Cyberplex acquires online media publisher Tsavo Media for $75 million

May 20, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Online advertising firm Cyberplex has acquired online media publisher, Tsavo Media, in a transaction valued at approximately $75 million.

Tsavo Media’s portfolio includes over 300 unique consumer websites, informational properties and social media blogs which generate over 30 million unique visitors per month. In 2009 Tsavo Media generated revenue of approximately $110 million and EBITDA of approximately $16.7 million, excluding management fees paid to its owners.

Ted Hastings, President and CEO of Tsavo Media, will take on the role of President in the combined organization and all other senior executives of Tsavo Media will remain with the organization.

“This is the largest and most impactful acquisition in the history of Cyberplex. We believe that it represents the next phase of growth in building a dominant Internet media company that will create significant value for our clients, shareholders and employees,” said Vernon Lobo, Chairman and co-founder of Cyberplex.

The total purchase price payable is $75,000,000, subject to post-closing adjustments. That is $37,800,000 in cash, US$2,200,000 in exchangeable shares and US$35,000,000 by way of vendor take-back notes. There is also an inducement for three of Tsavo’s existing key management personnel to enter into contracts of full time employment with Cyberplex. Full details are given in the release.

Location: Canada, Waterloo, Ontario

Ref: F231109-453

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Digital publishing business LibreDigital raises $8.1 million

May 20, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Digital publishing business LibreDigital has closed an $8.1 million Series C funding round led by new investor S3 Ventures with participation from existing investors Adams Capital Management and Triangle Peak Partners. The company’s other key investors include HarperCollins Publishers, The New York Times Company and Noro-Moseley Partners.

“This year, sales of e-books are expected to double to more than $700 million in the U.S. alone,” said Russell P. Reeder, President and CEO of LibreDigital, Inc. “This funding will be used to accelerate the delivery of e-books, and expand our technology offerings to include new solutions that help publishers better promote and sell books to digital consumers.”

LibreDigital enables publishers, distributors and device manufacturers to securely market and deliver content across an expanding number of digital channels, including e-readers, tablets, smart phones, social networks and online stores. The company offers solutions designed to deliver digital books, newspapers and magazines in the highest quality format possible.

Location: USA, Austin, TX

Ref: F231109-452

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TweetDeck raises $3 million

May 20, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

TweetDeck, an Adobe AIR desktop Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace application, has raised $3 million in Series B funding, led by their largest backers Betaworks.

Previous backers Accelerator Group, Roger Ehrenberg and Howard Lindzon, as well as new investors Ron Conway and Danny Rimer also participated. TweetDeck has now raised $5.3 million.

Read more at TechCrunch

Location: UK, London

Ref: F231109-451

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Playdom acquires Acclaim Games

May 20, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Another acquisition by Playdom.

Social gaming company Playdom has acquired Acclaim Games, a developer of social networking and downloadable casual games. Acclaim was privately held and is based in Los Angeles, California. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. 

Acclaim has built a name for itself in the casual and MMORPG gaming space by developing and publishing free-to-play titles available on the Acclaim website. With more than 15 million registered online users already playing Acclaim’s games, the company launched RockFree, a Facebook guitar game, in March 2010, which now has tens of thousands of daily active users. Acclaim is currently working its latest Facebook game due to launch this summer.

Howard Marks, CEO of Acclaim, (a former Activision 2.0 co-founder and Chairman of the Activision Studios), will run the Acclaim studio for Playdom and serve in a senior strategic role for the parent company focused on Playdom’s business development activities. Acclaim’s Chief Technology Officer, Neil Malhotra, a longtime Marks colleague, will now act as the studio’s senior technical officer.

“Bringing Howard and Neil into Playdom strengthens our leadership and bolsters our position as an innovative games developer for the future,” said John Pleasants, CEO of Playdom. “Howard and Neil have worked together building and operating games for many years, and their pipeline of new games is strong.  We are also excited about opening our first Los Angeles based social game development studio which gives us access to all of the game development talent in Southern California.  We look forward to big things from this team.”

Location: USA, Mountain View, CA & Los Angeles, CA

Ref: F231109-450

Other Playdom articles

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Yell buys Trusted places

May 20, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Yell has acquired Trusted Places Limited, the company behind the popular UK local reviews website trustedplaces.com.

The purchase means that Yell will, for the first time, enable consumers to recommend a local business through its Yell.com website.

The combination of Yell’s database of over two million businesses with TrustedPlaces’ proven expertise in generating recommendations from local consumers represents a major shake-up of the fast-growing local reviews market.

It will drive strong benefit to Yell’s 399,000 mainly small business advertisers, through generating additional leads and providing a richer online interaction with existing and potential new consumers.

Mark Canon, president of new media at Yell in the UK, said: “This represents a significant growth opportunity. We all know that recommendations help local businesses to attract new consumers, so Yell.com and TrustedPlaces are a perfect fit.”

Initially, TrustedPlaces reviews will be added to Yell’s business listings, leading to full integration under the Yell.com domain.

The company also expects that the techniques and technologies that have made TrustedPlaces successful in the UK will be shared with other Yell Group operating companies in the US, Spain and Latin America.

Under the deal, Sokratis Papafloratos, chief executive and co-founder of TrustedPlaces, is joining Yell as head of social products in the UK.

He said: “The internet gives customers more influence in the reputation of a local business than ever before.

“This exciting partnership gives businesses the opportunity to harness the power of recommendations like never before.”

TrustedPlaces was launched in late 2006. The private equity backed startup now attracts around 700,000 unique users a month looking for recommendations on local businesses across a range of key categories. These cover, for example, Restaurants, Bars and Pubs, Hotels and Travel, Beauty and Spas, Shopping and Home Maintenance and Repairs, which includes services such as plumbers.

Location: UK, London

Ref: F231109-448

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Yahoo! to acquire Associated Content

May 19, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Yahoo! is to acquire Associated Content. The acquisition is expected to complete in the third quarter of 2010. Financial terms were not disclosed. Paid Content have reported that they hear the price is between $90 million and $100 million.

Associated Content was founded by Luke Beatty in Denver, Colorado, in 2004. Associated Content receives more than 16 million unique users per month (comScore) and the editorial staff reviews more than 50,000 pieces of content per month, including articles, images, audio and video. Associated Content has 380,000 contributors.

“Together, we’ll create more content around what we know our users care about, and open up new and creative avenues for advertisers to engage with consumers across our network.” said Carol Bartz, CEO, Yahoo!

Associated Content content is currently U.S.-centric, Yahoo! expects to scale the platform globally.

Location: USA, Sunnyvale, CA

Ref: F231109-445

Links: Read the press release here and Associated Content FAQs here and Luke Beatty’s blog post here!

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    Fidelity Growth Partners Europe invests in online games business InnoGames

    May 19, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

    Fidelity Growth Partners Europe a pan-European venture and growth equity investor has used part of its new £100 million European fund to invest in InnoGames, a developer and publisher of free-to-play online games. Fidelity now own a minority stake in the company, but the size and price of the stake was not disclosed. Fidelity will provide advice and access to its partnership network to help InnoGames expand globally. InnoGames currently has almost 50 million registered players across the globe playing successful titles such as Tribal Wars, The West, and Grepolis.

    InnoGames’ titles do not require any additional software; all that is needed is an internet connection and a browser. The games are free to play with the players opting to purchase
    various in-game advantages and virtual goods. These types of games are growing in popularity over the world. According to DFC Intelligence, an expert video game and entertainment industry research company, this market is estimated at US$1.8 billion in 2010 with a 25% compounded annual growth rate expected over the next five years.

    The three co-founders of InnoGames, Eike and Hendrik Klindworth along with Michael Zillmer, will continue to manage the company, along with the recent addition of Sven Ossenbrueggen as chief financial officer, who was formerly CEO of Gamigo. Davor Hebel of FGPE will sit on the supervisory board, providing counsel and access to substantial resources.

    InnoGames was advised by the M&A advisory company Corporate Finance Partners on this investment.

    Location: UK, London & Germany, Hamburg

    Ref: F231109-444

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    Titan Gaming raises $1 million

    May 18, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

    Titan Gaming has raised $1 million in funding from prominent angel investors, including Clearstone Venture Partners principals William Quigley and Jim Armstrong, virtual goods pioneer Brock Pierce, MP3.com founder Michael Robertson, PriceGrabber co-founder and Bestcovery.com founder Kamran Pourzanjani, Vonage co-founder and www.kikin.com founder and CEO Carlos Bhola, SOA Software founder and ServiceMesh founder and CEO Eric Pulier, MyLife founder and CEO Jeffrey Tinsley, Hydra and W4 co-founder Adam “Wicks” Walker, ooma founder Andrew Frame, GigaMedia executive John Lee, PatentVest CEO Andy Mazzarella, former Korn Ferry Chairman Global Technology Markets Richard Spitz, iWin founder and TLDH.org founder and CEO Fred Kreuger, Ramprate founder and Chairman and myTASTE co-founder and CEO Tony Greenberg, New Motion founder and Revenue APEX co-founder and CEO Scott Walker, SAM Venture Partners and Tomorrow Ventures.

    With this seed round of funding, the new executive team, including CEO John Maffei and COO Lisa Serwin, will finalize the technology of the Titan Platform, as well as secure mass distribution deals. The original Titan founders, Francisco Diaz-Mitoma and Mark Donovan, will lead Titan’s technical and game developer evangelism efforts. Titan’s first customers are set to go live in July of 2010. Game developers and publishers seeking to join the Titan beta should visit www.titanplatform.com.

    “As the former head of one of the Internet’s largest gaming sites, I am very familiar with the challenges of effectively monetizing gamers with subscription and advertising models,” commented John Maffei, CEO, Titan Gaming. “Titan offers gaming companies and content sites a white labeled solution that helps them monetize their audiences more effectively while retaining complete control of their brand. We have been extremely pleased with the positive reaction of the gaming companies we have engaged.”

    Location: USA, Los Angeles, CA

    Ref: F231109-443

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    Priceline.com has acquired TravelJigsaw

    May 18, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

    International online travel services company Priceline.com has acquired online car rental agency TravelJigsaw.  Terms of the deal were not disclosed.  Priceline.com said it intends to retain TravelJigsaw’s current management team, who will maintain a minority ownership stake in the company and continue to manage TravelJigsaw’s operations.

    Established in 2004, TravelJigsaw believes that it is the fastest growing online car rental agency in the world.  It offers its car hire services in more than 4,000 locations in 80 countries in North America, South & Central America, Europe, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East. Customers using TravelJigsaw can book online through one of TravelJigsaw’s branded websites, or they can reserve their cars by phone. 

    “We believe that TravelJigsaw will be a valuable addition to our group of fast-growing international businesses,” said priceline.com President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffery H. Boyd. “TravelJigsaw has a strong management team with a growth strategy that complements our own, and we look forward to working with Greg Wills and his team.”
    Location: UK, Manchester

    Ref: F231109-442

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    Booyah raises $20 million from Accel Partners

    May 18, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

    Booyah has received $20 million in additional funding from venture capital firm Accel Partners.

    In addition to the funding, Jim Breyer, an investor and board member in Facebook, Etsy, Walmart, Dell, and Marvel Entertainment, among others, will be joining Booyah’s Board of Directors.

    According to the Booyah Blog, ” It’s to hire the top talent and best people in the industry to make the most epic gaming experiences out there.  We’re proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish with MyTown, and we plan to continue innovating and creating new forms of real-world entertainment for you.”
    Location: USA, Palo Alto, CA

    Ref: F231109-441

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