Amazon Publishing to acquire Marshall Cavendish US Children’s Books Titles

December 6, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Amazon.com has signed a deal to acquire over 450 titles of Marshall Cavendish’s US Children’s trade books business, Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books (MCCB).

The list from Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books has been nominated for more than 150 industry awards and includes a diverse range of titles including “The Night Before Christmas” illustrated by Gennady Spirin, “Three Little Tamales” by Eric A. Kimmel, “Chalk” by Bill Thomson and “Yellow Star” by Jennifer Roy, as well as the National Book Award finalist “My Name is Not Easy” by Debby Dahl Edwardson. The acquisition creates the foundation for Amazon Publishing to further expand into picture books, chapter books and Young Adult novels.

“We’re excited to acquire the Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books titles and expand our publishing business in this area,” said Jeff Belle, Vice President, Amazon Publishing. “We believe the children’s book market segment presents a unique opportunity to innovate in both print and digital formats. And since many of these titles are not readily available as eBooks, we see a chance to connect a terrific group of authors and illustrators with more readers. We also see the potential for similar deals across other categories in the future.”

Marshall Cavendish was advised by Robin Warner, Atwood Capital Partners.

USA, Seattle & Tarrytown, NY

Posted in Content Media, Publishers, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Hubert Burda Media UK completes the purchase of Wedding and Wedding Flowers magazines from IPC

November 30, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Hubert Burda Media UK has complete the purchase of Wedding and Wedding Flowers magazines from IPC.

Wedding is an inspirational glossy for brides-to-be. Wedding Flowers is a UK consumer magazine devoted to big day blooms, providing ideas alongside practical and expert advice. 

Hubert Burda Media UK publishes a number of consumer and b2b titles, including Love it!, Full House!, Your Home, Essential Kitchen Bathroom Bedroom Magazine and Essential Kitchen & Bathroom Business.

Luke Patten, CEO of Hubert Burda Media UK, says: ‘We are delighted to add Wedding and Wedding Flowers to our portfolio, and look forward to welcoming the entire team to our High Holborn office. Laying claim to 25 successful years already, both titles will be receiving significant investment in order to improve and expand the brands even further.’ Staff transfer to Burda with immediate effect. There will be no interruption to the publishing schedule of the titles.

UK, Essex

Posted in Content Media, Publishers, ~Europe. Leave a Comment »

TheDirectory.com Acquires BusinessList.com

November 28, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

TheDirectory.com has acquired the website www.BusinessList.com in a cash and debt transaction, no common or preferred shares were issued.

TheDirectory.com Founder and CEO Scott Gallagher commented, “We’re very excited to have acquired the website and business ofwww.BusinessList.com. The acquisition is strategic in nature, and immediately helps us on several fronts relating to the launch of version 2.0 ofwww.TheDirectory.com. Additionally the acquisition is immediately accretive to earnings and opens several new revenue channels for us.” Gallagher continued, “Managing Local business listings across the Internet is a major challenge for small business owners. Our recent partnerships coupled with this acquisition will make our network the leading destination for small businesses to control and manage their Local business listing information on over 100 of the most trafficked websites on the Internet, including all 3 major search engines. This is a multi-million dollar opportunity that we have not previously been involved in.”

USA, Tampa, CA

 

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Microsoft acquires video discovery technology company VideoSurf

November 22, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Microsoft Corp. has acquired California-based video discovery technology company VideoSurf Inc.

Founded in 2006, VideoSurf offers a back-end computer vision technology that “sees” frames inside videos to make discovering content fast, easy and accurate. Over time, Microsoft will integrate this technology across its entertainment platform to augment the Xbox 360 ecosystem and evolve search and discovery of entertainment content on Xbox LIVE.

“VideoSurf’s content analytics technology will enhance the search and discovery of entertainment content across our platform,” said Alex Garden, director of Xbox LIVE for the Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft. “This holiday we will launch voice search across our entertainment partners on Xbox LIVE. Over time, as we integrate VideoSurf’s technology into our system, we are excited about the potential to have content tagged in real time to increase the speed and relevance of the search results.”

“Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Division is at the leading edge of connected entertainment,” said Lior Delgo, CEO and co-founder of VideoSurf. “We are incredibly excited to be working together on our mutual passion for creating amazing consumer experiences and reinventing how consumers search, discover and enjoy content on their televisions.”

In the coming months, Microsoft will bring nearly 40 world-leading TV and entertainment providers to Xbox LIVE, includingBravo, Comcast, HBO GO, Verizon FiOS and Syfy in the U.S.; BBC in the U.K.; Telefonica in Spain; Rogers On Demand inCanada; Televisa in Mexico; ZDF in Germany; and Mediaset in Italy. This acquisition will also make it easier for world-class video partners to take full advantage of advanced features such as voice search enabled by Kinect for Xbox 360. With Kinect, users will be able to easily search and discover content across multiple entertainment providers within Xbox LIVE and then interact with and enjoy content in extraordinary ways using voice search powered by Bing on the Xbox 360.

USA, Redmond, WA & San Mateo, CA

 

 

Posted in Broadcasting, Content Media, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

MyHeritage acquires FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com to Enter US Market

November 22, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

MyHeritage has acquired FamilyLink.com, maker of the family history content sites FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com. This is MyHeritage’s seventh and largest acquisition since 2007. The purchase marks a significant move into the US market commercially and operationally, and will boost MyHeritage’s offering to families with the addition of a vast database of several billion historical records. With offices and staff in Europe, Australia and Israel, MyHeritage will now be adding its first US-based office in Utah.

“We are delighted to join forces with the talented FamilyLink team in Provo to deliver meaningful value to families across the world,” says MyHeritage CEO and Founder Gilad Japhet. “Combining close to one billion family tree profiles on MyHeritage with FamilyLink’s massive library of historical data delivers a perfect one-stop-shop for families looking to discover and share their family history”.

Founded in 2006, both FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com are subscription services which provide access to a database of historical content, covering several billion individuals within census, birth, marriage and death records, as well as the web’s largest archive of historical newspapers.

This is the latest in a series of purchases by MyHeritage since 2007 which have included Pearl Street Software, makers of GenCircles.com and the Family Tree Legends software; free family tree backup service BackupMyTree.com; European family social network market leader OSN (Verwandt) GmbH; Dutch family network ZOOOF; British family network Kindo.com and Polish family network Bliscy.pl.

The majority of the FamilyLink.com employees will join MyHeritage, based out of the company’s new US office in Provo, Utah. The CEO of FamilyLink.com, Paul Brockbank will support the transition over the coming months and will later join the MyHeritage advisory board. FamilyLink.com founder Paul Allen will not be part of the merger with MyHeritage.

In the short-term, MyHeritage will continue to operate the two sites FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com, with the intention of achieving full integration within MyHeritage in 2012.

USA, Provo, UT & UK, London & Israel, Tel Aviv

Related article

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, ~Europe, ~Middle East & Africa, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Renren sells online travel booking business eLong to Expedia

November 21, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Chinese social networking internet platform Renren has sold its investment in online travel booking business eLong to Expedia for approximately $72.4 million, or $23 per ADS.

“We’re pleased to have an opportunity to increase our investment in eLong as we see China as a key market in our efforts to expand internationally,” said Dara Khosrowshahi, President and Chief Executive Officer of Expedia. “We have been very happy with the strategic and operational progress made by eLong and look forward to many more years of success.”

“Our early investment in eLong helped us build mutually beneficial commercial ties as well as generate strong returns for our shareholders. Renren and eLong will continue to work on a number of joint initiatives, including Nuomi hotel group-buy, one of the largest hotel group-buy sites in China. We will continue this strong relationship with eLong and deliver more popular products together moving forward,” commented Joseph Chen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Renren.

“Renren will continue to be a valued business partner to us, and we look forward to future cooperation with Renren,” said Guangfu Cui, eLong’s Chief Executive Officer.

China, Beijing

Related articles:

Posted in Content Media, e-Commerce, Internet Media, ~Asia. Leave a Comment »

The world’s richest man buys 3.2 pct stake in Spain’s Prisa

November 19, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, has bought a 3.2 percent stake in Promotora de Informaciones SA (Prisa), Spain’s largest media company whose shares have slumped by about 50 percent this year.

The purchase of 14.7 million shares of Prisa was made through Slim’s investment arm Inmobiliaria Carso SA, according to an exchange filing made in Spain on Friday. The statement did not specify how much Slim paid.

Based on the price of Prisa shares at Thursday’s close, the stake would have been worth 11 million euros. The shares jumped 12 percent on Friday to 0.84 euros, helped by the news of Slim’s investment.

Prisa’s business spans radio and TV assets in Spain and Latin America, as well as Spain’s best-selling newspaper El Pais. The company is trying to shed assets and cut its debt after borrowings topped 4 billion euros in 2010.

Slim is the chairman and chief executive of telecommunications companies Telmex and América Móvil and has extensive holdings in other Mexican companies. As of early October, Slim held 8.1 percent of Class A shares of New York Times.

Mexico, Mexico City & Spain, Madrid

Posted in Broadcasting, Content Media, Internet Media, Publishers, ~Europe, ~Latin America and Caribbean. Leave a Comment »

Ebix acquires online health exchange HealthConnect Systems

November 19, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Ebix, a supplier of On-Demand software and E-commerce services to the insurance industry, today announced that it has acquired Connecticut based HealthConnect Systems, an online Exchange for buyers and sellers of health insurance and employee benefits. Ebix also announced that HealthConnect would be immediately integrated into its EbixHealth Division.

Ebix expects the transaction to be immediately accretive to Ebix Earnings per Share (EPS). Ebix disclosed that it funded this transaction completely in cash using its bank debt line. No Ebix shares were issued and no investment bankers were involved in the transaction.

Ebix Chairman of the Board, President & CEO Robin Raina said, “Ebix has always been focused on providing end-to-end solutions in every industry segment. With the acquisition of HealthConnect, Ebix now is the only Company in the industry who can take a health insurance transaction across diverse entities like Employers, Brokers, General Agents, Third Party Administrators, Insurance Companies etc. while providing a wide variety of services like CRM, enrollment, online quoting, benefit portals, content management, claims handling, claims accounting, claims adjudication, COBRA, FSA administration to these entities.”

“The HealthConnect online quoting solution and network provides us the missing piece in our Health product portfolio. It brings in top rated insurance companies like Aetna and Horizon to Ebix, providing both sides an opportunity to cross-sell complementary services to each other’s client base.” Robin Raina added, “With 85% plus recurring revenue streams, good history of profitability, consistent margins, low customer attrition rates, proven management record, complimentary technologies and SaaS based architecture, HealthConnect met all the criteria of a good acquisition target for Ebix. This deal is a strategic step forward to establish Ebix as a Health Information Exchange and is likely to be followed by other strategic steps in coming months and years.”

USA, Atlanta, GA

Posted in Content Media, e-Commerce, Internet Media, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

The Walt Disney Company acquires online parenting platform Babble Media

November 19, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

The Walt Disney Company, through its wholly owned subsidiary Disney Online, has acquired Babble Media, an online parenting platform featuring more than 200 influential “mom bloggers”. The acquisition of Babble further strengthens the position of Disney Interactive Media Group’s Mothers and Family portfolio as a leading online resource for mothers and families. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Babble was founded in 2006. Its stable of bloggers contribute daily to parenting topics including pregnancy, child care, health, food, family activities as well as lifestyle topics such as home, fashion and family products. Babble attracts a broad and engaged audience with its nearly constant stream of posts, written for and by mothers.

“Parents’ relationships with Disney are founded in stories, and Disney’s best stories are about families. We believe that Babble and Disney can harness the power of storytelling to inform, entertain and empower parents everywhere,” said Brooke Chaffin, SVP of Moms and Family, Disney Interactive Media Group. “With more than 3.9 million mom blogs in the US alone, Disney Interactive recognises and values the important and powerful role moms have taken on in new media.”

Babble will remain headquartered in New York. Rufus Griscom and Alisa Volkman will join the Disney Interactive Media Group.

USA, Burbank, CA

Related articles:

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, Publishers, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Moody’s Corporation acquires majority stake in Copal Partners

November 19, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Moody’s Corporation has acquired a majority stake in the companies of Copal Partners. Copal’s companies are among the world’s leading providers of outsourced research and analytical services to institutional customers. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Copal’s analytical resources support front-line professionals at financial institutions and corporate enterprises worldwide. With expertise in a wide range of disciplines, including financial modeling, industry and company research, capital structure analysis and market surveys, Copal deploys a flexible staffing model to meet the specific requirements of its customers.

“Copal is highly regarded in the global financial services industry as a leader in high quality research and analytical services for bankers, financial analysts and institutional investors,” said Mark Almeida, President of Moody’s Analytics. “This acquisition extends Moody’s Analytics’ capabilities, enabling us to better help financial institutions manage risk. In addition, Copal’s expertise and resources will allow us to accelerate innovation across Moody’s Analytics.”

The acquisitions do not alter Moody’s 2011 earnings per share (EPS) guidance, and are expected to be accretive to Moody’s EPS in 2012. Moody’s funded the purchases from cash on hand.

Moody’s was advised on the transaction by Citi and Slaughter and May. Copal Partners was advised by Centerview Partners and Macquarie Capital. Proskauer Rose served as legal advisors for Copal.

USA, New York, NY

 

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