WGSN acquires Mindset Communicaco e Marketing Ltda in Brasil

September 4, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

wgsnWGSN, the global trend forecasting service, has acquired Mindset Communicaco e Marketing Ltda, its marketing partner in the Latin American market.

Mindset is an advisory agency dedicated to research and analysis of future and current consumer behavior. It works with many leading companies in Brazil and brings a loyal subscriber base and great relationships with major retailers, merchandisers and designers across the region. Mindset has been a reseller of WGSN’s trend service subscription for nine years.

This agreement will provide Mindset access to WGSN’s infrastructure, wider global markets and their expertise in technology, content, operations and customer excellence. It will enable WGSN to be even closer to its customers in Latin America and create local content direct for that market. It will also enable other Top Right Group businesses to benefit from Mindset’s expertise in Brazil and across the LATAM region.

Julie Harris, CEO of WGSN and Planet Retail commented: “We are delighted to announce this acquisition, which not only further strengthens WGSNs position in the Latin American market, but is also part of a wider strategic objective to expand our trend, retail and intelligence services in new and developing markets.”

This is the group’s second acquisition this year following the purchase of certain online assets of Mudpie, a provider of fashion trend forecasting with more than 200 customers worldwide.

Top Right Group Latin America is headquartered in Sao Paulo and will shortly move to a new office near Faria Lima.

UK, London & Sao Paulo

Posted in B2B Services, Conference/Exhibitions/Events, Consultancy, Content Media, e-Commerce, Internet Media, Publishers, ~Europe, ~Latin America and Caribbean. Tags: , , . Leave a Comment »

Eventbrite acquires London-based Lanyrd and Latin American events company Eventioz

September 3, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

eventbriteEventbrite, the global self-service ticketing platform, has acquired London-based event data company Lanyrd, and Argentinean-based ticketing company Eventioz. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. These acquisitions are the first for the Eventbrite which in April raised $60 million in funding. T

“For seven years, Eventbrite has focused on creating, scaling and promoting the best ticketing platform on the market. Now it’s time for us to open our pocketbooks a bit to accelerate our growth around the world,” said Kevin Hartz, Eventbrite Co-Founder and CEO. “These two acquisitions perfectly align with the strategic focus for the company, while adding significant assets and technical power to our platform.”

lanyrd Lanyrd, a social conference directory based in London, allows users to add and discover events as well as track friends’ professional event activity. The company was founded in 2010, and has worked with nearly 40,000 events in 148 countries.  The Lanyrd team will relocate to Eventbrite’s headquarters in San Francisco to be part of the 100+-strong engineering effort. Eventbrite will continue to support Lanyrd.com and its community after the acquisition.

eventioz Eventioz is a Latin American ticketing platform with operations in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. Since the business started in 2008, it has helped  more than 15,000 organisers create, promote and sell tickets to nearly 20,000 events.

USA, San Francisco, CA & UK, London & Argentina

Posted in Conference/Exhibitions/Events, Content Media, ~Europe, ~Latin America and Caribbean, ~North America. Tags: , , . Leave a Comment »

Dogan Group offers $742 million for a 53% stake in Turkish digital pay-TV operator Digiturk

September 3, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Turkey’s Dogan Group has made a $742 million bid to Cukurova Holding for a 53 percent stake in Turkish digital pay-TV operator Digiturk. The offer, values Digiturk at $1.4bn. The remaining 47 per cent is owned by Providence, the US private equity group

Dogan Holding already owns D-Smart, the country’s second biggest digital pay-TV operator. Turkey’s biggest telecoms operator Turk Telekom, which is 30% owned by the Turkish state, is also reported to be interested in the Digiturk stake.

Other reporting

Turkey, Istanbul

 

Posted in Broadcasting, Content Media, ~Asia, ~Europe. Tags: , , , . Leave a Comment »

Bloomsbury acquires Hart Publishing

September 2, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

BloomsburyBloomsbury Publishing Plc has today completed the acquisition of Hart Publishing Ltd the Oxford-based legal publisher, from the management shareholders. The initial consideration of £6.5 million (which is subject to working capital adjustments) was paid in cash on completion from Bloomsbury’s own cash reserves.

A further cash consideration of up to a maximum of £0.5 million will be payable on the achievement of certain revenue and title number targets for the period ending 31 March 2014. The acquisition is expected to generate cost savings and be immediately earnings enhancing contributing approximately £1.4 million of revenue to Bloomsbury in the year ending 28 February 2014.

Hart was founded in 1996 and has developed an extensive list with leading authors including Michael Fordham QC, Andrew Burrows, Grainne de Burca, JW Carter, Peter Cane, Simon Deakin, Vernon Bogdanor, Robert O’Donoghue, Philip Coppel QC and Michael Beloff QC amongst others. Hart generated £2.6 million of revenue and £0.5 million of profit before tax in the year ended 31 March 2013. Gross assets at that date were £1.4 million.

Nigel Newton, Chief Executive of Bloomsbury commented, “The acquisition of Hart increases our presence in the academic and professional market and is a significant step forward in achieving our ambition of generating 50% of turnover from this important sector. It is complementary to, and will substantially enhance, Bloomsbury Professional, in particular increasing the division’s international sales. Our growing proportion of academic and professional revenues will increase profit margins and give our results more stability. The mix of digital and subscription based services that can be built out of the acquisition are hugely exciting and will provide good financial returns.”

UK, London & Oxford

Related articles:

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

Shutterfly Acquires R&R Images

August 29, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

shutterflyShutterfly has acquired R&R Images, a boutique, high variability printer focused on premium stationery printing and product design. R&R Images is privately-held and located in Phoenix, Arizona. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Jeffrey Housenbold, president and CEO of Shutterfly, said, “As Shutterfly continues to grow, we are making additional strategic investments in our manufacturing footprint focused on providing our customers with innovative, high quality personalized products while efficiently scaling and managing our costs. We are excited to combine R&R Images’ product innovation and expertise in premium, flexible printing with Shutterfly’s manufacturing scale and infrastructure to enhance our capabilities and continue delighting our enterprise clients and consumers.”

USA, Redwood, CA & Phoenix, AZ

Related articles:

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

21st Century Fox acquires a $70 million stake in Vice Media

August 19, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

21st Century Fox has bought a $70 million stake in Vice Media. The deal gives Fox a 5% stake in Vice and values the company at $1.4 billion, according to a report  in the Financial Times.

Fox joins other minority shareholders including Raine, the merchant bank connected with WME, global marketing firm WPP and former Viacom honcho Tom Freston.

Vice started out as a Canadian music magazine but its growth in the past five years has been fuelled by online video, particularly its gonzo-style films from world trouble spots. The company had a turnover of $175m in 2012

USA, New York, NY & Brooklyn, NY

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

Addison acquires majority stake in digital corporate communications agency, The Group, in the UK

August 19, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

WPP‘s wholly-owned company Addison Corporate Marketing Limited, a corporate communications agency, has acquired a majority stake in Emaxol Limited, the holding company of IR Group Limited, an online corporate communications agency. The combined business will trade as Addison Group. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in London in 1991 by Mark Hill, The Group employs 65 people and specialises in designing, building, hosting and developing corporate websites and digital consulting services. Clients include Tesco, BG Group, Centrica, Kingfisher, InterContinental Hotels Group, Tullow Oil, Cairn Energy, Petrofac and Rexam.

The Group’s consolidated unaudited revenues for the year ended 31 July 2013 were £5.9 million, with gross assets of £5.1 million as at the same date.

UK, London

Related articles:

Posted in Content Media, Market Data & Information, ~Europe. Leave a Comment »

GoDaddy acquires Locu

August 18, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

GoDaddy is to acquire Locu, a San Francisco-based company that helps local merchants “get found” online. Started in 2011 at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Locu is used by more than 30,000 businesses, including restaurants, spas, salons, accountants, photographers and home remodeling companies, to promote their services across Locu’s partner network. Locu reaches more than 200 million consumers per month through its partnerships with Yelp, YP.com, Foursquare, TripAdvisor and Facebook. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Locu epitomizes what GoDaddy is all about – both companies are hell-bent on helping the ‘little guy’ thrive on the Internet,” said GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving. “Locu is comprised of amazing technologists who have taken the very complex problem of helping small businesses ‘get found’ wherever consumers are looking and are solving it through elegant, technology-based services. We are welcoming some of the brightest technology minds on the planet to our GoDaddy family.”

The two companies have been working closely together since May when GoDaddy integrated Locu into its easy-to-use Website Builder.

Locu will continue to operate out of its San Francisco and Cambridge, Mass., offices and is actively hiring for both locations. All of Locu’s employees are joining the GoDaddy team.

USA, Scottsdale, AZ & San Francisco, CA

Related articles:

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

Future acquires APC and TechLife – from Bauer Media Group in Australia

August 16, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

futureplcFuture plc‘s Australian business has acquired two technology brands – APC and TechLife – from Bauer Media Group.

The acquisition involves the two brands, the subscription lists and all related magazines, digital editions and websites in Australia. The brands will join Future’s existing Australian Technology portfolio, including TechRadar.com.au and T3.com.

Mark Wood, Future’s Chief Executive, said:

“The acquisition of APC and TechLife is the next stage in Future’s strategy of building a global technology content business around TechRadar, our top digital brand, and T3.com. “We are delighted to bring these two high-quality technology titles into Future, adding to our strong positions in the UK and US markets, and we look forward to building on their success and their impressive audience reach to become Australia’s leading technology publisher.”

Australia, Sydney

Related articles:

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

Dods acquires public sector publishing titles from Sift Media

August 16, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Dods (Group) Plc, the UK provider of political and government information and communication services, has acquired public sector publishing titles from Sift Media. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The agreement is for Sift Media’s PublicTechnology.net, PublicTenders.net and BusinessCloud9.com titles and its associated events, UK Public Sector Digital Awards and Business Cloud Summit.

Keith Sadler, CEO of Dods (Group) Plc, said, “We at Dods are delighted by the acquisition of PublicTechnology.net, PublicTenders.net and BusinessCloud9.com from Sift Media Limited. We will add these sites into its existing portfolio of websites and make further investment to improve the user and client experience on these sites.”

UK, London

Related articles:

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, Publishers, ~Europe. Tags: , , , . Leave a Comment »
« Older posts
Newer posts »