Deltek to Acquire INPUT

September 30, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Deltek, a provider of enterprise applications software and solutions for project-focused businesses, is to acquire INPUT for $60 million in an all cash transaction. The transaction is expected to close on October 1st, 2010.

The addition of INPUT’s industry leading opportunity intelligence and business development capabilities to Deltek’s comprehensive portfolio of government contracting solutions and its govWin network expands Deltek’s product offerings to manage all facets of the government contracting value chain from opportunity identification to project delivery.

Based in Reston, VA, INPUT has nearly 200 employees and had revenues of $26.2 million for 2009 – an increase of 13% from 2008. With more than 2,100 customers, INPUT enables companies to successfully identify and develop new business opportunities with federal, state and local government and other public sector organizations. Many of the largest government contractors and agencies rely on INPUT for the latest and most comprehensive opportunity database and market research information. INPUT powers an active network of over 30,000 members that collaborate on federal, state and local government opportunities, develop teaming relationships and win new business.

“Our entire INPUT team is extremely proud of the great company that we have collectively built over the years,” said Peter Cunningham, Chairman of INPUT. “Our services provide a unique combination of content and context (software). This is the direction for the information services industry in the 21st century, and we are ahead of the game. The combination of INPUT with Deltek makes for a perfect match to accelerate our growth and commitment to our members. Deltek’s enterprise software capability, industry expertise, and customer list are completely synergistic with INPUT’s capabilities and customer base, creating a combined organization that no competitor can match. Our association with Deltek will provide a wonderful opportunity for our 2,100 member organizations to get increased value from our services and for our staff to have an almost unlimited career growth opportunity. I cannot imagine us finding a finer and more appropriate partner to carry out our mission.”

“Acquiring a market leader like INPUT is a landmark move for Deltek,” said Kevin Parker, President and CEO of Deltek. “We are fully committed to investing in INPUT to expand its offerings, deliver new capabilities, and ensure that its customers continue to receive tremendous value from its products and services. We also look forward to combining INPUT’s world-class business development and market research capabilities with our existing solutions. Together, we are now powering the entire government contracting value chain, while providing our customers with the timely, data-driven market research they need to navigate their way to success. This move solidifies Deltek’s standing as the premier government contracting solutions provider and thought leader in the market today.”

USA, Herndon, VA

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, Market Data & Information, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Wilmington Group plc to acquire Axco Insurance Information Services for upto £22 million

September 28, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Wilmington Group plc is to acquire Axco Insurance Information Services Limited, the leading provider of international compliance and regulatory information for the global insurance industry.

AXCO provides comprehensive information on the markets, regulation and taxation environment for the insurance industry within 165 countries worldwide. AXCO’s customers include international insurers, reinsurers and brokers with a particular strength in North America. The business is based in London and employs 40 staff. 96% of AXCO’s customers are subscribers to products delivered electronically. Their renewal rate in recent years has been in excess of 95%.

The acquisition of AXCO has been effected by Wilmington’s wholly owned subsidiary Waterlow Legal & Regulatory Limited which has acquired 100% of the fully diluted share capital for an initial cash consideration of £21.325m and a deferred payment, capped at £675k, which will be calculated by reference to the net current assets of AXCO at 30th September 2010. Wilmington will fund the consideration from existing debt facilities. AXCO is expected to have approximately £2m of net cash at completion. The transaction is expected to be earnings enhancing in the current financial year.

During the year ended 31 December 2009, the period of the latest audited accounts, AXCO made statutory profits before interest and tax of £1.23m on turnover of £5.6m. Pro forma unaudited revenues and EBITDA for the twelve months to 30 June 2010 were £5.8m and £1.93m respectively. At 31 December 2009 AXCO had gross assets of £5.34m.

Charles Brady, CEO of Wilmington, commented, “AXCO is an information business of the highest quality and a clear international market leader. It provides its customers with ‘must have’ intelligence and has demonstrated an ability to maintain continued growth irrespective of the challenging environment in recent years. It is highly complementary to Pendragon, our pensions law and regulation information business, as well as to the compliance and regulatory training divisions within Wilmington. This acquisition is the latest step in our plan to build a world class, international, compliance and regulatory information and training business. We are confident of AXCO achieving enhanced growth within Wilmington.”

UK, London

Posted in Content Media, Market Data & Information, Publishers, ~Europe. Leave a Comment »

Fairview Research acquires patent database leader IFI

September 22, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Fairview Research, a provider of data enrichment technology and services for technical information retrieval and analysis, has acquired IFI Patent Intelligence from Wolters Kluwer Pharma Solutions.  IFI is the leading producer of value-added U.S. patent databases and indexing services.  The acquisition allows Fairview to augment its existing data standardisation technologies and broaden its intellectual property expertise. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

IFI will continue to offer all of its current products and services and will operate as IFI CLAIMS Patent Services from its existing Delaware offices.  In the long term, the company believes customers will benefit from the combined strengths of the two organizations, which together will create one of the industry’s most powerful and comprehensive sets of patent analysis capabilities.

“The IFI acquisition is a good fit, both strategically and in terms of helping us to better serve our customers,” said Mike Baycroft, CEO, Fairview Research.  “We put in place plans to make the transition as smooth as possible for customers and a commitment to continue offering an unchanged, high level of customer service.”

USA, New Haven, CT

Posted in B2B Services, Consultancy, Content Media, Market Data & Information, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

UBM agrees to acquire UM Paper for up to $880,000

September 16, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

United Business Media Limited has agreed to acquire UM Paper, an information and analytical services business, from Samwell Group on behalf of RISI, UBM’s forestry and paper industry intelligence business for an initial cash consideration of $440,000 and a further performance-related consideration of up to $440,000 payable over the next two years. For regulatory reasons, the transaction will be implemented through a nominee on behalf of RISI and is subject to registration in the PRC. The transaction is expected to complete later this month.

Based in Shanghai and employing eleven staff, UM Paper provides its China-based customers with paper industry information and pricing intelligence, notably regional and historic pricing trends in paper commodities. UM Paper’s principal subscription newsletter is distributed to subscribers drawn from across the paper industry, including plant operators and converters (box and envelope makers, publishers, printers) and other professionals involved in the paper product markets. Samwell Group’s Chairlady Elaine Zhang will remain with the business as a senior advisor. The business is expected to generate revenues of approximately $300,000 in 2010.

In 2009 China became the world’s largest market for forest products and is expected to generate more than half the industry’s growth over the next 20 years. The acquisition of UM Paper is highly complementary to RISI’s existing presence in China, which is delivered by a team of 17 employees in Shanghai and Beijing. UM Paper expands RISI’s capabilities and products both on and for the China market, as well as providing an established sales and marketing network to bring RISI’s authoritative content, products and services to the Chinese market.

Mike Coffey, CEO of RISI, said:

“I am very pleased to welcome both the UM Paper team to RISI and also our new senior adviser Elaine Zhang as we look to develop our services in China. The combination of our two businesses offers terrific advantages to our customers: UM Paper customers gain access to a range of new RISI products and services, and we are able to enhance RISI’s existing product and service offering in both China and worldwide. Most importantly, UM Paper helps us toward fulfilling our ambition to become the leading information provider for the paper and board industry in China.”

China, Shanghai

Related articles

Posted in Content Media, Market Data & Information, Publishers, ~Asia. Leave a Comment »

Thomson Reuters acquires Healthcare Data Management

September 1, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Thomson Reuters has acquired Healthcare Data Management. Effective immediately, the company will become part of the Healthcare & Science business of Thomson Reuters. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“Healthcare Data Management brings unmatched expertise in health benefits auditing and expense management reporting solutions,” said Jon Newpol, executive vice president at the Healthcare & Science business of Thomson Reuters. “Together, we’re poised to meet the increased demand for auditing and compliance due to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the healthcare reform law, and an overall focus on eliminating waste from the healthcare system.

“Healthcare Data Management’s primary solutions, BenefitsAudit and BenefitsWatch, will play a key role in expanding our current solutions for employer and government markets,” Newpol said. “As a result, our new Audit & Compliance offering will support both retrospective and ongoing assessments of claims data.”

Healthcare Data Management was a pioneer in the establishment of modeling employee health benefit plans and using data-driven metrics to monitor plan performance. The company is currently one of the leading independent resources for maximizing the value and accountability of self-insured health benefit plans that are managed by plan administrators and pharmacy benefit managers.

USA, Ann Arbor, MI

Related DigiNet Articles

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, Market Data & Information, Publishers, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Nielsen plans to raise $2.01 billion through its IPO, up from previously reported $1.75M

August 19, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Heavily indepted Nielsen plans to raise $2.01 billion through its IPO, according to its latest S-1 filing. This is up from the $1.75M Fusion DigiNet reported in June.

As a result of the 2006 purchase of our Nielsen by a consortium of private equity firms (AlpInvest Partners, The Blackstone Group, The Carlyle Group, Hellman & Friedman, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Thomas H. Lee Partners), Nielsen has incurred a significant amount of indebtedness and have a net tangible book deficit ($8.4 billion and $8.8 billion, respectively, as of June 30, 2010).

They have also have generated net losses since that time ($489 million, $589 million and $354 million for the years ended December 31, 2009, 2008 and 2007, respectively).

Nielsen report that certain of their financial performance metrics have improved significantly between the year ended December 31, 2006 and the year ended December 31, 2009:

  • Revenues increased to $4.8 billion, generating a compound annual growth rate of 6.2% on an as reported basis and 5.7% on a constant currency basis;
  • Adjusted EBITDA increased to $1.3 billion, generating a compound annual growth rate of 14.3% on an as reported basis and 13.9% on a constant currency basis; and
  • Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue increased to 27.3% from 21.9%.

Nielsen intend to some of the proceeds of the share issue to reduce their indebtedness.

Financial performance summary

  • Revenues 2009 – $ 4,808M, 2008 – $ 4,806M, 2007 – $ 4,458M
  • Loss from continuing operations before income taxes and equity in net (loss)/income of affiliates 2009 ($603M), 2008 ($271M), 2007 ($354M)

Nielsen is a global information and measurement company that provides clients with a comprehensive understanding of consumers and consumer behavior.

Full details are available here

Related article

Posted in Content Media, Market Data & Information, Publishers, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Demand Media IPO – Details

August 13, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

The SEC form is now available for the Demand Media IPO.

Highlights

“The business is comprised of two distinct and complementary service offerings: Content & Media and Registrar.

Substantially all revenue is generated through the sale of advertising in their Content & Media service offering and through domain name registrations in their Registrar service offering. For the year ended December 31, 2009 and the six months ended June 30, 2010, Demand media reported revenue of $198 million and $114 million, respectively. For these same periods, they reported net losses of $22 million and $6 million, respectively, operating loss of $18 million and $4 million, respectively, and adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization, or Adjusted OIBDA, of $37 million and $26 million, respectively.

Read the full details here

Related articles

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, Market Data & Information, Publishers, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC acquires Arete Consulting

August 13, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC (“Euromoney”), the international publishing, events and electronic information group, isd to acquire Arete Consulting Limited (“Arete”), the leading database of retail structured investment  products. The acquisition is in line with Euromoney’s strategy of investing in high-growth online subscription data businesses. This is Euromoney’s first sizeable acquisition since the purchases of Metal Bulletin and Total Derivatives in October 2006.

Arete is the definitive global data and news source covering structured retail products. The business was founded in 2001 by its managing director and principal shareholder, Robert Benson, formerly Global Head of Structured Products at HSBC. Arete’s proprietary Structured Retail Products database – www.StructuredRetailProducts.com – contains information on over 1.3 million products with significant derivative features from 33 countries, dating back nearly 20 years. Product information is given in both English and the original language, with source documentation provided in addition to data analysis. Its customers are in 52 countries, including emerging markets, and are mostly investment banks, issuers of structured retail products, regulators and financial indices. The business has operations in London, New York and Hong Kong and a full-time staff of 37.

Euromoney has acquired a 100% interest in Arete. The final price is dependent on Arete’s audited profits for its financial year to 28 February 2011. The acquisition will be financed from Euromoney’s existing borrowing facility.  Arete has gross assets of £1.1 million (derived from its audited accounts to 28 February 2010) and net liabilities of £183,000.

“We are delighted to acquire Arete and to receive the continuing support of Robert Benson and his excellent teams in London, New York and Hong Kong,” said Padraic Fallon, Chairman of Euromoney.  “We look forward to helping this high-quality subscription data business to grow and to develop additional sources of revenue. This acquisition fits our strategy perfectly.”

Robert Benson, who will stay with the business, until at least the end of June 2011, said: “We are excited about becoming part of the Euromoney Institutional Investor group. Working with Euromoney will enable us accelerate our geographical coverage and develop new products to deliver a significantly enhanced service to our subscribers.”

Location: UK, London

Related article

Posted in Content Media, Market Data & Information, ~Europe. Leave a Comment »

Quadrant Private Equity acquires Media Monitor

July 2, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Australian private equity provider, Quadrant Private Equity, has acquired media intelligence company, Media Monitors.

Media Monitors was founded in 1982. Today, the company has over 800 employees across the Asia-Pacific region and services more than 5,000 clients.

Media Monitors’ CEO John Croll said: “We are delighted by the opportunities Quadrant Private Equity brings to our business. We operate in a very dynamic industry where clients needs and media developments occur at a very fast pace. We are looking forward to the agility that the Quadrant team brings to leverage opportunities and to further enhance services to our corporate and government clients.”

Mr. Croll said that Quadrant Private Equity’s experience combined with the expertise of the Media Monitors’ management team creates a strong opportunity to accelerate the company’s next phase of growth.

Mr. Chris Hadley, Quadrant Private Equity Managing Director, said “Our acquisition today of Media Monitors is a significant investment in the rapidly evolving media space. Media Monitors has a highly successful track record, a strong management team and a leading market position in Australia, New Zealand and across the Asia-Pacific region with a strong presence in China”.

“We are looking forward to working with the Media Monitors’ management team to further develop the business through innovative products, services and potential strategic acquisitions” – Mr. Hadley said.-

Media Monitors engaged Greenhill Caliburn as financial adviser and Baker & McKenzie as legal adviser. Quadrant Private Equity was advised by Ernst & Young with Minter Ellison as legal adviser.

Location: Australia, Sydney

Ref: F231109-481

Posted in Broadcasting, Content Media, Market Data & Information, ~Oceana. Leave a Comment »

Morningstar Europe acquires the remaining ownership interest in Morningstar Danmark

July 1, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Morningstar Europe, a subsidiary of Morningstar Inc., a provider of independent investment research, has completed the previously reported acquisition of a 75 percent ownership interest in Morningstar Danmark A/S from Phosphorus A/S, bringing its ownership to 100 percent. Morningstar paid Phosphorus U.S. $15.2 million, or approximately DKK 91 million, plus an amount for its share of first-half 2010 net profits.

Located in Copenhagen, Morningstar Danmark was established in 2001 by Morningstar Europe and Phosphorus, a Danish company. Peter Meyer, chief executive officer, and Torben Bruun, chief operating officer, will continue to lead the company.

Location: USA, Chicago,IL & Denmark, Copenhagen

Ref: F231109-474

Related DigiNet Articles

Posted in Content Media, Market Data & Information, Publishers, ~Europe, ~North America. Leave a Comment »
« Older posts
Newer posts »