Morningstar Acquires Remaining Ownership Interest in Morningstar Sweden

May 3, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

morningstarMorningstar has acquired its remaining ownership interest in Morningstar Sweden AB from Stadsporten Citygate AB and two private investors.

Morningstar, through one of its subsidiaries, acquired its remaining 76 percent ownership stake for approximately U.S. $13 million, or approximately SEK 87 million, subject to post-closing adjustments.

Fondstar AB, a subsidiary of Citygate, licensed Morningstar’s methodology and began providing ratings for funds in 1998.Morningstar Europe B.V . and Citygate established a joint venture in 2001, formally incorporating Morningstar Sweden AB. Morningstar’s main offerings in Sweden include Morningstar Direct, Morningstar Data, Integrated Web Tools, and Morningstar.se, an investment information website for individual investors that provides fund and ETF data, portfolio tools, and market analysis.

“Together with Citygate and the local management team, we’ve been supplying investment data and other research tools to Swedish investors for more than a decade,” said Bevin Desmond, president of international operations for Morningstar. “We’re pleased to fully integrate Morningstar Sweden into our Nordic operations, providing seamless access to our offerings and better serving clients across the region.”

Morningstar has 25 employees based in Stockholm. George Sallfeldt, chief executive officer, will continue to lead the company. Morningstar serves more than 200 clients in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland and provides complete data on more than 2,000 domiciled mutual funds and 20,000 funds registered for sale in the local markets. Morningstar also has data coverage on all listed stocks and several other investment offerings in the Nordic region.

USA, Chicago, IL & Sweden, Stockholm

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TripAdvisor acquires CruiseWise

May 3, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

tripadvisorTripAdvisor has acquired key technology and staff from CruiseWise, Inc. the former online cruise booking agency.  The team and non-transactional functionality will be integrated into Cruise Critic, a TripAdvisor brand. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“The cruise industry continues to grow in popularity and we are delighted to be able to further strengthen our Cruise Critic business with this move,” said Steve Kaufer , co-founder and CEO TripAdvisor, Inc.  “By integrating key elements of CruiseWise and the in-depth knowledge behind it, we will enhance our ability to help travelers find their perfect cruise at a price that suits them with seamless links to our booking partners.”

Cruise Critic is published by The Independent Traveler, Inc., which was acquired as a subsidiary of TripAdvisor, Inc. in 2007.

Newton, MA

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Shutterfly acquires MyPublisher

May 3, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

shutterflyShutterfly has acquired online photo book business MyPublisher. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Jeffrey Housenbold, president and CEO of Shutterfly said, “By combining MyPublisher’s best in class software mypublisherclient with Shutterfly’s industry leading cloud based platform, we will continue to drive growth and set the standard for design, choice and quality in the personal publishing and social expression category.”

USA, Redwood City, CA

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SKU Logistics acquires Dawson Marketing Services for £200K

May 3, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

smithnewsSmiths News PLC, the has sold Dawson Marketing Services Limited and its trading subsidiary, Marketlink Marketing Communications Limited to SKU Logistics in Swindon for £200,000.  SKU Logistics was previously part of Smiths News.

In an announcement Smiths News said, “The Group has chosen to divest MMC as it is not core to our stated strategy of being a leading player in chosen specialist distribution markets.”

In the year ended 31 August 2012, MMC generated revenues of £6.0m and operating profit of £0.1m.

UK, Swindon, Wiltshire

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RWS Holdings acquires PharmaQuest for £2.3M

May 3, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

RWS1RWS Holdings plc, a provider of intellectual property support services and commercial translations, has acquired PharmaQuest Limited for £2.3 million in cash.

PharmaQuest specialises in providing translation and linguistic validation of patient reported outcome measures resulting from clinical pharmaquest-logotrials conducted globally.  The company was founded in 2005 and is based in Oxfordshire, employing seven people.  Customers include pharmaceutical companies, clinical research organisations and academia.

PharmaQuest’s latest financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2013 show turnover of £1.4 million and adjusted profit before tax of £600,000.  Net assets acquired were less than £100,000.

Andrew Brode, Executive Chairman of RWS said, “We are pleased to have acquired PharmaQuest, whose progress we have monitored for several years.  It is an attractive business with excellent margins and good growth prospects in a rapidly expanding, specialist sector.”

UK, Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire & Banbury, Oxfordshire

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Endemol acquires a majority stake in Kuperman, the Israeli TV production company

April 29, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

endemol-logoEndemol has acquired a majority stake in Kuperman, Israel’s leading independent TV production company. The business will be renamed Endemol Israel.

Through the newly launched operation Endemol plans to invest in creativity and format development across all genres in Israel for both the local and international markets.

Endemol Israel will also produce Endemol’s international formats for the Israeli market.

Elad Kuperman, co-owner of Kuperman and one of Israel’s leading TV producers with more than 20 years’ experience of creating, kupermanproducing and commissioning entertainment shows, will lead Endemol Israel as CEO.

Media investor and entrepreneur Ynon Kreiz, has sold his 50% stake in Kuperman, which he acquired in 2009. He will exit the company as part of the deal.

Just Spee, CEO of Endemol Group comments: “With the launch of Endemol Israel we establish a presence in one of the world’s most creative markets. The high volume of innovative formats coming out of the region continues to grow and our ability to deliver this content to our clients around the world makes this an exciting opportunity.  Kuperman is already Israel’s number one TV producer and our partnership underlines Endemol’s commitment to investing in the very best creativity and talent around the world.”

Established in 2005, Kuperman is a multi-award winning company with a track record of delivering hit programming across a range of genres including reality, entertainment, drama, comedy, game shows and kids programming.

Among the company’s international successes are Israel’s most popular sitcom Traffic Light, which sold to Fox in the US and CTC in Russia and entertainment show Honey Please, which was picked up by GSN in the USA.  Reality series The Successor has been sold to ProSieben in Germany, SBS6 in The Netherlands and TV2 in Hungary as well as generating the US version Phenomenon, which aired on NBC and sold to CTV in Canada and Nine Network in Australia.

Kuperman also produces Endemol’s reality blockbuster Big Brother for Keshet, which first launched in 2008 and went on to become Israel’s most successful TV show.  Most recently series 4 averaged a rating of 41.5%, outperforming the slot average by 70%; and season 5 is due to launch soon.

The Netherlands, Amsterdam & Israel, Tel Aviv

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betaworks acquires a majority stake in Instapaper

April 26, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

betaworksbetaworks has acquired a majority stake in Instapaper. The acquisition was announced by Instapaper founder and developer Marco Arment. Marco posted details of the acquisition on his blog. Instapaper is a simple tool to save web pages for reading later. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.instapaper

“I’m happy to announce that I’ve sold a majority stake in Instapaper to Betaworks. We’ve structured the deal with Instapaper’s health and longevity as the top priority, with incentives to keep it going well into the future. I will continue advising the project indefinitely, while Betaworks will take over its operations, expand its staff, and develop it further.”

Other Betaworks products include digg, bit.ly, Chartbeat, Giphy and tapestry.  Wall Street Journal reported that Digg was acquired for around $500,000 last year.

USA, New York, NY

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Independent News & Media PLC – results for year ending 31 December 2012

April 26, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

inmIndependent News & Media PLC has announced the Group’s results for the 12 months ended 31 December 2012. A detailed presentation on these results is available on the Group’s website inmplc.com.

The Group’s interim management statement in respect of the period from 1 January 2013 to 19 April 2013 is also published today.

Financial & Operating Highlights

  • Revenues of €539.7 million, down 3.3%
  • Operating Profit, pre-exceptionals, of €59.7 million, down 20.9% – delivering an operating margin of 11.1%
  • EBITDA, pre-exceptionals, of €80.7 million (including dividends received of €11.1 million) for FY 2012 – down 21%
  • Operating Costs were reduced by €2.5 million despite inflationary cost increases in South Africa in excess of 5.7%, the year-on-year impact of the acquisition of International House Dublin (‘IHD’) and the launch of GrabOne. Excluding IHD and GrabOne, costs reduced by €9.2 million
  • Continued progress in digital, with revenue growth of 21.4% mainly driven by the successful rollout and full year impact of GrabOne in the Island of Ireland
  • Net exceptional charges after tax totalled €273.7 million primarily driven by non-cash asset impairments in APN and Island of Ireland and costs relating to headcount reductions of over 200 in 2012

INM results 2012-1

Strategic Highlights

A restructuring agreement has been reached with its banking syndicate, to effect an amendment to its Master Facility Agreement, which will become effective following the sale of its South African business.

INM says –  this will put it on a secure financial footing with a sustainable debt level, on completion of all stages. On full completion, the new bank deal will give INM the flexibility to reposition itself to embrace opportunities in the digital arena and deliver further significant cost reductions, whilst continuing to invest in the Group’s core print titles.

INM recently announced the sale of its South Africa business for R2 billion (approx. €167m) before expenses – all net proceeds will be used to pay down bank debt.

More details (London Stock Exchange)

Ireland, Dublin

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IPC Media sells Horse Magazine to MyTimeMedia

April 25, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Horse-June13rIPC Media has sold Horse magazine to MyTimeMedia. Horse was published within the IPC Inspire portfolio.

MyTimeMedia publishes specialist hobby magazines , including popular titles such as Hi Fi News, Home Cinema Choice, Homemade with Love, Stamp Magazine, The Woodworker and Model Engineer.

IPC Inspire managing director Paul Williams says: “MyTimeMedia is passionate about hobbies, so it is the perfect new home for Horse.  My personal thanks go to each member of the team for the great work they have done on Horse and I wish them all the very best for the future.”

MyTimeMedia CEO Owen Davies adds: “We are delighted to welcome Horse magazine and its staff to our business. The magazine will be a perfect fit with our print portfolio and we look forward to developing the website to increase its reach within the equestrian community.”

UK, London

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nCrowd Acquires Tippr

April 25, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

ncrowdnCrowd, Inc., a daily deals business and the Atlanta-based parent company of social commerce websites HalfOffDepot.com and CrowdSavings.com, has purchased the assets of Seattle-based Tippr.com and Groupalicious.com.

Brian Conley, CEO of nCrowd, stated that the acquisition was nCrowd’s largest to date. “The addition of Tippr and Groupalicious brings tippr-logo-230x69our active subscriber base to over 3.2 million in the U.S,” said Conley.

Over the past two years, nCrowd has purchased the assets of more than 20 U.S. daily deal sites in order to attain a broad audience for its proprietary Automated Internet Marketing (AIM) platform.

According to Conley, the acquisition of Tippr and Groupalicious solidifies nCrowd as the third largest domestic online player in the localgroupalicious-logo coupon space, behind Groupon and LivingSocial.

USA, Atlanta, GA

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