DMGT pre-close trading update

September 25, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

DMGTDaily Mail and General Trust plc has issued a pre-close trading update.

Ahead of the year end on 30 September 2013, the statement provides an update on the Group’s progress in the current year.

It covers the eleven month period to the end of August 2013 and includes comments on September.

Summary

  • Solid Group revenue performance, up 2% underlying#
  • Good revenue growth from B2B operations, up 6% underlying#
  • Resilient revenue performance at dmg media, down 2% underlying#
  • Active portfolio management; targeted acquisitions and non-core asset disposals
  • Share buy back programme of £69 million to date
  • Net debt/EBITDA ratio expected to be less than 2.0 at year end
  • Full Year guidance unchanged and in line with market expectations

DMGT results1 2013

Click on the table for an enlarged view

The full statement can be read here.

UK, London

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Match.com increases its stake in Meetic SA from 80.8% to 87.5% and announces planned public offer for all outstanding shares

September 25, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Match logoOnline dating business Match, an operating segment of IAC, has increased its ownership stake in French online dating company Meetic S.A. to 87.5% by acquiring all remaining shares held by Marc Simoncini, Meetic’s founder, which represent 6.7% of the capital.

meeticThe acquisition was completed today through an off-market transaction with Jaina Capital and Jaina Ventures, two investment vehicles controlled by Mr. Simoncini at a price per share of €18.75.  The aggregate purchase price was approximately €29.5 million.  Following the acquisition, Match now owns 87.5% of the capital and 88.6% of the voting rights of Meetic.  Mr. Simoncini, who no longer owns, directly or indirectly, any Meetic shares, has resigned from Meetic’s board of directors.

Match intends to launch a voluntary simplified public tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of Meetic S.A. at a price of €18.75 per share in cash in the near term. The offer price represents a premium of approximately 51% on the closing price of Meetic shares on September 24, 2013.  It is Match’s intention to implement a squeeze-out if it holds at least 95% of the capital and voting rights upon completion of the offer. If a squeeze-out cannot be implemented, Match intends to apply with Euronext Paris for a delisting of the Meetic shares.

The public offer will be filed with the French Securities Regulator (Autorite des marches financiers) in due course.

“As the founder of Meetic, Marc has made invaluable contributions to the company,” said Greg Blatt, CEO of IAC.  “We appreciate what a great partner he has been since we first joined with Meetic in 2009, and are looking forward to our next stage of stewardship of the company.”

Meetic is in 15 European countries, and  available in 11 languages. In 2012, Meetic posted sales of €164,8m and an EBITDA margin of 22.3%.  Meetic is listed in Compartment B of Euronext Paris of the NYSE Euronext (MEET.PA).

USA, New York, NY & France, Paris

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GMG rejects improved Apax offer

September 24, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

tradermediagroupThe FT is reporting that Guardian Media Group has rejected an improved offer by Apax to purchase GMG’s 50.1% stake in Trader Media. The new offer valued Trader Media at about £1.5bn, including net debt of about £560m. Apax’s previous offer valued the business at £1.2 billion. An IPO now seems the most likely outcome.

UK, London

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Euromoney revenues for the fourth quarter increase by 9%

September 24, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Euromoney logoEuromoney Institutional Investor PLC, the international online information and events group, has issued a pre-close trading update ahead of the announcement of its results for the year to September 30, 2013.

Since issuing its Interim Management Statement on July 25, 2013, trading has continued in line with the board’s expectations.  The recovery in US markets, and in particular in the profitability of US financial institutions, has continued, while European markets have remained weak and emerging markets have settled down after the uncertainty earlier in the summer.

Revenues for the fourth quarter are expected to show a headline increase of 9% on the same period last year, and an underlying increase, excluding acquisitions, of 5%.  The improvement in advertising highlighted in the July IMS has continued, with advertising revenues returning to growth for the first time in two years.  Underlying subscription revenues, excluding acquisitions, increased by 4%, helped by the reversal of timing differences from the third quarter.

Total revenues for the year to September 30, 2013 are expected to show a headline increase of approximately 2% on 2012, of which half has come from acquisitions.

Exchange rate movements have not had a significant impact on headline or underlying revenues.

The group expects to announce an adjusted profit before tax* of not less than £114 million for the year to September 30, 2013 (2012: £106.8 million) including a contribution from acquisitions, after financing costs, of nearly £2 million.

At current exchange rates, group net debt at September 30, 2013 is expected to be no more than £10 million, against £38 million at March 31.  This reflects the group’s traditionally strong second half operating cash flows as well as acquisition payments of £13m in the period.

The year end results will be announced on November 14, 2013.

UK, London

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September 20, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

nielsenNielsen Holdings N.V. , the global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy, has reached an agreement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to gain clearance for its proposed acquisition of Arbitron Inc. (NYSE: ARB) which is now, subject to customary closing conditions, expected to close on September 30, 2013. The FTC has issued a Decision and Order dated September 20, 2013 that embodies the agreement.

As previously reported on Fusion Diginet, Nielsen entered into an agreement on December 17, 2012 to acquire all of the outstanding common stock of Arbitron for $48 per share or a total of $1.3 billion purchase price, funded by cash on hand and minor debt financing. Nielsen expects $0.26 of accretion to adjusted net income per share in the first full year of operations, and $0.32 of accretion to adjusted net income per share after the second year, reflecting an incremental $0.06 in year two.

“We are pleased to have the regulatory process behind us and are excited to be closing the Arbitron acquisition,” said David Calhoun, CEO, Nielsen. “We are looking forward to providing all of the benefits of the combined company to our new clients in the radio industry and their advertisers, driving incremental value for them as well as our shareholders.”

Nielsen’s agreement with the FTC is intended to preserve the competitive landscape in place before its announced intent to acquire Arbitron. It does not affect the strategic rationale of the acquisition or the anticipated benefits to Nielsen from the transaction. No Nielsen assets are affected by the FTC’s order. The FTC’s order effectively enables the continuation of a cross-platform project measuring TV, radio, PC, mobile and tablet engagement which was announced by Arbitron in concert with ESPN and comScore, Inc. in September 2012. In the event that an FTC-approved third-party elects to agree to licensing terms and other requirements, Nielsen would make available for license Arbitron PPM and related data as well as software and technology currently being used in the ESPN project for the sole purpose of cross-platform measurement1 for up to eight years.

A summary of Nielsen’s agreement with the FTC is available at http://nielsen.com/investors.

USA, New York, NY

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Groupon acquires SideTour

September 18, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

grouponGroupon has acquired SideTour, a marketplace that helps people discover, book and host  local activities. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

SideTour events are intimate gatherings, averaging 12 attendees, and span food, drink, architecture, history, art and much more. SideTour currently offers more than 500 public and private events with more than 400 hosts using the platform. Hosts include chefs, artists, Olympic medalists, casting directors and sommeliers.

“The addition of SideTour’s curated local experiences furthers our vision of Groupon as the go-to place for consumers to find just about anything, anywhere, anytime,” said GrouponLive General Manager Greg Rudin. “By offering these highly personalized activities, tours and memorable things to do through Groupon, we can deliver even more fun ways for our customers to explore and discover the best local experiences.”

Founded in 2011, SideTour will continue to operate as a separate entity for some time, and Groupon will distribute their events to its  active customers through its email, web and mobile channels.

USA, Chicago, IL

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David Levin to step down as CEO of UBM

September 16, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

David LevinDavid Levin is to step down as Chief Executive Officer of UBM plc by 31 July 2014.

UBM’s Chairman, Dame Helen Alexander is to lead a search for Levin’s successor. Levin will remain in his current role until a successor is found.

Levin joined UBM as CEO in 2005 and has led the transformation of UBM from a broad media conglomerate focused primarily on the UK and the US into an events and communications business with a significant proportion of its business in emerging markets.

David Levin, said, “I have really enjoyed leading the transformation of UBM’s business over the past eight years, together with a great group of colleagues. During this time UBM has completed more than 100 acquisitions and more than a dozen disposals, and we have returned more than £900m of cash to shareholders. UBM’s two main businesses, Events and PR Newswire, offer significant opportunities for growth, both organic and by acquisition. UBM has built its businesses in the emerging markets of China, India, Brazil, Turkey and the ASEAN region while strengthening its largest position in the USA. This has been underpinned by a profound shift in UBM’s culture. I feel that it is the right time to look for my next challenge. I look forward to the future and, in the meantime, it is business as usual.”

UK, London

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Groupon acquires last-minute travel app Blink

September 15, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet
grouponGroupon has acquired last-minute travel app Blink, a travel app dealing in discounted same-day bookings for European hotels. The deal will help bolster Groupon’s Getaways travel business. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We are very excited to welcome the Blink team to the Groupon family,” said Aaron Cooper, senior vice president of Groupon Getaways. “The combination of a fantastic mobile app, same-day inventory management for properties and a team that is obsessed with mobile and last-minute travel will help us further expand our travel business as the go-to destination for great deals on great places to stay.”

The Blink app will be rebranded “Blink by Groupon” and will operate separately from the Groupon parent business.

USA, Chicago, IL

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Livefyre acquires social storytelling platform Storify

September 14, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

livefyreLivefyre has acquired Storify, the drag-and-drop storytelling tool. Livefyre will integrate Storify into its StreamHub platform.

Founded in 2010, Storify was created to help journalists sift through the massive amounts of social content around news events to create multimedia stories that can be embedded anywhere. PR agencies use the social curation tool to hand-select social content for websites, microsites and advertising campaigns. Storify is  used by nearly one million journalists, agencies and brands to tell stories online, including the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, EA Sports, Ford, GE, HBO, IBM, Microsoft, Marc Jacobs, Samsung, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

storify“Acquiring Storify made perfect sense,” said Jordan Kretchmer, founder and CEO of Livefyre. “Livefyre powers social media and user engagement on the largest media properties and brands on the web. Storify also delivers a unique and vital curation tool for journalists and editors at many of those same companies. Now our enterprise users will be able to manage Storify content from the same centralized Livefyre dashboard where they’re already managing all of their social and user-generated content. With the addition of Storify, StreamHub is now the only real-time platform that enables both editorial and automated content curation from all the major social networks including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.”

Storify currently offers three levels of service to its users: Free, Business and VIP. With this acquisition, the Storify Free product will continue to be offered as it is now. The teams will merge Storify’s multiple paid tiers into a single enterprise offering that will include additional new features such as single sign-on to create stories, centralised story and editor management, Storify galleries, user participation tools, automated media filtering and engagement analytics.

Storify co-founder Burt Herman added: “We created Storify to unite journalism and social media, helping to tell stories that come alive with eyewitness reports from where news is happening. Joining Livefyre means our users, including journalists and now brands and agencies, will be able to integrate social media easily across their websites, and also into mobile apps, ads and TV broadcasts. We can now also help publishers make more revenue through native ads.”

Co-founders Xavier Damman and Burt Herman will join the Livefyre team, along with Storify employees from product, engineering and support. Damman will continue to oversee the Storify product, and Herman will lead relations for all of Livefyre’s editorial users and partners.

Storify becomes the first acquisition by Livefyre since its founding in 2009.

USA, San Francisco, CA

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Artemis Energy Holdings to acquire WooEB.com

September 14, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

wooeb-logoArtemis Energy Holdings the owner of press release distribution site TransWorldNews and business social networking platform LinkMyStock.com, is to acquire WooEB.com. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

WooEB.com is an online social networking portal that provides members the ability to manage their online content. WooEB.com currently is ranked according to Alexa Global Rank 45,935.

Tom Powers of Artemis Energy Holdings stated “With the addition of WooEB.com and the revenue streams it provides I think this acquisition will enhance the overall portfolio of Artemis Energy Holdings for our shareholders.”

USA, Atlanta, GA

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