Hold The Front Page is reporting that regional media business Archant has acquired 50% of Tickles.
Tickles is a money saving website which uses the power of online group buying to bring members money saving deals from businesses in their local area.
Tickles was launched in May last year and operates Norfolk and Cambridge. They have 15,000 local members and plan to launch to the rest of the country within weeks.
UK, Norwich
Social entertainment company RockYou has acquired social game developer Playdemic. Based in Manchester, Playdemic will operate independently as Playdemic, a RockYou studio, and develop Facebook games for the mainstream audience. The acquisition brings extensive game development talent and an established Facebook game, Gourmet Ranch, to the company. Playdemic’s management team has held senior positions at major publishers including Ubisoft, THQ and Eidos. Ian Livingstone, co-founder of Games Workshop and life president of Eidos, was a chief investor in Playdemic. Paul Gouge, CEO and Founder, will lead the studio as VP and General Manager. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
“At RockYou we place great value on the art of game-making,” said Jonathan Knight, RockYou’s SVP of Games, “and we’re elated to welcome the Playdemic team into our studio system. Playdemic will retain their culture and creative control, as they bring their significant game industry experience to making social games of today and tomorrow.”
“Being a part of RockYou gives us the opportunity to remain creatively independent, while leveraging RockYou’s vast network and expertise at scale to reach a wide audience with our games,” Paul Gouge said. “We see a massive opportunity to expand the depth and quality of social games, and have found an ideal partner in RockYou.”
RockYou will grow the user base for Gourmet Ranch, Playdemic’s first title that is currently playable on Facebook with half a million monthly active users. A combined farming and baking simulation, Gourmet Ranch invites players to grow organic crops, raise animals and prepare and serve meals to their friends. Players can use cash to build and decorate their own homestead in a mountain wilderness, trading and helping friends to increase the value of their properties.
USA, Redwood, CA & UK, Manchester
Google has just acquired eBook Technologies, according to a notice on the eBook Technologies homepage. Here is the notice:
“eBook Technologies, Inc. is excited to announce that we have been acquired by Google. Working together with Google will further our commitment to providing a first-class reading experience on emerging tablets, e-readers and other portable devices.”
The business was founded by former business and technology managers from the Gemstar eBook Group. John Rivlin, CEO was previously the Senior Vice President of Technology for Gemstar-TV Guide. Garth Conboy, President, was previously the General Manager and Vice President Software Engineering for the Gemstar eBook Group.
According to their websited (cached page), “eBook Technologies provides the leading end-to-end electronic book platform offering a full range of eBook products and services that are unrivaled in the marketplace. Unlike other players, the company has both deep industry knowledge and the end-to-end technology components to support the entire electronic book publishing value chain: content acquisition, conversion, wholesaling and retailing.”
Google have issued the following statement, “We are happy to welcome eBook Technologies’ team to Google. Together, we hope to deliver richer reading experiences on tablets, electronic readers and other portable devices.”
USA, La Jolla, CA
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Concur, a provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions, has agreed to acquire privately held TripIt, a mobile trip management company that helps people organize and share their travel plans no matter where they book.
Concur will pay approximately $27 million in cash and approximately $44 million in Concur stock at closing, plus a contingent cash amount settled upon 30 months from closing of up to approximately $38 million, subject to certain adjustments and escrow provisions set forth in the definitive agreement. As part of the acquisition, Concur will exchange unvested TripIt options into Concur restricted stock units having an aggregate value of approximately $11 million at closing. All components of consideration bring the total deal value to as much as $120 million. However, there is no payment of the contingent cash amount if the value of the approximately $44 million of stock consideration issued exceeds approximately $82 million during the 30 month period following closing, subject to limitations. In addition, individual holders of the approximately $44 million in stock consideration will lose their rights to payment of the contingent cash amount if they sell their holdings of such stock. Though the payment of the contingent cash amount is uncertain, the maximum contingent cash amount to be paid, if any, at the end of the 30 month period is approximately $38 million. The contingent cash amount will be recorded as a liability at fair value and marked-to-market each quarter through GAAP earnings. The acquisition of TripIt is expected to close in our second quarter of fiscal 2011 and to be dilutive to our pro forma operating margin for fiscal 2011. Concur will provide more details in early February at their earnings conference call for the first quarter of fiscal 2011.
Concur was advised by Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Fenwick & West LLP, and TripIt was advised by Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian, LLP on the transaction.
“The advancement of mobile solutions has changed the way business travelers buy, share, manage and expense their travel plans,” said Steve Singh, Concur’s chairman and chief executive officer. “There is a universal need to bring order to the chaos of travel and make life better for business travelers. That is true for both managed and unmanaged travel. Together, we solve challenges along the entire business travel process – from booking, through in-trip activities and sharing trip information, to post-trip expense management and reconciliation. We welcome the entire TripIt team to Concur and look forward to working together to deliver even more value to travelers, our customers and our partners.”
“This is great news for the millions of travelers who trust TripIt as a better way to manage travel and the hundreds of third party developers who are a part of the TripIt API ecosystem. Together with Concur, we can move even faster to realize our vision of making travel easier for even more people and companies around the world,” said Gregg Brockway, TripIt co-founder and president. “It’s also a testament to the passion, hard work, and commitment to excellence the entire TripIt team has demonstrated since day one to be the best at solving tough travel problems to help improve the lives of travelers everywhere.”
USA, Redmond, WA
Social commerce site LivingSocial has acquired a majority stake in Let’s Bonus. The partnership bolsters LivingSocial’s rapid international expansion, making it now live in ten countries with the addition of Let’s Bonus’ Spain, Italy, Portugal, Argentina and Mexico presences. LivingSocial now has more than 16 million subscribers, is live in more than 170 markets, and is projected to book in excess of $500 million in revenue in 2011. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“The addition of Let’s Bonus to the LivingSocial team is a great opportunity to expand into Latin America and continue our European growth,” said Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO and co-founder of LivingSocial. “Not only is LivingSocial available in ten countries, but with this acquisition we’ve gone multilingual, offering deals in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. We’re thrilled to expand our footprint with a company that believes in building the same great merchant and consumer relationships that LivingSocial has always upheld.”
Launched in September 2009 in Barcelona, Let’s Bonus helped to pioneer the collective buying movement in Europe and is the leader in the Spanish market. The company offers daily deals with discounts of up to 70% on fun, exclusive activities including gourmet dinners, luxury spas and romantic escapes. Let’s Bonus has a strong management and sales team of more than 200 employees, including local city experts in each market where the company’s daily deals program is live, and offices in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Rome, Milan, Lisbon, Buenos Aires and Mexico. Let’s Bonus’ “Planes de Viaje” section, which offers pre-packaged travel deals to users, also naturally supports LivingSocial Escapes’ international expansion.
“LivingSocial is the perfect fit for Let’s Bonus as we share the same goal of offering unique, top notch deals for subscribers,” said Miguel Vicente, founder and CEO of Let’s Bonus. “With LivingSocial’s support, we look forward to growing Let’s Bonus even faster and stronger throughout Europe and in South America.”
In 2010, LivingSocial acquired adventure company Urban Escapes and has expanded its reach in Australia with a controlling stake in Jump On It.
USA, Washington DC & Spain, Barcelona
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With the acquisition, Cox Digital Solutions, a division of New Yorkbased Cox Reps, now has more than 150 employees across 10 markets.
“Today is a significant step forward in securing our position in the market,” said Steve Shaw, President of Cox Digital Solutions. “IB Local Network’s publisher relationships and media sales power are a natural fit with Cox Digital Solutions. This combination will enable us to meet a wider set of customer needs through a richer solution set, increase efficiencies, and significantly expand our opportunities for growth.”
With the sale of its local network business to Cox Digital Solutions, Internet Broadcasting (http://www.ibsys.com) is now able to fully focus on providing publishers with its digital publishing platform and services. “We can now concentrate on what has always been our core business –helping our media publisher clients use their content and consumer relationships to build a powerful digital presence by providing them with the most contemporary publishing platform and services available in North America,” said Roger Keating, Interim CEO of Internet Broadcasting and SVP Digital Media for Hearst Television. “At the same time, by placing the IB Local Network with an outstanding organization like Cox, we’re doing right by our former advertising clients and employees.”
USA, New York, NY
Thomson Reuters has acquired LRP Publications’ Public Employment Group and Bankruptcy/Banking Products Group.
LRP Publications, founded in 1977 by Kenneth Kahn, is a leading supplier of print and online publications for legal, government, educational, and business professionals. LRP’s resources include case reporters offering legal case law summary and analysis, as well as hundreds of newsletters, books and videos.
LRP will continue to focus on its products for the education community and federal government managers. LRP Publications was advised by Berkery Noyes.
USA, Palm Beach Gardens, FL
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Groupon has completed a huge $950 million round of financing valuing the business at $4.75 billion.
The company says they will use the funds to fuel global expansion, invest in technology, and provide liquidity for employees and early investors.
The financing consists of several venture capital firms and late-stage investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, DST, Greylock Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Maverick Capital, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures. Allen & Company LLC acted as financial advisor. Previous funding rounds were led by New Enterprise Associates, Accel Partners, Mail.ru Group and DST.
“We’re thrilled that Groupon has earned the confidence of some of the world’s most respected investment firms,” said Andrew Mason, founder and CEO of Groupon. “With their support, we will continue on our mission to change the way people shop locally and serve the world’s local businesses.”
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MedTech Media’s founder Neil Rouda has sold MedTech Media to Healthcare Information and Management System Society (HIMSS).
HIMSS has been a partner of MedTech Media since it was founded in 2003. As part of the deal, MedTech will begin publishing Government Health IT in 2011. Editorial decisions of MedTech’s publications, Healthcare IT News and Healthcare Finance News, will remain independent and MedTech will continue to produce HIMSS Daily Insider, the HIMSS Expo Yellow Pages, the HIMSS Resource Guide and other annual conference-related publications and products.
“HIMSS’ interest in our company reflects well on the talents and dedication of the people who work at MedTech. We owe our success to our partnership with HIMSS, to the industry we cover, but most of all, to our hardworking employees,” Mr. Rouda said.
MedTech’s management team, led by current President, Jack Beaudoin, will maintain significant ownership in the company.
“Going forward, it is my expectation that the activities of HIMSS and MedTech, while continuing to be run through separate companies, will support mutual growth and our ability to drive improvement and transformation in healthcare through information technology,” said HIMSS president and CEO, H. Stephen Lieber, CAE.
Berkery, Noyes & Co assisted in negotiations and acted as exclusive financial advisor to MedTech Media’s founder and selling shareholder Neil Rouda.
USA, New Gloucester, ME & Chicago, IL
Playboy Enterprises has entered into a definitive agreement with Icon Acquisition Holdings, a limited partnership controlled by Hugh M. Hefner, to take the company private for $6.15 per share.
The $6.15 price represents a 18.3% premium over the closing price Friday, January 7, 2011, of PLA and a 56.1% premium over the closing price on July 9, 2010, the last trading day before the proposal was first announced.
The purchaser, Icon Acquisition Holdings L.P., has obtained equity commitments for the transaction from an affiliate of Rizvi Traverse Management and a debt commitment for the transaction from affiliates of Jefferies & Company, Inc.
Mr. Hefner said: “With the completion of this transaction, Playboy will come full circle, returning to its roots as a private company. The brand resonates today as clearly as at any time in its 57-year history. I believe this agreement will give us the resources and flexibility to return Playboy to its unique position and to further expand our business around the world.”
Sol Rosenthal, Chairman of the Special Committee of Playboy’s Board of Directors, said: “The Special Committee and the Board have determined that the transaction is advisable, fair to and in the best interests of the Company’s public stockholders.”
Playboy CEO Scott Flanders will remain with the company in his current position and maintain a significant equity investment in Playboy. “Our strategy is to transform Playboy into a brand management company,” Flanders said. “This transaction will advance our efforts by strengthening our balance sheet and streamlining our operations, while creating opportunities to participate in new ventures. I am excited about the future, and I look forward to working with our new partners as we guide Playboy into the next era.”
Under the terms of the transaction, the purchaser will offer to acquire all of PEI’s outstanding shares of Class A voting (PLAA) and Class B non-voting (PLA) common stock that Mr. Hefner and his affiliates do not own for $6.15 per share in cash. Through Mr. Hefner’s trusts, Mr. Hefner controls approximately 69.5% of the Class A shares and 27.7% of the Class B shares. In connection with the transaction, Mr. Hefner has agreed to transfer all shares to the purchaser and not to tender such shares in the offer.
The purchaser expects to commence the tender offer no later than January 21, 2011.
Lazard is acting as financial advisor and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom is acting as legal counsel to Playboy Enterprises. Raine Securities LLC is acting as financial advisor and Kaye Scholer LLP is acting as legal counsel to the Special Committee. Moelis & Company LLC is acting as financial advisor and Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP is acting as legal counsel to Mr. Hefner. Jefferies & Company, Inc. is acting as financial advisor and Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP is acting as legal counsel to Rizvi Traverse.
USA, Chicago, IL
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