QuinStreet acquires Ziff Davis Enterprise media assets

February 14, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

Internet marketing and media company QuinStreet has acquired Ziff Davis Enterprise media assets. The assets acquired include websites eWeek.com, CIOInsight.com, Baseline.com, ChannelInsider.com and WebBuyersGuide.com, among others, and one of the largest email and telephone subscriber databases in the business to business (B2B) technology space. These properties support enterprise IT buyers and decision makers in making purchasing decisions. Also, they provide B2B technology vendors with targeted advertising and opportunities to engage with customer prospects online.

“Ziff Davis Enterprise has a rich history in the B2B technology media and marketing space and is synonymous with quality and client service. This acquisition expands QuinStreet’s ability to service our B2B technology clients at scale, with high-quality, targeted, measurable marketing results,” said Doug Valenti, QuinStreet CEO.

The VAR Guy is reporting that Quinstreet paid $17.5 million for the assets. BtoBonline.com is reporting that QuinStreet is planning to cut about 80% of Ziff Davis Enterprise employees. Steve Weitzner, ZDE database CEO, will be leaving the company.

Foster City, CA & New York, NY

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Guardian News & Media sell paidContent to GigaOM

February 8, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

Guardian News & Media has sold the assets of ContentNext Media, to business and technology media company GigaOM. The deal includes all the properties of ContentNext Media including paidContent.org, mocoNews, contentSutra and paidContent:UK. The terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Under the terms of the acquisition, GNM will take a minority shareholding in GigaOM. GigaOM has an online audience of more than 4.5 million monthly unique visitors. It also runs events and a market research service and digital community providing expert analysis and research on emerging technology markets. GNM is joining existing investors such as Reed Elsevier Ventures, Alloy Ventures and True Ventures.

Andrew Miller, Chief Executive Officer of Guardian Media Group (parent company of Guardian News & Media), said: “paidContent has a fantastic presence in the tech/media space and the match with GigaOM, itself a really smart and pioneering company, is a good one. We are delighted to become shareholders in GigaOM as part of the deal.

“The Guardian’s focus in the US is on building guardiannews.com, but we look forward to seeing paidContent thrive and grow in its new home and wish its staff all the very best for the future.”

Staci Kramer will remain the editor of paidContent.

USA, New York, NY & UK, London

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Founders of Briefing Media to acquire UBM’s UK agriculture and medical general practitioner portfolios

February 7, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

Neil Thackray and Rory Brown, the founders of Briefing Media Ltd, are to acquire UBM‘s UK agriculture and medical general practitioner portfolios – including the Farmers Guardian and Pulse titles – for a total cash consideration of £10 million (subject to a working capital adjustment at completion). The new business will be known as Briefing Media Group. It is funded by GCP Capital Partners, a mid-market private equity fund.

The agriculture portfolio – comprising the Farmers Guardian and Dairy Farmer titles and their associated online offerings – is based primarily in Preston and employs 57 staff.

The London-based general practitioner portfolio employs 33 staff and includes the Pulse and Practical Commissioning magazines and their digital and event products NAPC, the Mental Health Forum, Pulse Seminars, as well as Pulse Learning.

Commenting on the deal, Neil Thackray said, “When we founded Briefing Media we had a vision for creating a vibrant new business to business media company. This acquisition gives us both the scale and market opportunity to accelerate that ambition. We are delighted to be acquiring assets with such excellent pedigrees and reputations in important business markets and to be working with GCP Capital Partners. This will be the first but not the last acquisition we plan to make.”

The transaction is expected to close in the next four to six weeks. In total, these assets generated revenues of £12.1 million in 2011.

UBM has retained ownership of the Cropworld conference and the Chemist & Druggist magazine and data product portfolio.

Briefing Media article – A new chapter begins today for Briefing Media

UK, London

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UBM plc and Roularta Media Group form Belgian medical print journal joint venture business

February 3, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

UBM plc thas contributed its Belgian medical print activities to a joint venture with Roularta Media Group (ROU), the Euronext Brussels-listed media group.

UBM Medica and Roularta have merged their respective Belgian professional medical print businesses into ActuaMedica, a 50:50 joint venture company.  The staff and assets relating to UBM Medica’s print and digital titles (Journal du Medecin / Arksenkrant, Belgium Oncology News and Le Magazine du Pharmacien / Apothekers magazine) and Roularta’s print and digital titles (De Huisarts / Le Generaliste, De Specialisten / Les Specialistes, De Apotheker / Le Pharmacien and De Tandards / Le Denttiste) will be combined.  The Prescription pads business of both companies will also be combined and the joint venture company will retain the rights to publish the Medex directory under licence. It will be headquartered in Roularta’s offices in Brussels.

ActuaMedica will be the market-leading provider of media-based marketing services for Belgian healthcare professionals.  UBM says it remains committed to the Belgium medical market through its continued 100% ownership of its digital data businesses in Belgium (Medibridge and drug information systems), as well as its 50% equity interest in ActuaMedica.

Henry Elkington, CEO of UBM Medica said, “By merging our Belgian media assets with Roularta we are creating the leading marketing services player in the local market and will be able to offer our clients unparalleled access and reach to healthcare professionals.  ActuaMedica is well placed to prosper in both print and digital as the media market evolves.  In parallel we will continue to to build our wholly-owned Belgian data business as part of our UBM Medica EMEA operations.”

Belgium, Brussel

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Meredith to acquire Allrecipes.com

February 3, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

Meredith Corporation is to acquire digital food site Allrecipes.com.

The transaction is valued at $175 million and is expected to close later this quarter.  Meredith plans to invest in Allrecipes.com to optimise the site for today’s growing online and mobile audiences. This investment spending, along with normal business seasonality, is expected to make the acquisition slightly dilutive – approximately $0.10 per share, or less than 4 percent – to Meredith’s fiscal 2012 full year financial performance.  Meredith expects the acquisition will be modestly accretive to earnings per share and free cash flow in fiscal 2013.

The addition of Allrecipes.com fits with Meredith’s previously stated strategic acquisition criteria: (1) National media brands that provide access to new audiences and advertising categories; and (2) Digital platforms that significantly increase scale.

“The acquisition of Allrecipes.com significantly enhances our digital platform and reinforces our leadership position in the food category,” said Meredith National Media Group President Tom Harty. “It increases our relevance with new, younger audiences, and offers advertisers an unmatched ability to now connect with an audience of more than 100 million consumers.  We are excited to add Allrecipes.com, the world’s No. 1 food website, to our strong portfolio of digital media brands.”

Allrecipes.com currently has a database of over 500,000 recipes.  Its U.S. audience is 70 percent female with a mean household income of $73,000, and it reaches nine out of 10 primary grocery decision makers. Allrecipes.com mobile apps have been downloaded by over 11 million consumers, and they are the No. 1 download on Android, iPhone, and iPad recipe applications.  It is also the top food recipe channel on YouTube.

BDT & Company served as financial advisor to Meredith, and McDermott, Will & Emery served as its legal advisor.  Morgan Stanley and Evercore Partners acted as financial advisors to Reader’s Digest, and Weil, Gotshal and Manges acted as its legal advisor.

USA, Des Moines, IA

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Internet Brands acquires The Frugal Travel Guy

February 3, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

Internet Brands has acquired The Frugal Travel Guy, a travel blog focused on helping consumers save money on travel around the world.

The Frugal Travel Guy was founded in 2007 by Rick Ingersoll, a retired mortgage banker and avid world traveler. Ingersoll is a noted expert in frequent flyer mile programs, customer service requests, and using good credit ratings to take advantage of bank promotions.

“Rick’s passion for travelling frugally is contagious. You can feel his energy and enthusiasm in The Frugal Travel Guy blog, which is constantly updated with new travel tips and informative personal anecdotes about saving money on travel,” said Brent Conver, General Manager, Travel and Leisure at Internet Brands. “The expertise Rick and the entire Frugal Travel Guy team offer make The Frugal Travel Guy a valuable asset to our growing portfolio of travel sites designed to make travel easier, cheaper and more efficient for consumers.”

The Frugal Travel Guy will join Internet Brands travel sites FlyerTalk, Wikitravel and CruiseMates. Ingersoll and his team of writers will continue producing the Frugal Travel Guy blog after the acquisition.

USA, Los Angeles, CA

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Scripps provides revenue guidance for 2012

January 19, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

The E. W. Scripps Company has provided a broad outlook for the revenue performance of its television stations and newspapers in 2012.

For the full year 2012, total television revenues should increase by more than 50 percent. That includes more than $100 million of revenue for the stations that were acquired from McGraw-Hill Broadcasting Company on December 30, 2011.

Excluding the newly acquired stations, television revenue should increase more than 15 percent, fueled by low-to-mid-single-digit growth of core revenue, and political revenue that should exceed the $42 million figure reported in the previous presidential election cycle.

Newspaper revenue should be down slightly to approximately $400 million.

The commentary was part of prepared remarks at the Noble Financial Equity Conference. A replay can be heard by visiting the investor relations page at http://www.scripps.com.

More-detailed guidance for the first quarter of 2012 will be released when the company reports its year-end earnings in February.

USA, Cincinnati, OH

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The E.W. Scripps Company third quarter results Posted on November 9, 2011

 

 

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January 18, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

Mountain News Corporation, publisher of OnTheSnow Norwegian snow sports website Skiinfo. This acquisition will increase Mountain News Corporation’s reach in key European ski markets and creates a total audience of more than 23 million unique visitors per year. The combined companies will operate in 14 languages and 20 countries.

Established in 1996 in Oslo, Norway as a snow reporting website, Skiinfo.com expanded over the years adding offices in Germany, France, Italy and Slovakia, and had an audience of 11 million unique users in 2011.

“This acquisition allows us to combine the dominant snow sports leader in North America with the leader in Europe to create the first ever, truly global snow sports media platform,” said Chad Dyer, global managing director of Mountain News Corporation. “With a combined 23 million unique visits per year, we will be able to offer advertisers access to skiing and snowboarding enthusiasts around the world — one of the most coveted demographics in media. The combined companies also will be able to offer skiers and riders the most comprehensive global snow sports content and most robust worldwide snow reports.”

The acquisition is expected to close on February 1st, 2012.

USA, Broomfield, CO & Norway, Oslo

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International Game Technology to acquire social gaming company Double Down Interactive

January 18, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet
International Game Technology (IGT) is to acquire Double Down Interactive LLC – an online social gaming company and developer of the popular DoubleDown Casino found on Facebook.

Launched in April 2010, the DoubleDown Casino is the world’s largest virtual casino and one of the top 4 social media games in 2011 as rated by Facebook.  According to AppData.com, DoubleDown Casino currently has 4.7 million monthly active users, up from 3.3 million in October 2011. With a broad and expanding portfolio, Double Down offers blackjack, slots, slot tournaments, video poker, and roulette to social gamers all around the world.

The total consideration includes $250 million in cash, $85 million in retention payments over the next two years and up to $165 million in cash payable over the next three years subject to Double Down meeting certain financial performance targets.  IGT expects to fund the transaction from cash on hand.

The addition of Double Down provides IGT instant size and scale in the fast growing world of casino-style social gaming and is expected to broaden IGT’s popular gaming titles beyond the physical casino to Facebook, the world’s largest social network with over 800 million global users.  This powerful distribution model is anticipated to provide IGT an opportunity to entertain players with consistent, ubiquitous, thrilling gaming experiences across multiple platforms.

“As technological innovations increasingly influence consumer behavior, social dynamics are quickly transforming entertainment and gaming experiences everywhere,” said Patti Hart, CEO of IGT.  “The addition of Double Down launches IGT into a leadership position in social gaming, extends our global reach through new mediums, and leverages our unmatched expertise in game development.  We intend to drive meaningful value from this rapidly growing distribution platform that reaches a new, but complementary, demographic of gamers.”

Greg Enell will continue to lead Double Down and the company’s operations will remain inSeattle, WA after the acquisition is complete.

USA, Las Vegas, NV

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Berkery Noyes releases 2011 year-end Online & Mobile Industry M&A Report

January 18, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

Berkery Noyes has released its 2011 Full Year Mergers and Acquisitions Trend Report for the Online & Mobile Industry. The report analyses the sector for 2011 and compares it with similar activity in 2009 and 2010.

  • Total transaction volume in 2011 increased by 33 percent over 2010, from 1299 in 2010 to 1723 this year.
  • Total transaction value in 2011 increased by 55 percent over 2010, from $46.34 billion in 2010 to $71.95 billion this year.
  • The median revenue multiple rose from 1.9x in 2010 to 2.4x in 2011. The median EBITDA multiple increased from 11.4x to 12.5x.
  • The segment with the largest increase in volume in 2011 over 2010 was E-Marketing & Search with a 53 percent increase from 263 in 2010 to 403 in 2011.

“M&A activity for social media and analytics companies continues to grow as a broader range of players seek to capitalize on this evolution in media and marketing communications,” said Kathleen Thomas, Managing Director at Berkery Noyes. “The world’s largest retailer, Walmart, entered the market in April with their $300 million acquisition of Kosmix Corporation, and Kosmix, now known as @WalmartLabs, has already completed four deals.”

  • Microsoft Corporation’s acquisition of Skype Technologies SA, a portfolio of Silver Lake Partners, was the largest transaction for 2011, with an acquisition price of $9.08 billion.
  • The most active acquirer in the Online & Mobile Industry was Google Inc. with 21 transactions (not including the acquisition of Motorola Mobility).
  • There were 192 financially sponsored transactions with an aggregate value of $11.93 billion, representing 11 percent of the total volume and 16 percent of the total value, respectively.

Total acquisitions involving social media and analytics companies rose 39% from 116 transactions in 2010 to 161 in 2011. The median revenue multiple for this sector between 2009 and 2011 was 5.5x.

Click here for a copy of the Full Year 2011 Online & Mobile Industry M&A Trend Report.

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