News Corp. sells Fox Mobile Group to Jesta Group

December 23, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Jesta Group has acquired Fox Mobile Group (FMG) from News Corporation.  A leading global entertainment provider, FMG includes such well-known consumer brands as Jamba, Jamster, Mobizzo and iLove, as well as Bitbop, a mobile video service and entertainment platform launched in the U.S. in early 2010. FMG, which will be renamed and become a part of Jesta Mobile Holdings, is co-headquartered in Berlin, Germany, and Beverly Hills, California, and operates in North America, Europe, South America and Australia.

“We believe that mobile entertainment is an important emerging market and we are excited about this acquisition and the opportunities for growth it presents”, said Jason Aintabi, president of Jesta Group.  “FMG’s unique ten-year history in mobile entertainment services; its stature as a trusted partner with carriers and device manufacturers; and its many successful consumer brands give it a clear advantage in this rapidly developing sector.  We look forward to working with the many talented and dedicated global employees of FMG and to a very bright future for the company and its brands.”

Mark Anderson, COO of FMG, added: “We are all very excited to grow this business under Jesta Group’s leadership, and to build upon the solid base established under News Corp.’s stewardship.”

Jesta Group is a diversified company with a long history as a leading investor in all classes of global real estate and hospitality as well as in other important sectors of the economy, notably in the fields of manufacturing, technology and aviation. Jesta is headquartered in London, Paris, Montreal and New York.

Allen & Company LLC served as financial advisor to News Corporation on the transaction.

The transaction was completed on December 22, 2010.  Financial details were not disclosed. 

USA, New York, NY

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Tribune Media Services acquires internet video search and indexing company CastTV

December 18, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Tribune Media Services (TMS), a provider of entertainment information databases, has acquired video search platform CastTV.

The acquisition will enhance TMS’ entertainment metadata, widely used by 4,000 media and technology companies in 40 countries.  TMS customers will now have access to all the metadata necessary to create entertainment-discovery guides that direct consumers to programs available on linear, on-demand and online video platforms.

CastTV has developed search technology that aggregates, indexes and presents data on millions of TV shows, movies, music videos, news and sports clips, and viral videos from more than 1,000 web-video sources.

The CastTV technology automatically matches online video to professionally edited, structured databases such as TMS’ TV, movie and celebrity data, allowing for deep integration with existing TMS products.  The CastTV system also allows for “device-aware” content-discovery products that can be limited or expanded to include only access to videos that address a customer’s device limitations or the business needs of a video provider. 

The acquisition includes all of CastTV’s technology, products, intellectual property and staff, including CEO Edwin Ong and president Alex Vikati, who founded the San Francisco-based company together in 2006.

“We are thrilled to bring the best-in-class innovations that our talented team has developed to industry leader TMS,” said Ong. “By combining our technology with TMS’ industry-leading entertainment data, we can offer media and technology customers comprehensive, ‘one stop watching’ solutions for today’s connected consumers,” added Vikati.

Combining CastTV’s capabilities with TMS’ deep databases of TV shows, movies and celebrities, will give media and technology companies a one-stop solution for guiding consumers through the rapidly growing array of video platforms.  TMS will link the CastTV index of online programs to TMS metadata to enable customers to easily direct consumers to programs regardless of where they are offered.

CastTV also operates a consumer website (www.CastTV.com), which provides more than four million consumers with a comprehensive resource to find what video they want to watch online.  TMS will operate the CastTV.com site as part of its Zap2it.com entertainment network, which currently reaches eight million Web visitors and four million mobile app users monthly.  TMS will offer advertising packages that combine the entertainment-hungry audiences of both sites.

“With over 50 million Americans watching shows online each week, online video consumption is now mainstream,” said Jay Fehnel, Chief Operating Officer for TMS Entertainment Products.  “Most consumers have a hard time finding all the online content they would enjoy — and have no way to see all their viewing options in one place.   By adding CastTV’s expertise, TMS will be able to help our clients deliver one guide to all the video a consumer can view, regardless of where the program comes from and what device they are using to view it.”

“The addition of CastTV provides TMS customers fully integrated capabilities that are essential to building professional, reliable and structured video-discovery experiences.  It also gives TMS significant additional data-management and technology expertise that is uniquely valuable across our increasingly complex metadata business,” added John Zelenka, Senior Vice President of Business Development for TMS. 

USA, San Francisco, CA

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Russian state-owned media may be put up for sale

December 7, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

 
Shaping the Future of the Newspaper blog is reporting that all newspapers, television channels and radio stations owned by members of the Russian government will be put up for sale. sfnblog quotes presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich, “”Right now, it’s a pointless waste of time. They are to be sold, but the date hasn’t been established yet,”.

The story is based on reports in polit.ru and Trud.ru

Read the full story

Russia

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BMG Rights Management is acquiring Chrysalis for £107M

November 27, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

BMG Rights Management is acquiring independent music publisher Chrysalis. Chrysalis shareholders will receive 160 pence in cash for each Chrysalis Share held. The Acquisition values Chrysalis at approximately £107.4 million.

Hartwig Masuch, the CEO of BMG, said: “We believe that our offer represents compelling value for Chrysalis’ shareholders as evidenced by the strong endorsement BMG has received from Chrysalis’ Board and its major shareholders. The acquisition of Chrysalis represents an important step forward in our strategy as we build a major, global music rights business. Chrysalis’ extensive and high quality catalogue represents an excellent fit with our existing business. Our strategy is to provide state-of-the-art, comprehensive and transparent management of music rights and the operational excellence of Chrysalis reinforces this commitment. BMG looks forward to working with Chrysalis to build on its success to date for the benefit of all stakeholders.”

Chris Wright, Chairman and Co-Founder of Chrysalis, said: “Today’s deal marks the end of one era and the start of another for Chrysalis, a company which has been at the heart of the music industry since I founded it jointly with my original partner, Terry Ellis, more than four decades ago. Our continued progress – evolving from management, recorded music, television and radio to focus on music publishing – has been clearly recognised by BMG. As we embark together on the next chapter of the Chrysalis story, I am proud of both our track record and our future prospects in an industry in which we have both innovated and pioneered.”

UK, London and Germany, Berlin

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NEP Broadcasting acquires American Hi Definition

November 23, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Broadcast and media services business NEP Broadcasting has acquired American Hi Definition. the businesses will be merged into the NEP Entertainment division.

The Sage Group, LLC acted as the exclusive financial advisor and Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP acted as legal counsel to American Hi Definition and Sweetwater.

“Sweetwater and American Hi Definition are a tremendous addition to NEP.  We are thrilled to have their expertise and talent as part of our group.  I know that this combined team will truly enhance the services we provide to our entertainment clients,” said NEP Broadcasting CEO, Debbie Honkus.

NEP will provide an integrated set of services and technology to the entertainment industry across seven business units, offering: mobile television production solutions provided by Denali and Sweetwater, full-service studio production services by Studios, mobile and modular LED video screens and video projection from Screenworks and American Hi Definition, power generation and distribution from Live Power, and mobile and live-to-web event production provided by Premiere Entertainment.

USA, Pittsburgh, PA

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Aspiro sells mobile entertainment business to Exsol Oy

November 20, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

TV and music streaming services business Aspiro has sold its remaining Mobile Entertainment business in Finland to Exsol Oy. The initial purchase price is €100,000, plus an earn-out which should give Aspiro a minimum of €200,000 euros over a two year period. The earn-out model is based on 15% percent of the pay-outs from the operators. Net sales for the Mobile Entertainment business in Finland from January-September 2010 was about 7.5 million SEK. Earnings after direct expenses for the same period were approximately 1.8 million SEK and EBITDA of minus 0.7 million SEK.

“We are streamlining our operations and focusing mainly on streaming services in music, television and video, as well as business solutions in the Mobile Solutions area. We see very high growth potential in the future and it is therefore positive that we can focus even more on our core business, “says Aspiro’s CEO Gunnar Sellæg.

Aspiro delivers services to partners worldwide like T-Mobile, Telefónica O2, Telenor, 3, TeliaSonera, Tele2, the BBC, Aftonbladet, mBlox, TVNorge, Entel and VG. Aspiro is listed on Nasdaq OMX Nordic Exchange Stockholm and has a local presence in all the Nordic and Baltic countries. Sales for continuing operations in 2009 were SEK 249 m and the company has some 115 employees.

Finland

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NBCU acquires TV prodco Monkey Kingdom

November 19, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

NBC Universal has acquired indie Monkey Kingdom for an undisclosed sum. Under the erms of the agreement NBCU will acquire 100% of the company and all Monkey library rights. This is NBCU’s second UK prodution company acquisition. NBCU also acquired Carnival Film & Television in 2008. It is the first acquisition by the studio since the appointment of Michael Edelstein as NBCU president of international TV production.

Monkey Kingdom was founded in 2001 by producers David Granger and Will Macdonald. The company delivers scripted, factual and entertainment programming in both the UK and the USA. Monkey has a proven ability to produce a wide range of content, as diverse as The Charlotte Church Show, The House Of Obsessive Compulsives, The Secret World of Sam King and Prince Charles’ Other Mistress, ensuring that ideas will always be given the best possible creative and production support.

UK, London & USA, New York, NY

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SB Nation acquires SportsRadioInterviews.com

November 10, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Online sports media company SB Nation has acquired SportsRadioInterviews.com. SportsRadioInterviews.com (SRI) is a streaming sports blog which provides analysis of breaking news, upcoming games and sporting events from a sports radio perspective. Co-founded by Jimmy Shapiro and Dan Zucker of www.zuckermediagroup.com, SRI has developed a unique style of breaking national sports news by pushing out local and syndicated sports radio station interviews.

“Our goal at SB Nation is to provide sports fans with news, opinion and analysis, regardless of where the information happens,” said Jim Bankoff, Chairman and CEO of SB Nation. “There is so much great content on the radio, SRI will be a great asset and compliment the entire SB Nation portfolio.”

SRI co-founder Jimmy Shapiro commented, “Creating this site has allowed us to leverage our relationships in the sports media business to build a category leader quickly. We are looking forward to continuing to grow the brand under Jim and his teams’ guidance.”

Shapiro will stay on as the Executive Editor of SportsRadioInterviews.

USA, Washington, DC

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Apax to sell Hit Entertainment

October 31, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

According to the Telegraph, private equity firm Apax will put Hit Entertainment – owner of Bob the Builder and Angelina Ballerina – up for sale following interest from US groups including Mattel and Disney. Apax is close to appointing either UBS or Bank of America Merrill Lynch after shortlisting the two banks to manage the sales process. The private equity group hopes to sell the business for as much as $1.5bn (£950m).

UK, London

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ITV plc sells Screenvision assets to Shamrock Capital for US $80m

October 11, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

ITV plc has reached agreement with Shamrock Capital Growth Fund II, a leading, US-based private equity fund focused on media, entertainment and communications investing, to sell its 50% stake in Screenvision for a cash consideration of US $80m. Completion of the transaction is subject to US Hart Scott Rodino anti-trust clearance.

Commenting on the transaction Adam Crozier, Chief Executive of ITV plc, said:

“This is another important step for ITV as we progress our transformation plan to focus the business on its core objectives of UK multi-platform broadcasting and global content. The proceeds of this sale will positively impact our net debt which decreased by £175m in the six months to 30th June 2010.”

UK, London & USA, New York, NY

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