Safari Books Online acquires web developer Threepress

January 9, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

Safari Books Online, the on-demand digital library for technology, digital media and business professionals, has acquired Massachusetts-based Threepress Consulting Inc, makers of the Ibis Reader online EPUB reading system. The acquisition, was completed on January 1, 2012. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

As part of the acquisition, Threepress co-founders Liza Daly and Keith Fahlgren and the rest of the Threepress staff will join the Safari Books Online engineering team, working from their East Coast and Bay Area locations. Daly will become the VP of Engineering while Fahlgren will assume the role of Director of Engineering.

“This acquisition is a critical step in support of all three of Safari Books Online’s key strategic initiatives: growing and strengthening our base business; developing new products and new markets; and developing truly new ways of learning online,” explained Andrew Savikas, CEO, Safari Books Online. “The Web is a very different (and much more mobile!) place than it was more than 10 years ago when Safari Books Online opened its virtual doors. These phenomenal additions to our team will help us make sure Safari Books Online will continue to be at the forefront of online reading and learning for the next 10 years and beyond.”

USA, Sebastopol, CA & Massachusetts, MA

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NetMediaEurope acquires German arm of CBS Interactive

January 9, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

CBS Interactive has sold its German IT websutes ZDNet.de, silicon.de and CNET.de to NetMediaEurope, publisher of ITespresso.de,Gizmodo.de and Channelbiz.de. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The combined entity will see close to 20 million page impressions per month, and five million unique users. The two companies will merge their Munich operations, with all six websites coming under the NetMediaEurope brand.

Dominique Busso, CEO of NetMediaEurope, commented: “We have established a strong brand across Europe, and aim to provide a one-stop shop for advertisers and sponsors looking for innovative opportunities to reach out to target audiences.” He continued: “This acquisition makes NetMediaEurope one of the key tech players in Germany, and will provide our international client base with powerful advertising reach.”

NetMediaEurope publishes in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, and was founded in July 2007 as a result of an MBO by senior VNU managers.

Germany, Munich

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Shine Group acquires ChannelFlip

January 9, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

Elisabeth Murdoch’s Shine Group has acquired ChannelFlip the online broadcaster and original content producer. ChannelFlip’s programming includes Richard Hammond’s Tech Head, David Mitchell’s Soapbox and Dom Joly’s Joystick. ChannelFlip, was founded in 2008 by Justin Gayner and Wil Harris.

Elisabeth Murdoch, the CEO and chairman of Shine Group, said: “Wil and Justin are true like-minded creative entrepreneurs and we welcome them and their team to Shine Group. They have built ChannelFlip into its leadership position through creative and commercial excellence, producing compelling and innovative online productions whilst persuading advertisers of the deeper relationships they can play within these. Following our entry into social gaming with Bossa Studios, this acquisition further underlines Shine Group’s relentless commitment to delivering excellence across all platforms and our determination to develop powerful direct to consumer models and connections to audiences, wherever they may be.”

Shine Group was acquired by News Corporation in April 2010 for a reported £415M.

USA, New York, NY & UK, London

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Glam Media to go public in Q2 2012

January 9, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

According to Ad Age Digital, sources close to Glam Media said that its North American business became profitable in fourth-quarter 2010 and that it will file to go public in the second quarter of 2012. The company is considering Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley to lead the offering and Bank of America to underwrite it.

Glam Media is led by its founder and CEO Samir Arora. Fernando Ruarte, CTO, and VP Engineering and Raj Narayan are Co-Founders with Arora.

Glam is a vertical media company with 2000 plus lifestyle websites and blogs. It is best known for Glam.com, a website targeted at women. The company also operates the male counterpart Brash.com.

Funding

  • 2004 – Seed stage, £1.1M series A led by Information Capital LLC
  • 2005 – Series B, £10M led by Accel, with DFJ and Walden VC
  • 2006 – Series C, £18.5M led by Accel, with DFJ and Walden VC, Information Capital LLC and DG Ventures
  • 2008 – Glam Media raises $85 million in private strategic funding
  • 2010 – Glam raises $50 million in private equity mezzanine funding

Read the fill story here.

USA, Brisbane, CA

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Property Drum acquires The Negotiator

January 6, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

Property Drum has acquired The Negotiator.  The deal includes The Negotiator magazine, the website (www.the-negotiator.co.uk) and The Negotiator Awards

“This is great news for the industry,” said Property Drum Managing Director Grant Leonard. “Across the two titles we can now reach more offices, giving us a near-total market coverage.

“Both titles are very popular with agents, most of whom still prefer to receive printed publications and each has its own focus and editorial style. We intend to develop both magazines to meet the interests of all agencies, large or small, corporate or independent.”

Editor of The Negotiator, Clare Bettelley will remain in her current position and the partnership also includes the popular Negotiator Awards along with the website and e-newsletter.

Sheila Manchester, Editorial Director of Property Drum said: “We are really looking forward to working with Clare, who we consider to be one of the most talented journalists in property.”

The Negotiator will resume publication next month.

UK, East Sussex

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Prince Alwaleed makes a $300 million investment in Twitter 


December 20, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud of Saudi Arabia and his investment company Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) have invested $300 Million in Twitter. Bloomberg are reporting Ahmed Halawani, a Kingdom Holding director, saying in an interview that the investment values Twitter at over $10 billion.

Prince Alwaleed commented: “Our investment in Twitter reaffirms our ability in identifying suitable opportunities to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact.” 


Prince Alwaleed, was ranked the richest Arab businessman for the eighth year by Arabian Business magazine http://richlist.arabianbusiness.com. He is the largest individual investor in Citigroup and a significant investor in News Corporation’s and holds a 29.9% stake in Saudi Research and Marketing Group, which includes the publications Asharq Al Awsat, Al Eqtisadiah, Arab News, Hia magazine, Al Majalla magazine, Arrajol magazine and Sayidati magazine. In addition, Prince Alwaleed recently announced his plans to launch his privately owned Alarab news channel, the news channel.

Saudi Arabia & USA, San Francisco, CA

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Zynga’s IPO raises around $1 billion

December 16, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Zynga, the games developer founded and led by Mark Pincus, has sold 100 million shares (around 11% of the company) at $10 each in its initial public offering, raising around $1 billion. This is at the top end of expectations. Two weeks ago its bankers projected a range of $8.50 to $10. The IPO values Zynga at around $7 billion, roughly 11 times last year’s sales. A good result, but still far less than recent social network offerings. A valuation of $20 billion dollars was suggested earlier this year. Zynga’s most-senior executives and early investors largely are holding onto their shares.

Zynga makes games mainly for Facebook. Games include FarmVille, Words with Friends, CastleVille, Adventure World and Mafia Wars 2.

USA, San Francisco, CA

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SAY Media Acquires ReadWriteWeb

December 15, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

SAY Media has acquired ReadWriteWeb. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, according to TechCrunch Say Media paid around $5 million.

Founder and editor-in-chief Richard MacManus will continue to lead ReadWriteWeb as part of SAY Media’s editorial team. In addition to ReadWriteWeb’s current staff, new writers will contribute to the technology publication, starting with Dan Frommer, founder and editor-in-chief of SplatF, who will serve as editor-at-large.

“ReadWriteWeb has established itself as a leading news and analysis source for the tech community, reaching high-level business influencers and decision makers. Its editorial team is frequently sourced and considered to be one of the best in the business,” said Matt Sanchez, CEO, SAY Media. “As we looked to acquire a property that would further strengthen our technology channel, ReadWriteWeb naturally rose to the top of the list. Richard and his team are extremely passionate about the content they create and have worked very hard to develop a deeply engaged and informed community of tech enthusiasts.”

As part of SAY Media’s portfolio of owned and operated media properties, ReadWriteWeb will take advantage of the Say Media’s proprietary technology platform, experienced ad sales team, and design expertise to scale its business to reach more technology enthusiasts and decision-makers. This acquisition will strengthen SAY’s Tech channel offering. Current sites in SAY Media’s Tech channel include: Android and Me, Gear Patrol, gdgt, SplatF, TechDirt and more.

USA, San Francisco, CA

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Mingle acquires Affinity Circles

December 7, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Mingle, a career-focused software and services company and parent company of Climber.com, has acquired Affinity Circles, an affinity group-focused recruiting network based in Sunnyvale, Calif. Climber.com provides professionals hands-on, proactive career management and access to hundreds of thousands of recruiters. The transaction was completed on November 18, and is a merger deal with Climber.com buying shares of existing shareholders. Affinity Circles will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Mingle LLC.

“Adding Affinity Circles to the Climber.com network allows us to reach millions of talented professionals looking for career opportunities in the high-paying category,” said Michael C. O’Brien, CEO of Mingle LLC. “Our recruiters and clients will now be able to target potential hires by campus, location, specialty and other affinity groups to reach a highly desirable group of job seekers.”

Affinity Circles began in 2002 as a way for Stanford University students to stay in touch with their friends and colleagues. What quickly developed was the Web’s first private and completely secure online social network.

USA, San Diego, CA

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ePals to acquire Cricket Magazine Group, Cobblestone Publishing and Open Court Publishing

December 7, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

ePals Corporation is to acquire Carus Publishing Company in a combined cash and stock transaction. Carus Publishing Company includes the Cricket Magazine Group, Cobblestone Publishing and Open Court Publishing. Carus also publishes 14 magazine titles on a variety of subjects (fiction, science, history, culture), hundreds of books and a collection of Web and mobile applications.

The acquisition of Carus accelerates ePals’ entrance into the home subscription market by adding Carus’ subscriber base of more than 300,000 grandparents, parents and extended family members, as well as a broad array of publications for children across a variety of subjects.

Carus Publishing Company,  The acquisition will add to ePals:

  • significant gross revenue which in 2010 was approximately US$16 million with EBITDA of nearly US$1 million and a net loss of approximately US$270,000;
  • more than 300,000 consumer subscriptions (approximately 70% from grandparents) and approximately 80,000 institutional subscriptions;
  • customer relationships with an estimated 30% of US middle schools and 3800 libraries;
  • a recipient of 65 Parents’ Choice awards and more than half of all International Reading Association, Paul A. Witty awards ever given;
  • mobile applications, including Carus’ Ladybug App; and
  • a licensing business in China for three localised Chinese publications based on Carus content.

“Since public listing four months ago, we have focused on launching LearningSpace 2.0 to enable schools to build safe learning communities as part of their K-12 cloud solutions, announced integration of Microsoft Office365 and GoogleDocs into our learning communities so that teachers can let their students use state of the art tools in a safe and secure manner, and launched major initiatives to establish ePals China and ePals Europe,” said Miles Gilburne, Chairman and CEO of ePals.

USA, Washington, DC & Chicago, IL

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