Intent Media acquires UBM titles for £2.4m

June 27, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Independent business media specialist Intent Media is to acquire the UK entertainment and technology product portfolio of UBM plc for a total cash consideration of £2.4m.

Intent specialises in entertainment, technology and leisure markets. Its portfolio already consists of over a dozen market leading online, print and event brands across video games, music, computing, mobile, toys, licensing and cycling.

The titles being acquired include Television Broadcast Europe, Music Week, Pro Sound News Europe and Installation Europe, plus additional websites, newsletters, conferences, show dailies and awards events. Last year this portfolio generated £5.4m of revenue.

Intent Media is headquartered in Hertford, England but is opening an additional office in Islington Green, London, this summer. Up to 36 staff will transfer on completion of the deal and total staff count will rise to around 90, with projected combined revenues of over £10 million for the financial year ending September 30th 2012.

“This is a significant move for Intent, essentially doubling the size of the company. We are heading into markets that fit our current landscape, whilst also continuing our policy of holding a leadership position wherever we operate. The brands we are taking over are well established, with experienced staff and impressive heritage,” said Intent Media managing director Stuart Dinsey.

“Intent has become the UK’s leading business media player in entertainment and technology. We are very excited to have added these new brands. Our policy of investment in online and events will continue, whilst ensuring longevity where possible for the core print titles.”

UBM is selling the portfolio on behalf of its UBM Connect division. The transaction is expected to complete in the next six weeks, subject to the conclusion of a TUPE consultation process.

“I am pleased we will pass stewardship of these well-established entertainment and technology titles to Intent Media, which focuses on serving specialist entertainment, technology and leisure markets,” said UBM Connect CEO Adrian Barrick.

Existing core Intent Media brands include MCV: The Market for Computer & Video Games, Develop, ToyNews, Mobile Entertainment, Bikebiz, PCR, Musical Instrument Professional, Audio Professional International and Licensing.biz.

Events run by Intent include The London Games Conference, MI Retail Conference & Expo, Monetising Mobile Conference and sundry trade awards.

Intent Media’s previous acquisitions:

  • MCV launched in September 1998 (when we were MCV Media Limited)
  • Develop acquired November 2000
  • ToyNews acquired June 2001
  • Management buy-out from German listed outfit Computec (and became Intent Media) March 2002
  • CTW acquired (from Highbury) and incorporated into MCV March 2002
  • CTO acquired (from Trinity Mirror) and incorporated into PCR 2006
  • BikeBiz acquired in February 2006
  • MI Pro acquired in March 2006
  • Audio Pro International acquired in March 2006
  • Music Trade News accquired (and incorporated into MI Pro) July 2008
  • All assets of Skep Media acquired January 2009
  • All assets of Prestige Media acquired January 2009

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Facebook acquires the Sofa team

June 23, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Facebook has acquired Sofa. Ot at least the Sofa team. Facebook is not acquiring Sofa’s Kaleidoscope and Versions software applications.

Sofa is Amsterdam-based software and design company, founded in 2006. They make web and Mac applications: and design icons and interfaces.

The Sofa team will be moving from Amsterdam to Palo Alto in the coming weeks – and according to the Sofa blog, they will “make sure to infuse some of our particular flavor of Dutch culture at Facebook.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

USA, Palo Alto, CA & The Netherlands, Amsterdam

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TechMediaNetwork acquires mobile technology magazine and website LAPTOP

June 23, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

TechMediaNetwork, a digital publisher and content provider of consumer technology and science news, is to purchase the assets of LAPTOP and LaptopMag.com, the mobile technology magazine and website, in a private sale. The deal is expected to close in July. LAPTOP’s management team and editorial staff will become part of TechMediaNetwork, and join it at its relocated offices in New York City.

“Mobile is the hottest area in technology, and with LAPTOP’s focus on mobility and quality content, we get to show off our strengths in distribution and advertiser ROI, making this union a perfect fit,” said Jerry Ropelato, CEO of TechMediaNetwork. “We are excited about the synergies of our businesses and the opportunities for growth.”

In October 2009, TechMediaNetwork purchased the consumer division of Imaginova that includes SPACE.com, LiveScience.com and Newsarama.com, and began executing a strategy of quality technology and science titles.

USA, New York, NY

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Reply.com completes acquisition of MerchantCircle Acquisition

June 23, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Reply! Inc., a marketplace for the acquisition of locally-targeted consumer traffic, has completed the acquisition of MerchantCircle, the largest online network of local business owners in the USA. Reply! has acquired MerchantCircle for about $60 million in cash and stock.

“We are pleased to have closed the MerchantCircle acquisition so quickly and we are excited to welcome MerchantCircle’s highly talented team into the Reply! family,” said Reply! founder and CEO Payam Zamani. “We believe the addition of MerchantCircle creates a perfect complement to our platform of locally-targeted online marketing solutions and will allow us to transform the way millions of merchants connect to consumers.”

Zamani is now the CEO of the combined company, called Reply! Inc.,

USA, San Ramon, CA

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GamersFirst acquires Fallen Earth

June 22, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

GamersFirst has acquired Fallen Earth from Fallen Earth, LLC. The current 12-person creative team behind Fallen Earth, headed by Lead Game Designer Marie “AroSei” Croall, will join GamersFirst’s development studio Reloaded Productions to lead the transition of Fallen Earth to a hybrid Free2Play game with an ongoing membership system. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Going forward GamersFirst will provide all publishing services, backend development and technical operations while Croall’s team will continue their work on the upcoming Alpha County expansion.

The Fallen Earth team is joined by GamersFirst veterans Tracy Spaight, executive designer, and Joseph Willmon, associate game director, to integrate the award-winning MMO into the broader GamersFirst universe. Spaight and Willmon bring years of Free2Play publishing and development expertise to an already stellar Fallen Earth crew.

Once transitioned to Free2Play, Fallen Earth will give free players completely unrestricted permanent access to every zone and instance in the game. Several types of services, items and conveniences will continue being sold in the Fallen Earth store. Subscriptions will be replaced by a tiered membership system that caters to players of all levels of engagement, and each membership will include reward points that can be used to obtain store items for free on a monthly basis.

Current subscribers who maintain their subscriptions through the estimated five month transition period will collect significant rewards when the game completes the transition, projected for Q4 of this year. “Veteran Rewards” will include lifetime upgrades to a premium tier membership for the price of an existing subscription, as well as unique veteran-only items, the value of which will be determined by the number of months the player subscribed between June 2011 and the completion of the transition.

“Anyone who played Fallen Earth knows just how rich and engaging its game world is, and we feel extremely lucky to bring this game into our family of free MMO games,” said Joe Rush, vice president of game operations for GamersFirst. “This acquisition gives Fallen Earth instant economies of scale as part of the GamersFirst family, and by sharing our many years of revenue generation strategies and publishing expertise we expect the Fallen Earth franchise to continue growing for years to come.”

“Fallen Earth has a number of unique and innovative game features, and we felt it was important to incorporate this outstanding creative team into Reloaded Productions’ staff,” said Bjorn Book-Larsson, COO of GamersFirst and head of Reloaded Productions. “It was important to retain what made Fallen Earth popular and unique, and we are therefore thrilled to have this particular band of passionate game creators joining our growing global studio team.”

USA, Irvine, CA & Cary, NC

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Wolters Kluwer Corporate Legal Services to acquire NRAI

June 16, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Wolters Kluwer Corporate Legal Services (CLS) has signed an agreement to purchase National Registered Agents, (NRAI). The acquisition will add NRAI to CLS’s portfolio of industry-leading business compliance and corporate governance solutions, which includes CT Corporation and BizFilings. The terms of the deal are not being disclosed, and closing of the acquisition is subject to regulatory approval.

NRAI has been providing registered agent services since 1995, specialising in compliance and governance services for small and mid-sized businesses and the legal community that supports them. Its suite of services spans U.S. and international registered agents, corporate compliance and entity management. Headquartered in Princeton, NJ, NRAI has approximately 160 employees in offices across the U.S.

Combining NRAI’s offerings with those of CT Corporation, a leading provider of corporate business compliance solutions, and BizFilings, a leading online incorporation service provider for small-business owners, will position CLS to offer a comprehensive spectrum of solutions to the market. Whether it’s entrepreneurs, small- and medium-sized businesses, enterprise-level companies, or the law firms who serve them, Wolters Kluwer Corporate Legal Services is the provider of choice for legal compliance and corporate governance solutions.

“For nearly 120 years, our market-leading brand, CT Corporation, has set the standard for service excellence to the legal community,” said Wolters Kluwer Corporate Legal Services President and CEO Richard Flynn. “NRAI has built a unique and highly valued distribution model to serve small and mid-sized companies. We see this acquisition as the perfect complement to our portfolio, enabling us to provide an even broader set of services and solutions for this important customer segment.”

“NRAI was founded by industry veterans with a commitment to provide exceptional customer service and innovative technology,” said Dennis Howarth, President and CEO of NRAI. “We’ve experienced 15 years of unprecedented growth, and we wanted to position the company for continued growth, taking it to the next level. After considering a number of options, we selected Wolters Kluwer as the most logical buyer and the best strategic partner to help us achieve our goals.”

USA, New York, NY & Princeton, NJ

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Admeld to be acquired By Google for $400M

June 16, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Admeld, an on-line advertising optimisation firm, is to be acquired by Google for a reported $400 million The transaction is likely to undergo regulatory review. If the deal goes ahead it will give Google a stronger foothold in te display advertsising market.

Admeld was founed in 2007 by Ben Barokas and Brian Adams. Current Admeld customers include Answers.com, FOX News, IDG TechNetwork, Hearst Television, Discovery, The Weather Channel, ITV, Mail Online, Dennis and Future Publishing and more than 500 others worldwide. Founded in 2007, the company is headquartered in New York City with offices in San Francisco, London, Berlin, and Toronto.

Neal Mohan, Vice President of Display Advertising at Google said, “By combining Admeld’s services, expertise and technology with Google’s offerings, we’re investing in what we hope will be an improved era of flexible ad management tools for major publishers. Together with Admeld, we hope to make display advertising simpler, more efficient and more valuable, provide improved support and services, and enable publishers to make more informed decisions across all their ad space. These are all things our publisher partners have been asking us to further invest in. Of course, Admeld will continue to support other ad networks, demand side platforms, exchanges and ad servers, to yield the best possible results for publishers.”

Michael Barrett, CEO at Admeld said, “What’s driving this relationship is a shared belief that managing display advertising is still far too complicated for publishers, and together Admeld and Google can help address some of the underlying inefficiencies. Though we have no specific integration plans yet, we imagine our combined offerings can help publishers make more informed, efficient, and profitable decisions across all tiers of their inventory.”

Google Announcement

Admeld announcement

USA, Mountain View, CA & New York, NY

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Evolve Media Corp acquires Crowd Ignite

June 14, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Evolve Media Corp., an integrated digital media company, has acquired Crowd Ignite, a premium content exchange engine with proprietary technology that contextually connects audiences of similar interests, thereby growing a publisher’s audience base of valuable engaged users.

Crowd Ignite enables premium publishers within defined audience verticals to share their content within a closed network, thereby exposing their content to quality, relevant users on other sites and allowing them to acquire new, engaged users and grow their audience. The Crowd Ignite technology is able to track which pieces of content within a site are the most popular, present it to users on sites within the network and then dynamically optimize the landing page in a way that presents the content they are most likely to want to consume. Crowd Ignite has over 300 publishers participating across such verticals as women, fashion, parenting, movies, gaming, and male-lifestyle.

“Evolve Media Corp. focuses, as a company, on tapping into and activating engagement and conversations around popular, passionate points of interest or affinities among Internet users,” said David Denton, Vice President of Product Management for Evolve Media Corp. “With Crowd Ignite we are able to expose users to additional high-quality, relatable content; therefore they consume more content, stay longer, and are generally more engaged.”

The Crowd Ignite team, which consists of account managers, business development, sales and engineering, will continue to run day-to-day operations post acquisition. Crowd Ignites’ founder and creator, Jake Moilanen, will continue with the company acting as Managing Director of Crowd Ignite.

USA, Los Angeles, CA

 

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IHS makes five acquisitions – CMAI, ODS-Petrodata, Dyadem International, EIATrack & CSM South America

June 14, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

IHS has made its fifth acquisition this year, Chemical Market Associates (CMAI), a provider of market & business advisory services for the worldwide petrochemical, specialty chemicals, fertilizer, plastics, fibers and chlor-alkali industries.

“CMAI is a natural complement to our ever-expanding capabilities in the chemical industry’s information, analysis and consulting market,” said IHS Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jerre Stead. “The company’s comprehensive information and analysis adds to our event-driven supply-chain information strategy and the company’s price discovery and analysis business will broaden IHS commodities and cost information capabilities. CMAI’s unique and proprietary chemical information can be used throughout IHS to deliver additional high-value analytical services to our global customers.”

CMAI clients include chemical companies, oil and gas companies, technology and engineering companies, financial institutions, plastic converters, industrial and consumer manufacturers, retailers, government agencies, trading companies, financials and shipping companies. The company is headquartered in Houston, with offices in Bangkok, Dubai, Dusseldorf, London, New York, Shanghai and Singapore.

The IHS acquisition of CMAI follows a string of strategic transactions that bolster the company’s broad base of capabilities in energy and power, environmental health and safety (EHS) and sustainability, petrochemicals and automotive industry forecasting.

During the first four months of 2011, IHS also acquired:

ODS-Petrodata – A premier provider of data, information and market intelligence to the offshore energy industry.

Dyadem International – The market leader in Operational Risk Management and Quality Risk Management solutions.

EIATrack – A subscription-based, online tool for quickly and cost-effectively navigating and managing global environmental regulations and legislation, EIATrack tracks more than 6,000 pieces of legislation from proposal to implementation, analyzing environmental regulatory activity in North America, Europe, South America and Asia Pacific. The acquisition represents continued investment in the electronics supply chain, for which IHS has already established a strategic position through the company’s REACH and Compliance Suite offerings, as well as the recent iSuppli acquisition.

CSM South America – CSM South America compiles and maintains automotive forecast information for all South American countries. The company also sells IHS Automotive products and manages the resulting customer relationships in the region. The acquisition will give IHS more direct access to this critical, rapidly growing market, while providing a platform to enhance the company’s automotive forecasting business with localized insight.

“With these five transactions completed so far in 2011, IHS has completed more than 30 strategic acquisitions since 2007, deploying more than $1.3 billion in capital,” added Stead. “Each of these acquisitions affords our company the opportunity to expand the information and insight offerings we provide to our customers to help them make critical business decisions every day.”

As a result of the company’s 2011 acquisition activity, IHS is updating its full-year 2011 revenue and adjusted EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) guidance. For the year ending November 30, 2011, IHS expects:

  • All-in revenue between $1.275 and $1.305 billion; and
  • All-in adjusted EBITDA between $388 and $398 million.
USA, Englewood, CO
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A Fusion Deal: FMB Consultants sold to Argus Media

June 10, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Fusion Corporate Partners are pleased to announce our latest deal, the sale of FMB Consultants Ltd (FMB) to leading energy price reporting agency Argus Media. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

FMB is a leader in the provision of timely and accurate intelligence on the world fertilizer market. FMB reports monitor global trade and pricing for nitrogen, phosphate, sulphur, potash and ammonia. Founded in 1982, FMB publishes 100 price references, which are widely used for benchmark pricing and settlement of derivatives. FMB Conferences and Exhibitions are currently run on four continents, providing major networking opportunities for senior industry executives.

Argus chairman and chief executive Adrian Binks said “FMB is a natural fit with Argus’ strategy of expanding its commodity market reporting capabilities beyond energy.  Like Argus, FMB has developed an excellent reputation for bringing transparency to opaque markets.  We look forward to working with FMB staff to combine their deep expertise with Argus’ global reach and scale”.

Kevin Hill, Director at FMB said “We are delighted to be joining Argus and look forward to further developing FMB’s products and services utilising Argus’ global presence, technical resources and commercial team.  FMB and Argus share the same cultural strengths based on close relationships with the industries they serve, and a resolute commitment to high quality reporting, ethics and integrity.”

Paul Slight, Partner at Fusion said, “We have known Kevin and the rest of the team at FMB for many years and were delighted to have the opportunity to work with them. FMB is a great business and tailor-made for Argus. I am sure it will be a great success in its new home.”

Fusion acted exclusively for the shareholders of FMB Consultants. The team responsible for this transaction were Paul Slight (pslight@fusioncorp.co.uk) and Paul Kelly (pkelly@fusioncorp.co.uk). Waterfront Solicitors, headed by Matthew Cunningham, provided legal advice to the vendors.

UK, London

Other Fusion Deals:

Media and Information

Business Services
Events, Broadcast and Other deals
Posted in B2B Services, Consultancy, Content Media, Fusion Deal, Internet Media, Market Data & Information, Publishers, ~Europe. Leave a Comment »
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