According to the FT, Endemol and its lenders are set to rebuff recent approaches for the indebted television production group behind Big Brother and Deal or no Deal, and pursue a debt for equity swap. Time Warner recently tabled an offer of about €1bn ($1.4bn).
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Netherlands, Amsterdam
Rakuten is to acquire Kobo for US$315 million in cash. The transaction is expected to close in Q1 2012.
Kobo was founded by and spun out of Indigo, the largest book, gift and specialty toy retailer in Canada, in December, 2009. Since that time, Kobo has become a fierce competitor in the eBook marketplace, with a family of innovative eReaders, a wide range of eReading apps, one of the largest eBook catalogues, an innovative social platform and retail partners around the globe.
The acquisition marks a major step forward for Rakuten, one of the world’s top 3 e-commerce companies by revenue, as it continues to expand its B2B2C borderless e-commerce business globally, by adding an ecosystem to provide downloadable media products to consumers, starting with eBooks.
Hiroshi Mikitani, Chairman and CEO of Rakuten, commented on the acquisition, “We are very excited about this next step. Kobo provides one of the world’s most communal eBook reading experiences with its innovative integration of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter; while Rakuten offers Kobo unparalleled opportunities to extend its reach through some of the world’s largest regional e-commerce companies.
Upon closing the acquisition, Kobo will continue to maintain its headquarters, management team and employees based in Toronto, Ontario.
Japan, Tokyo & Canada, Toronto
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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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! 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 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
HarperCollins Publishers has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Thomas Nelson. for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the calendar year.
Thomas Nelson is one of the leading trade publishers in the United States. The Company provides multiple forms of inspirational content including: books, Bibles, e-books, journals, audio, video, curriculum and digital applications available for download on “smart” electronic devices. It has published some of the bestselling books in the industry, including the current #1 bestseller Heaven Is For Real, and the books of many popular authors, such as Billy Graham, Max Lucado, and Dave Ramsey.
“Founded in 1798 in Edinburgh, Scotland, Thomas Nelson shares a long and rich heritage with both New York’s Harper Brothers and Scotland’s William Collins & Sons. It is thus with great pleasure that I look forward to welcoming Thomas Nelson to the HarperCollins family,” said Brian Murray, President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide. “HarperCollins’ global print and digital publishing platform, which includes e-book distribution into more than 175 markets, Print-on-Demand, Digital-to-Print at Retail, and worldwide marketing reach, provides an opportunity to further expand the readership of Thomas Nelson’s distinguished authors.”
“Additionally, Thomas Nelson adds further balance to our existing publishing programs. Its broad inspirational appeal is a good complement to Zondervan, which will continue to publish books consistent with its mission,” added Murray.
“We are excited to be joining HarperCollins Publishers,” said Mark Schoenwald, President and CEO of Thomas Nelson. “We believe this transaction represents an attractive strategic fit for our company. With HarperCollins’ resources and capabilities to draw on, we will capitalize on the many opportunities in this rapidly changing world of publishing.”
USA, New York, NY
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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,
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
Future plc has announced today that Stevie Spring, CEO, and John Bowman, FD, have resigned with immediate effect.
The Board has appointed Mark Wood, the head of Future UK, and Graham Harding, the UK’s Finance Director, to replace them.
According to The Guardian, “The pair have fallen on their swords in order to help Future cut costs”. Spring, the highest-paid executive at Future, received £652,000 in total remuneration for the year to the end of September 2010. This included a £160,000 bonus. Spring’s pay packet was a 72% increase on 2009’s total remuneration of £378,000 when she did not receive a bonus. Bowman, the second-highest paid executive, received a total remuneration of £325,000 in the year to the end of September 2010. Bowman received a bonus of £39,000. This was a 14% rise over 2009’s pay packet, when Bowman also did not receive a bonus.
Peter Allen, Future’s recently appointed Chairman, said: “The Board would like to thank Stevie and John for their considerable contribution in leading Future through a period of unprecedented change. The recent restructuring which positions the company for its digital future has allowed the Board this opportunity to achieve substantial savings by eliminating an entire tier of corporate overhead.
The Board is confident that the market-leading progress in generating digital revenues will continue under Mark’s stewardship. He and Graham can now manage a more profitable business to the benefit of both shareholders and staff.”
Mark Wood said: “I’m delighted to be taking over from Stevie at such an exciting time in our development. We are making amazing progress on line and on mobile, demonstrated just this month by our success on the Apple newsstand.We have the pieces in place to achieve sustainable growth in all our core verticals.”
Group results for the year to 30 September 2011 will be announced on Thursday 24 November 2011.
Stevie Spring became CEO of Future in 2006 after six years as Chief Executive of Clear Channel, and 16 years in communications management. She chairs BBC Children in Need.
Mark Wood was appointed Chief Executive of Future’s UK business in September 2010. He was previously Chief Executive of ITN and before that Editor-in-Chief of Reuters and a member of Reuters PLC Board. He was a non-executive director of the Company (from 1 April 2009 until 23 August 2010 when he stepped down to lead the UK business).
John Bowman joined Future in November 2001 as Group Finance Director from Scottish Radio Holdings plc, where he was also Group Finance Director, having commenced his career at KPMG.
Graham Harding has been Finance Director of Future’s UK business for seven years and also Group Financial Controller since 2000. He started out his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
UK, London, UK
Future Publishing emerges as a contender for BBC Worldwide’s magazine division Posted on February 24, 2011
Amazon.com has announced financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2011.
The following forward-looking statements reflect Amazon.com’s expectations as of October 25, 2011. Our results are inherently unpredictable and may be materially affected by many factors, such as fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes in global economic conditions and consumer spending, world events, the rate of growth of the Internet and online commerce and the various factors detailed below.
USA, Seattle, WA
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