The First American Corporation acquires Experian’s interest in FARES

April 23, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

The First American Corporation has exercised its option to purchase Experian Information Solutions, Inc.’s 20 percent ownership in the First American Real Estate Solutions, LLC (FARES) joint venture.

“Experian has been a valued partner in the FARES joint venture and we look forward to furthering our working relationship with them in the coming years,” said Parker S. Kennedy, chairman and chief executive officer of The First American Corporation.  “Our exercising of the purchase option, combined with our previously announced transactions for the noncontrolling interests in First Advantage Corporation and First American CoreLogic, provide us with control over substantially all of our assets as well as provide the Information Solutions Group with increased financial and operational flexibility as it prepares to be a stand-alone public company.”

Deal Terms: Under the terms of the option, the exercise price for Experian’s ownership interest is $313.8 million and the transaction will close on Dec. 31, 2010. With the exercise of the purchase option, First American substantially eliminates Experian’s veto rights under the joint venture agreement and significantly enhances the company’s operational and organizational flexibility.
 
Acquirer:  The First American Corporation (NYSE: FAF)
ACQ Web:  http://www.firstam.com
Location:  USA, Santa Ana, CA
Region:  North America
Description:  A FORTUNE 500® company that traces its history to 1889. With total revenues of approximately $6.0 billion in 2009, it is America’s largest provider of business information. The  company operates within five primary business segments, Title Insurance and Services, Specialty Insurance, Information and Outsourcing Solutions, Data and Analytic Solutions, and Risk Mitigation and Business Solutions.
Category:  Property. Market Data
Contact 1:  Parker S. Kennedy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer bio
Contact 2:  Anthony “Buddy” Piszel, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer bio
 
Vendor:  Experian (LON:EXPN)
Vendor Web:  http://www.experianplc.com
Location:  UK, Nottingham
Region:  Europe
Description:  Global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients in more than 65 countries. The company helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. Experian also helps individuals to check their credit report and credit score, and protect against identity theft.
Category: Finance, Market data
Contact 1:  John Peace, Chairman bio
Contact 2:  Don Robert, Chief Executive Officer bio
Contact 3:  Paul Brooks, Chief Financial Officer bio
Contact 4:  ChrisCallero, President and Chief Operating Officer bio

Related Fusion DigiNet article: The First American Corporation acquires the noncontrolling ownership of First American CoreLogic Posted on March 31, 2010

FDN Reference:  F231109-394

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Eco-friendly reviews website Ecoscene has been acquired by Viewpoints Network

April 22, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Viewpoints Network, a provider of online product reviews and technology that helps retailers run online communities, has acquired Ecosceneinc.com, the two-year old consumer reviews website focused on green products.  It is Viewpoints first acquisition.

“We are excited to welcome Ecoscene readers and fans to the Viewpoints community,” said Matt Moog, President & CEO of Viewpoints Network. “There is a huge demand for eco-friendly products as consumers become more environmentally conscious. Those consumers who are already following the category are very active and outspoken individuals – just the type of consumers we want coming to Viewpoints.com to share their product feedback and help other consumers make smarter purchase decisions.”

Each of the existing Ecoscene reviews has been moved over to the Viewpoints.com platform and is available on http://www.viewpoints.com/aboutme/Ecoscene.

Ecosceneinc’s founder, Aimee Heilbrunn has joined Viewpoints as director of marketing. She comments on the acquistion at the Ecosceneinc.com website

Aprox. Value:  Undisclosed
 
Acquirer:  Viewpoints Network
ACQ Web:  http://www.viewpoints.com
Location:  USA, Greater Chicago Area, IL
Region:  North America
Description:  Viewpoints Network is a social technology and media company that helps leading retailers and brands positively impact the Triple Bottom Line of Social Commerce – incremental sales, actionable consumer insights and increased brand advocacy. The company operates two businesses: The Viewpoints Technology Platform, a hosted technology service for Social Commerce, and Viewpoints.com a leading user reviews and advice website.
Category:  Reviews, Commerce
Contact:  Matt Moog , Founder & CEO Linkedin
 
Vendor:  Ecoscene Inc
Vendor Web:  http://www.ecosceneinc.com 
Location:  USA, Chicago, IL
Region:  North America
Description:  Ecoscene takes a closer look at living green and provides readers unbiased, authentic, consumer experienced information on green products through a variety of mediums including weeekly e-mails, Searchable website database, Daily coverage on our blog, Social media sites including facebook, twitter, flickr, and youtube.
Category: Reviews
Contact:  Aimee Heilbrunn, founder    

FDN Database Reference:  F231109-393

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UBM acquires web-based marketing business SharedVue

April 21, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

United Business Media Limited has acquired SharedVue, a web-based marketing business, from its private shareholders on behalf of UBM’s Everything Channel division.

SharedVue has gained significant traction since its launch in 2007, generating revenue of $1.1 million in 2009. Everything Channel will leverage its strong client relationships to support SharedVue’s sales and marketing efforts, while investing in technical and operational infrastructure to drive future expansion.

Robert Faletra, CEO of Everything Channel, said, “The acquisition of SharedVue is in line with our strategy to enhance and expand our presence in the fast-growing web-based marketing space. SharedVue’s products are highly synergistic with our own and will help to meet growing customer demand in this area. SharedVue’s founding management team have built a robust, profitable and fast-growing platform in a short period of time, and we look forward to helping them grow the business through the next stage of its development.”

Aprox. Value:  Undisclosed

Acquirer:  United Business Media Limited
ACQ Web:  http://www.ubm.com
Other Web Links: http://www.everythingchannel.com 
Location:  USA, New York, NY
Region:  North America
Descriptions:  

  • UBM is a leading global provider of events; data, marketing and information products; print products; and targeting, distribution and monitoring services to specialist business communities. They have 5,800 staff in more than 30 countries, organised into specialist teams.
  • Everything Channel describes itself as “a one-stop shop for accessing, enabling, managing and accelerating technology sales channels”. The business provides sales and marketing solutions to sellers of technology.

Category:  Media Group
Contact 1:  Robert Faletra, CEO, Everything Channel view bio
Contact:  Rob Wiseltier, Chief Financial Officer, Everything Channel view bio 
 
Vendor:  SharedVue
Vendor Web:  http://sharedvue.com 
Location:  USA, Raleigh, CA
Region:  North America
Description:  SharedVue is a provider of highly scalable, subscription-based marketing automation software and consultancy services to blue-chip technology manufacturers. The company’s proprietary technology simplifies the process for updating product, pricing and promotional information within a channel marketing reseller’s network, as well as facilitating the management of direct sales relationships and internal communication with clients’ sales teams. The system also provides subscribers with detailed lead analysis at both the vendor and solution provider level.
Category: Marketing
Contact:  M. Reid Overcash, Chief Executive Officer view bio 

Recent UBM deals reported on Fusion DigiNet

FDN Database Reference:  F231109-391

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EPPG acquires Reed Business Information GmbH

April 20, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Another RBI deal.

The specialty publishing group European Professional Publishing Group (EPPG) is acquiring the German specialty publisher Reed Business Information GmbH.

Both of the current managing directors, Hans-Jürgen Kuntze and André Weijde remain with the company. “Reed Business Information GmbH is a successful and well managed firm. We look forward to leading a growth-oriented strategy together with our new owner EPPG”, said Hans-Jürgen Kuntze, Managing Director of Reed Business Information GmbH.

Management Capital Holding, owner of EPPG, list the followings as the investment concept:

  • Expansion and international roll-out of the online portals 
  • Introduction of new online applications for architects and construction engineers 
  • Further strengthening of leading market positions in the segments architecture, recycling and digital production
  • Strengthening of event and seminar business

The closing of the transaction is subject to the approval of the German Federal Cartel Authority (Bundeskartellamt).

Aprox. Value:  Undisclosed

Recent RBI deals reported on Fusion DigiNet

 
Acquirer:  European Professional Publishing Group
ACQ Web:  http://www.eppg.de
Location:  Germany, Munich
Region:  Europe
Description:  The European Professional Publishing Group (EPPG) is a publishing group for medium-size publishers in the field of specialty information and specialty interests. Group companies grow and develop organically as well as through additional investment and acquisitions. European Professional Publishing Group is owned by Management Capital Holding.
Category:  Media Group
Contact:  Ferdinand Freiherr von Wrede, Managing Director  
 
Vendor:  Reed Business Information GmbH
Vendor Web:  http://www.reedbusiness.de 
Location:  Germany, Munich
Region:  Europe
Description:  Reed Business Information is the international business-to-business division of Reed Elsevier. The portfolio encompasses over 400 titles, newsletters, directories, reference works and online services in over 48 market segments and in five continents. Activities in Germany are concentrated in the three areas of architecture, technology and eBusiness. Reed Business Information currently publishes the specialty journals DETAIL, RECYCLING MAGAZIN and DIGITAL PRODUCTION. Since 2007 Reed Business Information has offered the online business-to-business portal LINX as well as the company portal www.Youbizz.de.
Category: Media Group, B2B
Contact 1:  Hans-Jürgen Kuntze, Managing Director
Contact 2:  André Weijde, Managing Director
 
Links: 

FDN Database Reference:  F231109-390

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Wikio acquires e-reputation business Neotia

April 20, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Wikio, the European communication Group Specialising in the Blogosphere and Social Media, has Acquired Neotia, a Buzz Monitoring and Online Reputation Management Platform.

“Neotia provides us with an essential component of our strategy, as we aim to make Wikio the European leader in Social Media Marketing,” said Pierre Chappaz, CEO of the Wikio Group. “This union will be beneficial to our commercial teams – Ebuzzing and PromoDigital – who will be able to offer a global solution to advertisers and agencies,” he added.

Pierre Chappaz, Wikio Group CEO, founded Kelkoo, the leading European shopping search engine, which was sold to Yahoo! in 2004 for EUR475 million. He then became President of Yahoo! Europe, until he left to set up Wikio.

Wikio acquired Ebuzzing in December 2009 and PromoDigital in March 2010.

Aprox. Value:  Undisclosed
 
Acquirer:  Wikio Group
ACQ Web:  http://www.wikio.fr
Location:  France, Paris
Region:  Europe
Description:  Wikio Group focuses on the blogosphere and social networks, Wikio is a communications group operating in Europe and the USA. Wikio boasts sites in six countries, indexing over one million blogs and media websites; it is also a large European news portal with over 20 million unique visitors each month. Ebuzzing (PromoDigital in Italy), the advertising arm of the group, is a platform allowing advertisers to take part in the conversations taking place at the heart of the blogosphere and social networks via the diffusion of quality content and videos. Ebuzzing currently counts over 600 advertisers as clients.
Category:  Blog, Social Network, Advertising
Contact:  Pierre Chappaz, CEO 
 
Vendor:  Neotia
Vendor Web:  http://www.neotia.com
Location:  France, Cherbourg-Octeville
Region:  Europe
Description:  Buzz monitoring and decision analysis for marketing agencies, consultancies and big industry groups, and information systems for managing online reputation. Neotia also offers buzz monitoring solutions, providing advertisers with in-depth studies of their desired sector, as well as reports on advertising and buzz campaigns, carried out in partnership with communications agencies.
Category: Social Media Monitoring
Contact:  Jean-Pierre Colomb, Managing Director and founder 
 
Links: 

Neotia and Wikio were advised by Etienne Mouthon of Mirabaud Financial Planning S.A.
 
FDN Database Reference:  F231109-389
 
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FUND RAISING ROUND-UP

April 18, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

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1.       Groupon raises more funds at a $1.2 million valuation

2.       Online home work help site Cramster raises $6M

  • Details: Investors: Cramster.com, has secured $6M in Series B financing. Co-founded by Aaron Hawkey and Robert Angarita, Cramster is a provider of online homework help for college and high school students. Cramster previously raised a $3M Series A in September 2008 from online education entrepreneur, Shai Reshef.
  • Investors: Led by Primera Capital.  Primera Managing Partner Ori Sasson joins the Cramster board.
  • Location: USA, Pasadena, CA
  • Category: Education
  • Links: Press Release

3.       Mylikes raises $630,000

  • Details: According to TechCrunch, MyLikes has raises a $630,000 seed round. MyLikes was founded by Bindu Reddy and Arvind Sundararajan. Bindu and Arvind previously worked at Google where they were some of the key people behind Gmail, Google Base, Google Docs, AdSense and Google Video. MyLikes is a word-of-mouth advertising platform that allows the long tail of influencers on the web to create endorsements for products and services they like.
  • Investors: 11 other ex-Googlers.
  • Location: USA, San Francisco, CA
  • Category: Advertising
  • Links: TechCrunch

4.       Searchandise Commerce closes $7M in Series 2 Round

  • Details: Searchandise Commerce, an online media network for product manufacturers and their retail channel partners, has secured $7 million in venture capital funding. The new financing will be used primarily to expand the sales/marketing and operations teams. The company previously raised $7.5 million in venture capital in July 2008.
  • Investors: The Series 2 financing round was led by new investor Madrona Venture Group with participation from existing investors Cloquet Capital Partners LLC, DFJ Gotham Partners, Draper Associates, Inflection Point Ventures, Milestone Venture Partners and Wheatley Partners.
  • Contacts: John Federman, president and CEO, Searchandise Commerce: Brian McAndrews, Madrona Venture Group’s investment
  • Location: USA, Beverly, MA
  • Category: Retail,
  • Links: Press Release

5.       TweetPhoto receives $2.6 Million Series A Financing

  • Details: TweetPhoto, the real-time media sharing platform for the social web, has secured $2.6 million in a Series A financing. The company plans to use the capital to accelerate the development of its core offering, a platform of open APIs and mobile SDKs for real-time media sharing across the social web. The round will also allow the company to expand its developer relations program and to introduce new products that further strengthen its position as the preferred way for leading application developers to incorporate real-time media sharing into their applications.
  • Investors: Led by Canaan Partners, with additional investment from Anthem Venture Partners and angel investors.
  • Contacts: Sean Callahan, CEO of TweetPhoto: Deepak Kamra, General Partner at Canaan Partners: Brian Mesic, General Partner at Anthem Venture Partners
  • Location: USA, San Diego, CA
  • Category: Social Network, Software
  • Links: Press Release

6.       Tynet raises $8 million

  • Details: Tynt Multimedia Inc., the user engagement measurement, and developers of the Tynt Insight content sharing analytics service, has raised $8 million of additional venture capital financing from leading venture firms and private investors from the US and Canada. The financing will be used to introduce new products, expand sales and marketing, particularly in the US, Europe and Asia/Pacific, and to drive multiple new partnerships.
  • Investors: Led by Panorama Capital and other investors including Greycroft, Metamorphic Ventures, iNovia Capital, Disruptive Ventures, Newport Coast Investments (Chad Steelberg), W Media Ventures (Boris Wertz), Joe Apprendi (Collective Media), Allen Morgan (Mayfield Partners), Erik Matlick (Madison Logic), and Yen Lee (Uptake.com). Tynt also announced that Chris Albinson of Panaorama Capital will be joining its Board of Directors.
  • Contacts: Chris Albinson, Managing Director at Panorama Capital: Derek Ball, CEO and co-founder of Tynt
  • Location: USA, San Francisco, CA
  • Category: Publisher services
  • Links: Press Release
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Demand Media hires Goldman Sachs to explore IPO offering

April 16, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

According to Kenneth Li writing in the FT today, Demand Media has hired Goldman Sachs to explore an initial public offering and the company could file for an IPO as early as August.

Founded in 2006, Demand Media was founded in 2006 by Richard Rosenblatt (previously CEO of Intermix Media, Inc., and Chairman of Myspace.com) and Shawn Colo (previously a principal with Spectrum Equity Investors). The company has a network of premium online brands including eHow, Livestrong.com and Cracked.com: an Internet content studio: and an enterprise social media platform deployed on many of the world’s leading digital destinations. The company also owns eNom, the world’s second-largest domain registrar.

Demand Media has raised more than $355 million dollars from tier-one investors, including Oak Investment Partners, Spectrum Equity Investors and Goldman Sachs. The company was founded in May 2006 and is based in Santa Monica, CA, with offices in Bellevue, WA, Austin, TX, New York, NY and London, UK.

Demand Media’s Executive Team:

Link: Demand Media enlists Goldman Sachs in preparation for IPO FT.com April 16, 2010

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Icahn increases offer for Lions Gate

April 16, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Carl C. Icahn has announced that the purchase price in connection with his existing hostile offer to buy all of the outstanding common shares of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. is being increased from $6.00 to $7.00 per share.

In addition, he has issued a letter to shareholders criticising the board for its actions to date in defending against the bid. He says “We do not feel comfortable that existing management is the right team to guide Lions Gate through this difficult period”: and says that their “profligate spending has taken its toll on Lions Gate’s share price”. He also defends his own investment track record saying “in light of Lions Gate’s selective attempt to distort facts in an effort to discredit me, I thought it important to provide a few facts of my own”.

Mr Icahn has built a stake of 20 per cent in Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. The company has a major presence in the production and distribution of motion pictures (“My Bloody Valentine”, “Saw V”, “Rambo” and “The Bank Job”), television programming (“Mad Men”, “Weeds” and “Crash”), home entertainment, family entertainment, video-on-demand and digitally delivered content. Lionsgate own a library of approximately 12,000 motion picture titles and television episodes.

Read the full text of the letter here

Lionsgate Management Team

Carl C. Icahn

Profiles of Carl C. Icahn: Forbes,  Wikipedia, Britannica Online Encyclopedia

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Twitter buys Tweetie

April 15, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Twitter has entered into an agreement with Atebits to  acquire Tweetie, an iPhone Twitter client. Tweetie will be renamed Twitter for iPhone and made free (currently $2.99) in the iTunes AppStore in the coming weeks. Founder, Loren Brichter will become a key member of Twitter’s mobile team.

The Twitter Blog reports, “careful analysis of the Twitter user experience in the iTunes AppStore revealed massive room for improvement. People are looking for an app from Twitter and they’re not finding one. So, they get confused and give up. It’s important that we optimize for user benefit and create an awesome experience.”

Aprox. Value:  Undisclosed
 
Acquirer:  Twitter
ACQ Web:  http://www.twitter.com
Other Web Links: Twitter Blog, @Twitter 
Location:  USA, San Francisco, CA
Region:  North America
Description:  Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages.  People write short updates, often called “tweets”  of 140 characters or fewer.  These messages are posted to your profile or your blog, sent to your followers, and are searchable on Twitter search.
Category:  Social Network, Blog
Contact 1:  Jack Dorsey, Founder and Chairman
Contact 2:  Evan Williams, Founder and CEO
Contact 3:  Biz Stone, Founder and Creative Director
Contact 4: Ali Rowghani, CFO
Contact 5:  Dick Costolo, COO
 
Vendor:  Atebits
Vendor Web:  http://www.atebits.com
Business Sold: Tweetie
Twitter: @atebits
Description:  iPhone Twitter client.
Category: Social Networks, Software
Contact:  Loren Brichter, Founder
 
Links: 

FDN Database Reference:  F231109-388 
 
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Media monitoring business Durrants acquires Gorkana for £25 million

April 15, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Durrants, the  provider of media monitoring and analysis services has signed an agreement to acquire Gorkana, the provider of media intelligence and industry news to the PR industry and journalist community.

Alex Northcott, Gorkana Chief Executive, said: “This is an exciting leap forward for Gorkana and will provide scope to accelerate our growth internationally and in terms of the products we can offer. The synergies created by this deal will dramatically increase the level of journalist intelligence and insight we can provide to our core markets.”

Gorkana‘s founders Alex Northcott and Michael Webster will remain with the business and retain a small stake in the company.

August Equity sold Durrants, to rival firm Exponent Private Equity for the £82m sale of. August Equity backed Durrants‘ in a £14m management buy-in at the company in 2000.

In October 2009, Durrants acquired global media analysis and evaluation company Metrica. This latest acquisition will create a combined business with a turnover of more than £40M.”

Aprox. Value:  Just under £25,000,000
 
Acquirer:  Durrants
ACQ Web:  http://www.durrants.co.uk 
Location:  UK, London
Region:  Europe
Description:  William Durrant and Henry Romeike founded The Press Cuttings Agency, the forerunner of Durrants, in 1880.Today Durrants offers monitoring and evaluation services to organisations which need to follow the coverage of their organisation in the media. The company monitors over 6,000 print, broadcast and online sources to provide relevant briefs to over 2,300 clients on a daily basis.
Category:  Media Monitoring
Contact 1:  John Moore, Chairman
Contact 2:  Jeremy Thompson, Managing Director
Contact 3:  Kerry Jenkins, Finance Director 
 
Vendor:  Gorkana
Vendor Web:  http://www.gorkana.com
Location:  UK, London
Region:  Europe
Description:  Gorkana is a provider of media intelligence and industry news to the PR/communications industry and journalist community. It was set up by two ex-PRs, Alex Northcott and Michael Webster, “who were frustrated by the lack of a quality service in the market to support them in targeting and building up positive and mutually beneficial working relationships with the media.” The company was named after Sergeant Gorkana, the man who saved the life of founder Alex Northcott when he became entangled in a swamp with a 120lb rucksack and a rifle on his back while in the Royal Gurkha Rifles.
Category: Media Monitoring, PR
Contact 1:  Alexander Northcott, CEO / Founder
Contact 2:  Michael Webster,  Director / Founder  

Links: 

FDN Database Reference:  F231109-387

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