Axel Springer acquires N24

December 12, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

n24Axel Springer SE has  acquired  N24 Media GmbH, the 24 hour news channel. The N24 Group employs around 300 staff working including at its subsidiaries N24 and MAZ&More. N24 also produces the main news bulletins for SAT.1, ProSieben and kabel eins. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Axel Springer plans to combine N24 and the Welt group, which publishes a daily broadsheet Die Welt. According to Axel Springer, “N24 becomes the central moving image provider for all Axel Springer brands”.

The editorial team of WELT Group is extended to include the N24 digital editorial team. The joint WELT Group/N24  editorial team will in future produce both brands’ journalistic content for all the digital channels, as well as for the WELT Group’s print products. N24 also has a TV and program editorial team. The result is one of the largest multimedia editorial teams in Germany.

The management will be Jan Bayer, 43, President of WELT Group and Printing of Axel Springer, Torsten Rossmann, 50, Chairman of the N24 management board, and Stephanie Caspar, 40, Managing Director of WELT Group.

Jan-Eric Peters, 48, editor-in-chief of WELT Group, will be responsible for all content of the WELT Group and their joint digital services. Arne Teetz, 46, editor-in-chief of N24, will be responsible for all moving image content.

Stefan Aust, 67, previously a shareholder of N24, becomes publisher of the Group from 1 January 2014. Thomas Schmid, 68, will also remain publisher of the WELT Group until 30 June 2014.

Jan Bayer said, “N24 and the WELT Group complement each other perfectly and together represent the multimedia spectrum of journalism. N24 benefits through this partnership from the editorial quality and digital expertise of WELT Group. Axel Springer and WELT Group gain access to the moving image and live news competence of N24.”

Germany, Berlin

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GTI acquires Inside Buzz

December 5, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

inside buzzGTI Media, publishers of TARGETjobs, TARGETjobs Events and TARGETcourses, has acquired Inside Buzz. The Inside Buzz content will be available on TARGETjobs.co.uk. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Inside Buzz offers students independent reviews from company employees to help them understand company culture, working practices and, most of all, make a more informed decision about whether to make a job application. Since Inside Buzz was founded by Thomas Nutt in 2010, 5,500 employees have completed the workplace survey and have submitted 115,000 individual reviews and rankings on their employers. 

Graham Storey, GTI Media CEO, said: “We are delighted to add Inside Buzz’s innovative products to our graduate recruitment services and welcome Thomas and his team to GTI. We believe the insights that Inside Buzz offers to students will help them research potential employers and make more targeted applications.”

UK, Oxon, Wallingford

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Pearson to sell The Mergermarket Group to BC Partners

November 29, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

mergermarketPearson Plc is to sell The Mergermarket Group to BC Partners for an enterprise value of £382 million, payable in cash.

Mergermarket is a provider of global corporate financial news, intelligence and analysis to advisory firms, investments banks, law firms, hedge funds, private equity firms and corporations operating in 65 countries. The Company was founded in 1999 and acquired by Pearson in 2006 for £101m plus a subsequent earn-out.

bcpartnersMergermarket has grown substantially under Pearson’s ownership, reporting revenues of £100 million, operating income of £25 million and profit before tax of £23 million in the 12 months to 31 December 2012, and continues to grow strongly.  Over the same period, Mergermarket contributed 2.5 pence to Pearson adjusted earnings per share.  At 30 June 2013, Mergermarket had gross assets of £129m.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2014. Pearson intends to redeploy the proceeds from the sale in its global education business.

Nikos Stathopoulos, Managing Partner at BC Partners, said, “Mergermarket is a high quality company and a global market leader with an attractive business model, strong growth, and loyal customers. We are pleased to partner with CEO Hamilton Matthews and the whole of the Mergermarket team to continue to invest in the growth of the business through product development and geographical expansion to deliver value and innovation to customers”.

UK, London

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Profits rise at Future plc

November 22, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Future plc, the specialist media group and digital publisher has announced preliminary results for the year ended 30 September 2013.

Financial highlights

Future results 2013

Click on the table for an enlarged view

  • Normalised Group revenues up 3% driven by Digital & Diversified revenue streams
  • Normalised pre-tax profit at £1.9m from loss of £2.7m in prior year
  • Digital revenues up 38% year-on-year, Digital & Diversified now 32% of total Group Revenues
  • Digital advertising now 59% of total advertising revenue, up from 48% a year ago
  • UK operations grow advertising and circulation revenues for the year
  • US operating profitably (at EBITDAE level) in H2
  • Net debt more than halved from £14.1m to £6.9m following the sale of non-core print activities
  • Reinstatement of dividend at 0.2 pence per share

Digital highlights

  • Unique users up 14% year-on-year to 57.7 million a month, US unique users up 18% − growth driven by TechRadar
  • Page views up 19% year-on-year to 328 million a month
  • TechRadar now reaching over 20 million unique users globally a month
  • Digital edition revenues up 44% year-on-year
  • Over 340,000 subscribers to digital editions, up 46% since September 2012

Mark Wood, Future’s Chief Executive, said: “Our digital revenue growth accelerated, with a 38% increase year-on-year, and we passed an important transition point with more than half our advertising revenues now digital. We have made real progress in reshaping the Future business, diversifying our digital revenues, making our US operations profitable and building global digital brands.

“We have an on-going programme to reduce the cost base and improve margins. During the year we transformed our balance sheet, paying down term debt from the proceeds of non-core asset disposals and extending our credit facility until 2017. This leaves us well positioned to execute on our growth strategy.

Overall, these are good results after difficult trading conditions earlier in the year, thanks to stronger trading across all areas in the fourth quarter. Looking forward, we see the encouraging Q4 trends continuing with forward advertising bookings up year-on-year, and revenue momentum across all sectors.”

Read the full announcement here.

UK, London

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Experian completes acquisition of Passport Health Communications

November 22, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

experianExperian, the global information services company, has completed the acquisition of Passport Health Communications.

Passport Health Communications is a  provider of data, analytics and software in the US healthcare payments market. The purchase price is $850 million. Revenues  are largely subscription based. In the year ending 31 December 2013, Passport Health is expected to generate revenue of US$121m, representing organic growth of 23%, and EBIT of US$30m. In the year ending 31 December 2014, Experian expects Passport Health revenue to reach approximately US$145m (of which 84% is already booked and contracted), with EBIT margins in the high twenties.

For more information see Experian acquires Passport Health Communications for $850M – posted on November 6, 2013.

Ireland, Dublin and UK, Nottingham

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DMGT – preliminary results for the year to September 2013

November 22, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Daily Mail and General Trust plc has announced the group’s unaudited preliminary results for the year ended 30 September 2013

DMGT results 2013

 

Click on the table for an enlarged view.

Highlights:

  • Underlying revenue up 2%
  • Underlying operating profit up 6%
  • Margin up to 17%
  • Adjusted profit before tax of £282m, up 10%
  • B2B; underlying revenue up 6% and underlying profit up 4%
  • dmg media performance; underlying revenue decline of 1%, with cost efficiencies driving underlying profit growth of 10%
  • Progress on the £100 million share buy back programme, £69 million to date
  • Net debt reduced by £40 million to £573 million
  • Net debt/EBITDA ratio of 1.5
  • Earnings per share* up 7% to 53.0p
  • Full year dividend increased by 7% to 19.2p

Martin Morgan, Chief Executive, said:

“DMGT has again delivered a good set of results. Group adjusted pre-tax profits* rose by 10% despite the disposal of Northcliffe Media at the end of the first quarter, reflecting good underlying profit growth from both our B2B and consumer operations. Our international B2B companies have increased their revenues and profits* by 6% and 4% respectively on an underlying# basis. Our UK consumer business, dmg media, grew its underlying# profits* by 10%, reflecting greater productivity as the business continues its digital transition.

We continued to refine and optimise our portfolio of businesses during the year with further strategic bolt-on acquisitions, notably within dmg information and Euromoney, and disposals, including Northcliffe Media and dmg media’s central and eastern European consumer assets. We believe these changes have improved the overall quality and growth prospects of the Group and we look forward to another year of good progress.”

Read the full announcement at the DMGT website

UK, London

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Dealflow.com acquires the assets of Goldfish.io

November 15, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

goldfishDealflow.com has acquired the assets of startup research business Goldfish.io, including its technology assets, its database of subscribers, and all trademarks and copyrights. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Our focus is on using live financial information from the social web to create research tools for evaluating investment opportunities,” said Steven Dresner, president of Dealflow.com. “Goldfish.io has been at the forefront of building early detection systems that identify potential company financings or other corporate events. We think the combination of the Goldfish.io technology with our own technology is a perfect fit.”

USA. Jericho, NY

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i.TV acquires GetGlue

November 6, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

i-tvi.TV, maker of mobile TV guide apps, has acquired GetGlue, the maker of the GetGlue app for TV, movies and sports. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

getglue“GetGlue has built an impressive product with a highly engaged audience,” said i.TV CEO, Brad Pelo. “With over 4.5 million registered users, GetGlue delivers over 1 billion social impressions every month to 100 million unique Facebook and Twitter users. With this kind of reach, it’s no wonder more than 75 TV networks partner with GetGlue to engage with their fans, and 30 media companies integrate with the GetGlue API. i.TV’s own platform of second screen services power experiences for brands like Nintendo, AOL, Huffington Post, TELUS and i.TV’s own leading TV guide application. Together, i.TV and GetGlue will reshape the social TV and second screen landscape.”

i.TV will continue to build and grow GetGlue as an independent product, while enabling GetGlue to benefit from i.TV’s platform of partners and services. GetGlue will maintain its New York City presence.

In January 2013, DigiNet reported that an $80 million acquisition of GetGlue by Viggle had been terminated.

USA, New York, NY & Provo, UT

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DMGT acquires DIIG EUROPE for £75M

October 28, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

dmg information, the business information division of DMGT, is to acquire DMGTDIIG EUROPE for £75 million, from Decision Insight Information Group, a portfolio company of the US private equity firm TPG Capital.

DIIG(E) is a UK and Ireland property searches group, primarily delivering residential and commercial property search results to legal professionals, and is based in Kent, England with additional offices in Edinburgh, Scotland and Dublin, Ireland. DIIG(E)’S business comprises SearchFlow Limited (England & Wales), Millar & Bryce Limited (Scotland), Rochford Brady Legal Services Limited (Ireland), Decision Insight Hub Limited and Decision First Limited.

The acquired businesses had revenues of £69 million and operating profit of £6 million for the year to 31 December 2012.

Suresh Kavan, CEO of dmgi, said: “Acquiring this group of outstanding companies will greatly increase our strategic reach at a time of great opportunity in the property information industry. We are delighted to welcome them to our portfolio of companies.”

UK, London & USA, Austin, TX

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Mecom Group makes further Danish disposals

October 23, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

mecomMecom Group‘s Danish subsidiary, Berlingske Media A/S, has agreed the sale to North Media A/S Group of its media centre in Frederiksberg publishing six free weeklies and its 60 per cent shareholding in Lokalaviserne Østerbro og Amager (“LØA”) publishing two free weeklies.

The total enterprise value of the Sale is DKK65 million (€8.7 million). The consideration is payable in cash at completion and the Group expects the reduction in net debt resulting from the sale to be approximately €8.3 million. The Sale is expected to complete on 1st November 2013.

The principle activity of both LØA and the Frederiksberg media centre is the publishing of various free weekly newspaper titles in Copenhagen. The combined profit before tax of the disposed businesses in 2012, including the 40 per cent minority share of LØA’s consolidated pre-tax earnings, was DKK19 million (€2.6 million), before allocations of central overhead. Berlingske Media A/S will continue to provide printing services to both the Frederiksberg media centre and LØA following completion of the Sale.

The sale will be effected by way of a transfer of the trade and assets of the Frederiksberg media centre and a sale of the Group’s shares in LØA and will result in the deconsolidation of approximately €8.4 million of gross assets from the Group’s balance sheet. Flemming Hansen will retain his position as Chief Executive Officer of LØA following completion of the Sale.

The proceeds of the Sale will be used to pay down outstanding bank borrowings.

Norway, Oslo, UK, London & Denmark, Copenhagen

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