Banks.com acquires FileLater.com

December 20, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

 
Banks.com, an operator of financial services focused media properties, has acquired FileLater.com, a leader in the online tax extension industry and a portfolio of tax-related Internet domains.

“The acquisition of FileLater and its portfolio of tax-related domain names fits like a glove with our go-forward strategy and makes us a dominant player in the online tax extension industry,” said Dan O’Donnell, President and Chief Executive Officer of Banks.com, Inc. “In addition to providing us with a proprietary platform, we will now own three of the top 10 URL’s in the Google algorithmic search listings for the term ‘tax extension,’ which is among the highest converting of all tax-related terms. This additional organic traffic, together with the traffic we generate through IRS.com, should generate meaningful revenue in the upcoming 2011 tax season.”

The Company also secured $600,000 in financing through a sale/leaseback transaction with Domain Capital of Fort Lee, N.J., and an additional $100,000 in debt from the Company’s CEO. “We are very pleased that we were able to secure additional working capital as well as the funds necessary to complete this acquisition,” continued Mr. O’Donnell. “This is a critical step in our evolution towards a more sustainable model in online personal finance and my investment in the Company to help facilitate our acquisition of FileLater is indicative of my personal commitment to achieving that goal. In addition, the sale/leaseback transaction has allowed us to monetize an intangible asset on our balance sheet while we continue to enjoy the upside value of those assets and all without the need to dilute our current shareholders.”

USA, San Francisco, CA

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Wolters Kluwer Health completes acquisition of Pharmacy OneSource

December 20, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Wolters Kluwer Health, a provider of information and business intelligence for professionals, students and institutions in medicine, nursing, allied health and pharmacy, has completed the acquisition of Pharmacy OneSource, a leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider in the hospital pharmacy market. The agreement to acquire Pharmacy OneSource was announced on November 29, 2010. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

This acquisition extends Wolters Kluwer Health’s Clinical Decision Support (CDS) solutions into the hospital pharmacy market and fits squarely into the company’s strategy to expand its business into high growth markets, particularly the fast-growing point-of-care market.

“The acquisition of Pharmacy OneSource will further drive our growth in the point-of-care market, which includes the critical area of the hospital pharmacy,” said Arvind Subramanian, President & CEO, Wolters Kluwer Health Clinical Solutions. “Our combined product offerings will give us an excellent portfolio of healthcare information and clinical decision tools for the pharmacy, where there is a strong need for resources and tools to drive compliance, greater patient safety and cost reductions.”

USA, Philadelphia, PA

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Matrix Private Equity Partners completes £4 million MBO of Faversham House

December 20, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Matrix Private Equity Partners, the small buyout specialist, has invested in the £4 million management buy-out of Faversham House Group. Faversham publish Europe’s largest environmental website www.edie.net and stages the UK’s no.1 environmental exhibition, Sustainability Live!.  Matrix is investing £1.75m and will take a significant minority stake in the business.  This is Matrix’s 7th investment in the media and publishing sector and comes following the recent investment in recruitment business RDL Corporation.

Faversham, a family owned business founded in 1960, has developed into a leading media business providing websites, exhibitions and print publications to the environmental, visual communications, home improvements and building services sectors.  The business employs over 100 people and is forecasting revenues of £10m in the current year. 

Chris Price, investment manager of Matrix who led the deal comments: “Faversham is uniquely placed to benefit from both the strong growth in the environmental sector as well as the continuing media shift towards online assets.  Management have demonstrated the ability to grow by acquisition and we look forward to supporting their strategy to develop Faversham into an integrated media player in a number of attractive verticals.”

Matrix has introduced Operating Partner and serial entrepreneur, Bob Fairchild who will join as Chairman and Jill Williams who joins as FD having performed the same role for successful Matrix investment Tottel publishing.  Bob, currently Chairman of Matrix investee company ATG Media, is highly experienced in the sector and was previously managing director of Landmark Information Group, which was sold to Daily Mail & General Trust Plc.  

Amanda Barnes, CEO of Faversham comments: “We are thrilled to have partnered with Matrix and were impressed by their track record of growing businesses within the publishing and media sector.   With Matrix’s investment we are now able to take our business up a gear and implement a strong acquisitive growth strategy.”

UK, Croydon, Surrey

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Yahoo to sell Delicious

December 18, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Yesterday a leaked a slide from an internal Yahoo slide show suggested that Yahoo! is closing or merging Del.icio.us, Upcoming, Fire Eagle, MyBlogLog, and more.

Yahoo have now announced that they are thinking of selling Delicious.

The full announcement is below:

What’s Next for Delicious?
Many of you have read the news stories about Delicious that began appearing yesterday. We’re genuinely sorry to have these stories appear with so little context for our loyal users. While we can’t answer each of your questions individually, we wanted to address what we can at this stage and we promise to keep you posted as future plans get finalized.

Is Delicious being shut down? And should I be worried about my data?

– No, we are not shutting down Delicious. While we have determined that there is not a strategic fit at Yahoo!, we believe there is a ideal home for Delicious outside of the company where it can be resourced to the level where it can be competitive.

What is Yahoo! going to do with Delicious?
– We’re actively thinking about the future of Delicious and we believe there is a home outside the company that would make more sense for the service and our users. We’re in the process of exploring a variety of options and talking to companies right now. And we’ll share our plans with you as soon as we can.

What if I want to get my bookmarks out of Delicious right away?
– As noted above, there’s no reason to panic. We are maintaining Delicious and encourage you to keep using it. That said, we have export options if you so choose. Additionally, many services provide the ability to import Delicious links and tags.

We can only imagine how upsetting the news coverage over the past 24 hours has been to many of you. Speaking for our team, we were very disappointed by the way that this appeared in the press. We’ll let you know more as things develop.

USA, Sunnyvale, CA

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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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Livewire Mobile acquires FoneStarz Media Group

December 18, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

US mobile music and content company Livewire Mobile, has acquired FoneStarz Media Group, a UK based mobile digital storefront and mobile content supplier.

The combination of the two companies provides a broad content-offering that includes application distribution, ringback, full-track music, video, advertising, ringtones, images and games. Furthermore, the acquisition expands Livewire Mobile’s market reach to more than 400 million subscribers at over 40 mobile operators in nearly 30 countries, providing one of the most comprehensive one-stop digital content solutions for carriers, handset manufacturers and other media companies entering the mobile content market.

Based in Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, FoneStarz has a successful track record of retailing mobile entertainment content for mobile network operators. It manages cutting edge digital content services, from its proprietary merchandising and delivery platform for 11 mobile operators in eight countries around the world.

FoneStarz services are currently deployed with premier operators including Vodafone, Hutchison 3 and O2 in countries including the U.K., Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, New Zealand, South Africa and Egypt. It works with a number of other Tier 1 and 2 operators and has content aggregation agreements with handset manufacturers including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung and LG, and content licenses with more than 140 media companies, including Disney, Playboy, Turner, American Greetings and Manchester United.

Livewire Mobile plans to incorporate the FoneStarz platform into its InfuseTM integrated storefront solution for mobile operators, as well as its recently launched MediadromeTM direct-to-consumer music service.

Together, the companies bring extensive global experience and market-leading technical infrastructures, providing a platform for rapid strategic growth in new and existing territories and positioning them alongside firms such as Motricity, RealNetworks and Zed in the fast-growing mobile content market. The management team is headed up by Matthew Stecker, CEO, Livewire Mobile and Dave Moreau, CEO and founder of FoneStarz, who will become COO of the combined company. They intend to grow the combined business by exploiting its product set and extending services across six continents. 

“As we stated earlier this year, we refocused our company resources toward providing our global partners and customers with an innovative suite of products and end-to-end services,” said Mr. Stecker. “Now, with this combination of two complementary companies, we are creating an even stronger organization with a broadened product suite, improved service and support worldwide and increased cross-selling opportunities to an expanded customer base.”

Mr. Moreau added: “We spent some time looking for a partner that offered a strategic fit in terms of product roadmap and territorial expansion. Scale is vital in this fast moving, global market and we believe Livewire Mobile and FoneStarz together will be able to provide a preeminent digital solution for mobile network operators, handset manufacturers and media businesses.”

USA, Littleton, MA & UK, Cambridgeshire

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Hellman & Friedman completes the acquisition of Internet Brands

December 18, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

It has been a complicated journey (see previous Fusion DigiNet stories listed below), but on December 16, 2010, Internet Brands’ stockholders approved the going-private transaction at a special meeting of stockholders. Pursuant to the definitive merger agreement among Internet Brands, Micro Acquisition Corp. and Micro Holding Corp., dated as of September 17, 2010, Internet Brands stockholders will receive $13.35 per share in cash, without interest and less any applicable withholding taxes, for each share of common stock they owned immediately prior to the effective time of the merger (other than shares owned by Micro Holding Corp., Micro Acquisition Corp., Internet Brands and their subsidiaries, and by stockholders who have perfected and not withdrawn a demand for appraisal rights). Internet Brands’ Class A common stock will cease trading on The NASDAQ Global Select Market at the close of market today and will be delisted.

Investing alongside lead investor Hellman & Friedman is JMI Equity, a private equity firm focused on the Internet, software and business services industries.

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP served as counsel to Hellman & Friedman. Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP served as counsel to Internet Brands. Jefferies & Company, Inc. acted as exclusive financial advisor and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP acted as legal advisor to the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Internet Brands.

About Internet Brands, Inc.

Internet Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ: INET) is a unique and leading Internet media company. The company owns and operates more than 100 websites that are leaders in their vertical markets. In total, these sites organically attract (without paid marketing) approximately 70 million unique visitors per month. The vast majority of these sites have very strong community participation. Internet Brands is unique in its ability to monetize Internet audiences. The company’s proprietary platform optimizes yields from its more than 40,000 direct advertisers spanning seven vertical categories. The platform is core to the company’s acquisitions strategy, providing a cost-efficient and scalable approach to expanding the company’s online footprint. Internet Brands was founded in 1998 by Idealab, a creator and operator of technology companies based in Pasadena, California.

USA, Pasadena, CA

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AOL acquires Pictela

December 16, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

AOL has acquired Pictela, the provider of a global technology platform for serving and distributing high-definition brand content across online advertising and social media. Pictela will remain a separate group within AOL Advertising, based in New York, and will continue to provide its products and services to outside partners. Deal terms were not disclosed. Pictela joins other strategic acquisitions made by AOL in 2010 including StudioNow, 5min Media, TechCrunch and Thing Labs.

“Pictela is an outstanding fit for AOL as we re-imagine the intersection of content, advertising and the consumer experience,” said Jeff Levick, AOL’s President of Global Advertising and Strategy. “Pictela’s product development team is best-in-class, and its beautiful, content rich, media display formats meet Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and Online Publishers Association (OPA) standards that run across AOL Media properties and other publisher sites. We’ve taken one important step towards spotlighting quality ad content with Project Devil on AOL Media properties, and now we’re taking a second by bringing Pictela into the AOL Advertising family.”

Levick added, “Our goal is to create the highest quality ad content for the best user experience and monetization opportunities, and we’re excited to work with innovators who share our vision and excitement for what brand advertising on the Web should be.”

Formed in 2009, the Pictela platform delivers videos, photos and applications in real time across the Web in a range of formats that meet IAB and OPA standards. Pictela is certified by some of the world’s largest publishers and is distributed by AOL, Glam Media and Hearst, among others.

“We believe that joining AOL is an outstanding opportunity to combine with a company that is as committed to redefining brand advertising on the Web as we are,” said Greg Rogers, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Pictela. “As one of the world’s premium publishers, AOL will not only be one of our biggest customers, it will also be our greatest resource with the scale, technology and commitment to world-class content to help realize the true potential of the online environment.”hare of voice and providing a large, multi-functional advertising canvas, early Devil ad campaigns have achieved significantly better Interaction Rates (ITR) than the industry average for rich media banners. Following advertiser demand, out these factors as they relate to AOL may be found in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in AOL’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AOL is under no obligation to, and expressly disclaims any obligation to, update or alter the forward-looking statements contained in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

USA, New York, NY

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AutoTrader.com closes the Kelley Blue Book acquisition

December 16, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

 AutoTrader.com, the automotive marketplace and consumer information website, has completed its transaction to acquire Kelley Blue Book, the provider of new car and used car information. The deal was reported by Fusion DigiNet in October.

AutoTrader.com says it will be maintaining Kelley Blue Book’s independent and unbiased position in the marketplace.  Furthermore, AutoTrader.com is committed to maintaining and strengthening Kelley Blue Book’s role as The Trusted Resource® for vehicle valuation and other important information consumers, dealers, manufacturers, financial and governmental institutions rely upon.

“Kelley Blue Book has a wonderful history as an iconic brand and trusted provider of vehicle information to generations of car buyers and sellers,” said AutoTrader.com President and CEO Chip Perry.  “And as we look into the future we believe AutoTrader.com and Kelley Blue Book can together bring a host of new technologies and tools to market that will significantly improve the car shopping process for consumers and help auto dealers and manufacturers better capitalize on the fundamental marketing efficiencies provided by the Internet.”

Kelley Blue Book, founded in 1926, launched its top rated web site in 1995 and is now a leading provider of new and used vehicle pricing information to the auto industry. The company provides its values to dealers, banks, finance and insurance companies nationwide on a weekly basis. In the last few years, the company implemented a new multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art vehicle information management system, positioning the company to deliver the best market insights in the auto industry. 

USA, Atlanta, GA & Irvine, CA

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Market America to acquire Shop.com

December 15, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Market America, an Internet marketing and product brokerage company, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the business of online comparison shopping comparison business Shop.com. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

MarketAmerica.com and Shop.com will continue to operate as separate websites through a transition period.  Market America’s headquarters will remain in Greensboro, NC, while Shop.com’s facilities in Monterey and Pasadena, CA and London, UK will continue without disruption.  The combined entity will have in excess of 650 employees. The transaction is expected to be completed by year-end 2010.

“Together, Market America and Shop.com are creating a new ‘social shopping’ movement,” said James Ridinger, President and CEO of Market America.  “To date, no one has truly harnessed the power of technology to provide a high touch, personal shopping experience combined with the depth of selection available through instant search of the more than 43 million products in our database.  Our business model rewards customers at every stage – by making their shopping easier and more efficient, and rewarding them with cash back for shopping with us.  This unique strategy positions us for explosive growth and to compete head-to-head with the biggest, most dominant shopping sites on the Internet.”
“Market America and Shop.com are online shopping pioneers with distinct areas of expertise,” added Ken Goldstein, Chairman & CEO of Shop.com who will depart his current role and become a strategic advisor to Market America as part of the transition.  “By bringing our companies together, we are creating a game changing shopping experience with transformative potential to our customers, retailers, consumer brands and business partners.”

USA, Greenboro, NC

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