YouGov acquires Galaxy Research in Australia

December 11, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

YouGovYouGov plc, the market research and data analytics group, has acquired Galaxy Research Pty Ltd, a market research agency in Australia. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Galaxy, based in Sydney, has a market research offering comparable to YouGov’s Data Services offering. The agency known in the Australian market for opinion polling and as the administrator of the local political opinion polling brand, Newspoll.

YouGov’s existing Australian business, established two years ago, operates in keeping with YouGov’s core model of using data collected from its proprietary panel of members to provide syndicated data products and services. The combined business will be in a position to expand its data products and services offering.

GalaxyDavid Briggs, the founder and Managing Director of Galaxy, will lead the combined business and team of 11 employees in Australia, which will initially operate under the brand YouGov Galaxy.

Stephan Shakespeare, CEO of YouGov, commented: “With its reputation for accuracy and an excellent roster of corporate market research clients, Galaxy was an obvious fit for the YouGov Group. This acquisition increases our presence in Australia which is a significant market and one which is strategically important to our international clients.”

UK, London & Australia, Sydney

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Apple acquires music recognition app Shazam

December 11, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

AppleApple has acquired the music recognition app Shazam, expanding its existing music offerings. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Launched in 1999, Shazam is an app that captures a clip of music that is playing. The clip is matched with a large database to return a matching result which can then be downloaded, currently from Spotify but in the future users could be directed to Apple Music instead. With a reported over one billion downloads to date, Shazam also has visual recognition capabilities which let users identify any TV show, film or advert by listening to an audio clip or a visual fragment.

Apple released a statement saying “Since the launch of the App Store, Shazam has consistently ranked as one of the most popular apps for iOS. Apple Music and Shazam are a natural fit, sharing a passion for music discovery and delivering great music experiences to our users.”

USA, San Francisco & Cupertino, CA

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Certain Acquires Gather Digital, Investing in the Next Generation of Mobile Event Applications

December 8, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

CertainCertain, the leader in enterprise event automation, today announced it has acquired Gather Digital, a mobile event application suite for enterprises, associations and educational institutions. With this acquisition, Certain is further strengthening its mobile development and data integration capabilities, taking advantage of the experience that Gather Digital’s extended team brings and offering customers unprecedented insight into the mobile journey to determine the event attendee’s true sentiments. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Gather Digital creates native and mobile web event applications with integrated personalized agendas, event content, live polling, surveys, continuing education credits, group meetings, lead retrieval and gamification. Gather Digital’s engagement apps allow the company’s clients to leverage mobile as a channel to capture intent throughout events, and build deeper relationships with their event attendees. Their customers include five of the world’s largest financial services companies, the nation’s leading pharmaceutical/ life science organization and premier technology and Fortune 1000 corporations. With the acquisition, Certain will continue to grow its U.S. presence and tap the North Carolina Research Triangle’s burgeoning tech hotbed for sales, marketing and product talent.

“Certain is focused on enabling our customers to gather the most relevant data from event attendees to drive better business results from events,” said Peter Micciche, CEO of Certain. “By acquiring Gather Digital and the impressive mobile capabilities the team has developed, we’re continuing to invest in our data strategy – and the people at the forefront of delivering innovative technology for world class enterprises.”

USA, San Francisco, CA & Chapel Hill, NC

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GlobalData acquires MEED Media from Ascential for £17.5M

December 8, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

GlobalDataGlobalData PLC has announced the acquisition of MEED Media FZ LLC  from Ascential PLC for a cash consideration of $17.5 million. MEED, formerly known as the Middle East Economist Digest, provides premium business information content with an industry focus on infrastructure and projects in the Middle East. The business services its growing client base principally through annual subscription contracts.

As reported on Fusion DigiNet in January 2016, GlobalData Holding Limited, a company then owned by Mike Danson and Wayne Lloyd, was acquired by Progressive Digital Media Group Plc. Mike Danson is Executive Chairman of Progressive Digital Media Group.

Commenting on the acquisition Bernard Cragg, Executive Chairman of GlobalData, said: “MEED gives the Group the opportunity to further expand into a key region and adds an additional industry vertical to our offering whilst maintaining our disciplined investment criteria of premium proprietary content and strong renewable subscription based revenues.”

UK, London & UAE, Dubai

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A Fusion Deal: AI Business sold to Informa (Knect365)

December 6, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

AI Business

AI Business, the media and events organisation dedicated to Artificial Intelligence in business, has has been sold to Knect365, Informa PLC’s Knowledge & Networking Division. Fusion Corporate Partners acted as corporate advisor for AI Business. The Fusion team was led by Mark Eisenstadt, Director at Fusion. The terms of the deals were not disclosed.

AI Business, is the foremost community in Artificial Intelligence for Business. The AI Summit Series and AIBusiness.Org provide exclusive content from the foremost innovators in AI; including Microsoft, Facebook, Amazon, Google, Accenture and IBM. The summit series and online portal cover all major industries where uptake of AI is significant, including; Marketing, Travel & Transport, Finance, Professional Services, Healthcare and Retail. The business was founded by Daniel Pitchford and George Kipouros, who will continue to drive the business forward.

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Mark Eisenstadt

Fusion’s Mark Eisenstadt commented, ” ‘George & Dan have rapidly created the community forum for this dynamic and booming industry. It was a pleasure to represent such a professional and dedicated duo and their skilled and motivated workforce.  The Knect365 brand, offers enormous growth synergies within their Thought Leadership ecosystem. Fusion has recently and in the past represented for sale a number of leading edge innovation worldwide media businesses that are helping to drive the technology and telecoms sectors growth. We are pleased to be working with a number of other innovative, market leading related businesses that will come to market in the short to medium term.”

UK, London

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CloserStill acquires Online Educa Berlin

December 6, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

CloserStillCloserStill Media is to acquire Online Educa Berlin, a cross-sector conference on technology-

supported learning and training, from ICWE GMbH for an undisclosed sum. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in Berlin, Germany in 1995, OEB is an annual international conference on technology-supported learning and training (e-learning), welcoming over 2,000 delegates from across the corporate, education and public sectors, and including an exhibition featuring more than 80 international Edtech companies and institutions.

The acquisition will complement CloserStill’s existing event brand, Learning Technologies, which has events in Paris and London.

Commenting on the acquisition and the launch plans for Learning Technologies Germany in 2018 alongside OEB, CloserStill’s learning group director, Mark Penton, said: “We are genuinely excited to bring the highly respected OEB event into our family of market-leading events and to work with its founder Rebecca Stromeyer.

“We see a significant opportunity to evolve OEB into one of Europe’s most important learning events with the introduction of our Learning Technologies brand into the heart of the European marketplace.”

Germany, Berlin, UK, London

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Bubble Communications acquires VOX National Events

December 5, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

Bubble Communications, the PR, marketing and events agency specialising in the media and entertainment technology and services sectors, has acquired VOX National Events, the established organiser and producer of the VOX Summit (the UK conference for the voiceover and audio industry), VOX Awards and VOXMAS festive party. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

posy-brewer-sadie-groom

Posy Brewer and Sadie Groom

“As the organiser of many events including awards ceremonies, conferences, product launches and social events, this acquisition opportunity was a perfect fit with our PR and marketing work in the pro-audio and production communities,” said Sadie Groom, Managing Director, Bubble Communications. “Posy has built an amazing business which attracts the top level of talent in the voiceover community. We are excited to build on the events and community she has created and take them to the next level.”

Posy Brewer, owner of VOX, commented, “Bubble and VOX National Events come together to create the perfect match with their deep industry roots and well-respected brands. Sadie and her team are brilliant at what they do, and I’m thrilled to see Bubble taking over the helm of VOX and building on the solid and well-established foundations to promote audio excellence to its optimum level.

UK, Pinewood Studios & Guildford

 

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Zeta Global acquires Disqus

December 5, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

Zeta GlobalThe data-driven marketing technology innovator Zeta Global has acquired the audience engagement platform Disqus. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Disqus powers an open and independent web of 4 million publishers including The Atlantic, Destructoid, Spoiler TV and TMZ. Since 2007, Disqus has focused on helping independent publishers build audiences through its audience development platform by giving publishers tools to interact with readers.

Combined with Zeta’s leading marketing platform, artificial intelligence and machine learning, the acquisition makes Zeta the only company able to offer personalised real-time marketing at scale on the open web.

David A. Steinberg, Zeta Global CEO, Chairman and Co-Founder, said, “We’re redefining the marketing technology space with actionable data, artificial intelligence that answers business problems and a marketing hub that serves as the nerve centre for data-driven marketers. Disqus extends and enhances this strategy. Marketers typically have to make tradeoffs between reaching engaged audiences on social platforms with massive reach and using tools that give them control and access to granular targeting capabilities. Disqus strengthens Zeta’s ability to offer the best of both worlds with the scale, visibility and performance marketers have been asking for.”

USA, New York, NY & San Francisco, CA

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Parallel Media Group to acquire Brick Live and Parallel Live, to create Live Company Group

December 5, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

PMGlogoParallel Media Group plc is to acquire Brick Live and Parallel Live, to create a new live entertainment events company – Live Company Group – and bring BRICKLIVE  to London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

The acquisition of the two companies and of partners’ shares in Brick Live Far East, are valued at £10m, and the company is raising £1.26m through a share placing at 30p. On completion, the enlarged group will have a market value of £14.5m.

To reflect the Enlarged Group’s new business focus it will be renamed Live Company Group plc (AIM: LVCG) on Completion.

The acquisitions of Brick Live and Parallel Live are part of the PMG’s strategic plans to expand its live entertainment offering. BRICKLIVE (Lego) events have been well-received globally and last weekend, BRICKLIVE shows were hosted simultaneously across three continents – Europe, Asia and South America.

The directors believe that the increased profile of being part of a public company will assist Brick Live’s growth strategy and support it in finding further high-quality licensee partners for events.

The Company’s strategy is to build on the success of BRICKLIVE partner-driven events in the UK, South Korea, Japan, Switzerland and Brazil to further extend the global footprint of these shows, with a focus on the Far East and China, in particular. 

David Ciclitira, executive chairman at Parallel Media Group, said: “Since our Birmingham NEC show in October 2016, we have been on an amazing growth journey that is testament to both the talented BRICKLIVE team, and our phenomenal partners. The acquisition of Brick Live and Parallel Live, and the bringing of BRICKLIVE to the public market, couldn’t come at a better time. Having just successfully launched three BRICKLIVE shows on three continents simultaneously, this is a momentous point in a very successful year. This transaction will give us the springboard we need to take our stand-out events to the next level; expanding into an even greater geographic and fostering an incredible learning environment for even more children around the globe, teaching them that there’s no limit to their creativity.”

UK, London

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A Fusion Deal: Euromoney acquires TowerXchange

December 4, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

TowerXchangeTowerXchange, the open community for thought leaders in the emerging market towers industry, has been sold to Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC.

Fusion Corporate Partners acted as corporate advisor for TowerXChange. The Fusion team was led by Piers Bearne. The terms of the deals were not disclosed.

TowerXchange is an information and events business which has become a source of information on the tower market, the infrastructure supporting the growth of the mobile telecoms market. Acquiring TowerXchange is part of Euromoney’s telecoms strategy to facilitate industry collaboration and trading in areas ranging from pricing to standards across the telecoms ecosystem. 

Commenting on the deal, Piers Bearne of Fusion said, “TowerXchange is deeply embedded in its sector, with a very strong management team. We were looking for the best partner to support the company’s geographical and product expansion, and are delighted that Euromoney are its new owners.”

Rosalind Irving, Euromoney Divisional Director responsible for its telecoms businesses, said: “TowerXchange is an excellent business which serves an increasingly important part of telecoms infrastructure. It is strategic for Euromoney because it is highly complementary to the markets served by TelCap, BroadGroup (in which we invested in March) and Layer123 (acquired in April). We look forward to working with the expert TowerXchange team.”

UK, London

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