Multimedia Platforms acquires FunMaps

March 4, 2015 — Fusion DigiNet

Multimedia Platforms Inc. has acquired Columbia FunMap, Inc., a 33-year-old LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) travel and leisure publishing company, delivering local and regional maps, information and advertising to more than forty key North American cities. Since the January signing of the letter of intent to acquire FunMaps, MMP has begun the process of integrating FunMaps’ content, sales program and staff contributions into the structure and operations of MMP’s programs. MMP is filing an updated 8K this week.

“FunMaps was our first acquisition target after going public because we believe it brings key components to the company,” stated Bobby Blair, CEO of MMP. “Through FunMaps we have inherited an expanded market for our content-rich Agenda newspaper, with its world-renown writers and globally-relevant content, plus the existing FunMaps print publication, with a readership of over five (5) million per year, thousands of vendors and advertisers in established markets throughout United States and Canada. FunMaps’ robust online directory/city guide, Gayosphere.com, features largely in our new social media network — launching in 2015,” added Blair.

FunMaps’ award-winning publisher, Alan H. Beck, will remain with the company for a period of at least three years, and will provide leadership and liason for MMP with his established market. As an integrated part of MMP, FunMaps’ established distribution territory, to popular destinations including Atlanta, Chicago, Ft. Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Miami, Montreal, New York, Orlando, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, BC, Victoria, BC, Halifax, NS, Quebec City, QC, Ottawa, ON, Edmonton, AL, Calgary, AL, and Washington, DC, become part of the Multimedia Platforms market footprint.

With the integration of FunMaps completed, Multimedia Platforms Inc. plans to acquire further LGBT media companies

USA, Fort Lauderdale, FL & Maplewood, NJ

 

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Haymarket Media acquires Group DCA

March 3, 2015 — Fusion DigiNet

haymarket_groupHaymarket Media, Inc. has acquired Group DCA—an interactive digital communications agency specialising in multi-channel engagement of health care providers—from PDI Inc. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. The Group DCA staff will relocate from Parsippany, NJ to Haymarket’s Paramus, NJ office.

The assets acquired include Group DCA’s proprietary DIAGRAM (DIAlog, GRAphics and Motion) Platform and The Medical Bag, a general interest website for health care professionals (www.themedicalbag.com), along with the staff to support the business. The website will continue to run as an independent platform that also supports e-detailing programs.

Ron Scalici, the first Group DCA employee to join the organization in 1999 and most recently Chief Innovations Officer at PDI, will oversee Group DCA’s day-to-day operations. Group DCA will operate within Haymarket’s custom medical communications division, PRI Healthcare Solutions (PRI HCS). Group DCA will retain its name, and its operations and services will remain intact.

“Adding Group DCA to our already robust digital offerings will position us strategically for continued leadership in health care communication,” said Haymarket CEO Lee Maniscalco. “Group DCA’s products naturally complement our own digital products and services, and our cultures of high-energy creativity and innovation are highly compatible and mutually reinforcing. It is a perfect strategic and cultural fit, one that will help to accelerate our growth.”

USA, New York

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Bauer Media buys Beautyheaven Group

February 26, 2015 — Fusion DigiNet

bauer mediaBauer Media has acquired the Beautyheaven Group which comprises of Beautydirectory, BeautyHeaven and the recently launched Homeheaven. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

David Goodchild, CEO of Bauer Media Australia and NZ, said: “The acquisition of this market leading online business supports our strategy to be the No. 1 digital destination for Australian women. With Bauer Media already No.1 in print we see many opportunities to leverage our existing assets, experience and resources to add considerable value and scale to these growing digital businesses. The beautydirectory, beautyheaven and homeheaven teams have created highly impressive products and I look forward to working with them to take the business even further.

beauty heavenThe Beautyheaven Group’s web, mobile and social media platforms host product information, industry news, reviews, expert tips and advice, shopping directories, advertising and sampling opportunities.

The Beautyheaven Group will continue to operate as is, with founder Jackie Maxted reporting directly to Goodchild.

The beautyheaven Group was founded by former Public Relations agency owner Jackie Maxted in 1999.

Australia, Sydney

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Ebiquity acquires Media Value 

February 26, 2015 — Fusion DigiNet

ebiquityEbiquity plc has acquired Media Value SL in Spain.  MV has operated as Ebiquity’s franchise partner for media auditing in the Iberian market since approximately 2008 and has been operating under the Ebiquity name.

MV is being acquired for an initial cash consideration of €743,000. The maximum total consideration is up to €6m, payable in cash, depending on the performance of the MV business in the three financial years ending 30 April 2016. 

MV is being acquired from shareholders including its co-founder Mauricio Barange. Following completion of the Acquisition, Mr Barange will remain as Chief Executive of MV. 

MV comprises two divisions. The first is an independent media auditing and benchmarking business.  This business will be included in Ebiquity’s Media Value Measurement division. MV’s second business comprises an ROI/effectiveness practice, which will be included in Ebiquity’s Marketing Performance Optimization division. MV has offices in Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon. 

MV’s unaudited revenue for the year ended 30 April 2014 was approximately €2.3m and it generated an operating profit before highlighted items of approximately €0.3m. MV had unaudited net assets of approximately €0.5m at 30 April 2014 and employs 32 people. 

Michael Greenlees, Chief Executive Officer of Ebiquity, said, “I am delighted that Mauricio Barange and his colleagues have now formally joined our growing business. MV has been operating under the Ebiquity name for some time and has played an important part in the European development of the Ebiquity group. The Iberian business has performed well and this acquisition marks another step in the development of Ebiquity’s leading position in marketing and media data analytics across Europe.“

UK, London & Spain, Madrid

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New Media to acquire Stephens Media, LLC for $102.5 Million

February 25, 2015 — Fusion DigiNet

New Media Investment Group Inc., a publisher of locally based print and online media in the United States, is acquiring substantially all of the assets of Stephens Media, LLC for $102.5 million in cash, subject to working capital adjustments. New Media intends to fund the acquisition with cash on the balance sheet and available capacity under its credit facility. Stephens Media is a newspaper publisher operating eight daily newspapers, over 65 weekly and niche publications, and more than 50 websites serving communities throughout the United States. The assets have a combined average daily circulation of approximately 221,000 and 244,000 on Sunday.

Michael E. Reed, New Media’s President and CEO commented, “We are pleased to announce the proposed transaction to acquire Stephens Media. The portfolio is anchored by an attractive set of print publications with a strong community focus, solid readership base, and stable advertisers with limited customer concentration. These award-winning, daily newspapers are the trusted source of local news in their communities providing journalistic excellence for more than 100 years. We are very excited to welcome Stephens Media into our growing New Media family, and look forward to introducing new digital initiatives, such as Propel and BestRide into their markets, while simultaneously continuing their long standing tradition of providing premier content to the communities they serve.

New Media anticipates the deal will close in the first quarter of 2015. The deal follows New Media Investment Group’s acquisition of Halifax Media Group in November for $280 million.

USA, New York, NY & Las Vegas, NV

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The Quarto Group acquires Lewes Holdings, owner of The Ivy Press

February 23, 2015 — Fusion DigiNet

The Quarto Group, the illustrated book publisher and distribution group, is to acquire Lewes Holdings Ltd, the owner of The Ivy Press Limited, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Quarto Publishing plc.  The acquisition is conditional on the approval of Bank of Scotland, lenders to The Ivy Press Limited, to the proposed change of ownership.

Ivy Press is a publisher and packager of creative, highly illustrated non-fiction books. Founded in 1996, Ivy works with publishers and has printed over 20 million books and sold rights in 26 different languages.

The total consideration payable is up to £1.3m plus the assumption of up to £200,000 of debt.  Excluding initial one-off/non-recurring costs in the order of $0.5m, the acquisition is earnings enhancing.  The consideration will be paid in three tranches: on completion, 1 July 2015, and 4 January 2016.

Commenting on the acquisition, Marcus Leaver, Chief Executive Officer of Quarto, said: “We are delighted to welcome the Ivy team to The Quarto Group. We have long admired their creativity and innovation. Ivy’s presence will further underline our Quarto International Co-Editions division as the market leader. Further, we are pleased that Jenny Manstead, one of Ivy’s co-founders, is returning to Quarto after spending time with us earlier in her career.”

UK, London & West Sussex

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Reader link acquires Baker & Taylor Marketing Services U.S. and Baker & Taylor Publishing Group

February 23, 2015 — Fusion DigiNet

ReaderLinkLogoReaderlink Distribution Services has acquired the Baker & Taylor Marketing Services U.S. (“BTMS”) and Baker & Taylor Publishing Group (“BTPG”) businesses from Baker & Taylor, Inc.

BTMS UK and BTMS Mexico are not included in the transaction and will remain subsidiaries of Baker & Taylor, Inc.

Readerlink is the largest full-service book distribution company to non-trade booksellers in the USA, selling approximately one out of every three trade books sold in the USA. All of the current management and employees of the acquired businesses are joining the Readerlink team, including Sydney Stanley, Executive Vice President and General Manager, who will continue to lead the acquired businesses under Readerlink’s ownership. Sydney will report to Michael Hesselbach, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of RDS.

Readerlink will be acquiring BTMS’ 504,000 square-foot Indianapolis, Indiana distribution center, as well as its general offices in San Diego, California, and its editorial offices in Ashland, Oregon.

In the near future, BTMS will re-brand to Readerlink Marketing Services, and BTPG will re-brand to Printers Row Publishing Group. The individual publishing imprints, Silver Dolphin, Thunder Bay, Canterbury Classics and Portable Press will not be re-branded.

“We believe that the businesses’ talented management team, dedicated employees and world-class wholesale club partners distinguish them as leaders in their respective verticals,” said Dennis E. Abboud, President and C.E.O. of Readerlink. “This transaction provides us with additional assets and expertise to continue our long-standing, proven commitment to customer service and to help us and our new retail partners succeed in a dynamic and evolving book market.”

USA, Oak Brook, IL

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Haynes Publishing Group acquires Teon Media for £0.45M

February 17, 2015 — Fusion DigiNet

HaynesLogoHaynes Publishing Group P.L.C. has acquired Teon Media Limited for £0.45 million. The consideration is to be paid in staged payments over 24 months.

Through its founder Peter George, Teon, has developed a digital platform designed to engage with younger motorists. Since 2011, Teon has created a mobile centric platform and database covering Europe’s most popular cars. This platform will enable Haynes to accelerate development of its digital delivery plans by adding its own content to a well established delivery system to supply free and paid for content. Content will be delivered in the form of video and simplified text procedures designed to eventually afford multilingual and pan-European delivery using the translation skills of HaynesPro, and beyond that to the rest of the Group’s markets. The complementary nature of the Teon platform alongside the Group’s extensive model coverage, growing video archive, technical expertise and language translation capabilities will form a key element of the Group’s consumer digital initiative.

Commenting on the acquisition, Eric Oakley, CEO of the Group, said “The acquisition is an important move for the Group and whilst we remain firmly committed to our Haynes manual programme, Teon forms a major building block in our consumer digital strategy.  Building on the strength of our iconic Haynes Manuals, the complementary provision of timely information in an accessible, easy to use and trustworthy format will significantly strengthen our consumer offering. We are also delighted that as part of the deal we’ve signed a three year consultancy agreement with Peter, which will help to ensure continuity during the important post acquisition period and add strength to the Group’s digital initiative.”

UK, Yeovil, Somerset & Darlington, Co Durham

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dmg media acquires Elite Daily

January 30, 2015 — Fusion DigiNet

Daily Maildmg media‘s Daily Mail has acquired Elite Daily, the news and entertainment website. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Elite Daily has over 70 million unique browsers per month and an average daily audience of 4 million, primarily in the US. The site has a particularly strong millennial appeal, with approximately 70% of its audience being in the 18 to 34 age range, and has a large social media presence.

Elite DailyElite Daily’s revenues were $5 million in the 12 months to December 2014. The company employs a team of 65 people. Elite Daily will continue to operate as a separate website.

David Arabov, Chief Executive Officer of Elite Daily, made the announcement on the Elite Daily website. Read the announcement here.

UK, London & USA, New York, NY

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AXIO Data Group completes acquisition of FlightView

January 20, 2015 — Fusion DigiNet

OAGOAG, a provider of aviation information and analytical services, has acquired FlightView, Inc., the Boston-based provider of real-time flight information solutions for the aviation and travel industries. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

flightviewFlightView‘s products help aviation and travel professionals achieve superior customer service, operational efficiencies, and has attracted strong brand loyalty with easy to use real-time information. FlightView brings more than 600 B2B customers from the travel, technology and general aviation sectors. In addition, FlightView’s smart phone apps have been downloaded more than 3 million times, its website has over 1 million monthly unique users and it responds to over 300m flight status requests every month.

OAG, headquartered in Luton, UK and with a global network of offices, is the aviation division of AXIO Data Group. Axio operates a portfolio of information businesses and is owned by funds managed by Electra Partners LLP.

Henry Elkington, Chief Executive of AXIO, said: “The addition of FlightView, with its highly complementary customer base and strength in the US market, will give OAG clear leadership in the growing global flight status and schedules data markets. This is the second significant bolt-on acquisition AXIO has made in the last 12 months. We continue to execute our strategy of building and improving each of our individual businesses to increase their value.”

UK, Luton & USA, Boston, MA

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ITE Group acquires transportation and logistics exhibition business Breakbulk from Axio Posted on December 23, 2014

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