Warner Bros. Television Group to acquire all Eyeworks’ businesses outside the US

February 11, 2014 — Fusion DigiNet

wb_logo_whiteWarner Bros. Television Group is to acquire all Eyeworks’ businesses outside the US, in 15 countries across Europe, South America, Australia and New Zealand.  Warner Bros. Eyeworks produces television programs for over 100 different channels and employs more than 1,500 people. Its titles include: Test The Nation, CQC, Who Wants to Marry my Son?, Beat The Blondes, Reality Queens of the Jungle, I Know What You Did Last Friday, Obese and Celebrity Splash.

Eyeworks USA will remain independent

Founded in The Netherlands by Oerlemans in 2001, Eyeworks is a major international independent producer and distributor of scripted and non-scripted content across a range of genres, including entertainment, drama and film, which airs in more than 150 countries worldwide.

Kevin Tsujihara, Chief Executive Officer, Warner Bros. Entertainment, said: “Our proposed acquisition of Eyeworks’ 15 local production companies, represents a significant next step in our strategy, further strengthening Warner Bros.’ position in global television.”

The acquisition follows the acquisition in 2010 of Shed Media, a production company in the UK, and in 2011, BlazHoffski inThe Netherlands and Belgium.

Reinout Oerlemans will move to Los Angeles as Chairman of Eyeworks USA; and will step down as CEO of the Eyeworks Group once the acquisition has been completed.

USA, Burbank, CA & The Netherlands, Amsterdam & UK, London

 

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WPP’s Xaxis to acquire media trading firm Bannerconnect

February 5, 2014 — Fusion DigiNet

xaxisWPP‘s wholly-owned operating company Xaxis, the global programmatic media and technology platform, is to acquire Bannerconnect, a leading media trading firm based in the Netherlands. Bannerconnect specialises in providing infrastructure and services for digital media trading to publishers, advertisers and media agencies.

Bannerconnect’s technology offerings, including its real-time optimisation platform Bright™, are complementary to the current global capabilities of Xaxis. Bright™ provides advertisers with real-time optimisation technology and visualisation tools for their digital campaigns.

Founded in 2004 in Sittar, the Netherlands, and with offices also in Amsterdam and London, Bannerconnect employs Bannerconnect10-finalover 40 people. Bannerconnect’s revenues for the year ended 31 December 2013 were EUR 4.3 million with gross assets as at the same date of EUR 8.3 million.

UK, London & The Netherlands, Sittar

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dmg events acquires specialist exhibitions and publications business Quartz Coatings

February 3, 2014 — Fusion DigiNet

dmgeventsdmg events, DMGT’s international exhibition and publishing company, has acquired specialist exhibitions and publications business Quartz Coatings Ltd. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The deal gives dmg events a significant share of the global paint and coatings exhibitions market. Its Middle East Coatings Show is already managed by Quartz Coatings, while the company itself organises a further five events in South East Asia, Central America and North Africa. It also publishes two of the industry’s leading titles.

Commenting on the acquisition, Geoff Dickinson, CEO of dmg events, said, “The coatings sector is a fast growing specialist market that complements our Big 5 construction events.

It allows us to develop our existing Middle East Coatings Show and is in line with our desire to build our presence in the South East Asia and Latin America through geo-cloning and strategic acquisitions.

I am excited to be working with Ian Faux, Vice President of Quartz Coatings and his team and look forward to developing our Coatings portfolio and associated activities in the coming years”.

UK, London and Surrey, Redhill

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Investment consortium acquires Boat International Media

January 31, 2014 — Fusion DigiNet

An investment consortium led by Pembroke VCT plc, with support from Lepe Capital, has acquired Boat International Media. Reports say, Pembroke have paid £10 million.

boat international

Pembroke is a venture capital trust, which specialises in investing in high growth consumer-facing businesses. Lepe Capital is a growth capital investor that specialises in digital media. The consortium also includes several other private investors including Charles Dunstone and Tara Getty.

Boat International Media provides information and services across traditional print, digital media and organises eight annual events in Amsterdam, Kitzbühel, Monaco, Fort Lauderdale, Porto Cervo, and Virgin Gorda. It also owns a database of superyachts, as well as a social and business networking tool for superyacht captains and crew.

Andrew Wolfson, CEO of Pembroke, commented: “Boat International Media is the leading player in the superyacht industry with an unrivalled reputation amongst yacht owners, brokers and service companies alike. The company has achieved impressive growth in sales despite the economic downturn and profitability and momentum continues. We look forward to working with the experienced management team and supporting their strategic plan to further develop Boat International’s print media platforms as well as accelerate the transition to digital.”

Tony Harris, CEO of Boat International Media, commented: “We are delighted to be partnering with this group of investors. The team’s entrepreneurial operational focus and market knowledge will enable us to further cement Boat International’s position as the world’s leading media group serving the superyacht community.”

UK, Wimbledon, Surrey

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Lagardère receives three bids for magazines

January 23, 2014 — Fusion DigiNet

lagardereAccording to French newspaper Le Figaro, French media group Lagardère has received three preliminary offers for the magazines it has put up for sale and expects firm offers by Feb. 15. These were from Be magazine founder Didier Quillot, Marc Laufer of NewsCo and Pascale Chevalier of ReWorld Media.

In total, 25 offers have been received, but only five of these were for all of the publications.

In October last year Lagardère said it planned to sell 10 magazine titles, including Premiere, Psychologies and Be. The 1o magazine have a combined annual turnover of about €50 million and make a loss of between €1.5 and €2 million.

Le Figaro said another reason the price tag was likely to be small was because Lagardère would finance departures as part of a law in France that allows journalists to resign with compensation when the ownership of their publication changes. This could cost between €5 and €7 million.

Le Figaro report – Lagardère: trois offres crédibles pour le rachat de ses magazines.

France, Paris

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Motor Presse Stuttgart makes three acquisitions in Germany and Poland

January 23, 2014 — Fusion DigiNet

motorpresseMotor Presse Stuttgart has made three acquisitions in Germany and Poland. They are caraworld.de, a marketplace for new and used caravans and campers: a majority holding in the television company Motor Presse TV: and content-based Web site MojeAuto.pl.

“These acquisitions have the goal of accelerating the digital transformation of Motor Presse Stuttgart in Germany and abroad and driving the development of strong print-digital brands”, said Dr. Volker Breid, Managing Director at Motor Presse Stuttgart. The terms of the deals were not disclosed.

caraworld.de

caraworld.de, is Germany’s largest marketplace for new and used caravans and campers. The portal is aligned towards commercial traders as well as private buyers and vendors. caraworld.de offers more than 15,000 new and used vehicles and generates more than three million hits with around 40 million page impressions a year.

Motor Presse TV

Motor Presse Stuttgart is acquiring TV entrepreneur Jörg Schütter’s 41 per cent of shares in the Motor Presse TV company giving it a 51% majority stake in the joint-venture established in 2009. Jörg Schütte will retain a 49% holding in Motor Presse TV and will manage the company alongside Norbert Lehmann, Chief Financial Officer at Motor Presse Stuttgart. Motor Presse TV operates the pay TV auto motor und sport Channel which reaches around 900,000 subscriber households in German-language cable and IP TV networks. Acquisition of the majority holding by Motor Presse Stuttgart is subject to approval by the media supervisory authorities.

MojeAuto.pl

Motor Presse Polen is acquiring MojeAuto.pl from the Allegro Group. MojeAuto.pl was established by Automotive Internet Services S.A. in 2000 and acquired by the Allegro Group in 2010. The Web site currently employs 25 people and is based in Wroclaw which is also home to Motor Presse Polen. The Web site offers news, photo galleries and videos, tests and product ratings, marketplaces for new and used vehicles, tyres and wheel rims as well as accessories and financial services.

Germany, Stuttgart & Poland, Wroclaw

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Quercus Publishing puts itself up for sale.

January 23, 2014 — Fusion DigiNet

quercusQuercus Publishing PLC, the publisher of the Stieg Larsson’s award-winning Millennium Trilogy, has formally put itself up for sale.

The announcement said, “Further to the Company’s interim trading statement, released on 17 January 2014, the Board of Quercus has decided that it would be in the best interests of the Company’s shareholders to seek potential offerors by means of a formal sale process. In accordance with Note 2 to Rule 2.6 of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (“Takeover Code”), the Board of Quercus therefore announces that it is conducting a formal sale process. The Board continues to have constructive dialogue with its bankers, Barclays.

In its interim statement, the company said, “the UK book trade has continued to be challenging. The bulk of our profits are usually generated in the final quarter of the year. However, sales in the final quarter were lower than expected, due in part to continuing issues within the book trade which led retailers to adopt very conservative ordering policies and a lower than expected upturn in digital sales over the Christmas period to the end of the year. As a result, the Directors expect the Company to make a significant trading loss for the financial year.“

Mark Smith told The Bookseller: “We’ve been considering for some months how best to take the business forward for the long term in light of the fundamental changes which are taking place in our core UK marketplace. We now feel that the skills and experience of Quercus’ team will flourish best within a larger organisation and so we’ve decided to put the company up for sale. In the meantime it’s business as usual at Baker Street.” The company said its board “continued to have constructive dialogue” with its bankers, Barclays.

UK, London

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Guardian to sell its stake in Auto Trader for upto £700M

January 23, 2014 — Fusion DigiNet

AutotraderGuardian Media Group is selling its 50.1% stake in Auto Trader owner Trader Media Group to private equity firm Apax Partners in a deal thought to be worth £600m to £700m to the Guardian publisher.

The sale to Apax, which bought 49.9% of Trader Media Group in 2007 and has been GMG’s joint venture partner in the business since then, is thought to give TMG an enterprise value of about £1.8bn. The exact financial details of the deal were not revealed.

GMG’s sale of the TMG stake is subject to reguatory approval and final completion.

Andrew Miller, the chief executive of GMG, said: “This proposed transaction makes strategic sense as we focus GMG’s activities on award-winning digital and print journalism. On completion, the sale proceeds will strengthen our balance sheet and position us for further investment and growth in our core business.”

Neil Berkett, the chair of the GMG board, said: “Once completed, this deal will make GMG a very well-capitalised media organisation with the financial flexibility to navigate the rapidly-changing media environment, where our flagship titles are proven pioneers of digital and print innovation.”

The Scott Trust, sole shareholder in GMG, has given its approval for the proposed sale and authorised the company board to reinvest the proceeds to enable it to continue to safeguard the Guardian’s editorial and financial independence.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer advised GMG on the deal.

UK, London

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Keywords Studios acquires Liquid Violet

January 19, 2014 — Fusion DigiNet

keywordsKeywords Studios, the technical services provider to the global video games industry, has acquired Liquid Violet, a video games voice production services company.

Keywords Studios has paid an initial cash consideration of £300,000 with a further £1.3 million payable in cash contingent upon Liquid Violet achieving certain financial targets in the three years to 31 March 2016.

Liquid Violet specialises in the management, on behalf of major video game publishers including Blizzard Entertainment and 2K, of the pre production and post production stages of localised voice-over assets for incorporation in the finished games. Formed in 2011 and based in London, it has established a growing base of blue-chip clients in the games industry due to its strong reputation for efficiently delivering large volumes of high quality audio assets, working with a multitude of audio studios across the globe.

Andrew Day, Chief Executive of Keywords Studios, commented, “We are pleased to have acquired Liquid Violet, which occupies an attractive niche, with healthy margins and good growth prospects and which will extend the Group’s audio services offering to its global customer base. We expect the use of audio in video games to grow thanks to the much enhanced capabilities of the new generation of consoles that were launched in November 2013 and as the capabilities of mobile devices continue to develop.

UK, London

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Ebiquity acquires China Media Consulting Group

January 19, 2014 — Fusion DigiNet

ebiquityMedia and marketing analytics company Ebiquity has acquired China Media Consulting Group.  CMCG is being acquired for an initial cash payment of HK$20m (approximately £1.6m), with up to HK$85m (approximately £6.7m), payable in cash, depending on the performance of the CMCG business in the five financial years ending 30 April 2017.

CMCG is an independent media auditing and benchmarking company in China with offices in Shanghai and Beijing.  CMCG specialises in helping advertisers establish key media buying performance metrics enabling better media value delivery and continuous performance improvement.

CMCG was established in 2006 and was the first specialist media auditing company to launch in China.

CMCG is being acquired from its founder Alex Abplanalp.  Mr Abplanalp will remain as Chief Executive of CMCG and will be Chief Executive of Ebiquity’s China business.

CMCG’s unaudited revenue for the year ended 31 December 2012 was approximately RMB 13.5m (approximately £1.4m) and it generated an operating profit before highlighted items of approximately RMB 4.0m (approximately £0.4m).  CMCG had unaudited net assets of approximately RMB 6.8m (approximately £0.7m) at 31 December 2012 and employs approximately 22 people.

Michael Greenlees, Chief Executive Officer of Ebiquity, said, “I am delighted to welcome the CMCG team into the Ebiquity group.  Alex Abplanalp and his team have worked with Ebiquity for a number of years and this acquisition underlines our commitment to further strengthen our capabilities in this important market and to grow our business across the Asia Pacific region.”

UK, London & China, Shanghai and Beijing

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