PennWell acquires the Oil & Gas Pipeline Conference from Willbros Engineers

March 18, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

PennwellPennWell Corporation has acquired the Oil & Gas Pipeline Conference from Willbros Engineers and entered into an agreement with the Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA) to produce the annual conference and exhibition. The 22nd annual Oil & Gas Pipeline Conference will be held October 28-30, 2013 at the Royal Sonesta Hotel in Houston. Terms of the agreements with Willbros and GITA were not disclosed.

GITA founded the Oil & Gas Pipeline Conference in 1991 and developed the conference into an important technical event for the oil and gas pipeline sector. For the October 2012 Oil & Gas Pipeline Conference, GITA partnered with Willbros Engineers to conduct the event as GITA completed its transition to an all-volunteer organisation. Over 350 industry professionals attended the October 2012 Oil & Gas Pipeline Conference in Houston, which also had 55 exhibitors and sponsors. The annual event includes multiple conferences and networking sessions.

Robert F. Biolchini , president and CEO of PennWell, said, “We are enthusiastic about the opportunity to work with GITA with the goal of rapidly accelerating the growth of the Oil & Gas Pipeline Conference and we also look forward to the ongoing support of Willbros and other sponsors of the event. The pipeline and transportation sectors of the industry are experiencing phenomenal growth due to the resurgence of exploration and drilling in North America, and we intend to leverage PennWell’s publishing assets and event expertise of our editorial staff of the Oil & Gas Journal, Offshore, and Oil & Gas Financial Journal in a close collaboration with GITA to expand the conference and preserve the standard of quality in conference content established by GITA over the last 21 years.”

PennWell’s portfolio of conferences and exhibitions also includes Deep Offshore Technology (DOT), Offshore Middle East, Offshore Asia, Offshore West Africa, PetroWorld India, and Oil Sands Heavy Oil Technologies in Canada. PennWell publishes Oil & Gas Journal.

Tulsa, OK

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WPP makes strategic investment in SFX Entertainment

March 18, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

wppWPP has made a strategic investment in SFX Entertainment, Inc., a digital media company described as a global platform for electronic dance music events.

Based in New York City, SFX was founded by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert F. X. Sillerman in 2011. Sillerman and his senior management team average over 30 years’ experience in entertainment and music-related businesses, including acquiring and consolidating companies that specialise in producing and promoting live events.

SFX has created a global platform for dance music through acquisition and partnership with some of the leading festivals, events, clubs and online brands. It has a collective audience of over 100 million connected, highly mobile music fans through its various properties which include: Beatport, ID&T North America (Sensation and Mysteryland), Life In Color, Disco Donnie Presents and Miami Marketing Group, home of LIV, Story and Arkadia.

WPP Chief Executive Sir Martin Sorrell said, “We recognize the value in what SFX is creating and believe we can help bring this valuable audience to our agencies’ global clients. The challenge of navigating through digital and social media is daunting for clients and we believe this partnership can further develop WPP’s content capabilities, particularly in new media in the youth consumer segment.”

UK, London & USA, New York, NY

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ePublishing acquires B2B Audience Network

March 14, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

ePublishing has acquired B2B Audience Network. A business-to–business advertising network, B2B Audience reaches more than 300 online publications for clients including UBM, Cygnus, and GIE.

Andy Kowl, founder of B2B Audience Network, will be joining ePublishing as Senior Vice President of Publishing Strategy.

“We have always focused on maximizing publishers’ revenue by increasing reader engagement and enabling them to monetize it at every level,” said Thomas Chaffee , CEO of ePublishing. “Adding another contextual revenue opportunity for the hundreds of B2B titles powered by our EPS benefits both our clients and their customers.” In 2012, ePublishing acquired Ellington CMS and Marketplace software and 330 news websites from The World Company.

USA, Chicago, IL

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Complex Media acquires Sole Collector

March 14, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Complex Media has acquired Sole Collector expanding the company’s network of owned and operated sites. Sole Collector’s GM Steve Mullholand , along with his 10-person team, will join Complex Media. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Sole Collector was founded 10 years ago by Steve Mullholand, and is based in Portland, Oregon. The site has 4.4 million unique monthly visitors and an online sneaker forum, with over 385,000 members. Sole Collector offers a sneaker database with over 15,000 listings, each quarter publishes Sole Collector print magazine and each month publishes Sole magazine on iPad.

“We’re thrilled to acquire Sole Collector and to bring on its talented team. They’ve created a uniquely successful destination for sneaker-obsessed males – some of the most discerning lifestyle consumers anywhere,” said Rich Antoniello , CEO of Complex Media. “With its authentic voice, enormous and constantly updated database, and loyal and engaged users, Sole Collector is exactly the kind of property we’re looking to add to our expanding collective of sites that define and influence youth culture. This is just the beginning of our aggressive and strategic expansion plan for 2013.”

USA, New York, NY & Portland, Oregon

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RetailMeNot acquires Dutch online coupon site Actiepagina.nl

March 13, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

RetailMeNot, Inc., a marketplace for online coupons and deals, has acquired Actiepagina.nl, a publisher of online coupons in the Netherlands. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

RetailMeNot, Inc.’s existing portfolio of European websites also includes VoucherCodes.co.uk (www.vouchercodes.co.uk) in the U.K.; Bons-de-Reduction (web.bons-de-reduction.com) and cash-back website Poulpeo (poulpeo.com) in France; and Deals.com (www.deals.com) in Germany. In North America, RetailMeNot, Inc. also operates Deals2Buy (www.deals2buy.com) and RetailMeNot (www.retailmenot.com), the most widely used online coupon site in the United States.

Maurice Buijs , who founded of Actiepagina in 2005, will continue to serve as general manager of RetailMeNot, Inc.’s Dutch operations. The transaction includes transitioning all existing full-time staff to RetailMeNot, Inc. employees, bringing RetailMeNot, Inc.’s total global headcount to approximately 330 employees.

“In addition to our two websites in North America, the acquisition of Actiepagina.nl puts us in our fourth country in Europe,” said Cotter Cunningham, Founder & CEO, RetailMeNot, Inc. “I look forward to working with Maurice and our new team in the Netherlands so we can show more Dutch consumers how easy it is to save money while shopping online, and help our merchant partners grow their business.”

USA, Austin, TX & The Netherlands

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Expedia Completes Acquisition Of Majority Interest In trivago

March 12, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

expediaExpedia has completed its acquisition of 61.6% of the fully-diluted equity of trivago, a German hotel metasearch company, paying approximately €434 million in cash (approximately US$564 million based on March 8, 2013 exchange rates) and agreeing to issue a total of 875,200 shares of Expedia, Inc. common stock over five years. trivago will continue to operate independently from its headquarters in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Previous DigiNet reporting

“Metasearch is an incredibly popular product because it enables consumers to find their ideal hotel at the lowest possible rate. The trivago team built one of the best hotel search user experiences and gained tremendous brand recognition in Europe. We are thrilled to officially welcome them to the Expedia, Inc. family,” said Dara Khosrowshahi , Expedia, Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer.

“Our focus remains on rapidly growing revenue as we expand globally,” said Rolf Schromgens, trivago co-founder and Managing Director. “The ability to leverage Expedia’s knowledge of and experience with global scale operations will be invaluable to profitably achieve this goal,” added Schromgens.

USA, Bellevue, WA & Germany, Dusseldorf

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Middle Eastern daily deal site Cobone.com acquired by Tiger Global Management

March 12, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Cobone LogoCobone.com, a daily deal company in the Middle East, has been acquired by investment firm Tiger Global Management. Irish entrepreneur Paul Kenny , founder and current CEO of Cobone.com, along other members of Cobone’s management team including Warrick Godfrey , Pieter Sleeboom, Tahira Khan and Loai Ayoub will remain with Cobone. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Dubai based Cobone was founded in August 2010 by Kenny with backing from the Jabbar Internet Group. Cobone.com is the largest deal site in the Middle East region, and has grown its registered user base to more than 2 million customers.

“This deal represents a very exciting future for Cobone as it reaffirms its commitment to the Middle Eastern market and e-commerce industry,” said Paul Kenny . “Tiger Global gives us the international clout and the financial resources to expand regionally and surpass already high customer expectations. Loyal Cobone users can look forward to many exciting developments and innovative offerings in the very near future.”

USA, New York & UAE, Dubai

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Middle Eastern daily deal site Cobone.com acquired by Tiger Global Management

March 11, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Cobone.com, a daily deal company in the Middle East, has been acquired by investment firm Tiger Global Management.

Irish entrepreneur Paul Kenny , founder and current CEO of Cobone.com, will remain in his position along other members of Cobone’s leadership team including Warrick Godfrey , Pieter Sleeboom, Tahira Khan and Loai Ayoub.

Cobone.com was founded in August 2010 by Kenny with backing from the Jabbar Internet Group. It is the largest deal site in the Middle East region, and has grown its registered user base to more than 2 million customers.

“This deal represents a very exciting future for Cobone as it reaffirms its commitment to the Middle Eastern market and e-commerce industry,” said Paul Kenny . “Tiger Global gives us the international clout and the financial resources to expand regionally and surpass already high customer expectations. Loyal Cobone users can look forward to many exciting developments and innovative offerings in the very near future.”

Samih Toukan , Chairman of Jabbar Internet Group, commented on the deal, saying, “This deal represents the international recognition of a highly successful local business. With Paul Kenny , we created a company that led the way in regional group buying, and took on global players on our own turf. While this deal represents a successful exit for the Jabbar Group, we have little doubt in Cobone’s commitment to the region and in Paul’s determination to continue excelling and leading his brainchild to new successes.”

UAE, Dubai

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Perform acquires Dutch football site Voetbalzone.nl

March 7, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

performDigital sports rights business, Perform Group plc,  has acquired Voetbalzone.nl.

Voetbalzone is an independent sports site in the Netherlands. The acquisition will be for an initial voetbalzoneconsideration of €2.0m with an additional contingent consideration of up to €10.5m payable based on the EBITDA of Voetbalzone for the years to 31 December 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Voetbalzone covers all the news from the world of football and is the number one independent sports site in the Netherlands attracting an average of 2m unique users per month, and ranked as the 6th largest sport site on comScore.

Oliver Slipper, joint CEO of Perform commented: “We are delighted to have announced the acquisition of Voetbalzone. The Dutch market is extremely exciting and one of the leading media markets in Europe and this acquisition really positions us a strong player here. We have set out a growth strategy focused on augmenting Perform’s strong organic growth with selective acquisitions including ‘local champions’ and today’s announcement is an excellent example of us executing this strategy.”

Perform Group also announced full year results today with revenue growth of 47% and adjusted EBITDA growth of 103% – full details.

Perform Group recent acquisitions:

  • Acquisition of RunningBall, a leading real-time data provider in May for total cash and equity consideration of €120 million.  Post acquisition integration complete and new product development progressing well.
  • Acquisition of 51% of Mackolik in June, Turkey’s leading digital sports business for £14.5 million (with a further £1.0 million payable in 2013 due to the above expected performance of the business in 2012).  Remaining 49% to be acquired in 2016.

UK, Feltham & The Netherlands

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Strong financial results for Moneysupermarket.com

March 7, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

ms-logoMoneysupermarket.com has produced a strong set of financial results for the year ended 31 December 2012. Adjusted revenue for the year increased by 15% to £204.8m (2011: £178.5m), generating adjusted EBITDA which was 26% higher at £66.5m (2011: £52.5m). This included external revenues of £1.8m and EBITDA of £2.8m respectively, resulting from the acquisition of MoneySavingExpert.com which was acquired on 21 September 2012.

During 2012 the Group has continued to see good growth. Trading during the second half of the year improved relative to the comparable first half performance in the Insurance, Home Services and Travel verticals. Revenues in the Money vertical however were broadly flat in the second half of the year as savings revenues declined as a result of the introduction of the Bank of England’s ‘Funding for Lending’ scheme, which enables financial institutions to seek low cost funding centrally rather than through retail deposits from the consumer markets.

The Group acquired MoneySavingExpert.com on 21 September 2012 for a total consideration of up to £92.5m including deferred consideration of up to £27.0m. Trading since acquisition has been strong.

Financial highlights

  • Adjusted revenue increased by 15% to £204.8m (2011: £178.5m);
  • Adjusted EBITDA increased by 26% to £66.5m (2011: £52.5m);
  • Adjusted EBITDA margins increased by 3% to 32%;
  • Adjusted gross margin increased to 74.1% (2011: 71.9%);
  • 97% of EBITDA converted to cash;
  • Cash balance of £18.7m (2011: £35.0m) at the year-end reflecting the acquisition of MoneySavingExpert.com; the Group is debt free;
  • Dividend increased by 27% to 5.74p;
    • Final dividend increased 30% to 3.94p per share (2011: 3.03p);
  • £10.6m (2011: £nil) net credit in statutory profit following agreement of new VAT recovery method with HMRC;
    • Credits of £4.5m and £1.9m recognised for 2012 and 2011 respectively, in lower irrecoverable VAT charge.

Full details of year end results

UK, Wales, Ewloe

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