Skimlinks Raises $4.5 Million Series B Round

November 11, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Skimlinks, an in-text monetization platform for Web publishers, has raised $4.5 million in Series B funding. Led by Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI), the new investment will help continue Skimlinks’ growth in existing and new vertical markets within the United States and around the globe. It will also finance product research and development.

The new funding round continues Skimlinks’ strong investor momentum, bringing its total investments to $7.5 million to-date. In addition to BDMI, new investors 500startups and Venrex Investment Management and existing investors – Sussex Place Ventures, The Accelerator Group, and NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) – also contributed to the latest funding round.

“We chose BDMI to lead this round because of its stellar experience in both online publishing and advertising,” said Alicia Navarro, CEO of Skimlinks. “We’re delighted that all of our investors continue to believe in the value Skimlinks delivers, and we look forward to using this investment to continue our rapid expansion throughout Europe and the United States.”

“We are excited to be investing in Skimlinks. The team is energetic and inventive, and the space is open for technical innovation,” said Urs Cete, managing director of BDMI, who will be joining the Skimlinks Board.

USA, San Francisco, CA & UK, London

 

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The E.W. Scripps Company third quarter results

November 9, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Consolidated revenues from continuing operations were $168 million, a decrease of 8.6 percent from $184 million in the third quarter of 2010.

Operating expenses totalled $165 million, down 4.9 percent from the second quarter, and down 2.3 percent compared with the year-ago quarter. Restructuring costs, largely for the ongoing efforts to standardise and centralise certain functions that should benefit the newspaper division starting in 2012, were $2.6 million.

The third quarter results include a non-cash charge for the impairment of long-lived assets at four of the company’s newspapers. The company concluded that the fair value of certain of its newspapers was less than the carrying value of its net assets. Scripps recorded in the third quarter a $9 million, pre-tax, non-cash charge to reduce the carrying value of property and equipment.

Largely due to the impairment charge, the company reported an $18.2 million loss from continuing operations before income taxes, compared with what was essentially a break-even quarter a year ago.

The loss from continuing operations, net of tax, was $10.7 million, or 19 cents per share in the 2011 quarter, compared with income from continuing operations, net of tax, of $5.4 million, or 8 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Excluding the effect of the impairment charge, the loss from continuing operations, net of tax, would have been 9 cents per share in the most-recent quarter.

The tax provisions in the third quarter of both 2011 and 2010 include the impact of favourable settlements of the examinations of prior-year tax returns.

“We continue to reshape Scripps, improving the company’s short-term and long-term opportunities for growth,” said Rich Boehne, Scripps president and CEO. “We believe local TV stations are both good businesses today and attractive launching pads for the future, which is why during the quarter we agreed to purchase the nine stations now owned by McGraw-Hill Broadcasting. At a purchase price of $212 million, we should show a strong return on investment and gain access to TV and digital media consumers and advertisers in Indianapolis, Denver and San Diego. Plus we picked up a great small-market station in Bakersfield, Calif., and access to the developing Spanish-language market through five Azteca stations in Colorado and California. We’re eager to close the deal and bring these businesses into the Scripps fold.

USA, Cincinnati, OH

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Demand Media reports third quarter 2011 financial results

November 9, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Content and social media company Demand Media has reported financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2011.

Financial Summary

GAAP

  • Revenue increased 25% to $81.5 million, compared with $65.4 million in Q310.
  • Loss from operations of $(3.3) million compared with income from operations of $0.9 million in Q310.
  • Net loss of $(4.1) million compared with a net loss of $(0.3) million in Q310. Net loss per share of $(0.05) compared with $(0.64) in Q310.
  • Cash flow from operations grew 36% to $22.1 million, from $16.3 million in Q310.

Non-GAAP (see the full statement Non-GAAP measures)

  • Revenue ex-TAC increased 26% to $78.1 million, from $62.2 million in Q310.
  • Adjusted OIBDA grew 33% to $21.7 million, or 27.7% of Revenue ex-TAC, compared with $16.3 million, or 26.2% of Revenue ex-TAC, in Q310.
  • Adjusted Net Income of $5.0 million increased 12% compared with $4.5 million in Q310. Adjusted Net Income per share – diluted of $0.06, grew 20% compared with $0.05 in Q310.
  • Discretionary Free Cash Flow increased 116% to $19.9 million compared with $9.2 million in Q310.
  • Free Cash Flow of $6.0 million compared with $(4.0) million in Q310.

“We reported another strong quarter as we continue to build Demand Media’s foundation for long-term growth,” said Richard Rosenblatt, Chairman and CEO of Demand Media. “The Company is uniquely positioned to deliver data-driven professional content through its robust content publishing platform. We are now in the process of optimizing that platform while increasing our investment in video content and enhancing the quality, engagement and user experience of our sites.”

  • Content & Media Revenue increased 27% to $50.7 million, compared with $39.8 million in Q310.
  • Traffic acquisition costs (TAC), which represent the portion of Content & Media revenue shared with Demand Media partners, of $3.4 million, or 6.7% of Content & Media revenue, compared with $3.2 million, or 7.9% of Content & Media revenue, in Q310.
  • Content & Media Revenue ex-TAC grew 29% to $47.4 million, from $36.7 million in Q310.
  • Registrar Revenue increased 20% to $30.7 million compared with $25.5 million in Q310.
  • Investment in Intangible Assets of $13.9 million increased 5% from $13.3 million in Q310.
Read the full statement here
USA, Santa Monica, CA
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Yell’s half year interim results

November 9, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Revenue in line with expectations

  • Print directories – deteriorating trend continues – down 20.1%
  • Digital directories – deteriorating trend continues – down 12.3%
  • Strong growth in digital services – up by 136.5%
  • Underlying growth – down 13.3%
  • A £100m debt buy-back is being considered.
  • The company built up a debt pile after a series of acquisitions which included its Spanish directories business. The company has no plans to sell existing businesses.

FY12 Outlook

  • EBITDA within current market expectations
  • Full year exceptional – reorganisation costs of circa £25m
  • Not expecting covenant breach within FY12
See the full presentation here
UK, Berkshire

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Adconion Media Group acquires smartclip

November 9, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Adconion Media Group has acquired digital video advertising business smartclip. terms of the deal were not disclosed. Adconion will gain 118 employees in Europe and expand to 27 offices servicing clients throughout the UK, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Portugal in Western Europe; Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland in Northern Europe; and Russia.

The acquisition will strengthen Adconion’s position in online video in its existing markets and accelerate the deployment of its digital distribution platform into the emerging markets of Eastern and Central Europe and into the segment of Connected TV. The smartclip business with its expertise in digital video advertising will complement Adconion’s existing product range. The proprietary in-stream video and Connected TV technology of smartclip will be integrated with the Adconion platform, which is already delivering targeted ads and content across display, email, social and both in-banner and in-stream video

Prior to this acquisition Adconion had a potential reach of 687m unique users monthly across its global platform or just over half the global online population. Now, with the inclusion of over 500 new publisher sites from the smartclip portfolio, this number will grow significantly as well as increase the Adconion global footprint to 17 countries worldwide.

Tyler Moebius, Adconion’s  founder and CEO commented, “The addition of smartclip’s exclusive in-stream reach and Connected TV apps to our platform is an important development in growing the online video industry globally. We will now be providing advertisers an exclusive audience which they can reach in scale across in-banner, in-stream and Connected TV,” said

Matthias Quadflieg, Adconion’s chief operating officer international commented “We believe advertising will be the main monetisation vehicle for Connected TV programs and apps. The heritage of Adconion Media Group lies in maximising revenue for commercial partners through delivering the right audience, on the right platform, to the right brand, at the right time, at unprecedented scale.”

UK, London

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Adconion Media Group raises £21M to support acquisition plans and general operations Posted on May 12, 2011

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FindaProperty, Primelocation and Zoopla to merge to take on Rightmove

November 7, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

A&N Media, the consumer media division of DMGT plans to merge the online property business of its Digital Property Group, which includes FindaProperty.com and Primelocation.com, with those of Zoopla Limited operator of Zoopla.co.uk. Zoopla is a privately-owned company which has venture capital interests as its largest shareholders.  Under the proposed merger, A&N Media will retain a 55% interest in the newly merged entity. The merger has been referred to the Office of Fair Trading.

The companies hope that the merged businesses will be able to compete better with Rightmove, the dominant player in the market. Martin Morgan, Chief Executive of DMGT said: “This merger will create a genuine opportunity to challenge the dominant market leader in the online property sector. We believe that the combination of our respective digital property assets will benefit both consumers and clients.”

UK, London

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Groupon’s IPO – what the commentators say

November 7, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

On Friday Groupon raised $700 million after offering 35 million shares at $20 per share, the largest IPO by an Internet company since Google raised $1.7 billion in 2004. The company’s share prices closed at $26.11, up 30.55 percent.

Here is what is being said about the IPO.

USA, Chicago, IL

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Yahoo! to acquire interclick

November 7, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Yahoo! is to acquire interclick. Yahoo! will acquire data targeting capabilities, optimisation technologies and new premium supply, as well as a team experienced in selling audiences across disparate sources of pooled supply. Under the terms of the agreement, Yahoo! will commence an all cash tender offer for all outstanding shares of common stock of interclick at $9.00 per share. The transaction has an estimated total equity value of approximately $270 million. The companies expect the tender offer to close by early 2012.

interclick, headquartered in New York, was founded in 2006 and became a NASDAQ-listed company in 2009. Powered by OSM, interclick offers proprietary data-valuation capabilities combining analytical expertise and media fulfilment to help marketers navigate the complex data ecosystem to drive successful online display and video campaigns. OSM is a powerful solution which aggregates and organises billions of data points from 3rd party providers – delivering actionable consumer insights, scalable audiences and the most effective campaign execution.

“This investment underscores our focus on enhancing the performance of both our guaranteed and non-guaranteed display business across Yahoo and our partner sites and, combined with Yahoo!’s reach and advertising leadership, will deliver a powerful solution for marketers,” said Ross Levinsohn, EVP, Americas region. “interclick’s innovative platform will allow Yahoo! to expand its targeting and data capabilities to deliver campaigns with stronger performance metrics.”

“We believe that this is a great outcome for our shareholders,” said Michael Brauser, interclick Co-Chairman of the Board. “Michael Katz and his team have done a tremendous job over the past few years and I’m proud to have helped make this outcome a reality.”

GCA Savvian Advisors, LLC acted as the lead financial advisor to interclick in connection with the transaction.

USA, Sunnydale, CA & New York, NY

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Matchbin acquires NAVTEQ Broadcast Media Division to Form Radiate Media

November 2, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Matchbin has closed its first institutional equity financing led by New York-based growth equity investor Level Equity. Greycroft Partners and vSpring Capital are co-investors in the $10 million round.

Simultaneously, the business acquired NAVTEQ Media Solution’s Radio and Television Group, closing a $12 million credit facility with Silicon Valley Bank. The combined company, which will be named Radiate Media. provides localised content, digital content management solutions and an advertising platform to over 6,000 local and national advertisers through its network of over 2,000 media partners.

Chris Rothey, who founded and took Traffic.com public before being acquired by NAVTEQ in 2007, has joined Radiate Media as CEO. “Technology and evolving content distribution models continue to rapidly change the way advertisers, large and small, promote themselves in a quantifiable fashion,” said Rothey. “Our collective offering will help our media partners leverage their strong and enduring relationships with local businesses to provide both today’s and tomorrow’s performance advertising solutions.”

“We are excited to back Chris Rothey in the creation of Radiate Media. Their business model, scale and deep technology is unique in the local advertising space,” said Ben Levin, partner at Level Equity. “We are attracted to businesses that are changing the way business is done in large and evolving markets. Radiate has cracked the code on how to enable the massive base of incumbent media properties to access the shift in spend to measurable and locally delivered advertising solutions. Chris is a world-class executive who has over a decade of experience providing local and mobile products. The opportunity to sponsor the acquisition of a highly valuable asset he founded over a decade ago and integrate it with a technologically innovative and rapidly growing local advertising business is compelling.”

USA, Salt Lake City, UT & Malvern, PA

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mergermarket Q3 Monthly M&A Insider report

November 2, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

According to the mergermarket Q3 Monthly M&A Insider report (October 2011), global m&a in the first three quarters of 2011 totalled us$1,718bn – a 21.5% increase from the us$1,414.4bn worth of deals registered in the first three quarters of 2010 – and the financial services sector saw an even steeper 37.4% increase during this nine-month window. The first three quarters of 2011 brought us$208.5bn in financial services deals to market, up from us$151.7bn in the same period last year,

Sectors covered by Fusion DigiNet

The largest sector by market share was Energy, Mining and Utilities at 23.1% (835 deals) down 10% (-125 by volume), in 7th place is Business Services at 4.4% (1,159 deals) -17% (+62 by volume), media is in 8th place at 1.9% (279 deals) +23% (no change by volume).

See the full report at mergermarket

Posted in B2B Services, Broadcasting, Conference/Exhibitions/Events, Consultancy, Content Media, e-Commerce, Energy & Environmental Services, Games, Internet Media, Market Data & Information, Marketing/Advertising, Mobile Apps, Research Reports, ~Asia, ~Europe, ~Latin America and Caribbean, ~Middle East & Africa, ~North America, ~Oceana. Leave a Comment »
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