ITV acquires US TV production company Thinkfactory Media

June 19, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

itvITV plc is acquiring a controlling stake in Thinkfactory Media, a US producer of reality, entertainment and drama, including the Emmy award-winning Hatfields & McCoys. Based in Los Angeles, the company was founded by Emmy-nominated Producer, Leslie Greif. Think Factory Media produces programming in most genres for television including:  features, unscripted series, documentaries, mini-series, branded entertainment projects, concerts, music specials and various movies of the week.

thinkfactorymedia

ITV will pay an upfront cash consideration of $30m for a 65% stake in Thinkfactory Media, with a put and call option to buy theremaining 35% of the company. The put and call option could be exercised from between 3 years after the initial deal and at the end of year 5 with the total amount paid linked to the performance of the company over that period.  ITV says that the multiple paid is similar to the range paid on their previous acquisitions.

UK, London & USA, Losa Angeles, CA

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Northstar Travel Media acquires digital publishing firm Your Travel Insider

June 18, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

NorthStar Your Travel InsiderNorthstar Travel Media, a business-to-business information company serving the travel and meetings industries and a portfolio company of Wicks Group, has acquired Your Travel Insider, a digital publishing firm focused on the consumer travel market. The  terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded by by Roy Weiss in 2003, Your Travel Insider publishes e-newsletters Your Travel Insider, Luxury Cruise News and Your Travel Insider – Travel Tools. Weiss becomes Group Publisher of Your Travel Insider with the acquisition by Northstar.

Your Travel Insider and Roy Weiss will report to Bob Sullivan, Executive VP, of Northstar Travel Media, LLC.

“The addition of Your Travel Insider provides Northstar with significant position in the consumer travel database market to complement our leadership in the travel trade industry,” said Thomas Kemp, chairman and CEO of Northstar Travel Media. “We’re very pleased that Roy and his talented team will be working in partnership with us to grow Your Travel Insider’s subscriber base, expand its digital footprint and continue to work with their base of blue-chip clients.”

USA, Secaucus, NJ

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WPP takes stake in early-stage mobile content platform Muzy

June 18, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

wppWPP has taken a stake in Muzy, Inc., an early-stage microblogging service focused on mobile content creation. Muzy has attracted over 20 million users globally and is adding more than 1 million new users each month.

The investment is being made through WPP Ventures, based in Silicon Valley and run by President Tom Bedecarré. He is also Chairman of AKQA. WPP Ventures explores early-stage investments in new technology companies that offer innovative solutions to WPP clients and strengthen the capabilities of WPP.

muzy

Headquartered in San Francisco, Muzy was launched in 2011 by its cofounders, CEO Andrew Chen and CTO Matt Rubens. Like manyweb publishing startups, Muzy currently employs less than 10 people. Muzy will use the investment proceeds to further scale the engineering team and build out the suite of creative publishing tools for the Muzy platform. It offers more than 50 mobile publishing tools and a global network for sharing content and is a Top 100 photo app in 70+ countries.

UK, London & USA, San Francisco

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Plum District has acquired Spotivate

June 18, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

plumdistrictPlum District, the local deals site led by Susan Kim, has acquired Spotivate, a startup founded by Anthony Lee, previously a Senior Software Engineer at Google and Jorge Chang offering local experiences to parents. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Reporting by TechCrunch

Spotivate blog announcement

San Francisco, CA

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High 5 Games acquires Electrotank assets

June 18, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

logo-high-5-games-smHigh 5 Games is to acquire substantially all of Electrotank‘s assets and intellectual property. Electrotank is a  provider of high-performance online and mobile game technology, including ElectroServer. Electrotank’s past clients include Disney, Neopets, MTV, Comedy Central, Mattel, Spinmaster, Hallmark, P&G, and Ubisoft. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“This move will allow High 5 Games to strengthen and finalize our upcoming Game Server Platform, which will allow our content to be real-time streamed to both regulated real-money gaming sites, as well as to social casino sites throughout the world,” said Anthony Singer, CEO of High 5 Games. “We are overjoyed to bring in the many talented individuals from Electrotank into High 5 Games.”

High 5 Games has worked with Electrotank in the past to move some of its land-based slot games onto Facebook’s gaming platform.

USA, New York, NY

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Bauer Media announces full ownership of OK! Magazine in Australia and New Zealand

June 16, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

bauer mediaBauer Media has acquired the remaining 50% of the weekly title, OK!, from its joint venture partner, Northern and Shell.

As well as buying out the second half of OK! Australia, Bauer Media will now own 100% of the OK! magazine brand in Australia and New Zealand.

Matthew Stanton, Bauer Media CEO, said, “This investment in OK!, in Australia and New Zealand, once again demonstrates our commitment to the market and the long-term viability of this popular global brand. OK! is a key brand in our publishing portfolio and we look forward to taking the title to the next level, with further investment in a number of publishing initiatives across multi-platforms.”

Paul Ashford, Group Editorial Director Northern and Shell, said, “We are happy to have concluded an agreement that will allow Bauer northern & shellMedia to take OK! magazine forward in Australia where they now have a strong local operation, and we thank everyone who has worked to create OK!’s amazing Australian success story as part of the worldwide OK! family (currently reaching over 23 million readers across the globe).”

OK! was launched in Australia by Northern and Shell in 2004 with 50% of the title acquired by Bauer Media in 2007. The magazine’s circulation has fallen from 140,000 in 2007 to 90,000 in December 2012.

Two years ago Northern & Shell sold the US edition of OK! to American Media. Northern & Shell continues to own the UK edition of OK!

UK, London & Australia, Sydney

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SGN acquires mobile games developer Mob Science

June 14, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

logo-sgn-silverSGN (Social Gaming Network), a cross-platform mobile games developer, has acquired Mob Science. The deal will include Mob Science’s full game portfolio, including its most popular title Legends: Rise of a Hero, adding more than 50M users to the SGN network.

“Mob Science is a proven game development company with collectively over 75 years of experience in top-tier mobsciencesocial game creation,” said Chris DeWolfe, CEO and Founder of SGN. “Both SGN and Mob Science stand for quality, enabling us to continue our strategic growth and market expansion.”

Mob Science’s team will stay in their Carlsbad, CA offices as the newest extension of SGN. More recruitment and strategic acquisitions will be slated for announcement later this year.

USA, Los Angeles, CA & Carlsbad, CA

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Google acquires Waze for over $1BN

June 13, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

googleGoogle has bought iOS map and navigation app Waze for just over $1billion (according to Reuters).

GeekTime is reporting that the price is $1.1 billion, “of which $1.03B will be transferred in cash directly to the company and its stockholders. An additional $100M will be awarded to employees based on performance.”

Waze was founded in 2007. The majority of its staff are based in Israel with around 10 others based in Palo Alto, USA. It has 47 million Wazeusers and has raised $67 million in funding from investors including: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Blue Run Ventures and semiconductor company Qualcomm Inc.

On the Waze blog, Waze CEO Noam Bardin said “We are excited about the prospect of working with the Google Maps team to enhance our search capabilities and to join them in their ongoing efforts to build the best map of the world.” He also said, “Nothing practical will change here at Waze. We will maintain our community, brand, service and organization – the community hierarchy, responsibilities and processes will remain the same.”

In the Google announcement, Brian McClendon, Vice President, Geo, said “To help you outsmart traffic, today we’re excited to announce we’ve closed the acquisition of Waze. This fast-growing community of traffic-obsessed drivers is working together to find the best routes from home to work, every day.” He went on to say, “We’re excited about the prospect of enhancing Google Maps with some of the traffic update features provided by Waze and enhancing Waze with Google’s search capabilities.”

USA, Mountain View, California & Israel, Tel Aviv

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Gannett to acquire television company Belo

June 13, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

gannettInternational media business Gannett is to acquire television company Belo in a deal that nearly doubles Gannett’s broadcast portfolio.

Gannett will acquire all outstanding shares of Belo for $13.75 per share in cash, or approximately $1.5 billion, plus the assumption of belo$715 million in existing debt for an enterprise value of approximately $2.2 billion. The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by the boards of directors of both companies, represents a 28.1 percent premium to the closing price of Belo common stock on June 12, 2013.

Belo Corp. owns and operates 20 television stations and their associated websites.  Belo stations, which include affiliations with ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and the CW, reach more than 14 percent of U.S. television households.

The Company anticipates that the transaction will generate approximately $175 million in annual run-rate synergies within three years after closing.  The transaction valuation implies a 9.4x average 2011/2012 EBITDA multiple prior to synergies, and a 5.4x multiple assuming expected synergies.

Gracia Martore, President and Chief Executive Officer of Gannett, said, “We are thrilled to bring together two highly respected media companies with rich histories of award-winning journalism, operational excellence and strong brand leadership.  We have been successfully transforming Gannett into a diversified multi-media company with broadcast, digital and publishing components across high-growth markets nationwide, and this is another important step in the process.  It will significantly improve our cash flow and financial strength, enabling us to quickly pay down debt while remaining committed to disciplined capital allocation.  By enhancing our portfolio with one of the largest, most geographically diverse and network-balanced TV station groups in the country, the new Gannett will be well positioned to lead innovation, bolster our existing growth initiatives and take advantage of new opportunities in the emerging digital media landscape.”

USA, McLean, VA & Dallas, TX

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IHS to acquire global automotive information business R.L. Polk & Co. for $1.4BN

June 9, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

ihs_logo_mpIHS is to acquire R.L. Polk & Co., a provider of automotive information and analytics solutions for $1.4 billion. 90% cash and 10% equity. The stock issuance has a 2-year lock up. 50% of shares can be sold after year one and 100% of shares can be sold after year two

R.L. Polk is headquartered in Detroit and has $400 million of current annual revenue, 75% recurring revenue with 90%-plus renewal polkrates. 60% of its revenues come from the CARFAX brand and 40% from the Polk Division.

The company is principally focused in North America, with 9% of sales in EMEA and 3% in APAC. It has an adjusted EBITDA margin in mid-20 percent range.

USA, Englewood, CO & Detroit, MI

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