Rosetta Stone acquires online language company Livemocha

April 3, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

rosetta stoneRosetta Stone has acquired Seattle-based Livemocha, one of the world’s largest online language-learning communities, for $8.5 million in cash. Livemocha has a community of over 16 million members in 195 countries. The company  uses crowd-sourcing to drive content development and social engagement. Livemocha will remain in Seattle.

“We are in the process of transforming Rosetta Stone to be the most dynamic and ubiquitous technology-based learning platform in the world,” said President and Chief Executive Officer Steve Swad. “Our acquisition of Livemocha will help accelerate that transformation. With Livemocha and its vibrant online community on our side, Rosetta Stone will reach more people and change more lives than ever before.”

USA, Arlington, VA & Seattle, WA

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LifeApps Digital Media acquires Sports One Group

April 3, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

LifeApps-Icon-2012-85pxLifeApps Digital Media Inc., a digital media company focusing on health, fitness, sports publications, and next-generation social networks, has acquired Sports One Group and Performance Gear, a wholesale supplier to the promotional products industry providing athletic apparel, uniforms and decorating services. Effective as of April 1, 2013, LifeApps has acquired certain assets of Sports One Group, including a supplier base of leading fitness apparel designers and over 1,300 customers.

“We believe this is a great acquisition for LifeApps and a step towards expanding our physical and digital products across our sports, health and fitness based communities,” said Robert Gayman, CEO of Life Apps. “Through this new digital platform, we can now service the promotional and sports industries, the sporting goods sector and individual health enthusiasts with our diverse family of e-commerce and m-commerce fitness products. We are confident that the LifeApps team will be able to enhance and improve the current e-commerce business of Sports One Group and build an m-commerce solution for the business in the near future. In addition, the acquisition of Sports One Group will provide an immediate revenue stream to the Company.”

USA, San Diego, CA

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Experian acquires Decisioning Solutions

April 3, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

experianExperian has acquired Decisioning Solutions Inc., a provider of a hosted SaaS customer acquisition platform.

Founded in 2004 and based in Canada, Decisioning Solutions provides SaaS solutions to small and mid-tier companies, including financial institutions and telecommunication companies in the US and Canada, to manage their customer acquisitions and loan originations. Decisioning Solutions’ products are multi-lingual and easily deployed to different geographies.

Customer acquisition and origination is a key sector for Experian globally and this acquisition provides Experian with a scalable, cross-industry global platform to complement its existing mid- and large-tier, on-premise and country specific solutions.

It is a further step in Experian’s strategy to extend its global lead in credit information and analytics and will form part of Experian’s Decision Analytics activities. The acquisition has been funded from Experian’s existing cash resources

UK, London & USA, New York, NY & Canada, Toronto

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Future sells Classic Rock and Metal Hammer

April 2, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

futureplcFuture plc is to sell its UK rock titles Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and associated brand extensions to Team Rock Limited for £10.2m. The sale will be made on a cash-free and debt-free basis. Completion will occur on 16 April 2013.

As well as Classic Rock and Metal Hammer magazines, the sale includes associated periodicals Prog and AOR, as well as branded events The Golden Gods and The Classic Rock Roll of Honour.

The net sale proceeds will be used to reduce the level of bank debt and provide additional headroom under the Group’s new credit facility for further strategic digital investment. Future retains a portfolio of music-making titles and the musicradar.com website.

For the year ended 30 September 2012, the revenue, gross contribution and adjusted pre-tax profit attributable to these brands were £8.6m, £1.8m and £0.2m respectively. At 30 September 2012, the gross assets relating to these brands were £6.6m.

Mark Wood, Future’s Chief Executive, said: “Classic Rock and Metal Hammer generate revenues predominantly from print. Their sale is in line with Future’s strategy of prioritising products which are international and digital. These two iconic print brands have not been central to that strategy and will thrive within a broader music business.”

UK, London

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HubSpot acquires of Chime and PrepWork

March 28, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

HubSpot_Logo_2xInbound marketing software company HubSpot has completed acquisitions of Chime and PrepWork, two early-stage technology companies based in Toronto and New Haven, respectively. Of the news, HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan said “this fall we completed our Mezzanine financing to give us the flexibility to grow by acquisition. We sought out innovative companies who could help us continue to transform the marketing landscape, and both Chime and PrepWork embody those characteristics. Over the upcoming year, we’ll continue to look for companies that fit this profile, so we hope this is the first of several acquisition announcements as we continue to expand on our commitment to transforming the landscape of modern marketing.”

Chime developed a Google Chrome plug-in that aggregates notifications from Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other common social media tools into one stream of updates. PrepWork was founded by Dan Wolchonok and provides briefing emails relevant to forthcoming meetings via a sync with users’ calendars.

HubSpot’s Vice President of Product Strategy and Corporate Development Brad Coffey noted: “Last year as part of HubSpot 3, we launched a Contacts tool that allows our customers to create more lovable marketing through effective personalization. Both Chime and PrepWork deliver innovative solutions that give their users real-time information and context around their interactions, and we believe the know-how, approach, and technology the Chime and PrepWork teams bring to HubSpot will enable our customers to deliver even more personalized and lovable marketing to their target audience.”

The acquisitions are effective immediately, and all employees from both Chime and PrepWork will join the HubSpot product development team full time and relocate to the company’s global headquarters in Cambridge, MA.

USA, Cambridge, MA & Canada, Toronto & New Haven, CT

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Amazon.com to acquire Goodreads

March 28, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

amazonAmazon.com is to acquire Goodreads, a site for readers and book recommendations that helps people find and share books. Founded in 2007, Goodreads has more than 16 million members and there are more than 30,000 books clubs on the Goodreads site. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. It is expected to close during the second quarter of 2013

“Amazon and Goodreads share a passion for reinventing reading,” said Russ Grandinetti, Amazon Vice President, Kindle Content. “Goodreads has helped change how we discover and discuss books and, with Kindle, Amazon has helped expand reading around the world. In addition, both Amazon and Goodreads have helped thousands of authors reach a wider audience and make a better living at their craft. Together we intend to build many new ways to delight readers and authors alike.”goodreads

Goodreads’s headquarters will remain in San Francisco, CA.

USA, Seattle, WA & San Francisco, CA

 

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CBS acquires 50% of TV Guide

March 26, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

CBS Corp. is acquiring 50% of of TV Guide, the company that encompasses TVGN (formerly TV Guide Network) and TVGuide.com.

CBS is taking over the TV Guide stake held by One Equity Partners, the private-equity arm of J.P. Morgan Chase, which owned 49% of the company, with an option to buy another 1%. CBS is said to be paying about $100 million, less than the $122 million OEP spent in June 2009. CBS joins TVGN co-owner Lionsgate Entertainment.

“This is a strategic way for CBS to use its content brands and gain access to a highly distributed basic cable network that has a lot of upside,” said Leslie Moonves, President and Chief Executive Officer, CBS Corporation. “Lionsgate, led by my friend Jon Feltheimer, is a forward-thinking content company and a great partner for us here. We’re excited to bring CBS’s programming and production assets to the venture, and work with Lionsgate to rebrand and grow a channel that will be increasingly valuable to our carriage partners.”

USA, Los Angeles, CA

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CareerBuilder acquires VON (KiemViec.com & HR Vietnam) in Vietnam

March 26, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

careerbuilderCareerBuilder has acquired VON (KiemViec.com & HR Vietnam) in Vietnam.

KiemViec.com is Vietnam’s second largest career site by revenue, and first by number of registered users. HR Vietnam specialises in recruitment services and human resource solutions for employers.

“The acquisition of VON, provides CareerBuilder an accelerated entry into the Vietnam market – an important step in our Asian expansion,” said Hunter Arnold , President of CareerBuilder Asia Pacific. “The growth potential is high as we combine VON’s expertise with Vietnamese employers and CareerBuilder’s global reach and advance technology and services.”

USA, Chicago, IL & Vietnam

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CareerBuilder to acquire JobScout24 Posted on September 13, 2011

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Yahoo acquires Summly for $30 million

March 25, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

YahooYahoo Inc has acquired mobile news aggregator Summly. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. AllThingsD reported that Yahoo paid roughly $30 million. Three Summly employees will join Yahoo as part of the deal.

Summly was founded two years ago by young entrepreneur Nick D’Aloisio, a then 15 year-old working from his home in London. Summly delivers snapshots of news stories to smart phones in a simple and elegant way. Summply was backed by Li Ka-Shing and Horizons Ventures. Plus other angel investors including actor Ashton Kutcher and artist Yoko Ono,

Yahoo said it will shut down the Summly app but will integrate the company’s natural language processing and machine-learning technology across Yahoo’s various online services, particularly Yahoo’s line-up of mobile services.

Here is how how Nick D’Aloisio announced the deal.

In true Summly fashion, I will keep this short and sweet.

I am delighted to announce Summly has signed an agreement to be acquired by Yahoo!. Our vision is to simplify how we get information and we are thrilled to continue this mission with Yahoo!’s global scale and expertise. After spending some time on campus, I discovered that Yahoo! has an inspirational goal to make people’s daily routines entertaining and meaningful, and mobile will be a central part of that vision. For us, it’s the perfect fit.

When I founded Summly at 15, I would have never imagined being in this position so suddenly. I’d personally like to thank Li Ka-Shing and Horizons Ventures for having the foresight to back a teenager pursuing his dream. Also to our investors, advisors and of course the fantastic team for believing in the potential of Summly. Without you all, this never would have been possible. I’d also like to thank my family, friends and school for supporting me.

Most importantly, thank you to our wonderful users who have helped contribute to us receiving Apple’s Best Apps of 2012 award for Intuitive Touch! We will be removing Summly from the App Store today but expect our summarization technology will soon return to multiple Yahoo! products – see this as a ‘power nap’ so to speak.With over 90 million summaries read in just a few short months, this is just the beginning for our technology. As we move towards a more refined, liberated and intelligent mobile web, summaries will continue to help navigate through our ever expanding information universe.

Sincerely, Nick, Founder

USA, Sunnydale, CA & UK, London

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LifeApps acquires Today’s New Deal

March 23, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

LifeApps-Icon-2012-85pxLifeApps Digital Media has acquired the assets of Today’s New Deal, including todaysnewdeal.com. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

LifeApps Digital Media a designer of apps for sports, health, fitness and entertainment enthusiasts, has acquired Today’s New Deal, a Southern California based daily deal website and email marketing newsletter service. LifeApps has acquired all assets of the Today’s New Deal website, newsletter system and Today’s New Deal’s approximately 40,000 registered users.

“We are looking forward to branding Today’s New Deal as a sports, health and fitness specific daily deals site combined with an m-Commerce mobile app companion,” said LifeApps CEO, Robert Gayman. “The Southern California region, from Ventura County through Los Angeles and San Diego, is a very health conscious, e-commerce and mobile health friendly area. We know that the sports, health and fitness targeted daily deals that Today’s New Deal will be delivering are going to be of great interest to the approximately 40,000 existing subscribers of Today’s New Deal. We also believe narrowing the focus of the deals to our specific sports, health and fitness market will help us improve the deals that are offered through Today’s New Deal and grow its subscriber base.”

LifeApps will brand the Today’s New Deal service with a new look, new logo and a companion m-Commerce mobile app and will launch the new service this summer.

USA, San Diego, CA

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