News Corp acquires Irish social news agency Storyful

January 4, 2014 — Fusion DigiNet

newscorpRupert Murdoch’s media company News Corp has acquired Storyful, a Dublin-based start-up social news agency, for €18 million.

Storyful discovers, verifies, acquires and distributes timely and relevant video and user-generated content to its partners.  With its combination of proprietary technology and journalistic expertise, Storyful also provides social media dashboards, real-time discovery tools, feeds and analytics to its customers, allowing them to integrate video into their news or advertising efforts via online and mobile platforms and to monitor social conversations and sentiment. So far in 2013, verified user-generated videos managed by Storyful generated 750 million views for its partners.

“Storyful has become the village square for valuable video, using journalistic sensibility, integrity and creativity to find, authenticate and commercialise user-generated content,” said Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corp. “Through this acquisition, we can extend the village square across borders, languages and platforms.”

Storyful’s management team of Chief Executive Officer Mark Little and Executive Editor David Clinch will continue to oversee the company’s operations. Rahul Chopra, Senior Vice President of Video for News Corp, will join the Storyful management team, taking on the additional role of Chief Revenue Officer. Mr. Little will report to David Brinker, News Corp Senior Vice President and Global Head of Business & Corporate Development.

Storyful remains headquartered in Dublin, where the company was founded in 2010. Additional business development and advertising sales staff will be hired and based in New York. The business will operate as a stand-alone business unit within News Corp and continue to work with its existing roster of global customers, which includes The Wall Street Journal.

USA, New York, NY & Ireland, Dublin

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Groupon completes the acquisition of Ticket Monster

January 2, 2014 — Fusion DigiNet
grouponGroupon has completed the acquisition of Ticket Monster from LivingSocial, a  Korean ecommerce company, for $260 million in cash and stock. The final allocation paid to LivingSocial, Inc. was $100 million in cash and $160 million in Groupon Class A common stock, subject to registration rights.

As previously reported, Groupon has acquired LivingSocial Korea, Inc., the holding company that owns Ticket Monster. LivingSocial Korea’s Malaysian subsidiary was divested prior to close and is not part of this transaction.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2013, LivingSocial Korea, Inc., excluding its Malaysiantmon subsidiary, had gross billings of $572.7 million, revenue of $78.5 million, an operating loss of $38.7 million, and Adjusted EBITDA of $0.7 million.

See previous Fusion DigiNet reporting.

The Ticket Monster brand and leadership team will remain in place and continue to be led by Daniel Shin, CEO of Ticket Monster. The company will maintain its headquarters in Seoul, where it employs approximately 1,000 employees.

USA, Chicago & Korea, Seoul

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PA Group sell MeteoGroup to General Atlantic

December 17, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

meteoPA Group, the parent company of the Press Association, is to sell its weather business MeteoGroup to global growth investment firm General Atlantic.

MeteoGroup, Europe’s largest private sector weather business, provides weather services for corporate, industrial, media and consumer markets including key sectors such as transport, marine and energy.

Since PA’s acquisition of MeteoGroup in 2005, the business has enjoyed consistent double digit growth in both revenue and profit and has more than doubled in size, employing almost 400 people in 14 countries.

Clive Marshall, PA Group’s Chief Executive, said: “The sale of MeteoGroup will provide the capital to enable us to continue to invest in and diversify the Press Association business, as well as address our pension fund deficit.

“This sale, which follows the divestment of our interest in Canada Newswire in 2012, is part of the company’s strategy to focus our activities on the Press Association news and information business; develop new products and services for both media and non-media customers; and seek strategic acquisitions that help diversify the revenue and profits of the company.

“Our recent investments in Globelynx and Sticky Content – companies that provide services to both the media and corporate markets – are key elements in our diversification strategy.

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Viggle Acquires Wetpaint

December 16, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet
viggleViggle, the television and music loyalty service launched in 2012, has acquired Wetpaint, an entertainment media and technology company focused on television fans, for approximately $30 million in cash and stock.

Wetpaint provides original content to over 12 million monthly unique users and provides a way for fans to stay connected with celebrities and TV shows.

“Wetpaint is the perfect complement to our business for users, TV network partners and advertisers,” said Greg wetpaintConsiglio, President and COO of Viggle. “This combined company brings together Viggle’s proven promotion, entertainment rewards and monetization capabilities with Wetpaint’s reach, social distribution technologies and best-in-class content. Wetpaint leverages the power of social media to ensure TV fans are getting the latest news and commentary about the shows they love, and enables us to expand our offering to before, during and after the show airs.”

For marketers, this acquisition creates significant opportunities to reach a passionate audience with targeted messages across an “always on” entertainment experience that now includes multiple touch points and platforms. Marketers already benefit from Viggle’s extensive reward program, as well as in-app advertising, and that will now be extended through Wetpaint’s online content and social media streams.

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USA, New York, NY

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Vox Media to acquire Curbed Network

December 12, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

voxAccording to Fortune, Vox Media is to acquire Curbed Network in a deal made up of cash and stock worth between $20 and $30 million.

curbed-network-logoreal estate, dining & nightlife, shopping & fashion, and design. Real estate blog Curbed was founded in 2004 as a side project by Lockhart Steele, who was then managing editor of Gawker Media. Eater was founded in 2005 and features local content for 27 cities around the U.S. and Racked was launched in 2007. The sites collectively bring in 5 million monthly unique visitors.

Vox recently raised $34 million in a round of funding led by Accel Partners that could grow to as much as $40 million, according to Fortune’s Dan Primack.

USa, Washington, D.C.

 

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Axel Springer acquires N24

December 12, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

n24Axel Springer SE has  acquired  N24 Media GmbH, the 24 hour news channel. The N24 Group employs around 300 staff working including at its subsidiaries N24 and MAZ&More. N24 also produces the main news bulletins for SAT.1, ProSieben and kabel eins. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Axel Springer plans to combine N24 and the Welt group, which publishes a daily broadsheet Die Welt. According to Axel Springer, “N24 becomes the central moving image provider for all Axel Springer brands”.

The editorial team of WELT Group is extended to include the N24 digital editorial team. The joint WELT Group/N24  editorial team will in future produce both brands’ journalistic content for all the digital channels, as well as for the WELT Group’s print products. N24 also has a TV and program editorial team. The result is one of the largest multimedia editorial teams in Germany.

The management will be Jan Bayer, 43, President of WELT Group and Printing of Axel Springer, Torsten Rossmann, 50, Chairman of the N24 management board, and Stephanie Caspar, 40, Managing Director of WELT Group.

Jan-Eric Peters, 48, editor-in-chief of WELT Group, will be responsible for all content of the WELT Group and their joint digital services. Arne Teetz, 46, editor-in-chief of N24, will be responsible for all moving image content.

Stefan Aust, 67, previously a shareholder of N24, becomes publisher of the Group from 1 January 2014. Thomas Schmid, 68, will also remain publisher of the WELT Group until 30 June 2014.

Jan Bayer said, “N24 and the WELT Group complement each other perfectly and together represent the multimedia spectrum of journalism. N24 benefits through this partnership from the editorial quality and digital expertise of WELT Group. Axel Springer and WELT Group gain access to the moving image and live news competence of N24.”

Germany, Berlin

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GTI acquires Inside Buzz

December 5, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

inside buzzGTI Media, publishers of TARGETjobs, TARGETjobs Events and TARGETcourses, has acquired Inside Buzz. The Inside Buzz content will be available on TARGETjobs.co.uk. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Inside Buzz offers students independent reviews from company employees to help them understand company culture, working practices and, most of all, make a more informed decision about whether to make a job application. Since Inside Buzz was founded by Thomas Nutt in 2010, 5,500 employees have completed the workplace survey and have submitted 115,000 individual reviews and rankings on their employers. 

Graham Storey, GTI Media CEO, said: “We are delighted to add Inside Buzz’s innovative products to our graduate recruitment services and welcome Thomas and his team to GTI. We believe the insights that Inside Buzz offers to students will help them research potential employers and make more targeted applications.”

UK, Oxon, Wallingford

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Pearson to sell The Mergermarket Group to BC Partners

November 29, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

mergermarketPearson Plc is to sell The Mergermarket Group to BC Partners for an enterprise value of £382 million, payable in cash.

Mergermarket is a provider of global corporate financial news, intelligence and analysis to advisory firms, investments banks, law firms, hedge funds, private equity firms and corporations operating in 65 countries. The Company was founded in 1999 and acquired by Pearson in 2006 for £101m plus a subsequent earn-out.

bcpartnersMergermarket has grown substantially under Pearson’s ownership, reporting revenues of £100 million, operating income of £25 million and profit before tax of £23 million in the 12 months to 31 December 2012, and continues to grow strongly.  Over the same period, Mergermarket contributed 2.5 pence to Pearson adjusted earnings per share.  At 30 June 2013, Mergermarket had gross assets of £129m.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2014. Pearson intends to redeploy the proceeds from the sale in its global education business.

Nikos Stathopoulos, Managing Partner at BC Partners, said, “Mergermarket is a high quality company and a global market leader with an attractive business model, strong growth, and loyal customers. We are pleased to partner with CEO Hamilton Matthews and the whole of the Mergermarket team to continue to invest in the growth of the business through product development and geographical expansion to deliver value and innovation to customers”.

UK, London

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Profits rise at Future plc

November 22, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Future plc, the specialist media group and digital publisher has announced preliminary results for the year ended 30 September 2013.

Financial highlights

Future results 2013

Click on the table for an enlarged view

  • Normalised Group revenues up 3% driven by Digital & Diversified revenue streams
  • Normalised pre-tax profit at £1.9m from loss of £2.7m in prior year
  • Digital revenues up 38% year-on-year, Digital & Diversified now 32% of total Group Revenues
  • Digital advertising now 59% of total advertising revenue, up from 48% a year ago
  • UK operations grow advertising and circulation revenues for the year
  • US operating profitably (at EBITDAE level) in H2
  • Net debt more than halved from £14.1m to £6.9m following the sale of non-core print activities
  • Reinstatement of dividend at 0.2 pence per share

Digital highlights

  • Unique users up 14% year-on-year to 57.7 million a month, US unique users up 18% − growth driven by TechRadar
  • Page views up 19% year-on-year to 328 million a month
  • TechRadar now reaching over 20 million unique users globally a month
  • Digital edition revenues up 44% year-on-year
  • Over 340,000 subscribers to digital editions, up 46% since September 2012

Mark Wood, Future’s Chief Executive, said: “Our digital revenue growth accelerated, with a 38% increase year-on-year, and we passed an important transition point with more than half our advertising revenues now digital. We have made real progress in reshaping the Future business, diversifying our digital revenues, making our US operations profitable and building global digital brands.

“We have an on-going programme to reduce the cost base and improve margins. During the year we transformed our balance sheet, paying down term debt from the proceeds of non-core asset disposals and extending our credit facility until 2017. This leaves us well positioned to execute on our growth strategy.

Overall, these are good results after difficult trading conditions earlier in the year, thanks to stronger trading across all areas in the fourth quarter. Looking forward, we see the encouraging Q4 trends continuing with forward advertising bookings up year-on-year, and revenue momentum across all sectors.”

Read the full announcement here.

UK, London

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Sold sold to Dropbox

November 15, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

soldAccording to an announcement on the Sold website, seven month old Sold has been acquired by Dropbox and has closed its service. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company was forecasting $1 million in annual revenue

Sold was a service and iOS/Android app that simplified selling online by taking over the whole process. They handled handled the selling, the shipping, and the payment.

Sold was backed will $1.2 million from investors. Advisors and investors included Google Ventures, Greylock Partners, Matrix Partners, Boston Seed, Dharmesh and MIT Media Lab.

The announcement

Hi, friends! We’re very excited to announce that Sold has joined Dropbox! As of today, our service will no longer be accepting new items.

We’d like to sincerely thank all of our loyal friends and customers who have helped us, supported us, and spread the love for us through this amazing endeavor. We started Sold to provide people with a service that took the burden of selling off their shoulders – by doing all the dirty work for them.

But even beyond that, we wanted to create something that affected people in a positive way. Something they had an emotional connection with. Something they trusted. After spending time with Drew and Arash, we decided that the move to Dropbox couldn’t be better – their roadmap includes exciting new experiences which align perfectly with our ethos of creating products that positively affect people. Going forward, the Sold team will continue working together to build these experiences, shaping the future of Dropbox for their 200M strong user base. It’s an opportunity too good to pass up.

We’re really excited for the new set of challenges ahead, and are absolutely dedicated to continuing to create great experiences.

If you’re a current user with items in the system, expect to hear from us with instructions on how to proceed and finish your transaction.

Thank you, thank you, thank you,

-The Team at Sold

USA, San Francisco, CA & Boston, MA

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