Publicis Groupe acquires Chinese digital agency Wangfan

November 2, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Publicis Groupe has acquired Wangfan, an innovative digital agency based in Shanghai that focuses on piloting interactive campaigns, web branding, and the conception and design of websites.

Founded in 1997, Wangfan was among the first digital agencies in China, and has won numerous creative awards. The agency has seen rapid revenue growth in recent years, with a 19% increase in 2010 over 2009 and a projected 16% increase in 2011. Its clients include Puma and Shanghai General Motors, alongside a broad range of other international and Chinese companies.

Wangfan will be rebranded to become part of Publicis Modem Shanghai, the digital arm of Publicis Shanghai, and Wangfan CEO Bill Wang will become Managing Director of Publicis Modem Shanghai. Wangfan’s 61-person team will provide a fresh boost to Publicis’ local skill-set in the surging digital market. According to ZenithOptimedia, ad expenditure rose by 25.3% in China in 2010. Further double-digit growth is expected through 2013, driven specifically by Internet advertising, whose share of total spend will rise from around 18% in 2010 to 25% by the end of 2013.

The acquisition of Wangfan, which remains subject to the approval of the relevant authorities, is another step towards Publicis Groupe’s objective of doubling its size in the fast-growing Chinese market between 2010 and 2012. This goal is part of an overall strategy of strongly boosting revenue derived from emerging economies and from the digital sector. In the past twelve months the Groupe has acquired Chinese agencies Genedigi (June 2011), Dreams (May 2011), Interactive Communications Ltd (ICL) (February 2011), and Eastwei Relations (November 2010). In terms of organic growth (not including acquisitions and foreign exchange movements), China was one of eleven countries where the Groupe’s growth hit double digits in the first half of 2011.

Jean-Yves Naouri, Publicis Groupe COO and Chairman of China Publicis Groupe, commented, “China is a core priority for us. It’s a market where we aim to be perceived as essential interlocutors. Wangfan is a superb agency with a talented and fast-moving team. They began as pioneers and they have kept moving ahead of the creative and technological wave in the ongoing digital boom. We’re pleased to welcome them to our team in Shanghai.”

“Through this acquisition, Publicis Shanghai is able to integrate more talents and resources, and to offer our clients more services,” added Chenghua Yang, Managing Director of Publicis Shanghai.

France, Paris & China, Shanghai

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mergermarket Q3 Monthly M&A Insider report

November 2, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

According to the mergermarket Q3 Monthly M&A Insider report (October 2011), global m&a in the first three quarters of 2011 totalled us$1,718bn – a 21.5% increase from the us$1,414.4bn worth of deals registered in the first three quarters of 2010 – and the financial services sector saw an even steeper 37.4% increase during this nine-month window. The first three quarters of 2011 brought us$208.5bn in financial services deals to market, up from us$151.7bn in the same period last year,

Sectors covered by Fusion DigiNet

The largest sector by market share was Energy, Mining and Utilities at 23.1% (835 deals) down 10% (-125 by volume), in 7th place is Business Services at 4.4% (1,159 deals) -17% (+62 by volume), media is in 8th place at 1.9% (279 deals) +23% (no change by volume).

See the full report at mergermarket

Posted in Broadcasting, Conference/Exhibitions, Consultancy, e-Retail, Energy & Environmental Services, Games, Internet Media, Market Data & Information, Marketing Services, Mobile Apps, Research Reports, ~Asia, ~Europe, ~Latin America and Caribbean, ~Middle East & Africa, ~North America, ~Oceana. Leave a Comment »

Rakuten to acquirie Play.com for approximately £25M

September 22, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Rakuten is acquiring UK e-commerce site Play.com for approximately £25 million in cash. The deal is expected to close early in October.

The acquisition represents a significant step in Rakuten’s continued European and Global expansion and marks the company’s third acquisition in Europe, joining French e-commerce pioneer PriceMinister, acquired in 2010, and the rapidly expanding German online shopping mall, Tradoria, which joined the Rakuten Group in July of this year. Rakuten now operates e-commerce businesses in ten countries globally, including Japan.

Hiroshi Mikitani, Chairman and CEO of Rakuten, commented on the acquisition, “The UK market is one of Europe’s largest and most mature e-commerce markets. Play.com is not only a pioneer in the market, but also one of the UK’s most successful e-commerce businesses. We aim to leverage our e-commerce strength and experience to further expand and develop Play.com’s business model and channel its loyal user base, merchants, and deep product offerings into Rakuten’s global e-commerce network.”

Japan, Tokyo and UK, Cambridge

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MyHeritage.com has acquired BackupMyTree

September 20, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

MyHeritage.com has acquired BackupMyTree, a free and automatic backup service for family tree data. This is the sixth acquisition by MyHeritage.com. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The BackupMyTree backup service, which was only launched one year ago,  protects more than 9 TB of family tree data. MyHeritage.com will continue to maintain the service and keep it free.

“As the leading international destination for families to explore their history, share memories and keep in touch, we understand the enormous value users place on protecting their family tree data,” said Gilad Japhet, founder and CEO of MyHeritage.com. “We believe that BackupMyTree’s cutting edge client-to-cloud technology has massive potential and share its mission of preserving family history, making this a natural and synergistic move for us. We look forward to continuing to provide an excellent free backup service and exploring ways for BackupMyTree to benefit existing MyHeritage.com users and vice versa.”

BackupMyTree is the second company that MyHeritage.com has purchased from serial entrepreneur Cliff Shaw, having acquired Pearl Street Software, makers of GenCircles.com and Family Tree Legends, in 2007. MyHeritage.com continues to run both GenCircles.com and Family Tree Legends, and has made the Family Tree Legends software and record collection free.

USA, Boulder, CO & UK, London & Israel, Tel Aviv

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InMobi receives a massive £200M investment

September 15, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

InMobi, the independent mobile ad network, is to receive a massive $200 million investment from SOFTBANK Corp. The funding will take place in two tranches- $100 million in September 2011 followed by an equivalent tranche in April 2012.

Softbank joins existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sherpalo Ventures. The $200 million investment, one of the largest to date in the mobile internet space , will help the company create value across the mobile ecosystem globally through advertising, mobile payments using SmartPay™, and HTML5 rich media production and distribution using the recently acquired Sprout™ platform.

Naveen Tewari, Founder & CEO of InMobi, commented: “The size of the investment and quality of investor validate the enormous potential in mobile today and strengthen our role in helping the industry evolve. We have already established ourselves as a leader in mobile advertising on every continent. This is just the beginning. With a global leader like Softbank behind us, we are now well positioned to fully capitalize on the opportunity before us through substantially increased product innovation, deeper market penetration, and acquisitions across the mobile ad value chain.”

“I am delighted at this opportunity to partner with InMobi, one the world’s largest mobile ad networks”, said Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of Softbank. “I hope the partnership with InMobi, a fast-growing startup with significant mobile expertise and an outstanding technology platform; will further accelerate the pace of development in the mobile Internet space globally. We believe this partnership will help Softbank become the No. 1 Internet company in Asia and I look forward to working with the InMobi team.”

This partnership will provide Softbank and InMobi with opportunities to further explore global scale collaboration in the fast growing mobile ad market. It is also expected to generate further synergies between InMobi and Softbank, given the significant number of prominent Asian Internet companies in Softbank’s investment portfolio.

USA, San Mateo, CA & Japan, Tokyo

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IAC’s Match.com invests in Chinese matchmaking site Zhenai

September 14, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Match.com, an operating business of IAC, has acquired a 20% interest in Zhenai, a provider of online matchmaking services in China. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Launched in 2005 by Dr. Song Li, Zhenai provides integrated Internet and telephone matchmaking services to China’s rapidly growing single population who are looking for long-term relationships.  Zhenai has established a large and growing user base of over 30 million registered members that have the ability to create their own personal profiles, search or browse for member profiles, and communicate with members through the Zhenai.com website.  Most distinctly, Zhenai commands especially high subscription rates due to subscribers’ access to over 1000 professional matchmakers at Zhenai’s call centers who are available to provide subscribers with advice and consultation throughout the dating process.

“Given the rapid growth in China’s online personals market, we felt that Zhenai was the best opportunity for Match.com to further expand our global footprint by partnering with a local market leader,” said Greg Blatt, IAC, CEO. “With a strong management team led by Founder, Chairman, and CEO Dr. Song Li, we believe that Zhenai will continue to flourish as the Chinese online personals market expands and we are excited for the many opportunities that this investment brings.”

“We are thrilled to have the global leader in online dating join us as a strategic investor,” said Zhenai founder and CEO Dr. Li. “We look forward to leveraging their vast knowledge in this arena to continue to innovate and develop new services to meet the growing demand for online personals in China.”

Cowen Latitude acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Zhenai on the transaction.

USA, New York, NY & China

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FriendFinder Networks acquires BDM Global Ventures

September 12, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

FriendFinder Networks an internet and technology company providing services in the expanding markets of social networking and web-based video sharing, has acquired BDM Global Ventures Ltd., the company which owns the operations of JigoCity, for a combination of stock and warrants.  The merger consideration consists of approximately 1.6 million shares of FFN common stock and approximately 6.4 million FFN warrants with exercise prices ranging from $5.00-$18.00 per share.  Assuming the cashless exercise of all the warrants at the highest exercise price, the merger consideration will be approximately $65 million.

JigoCity is a global social commerce organisation providing daily deals. They have 150 employees and provide services in around 20 cities and offices in Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, China,South Korea, Brazil and Los Angeles. The company has plans to expand into additional countries by year end. JigoCity generated revenue of approximately $600,000 in July and approximately $1.1 million in August and has grown its user base to over 1 million members.

JigoCity is led by an experienced management team including Founder and Chief Executive Officer Tony Bobulinski, Founder and Chief Marketing Officer Michael Dorman and Founder and Chief Strategy Officer Joshua Mallamud. Following the acquisition, JigoCity will retain its brand identity while benefiting from FriendFinder Networks’ website traffic and user base. JigoCity will remain based in Los Angeles, CA with its Asia Regional Headquarters in Shanghai, China.

Marc Bell, Chief Executive Officer of FriendFinder Networks Inc. said, “We are expanding into today’s rapidly growing social commerce environment and we are very excited about the new possibilities this acquisition presents. Not only are we acquiring a growing and successful social commerce company, we believe we are gaining an additional avenue to monetize our foreign markets. China and the Asia-Pacific region represent one of the fastest growing areas of the world in terms of economic growth, internet usage and middle and upper class consumers. In addition, we believe this acquisition demonstrates the innovative ways we continue to leverage our large user base and the web traffic generated by our network of websites.”

USA, Sunnyvale, CA, Los Angeles, CA & China, Shanghai

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LivingSocial to acquire Korea’s TicketMonster

August 6, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

LivingSocial has signed a definitive agreement to acquire TicketMonster Inc., a social commerce website in South Korea.  Founded in 2010, TicketMonster offers daily and instant deals, travel packages, and events to more than 2 million members in Korea and Malaysia.

“TicketMonster is one of Korea’s most recognized and trusted brands in the nascent daily deal industry, and we are excited to bring them into the LivingSocial family,” said Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO and co-founder of LivingSocial. “TicketMonster and LivingSocial share the same culture of innovation, customer focus and fun, and we believe that the benefits we bring to consumers can be extended to other markets in Asia and around the world.”

Following regulatory review and approval, the acquisition of TicketMonster will bring the total number of countries LivingSocial operates in to 23.  Other countries in Asia with LivingSocial operations include the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia, through the Ensogo and DealKeren acquisitions announced earlier this summer.

“Like LivingSocial, TicketMonster has always focused on providing great values to our members while helping our merchant partners reach new, loyal customers,” said Daniel Shin, CEO of TicketMonster.  ”Joining LivingSocial will give TicketMonster the resources, scale and reach to bring our business to the next level across the region while providing even better services for our customers.  We believe that this deal will advance the interests of our merchants, our members, and all Korean consumers.”

Terms of the deal were not released.  After closing, TicketMonster’s 600 employees will become part of the LivingSocial team.

USA, Washington & South Korea

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Half Year Mergers and Acquisitions Trends Report for Private Equity in the Information Industry

August 1, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Berkery Noyes has released its Half Year Mergers and Acquisitions Trends Report for Private Equity in the Information Industry.

The report analyses merger and acquisition activity in the private equity market over the first half of 2011 and compares it with activity in the four previous sixth-month periods. Berkery Noyes includes in this report transactions made by financially sponsored acquirers within the Information Industry, including purchases made by subsidiaries or platforms of private equity firms.

Berkery Noyes data shows that transaction volume and aggregate value rose considerably over the second half of 2010.  Transaction volume gained 11 percent in the first half of 2011, rising to 171, while value rose a considerable 21 percent in the first half, hitting $11 billion.

“The data shows that the private equity market continues to improve in the number of completed deals from the trough of 2009,” said John Shea, COO of Berkery Noyes. “The upward trend has been lumpy, however, and will probably continue that way for some time.”

The report also highlights the activity of Thomas H. Lee Partners within the information industry this half as the most active financial acquirer, with 10 acquisitions.  Thomas H. Lee Partners also announced the highest valued transaction this half, the pending acquisition of Acosta, Inc., a subsidiary of AEA Investors LP, for $2 billion.

A copy of the First Half 2011 Private Equity Industry M&A Report is available here.

USA, New York

 

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Half Year M&A Trends Report for the Financial Technology and Information Industry

July 19, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Berkery Noyes has released its Half Year Mergers and Acquisitions Trends Report for the Financial Technology and Information Industry.

The report analyses merger and acquisition activity in the Financial Technology and Information market over the first half of 2011 and compares it with activity in the four previous sixth-month periods. This market includes information and technology companies in capital markets, payments, banking, insurance and other related professional financial services.

Berkery Noyes data shows that while total transaction volume for the period remained largely unchanged, transaction value nearly tripled, jumping from $7.0 billion in 2nd Half 2010 to $19.5 billion this period. The 187 percent increase can be attributed primarily to Deutsche Borse Group’s announced merger with NYSE Euronext for $12.4 billion.

Fiserv, Inc., a leading provider of financial technology solutions, was the most active acquirer in 1st Half 2011, with four purchases: CashEdge, Inc., Credit Union On-Line, Inc., Mobile Commerce Ltd, and Maverick Network Solutions.

For the full two-and-a-half period covered by the report, Morningstar, Inc., was the sector’s most active acquirer. The investment research and financial news provider made nine acquisitions.

A copy of the First Half 2011 Financial Technology and Information Industry M&A Report is available here.

USA, New York

 

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