travel InsiderNorthstar Travel Media, a business-to-business information company serving the travel and meetings industries and a portfolio company of Wicks Group, has acquired Your Travel Insider, a digital publishing firm focused on the consumer travel market. The  terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded by by Roy Weiss in 2003, Your Travel Insider publishes e-newsletters Your Travel Insider, Luxury Cruise News and Your Travel Insider – Travel Tools. Weiss becomes Group Publisher of Your Travel Insider with the acquisition by Northstar.

Your Travel Insider and Roy Weiss will report to Bob Sullivan, Executive VP, of Northstar Travel Media, LLC.

“The addition of Your Travel Insider provides Northstar with significant position in the consumer travel database market to complement our leadership in the travel trade industry,” said Thomas Kemp, chairman and CEO of Northstar Travel Media. “We’re very pleased that Roy and his talented team will be working in partnership with us to grow Your Travel Insider’s subscriber base, expand its digital footprint and continue to work with their base of blue-chip clients.”

USA, Secaucus, NJ

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WPP takes stake in early-stage mobile content platform Muzy

wppWPP has taken a stake in Muzy, Inc., an early-stage microblogging service focused on mobile content creation. Muzy has attracted over 20 million users globally and is adding more than 1 million new users each month.

The investment is being made through WPP Ventures, based in Silicon Valley and run by President Tom Bedecarré. He is also Chairman of AKQA. WPP Ventures explores early-stage investments in new technology companies that offer innovative solutions to WPP clients and strengthen the capabilities of WPP.

muzy

Headquartered in San Francisco, Muzy was launched in 2011 by its cofounders, CEO Andrew Chen and CTO Matt Rubens. Like manyweb publishing startups, Muzy currently employs less than 10 people. Muzy will use the investment proceeds to further scale the engineering team and build out the suite of creative publishing tools for the Muzy platform. It offers more than 50 mobile publishing tools and a global network for sharing content and is a Top 100 photo app in 70+ countries.

UK, London & USA, San Francisco

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Plum District has acquired Spotivate

plumdistrictPlum District, the local deals site led by Susan Kim, has acquired Spotivate, a startup founded by Anthony Lee, previously a Senior Software Engineer at Google and Jorge Chang offering local experiences to parents. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Reporting by TechCrunch

Spotivate blog announcement

San Francisco, CA

High 5 Games acquires Electrotank assets

logo-high-5-games-smHigh 5 Games is to acquire substantially all of Electrotank‘s assets and intellectual property. Electrotank is a  provider of high-performance online and mobile game technology, including ElectroServer. Electrotank’s past clients include Disney, Neopets, MTV, Comedy Central, Mattel, Spinmaster, Hallmark, P&G, and Ubisoft. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“This move will allow High 5 Games to strengthen and finalize our upcoming Game Server Platform, which will allow our content to be real-time streamed to both regulated real-money gaming sites, as well as to social casino sites throughout the world,” said Anthony Singer, CEO of High 5 Games. “We are overjoyed to bring in the many talented individuals from Electrotank into High 5 Games.”

High 5 Games has worked with Electrotank in the past to move some of its land-based slot games onto Facebook’s gaming platform.

USA, New York, NY

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