Euromoney Institutional Investor acquires a majority stake in the Centre for Investor Education in Australia

April 19, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Euromoney logoEuromoney Institutional Investor PLC, the international online information and events group has acquired  a 75% stake in the Centre for Investor Education (CIE).

Based in Melbourne, Australia, CIE was founded in 1997 and is a provider of investment forums for senior CIEexecutives of superannuation funds and global asset management firms.  Principal events include the Chief Investment Officers Symposium and the Major Market Players Symposium, both held annually in Australia, as well as the International Investing Symposium which was held in Tokyo earlier this month.  CIE was acquired in 2010 from its founder, Melda Donnelly, by Erling Sorensen and Jamie Nemtsas who have expanded its portfolio of events and will remain shareholders in CIE until December 2015.

The acquisition is expected to be earnings enhancing for Euromoney in financial year 2013. Euromoney has paid an initial A$14.4 million (£9.9 million) cash consideration for a 75% interest in CIE, to be adjusted up or down dependent on CIE’s results for the year to December 2013.  Euromoney will acquire the remaining 25% of CIE’s equity in two instalments based on CIE’s profits for the years to December 2014 and 2015.  The acquisition will be funded from Euromoney’s existing committed borrowing facility.  CIE recorded an unaudited pre-tax profit of A$1.5million (£1.0 million) on revenues of A$4.3 million (£2.9 million) for the year to December 2012.

“We are delighted to acquire CIE,” said Richard Ensor, Chairman of Euromoney.  “Euromoney expects to benefit from the rapid growth of Australia’s asset management industry.  This acquisition of the high-quality CIE business gives us the opportunity to consolidate further our position in this premium segment of the events market.  We look forward to working with Erling Sorensen and Jamie Nemtsas to develop CIE further.”

UK, London & Australia, Melbourne

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Burda International GmbH takes over Gruner + Jahr activities in Poland

April 18, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Burda International GmbH is taking over all Gruner + Jahr activities in Poland, creating a media company with over 30 magazines, more than 20 online media services, established events and a strong book business

The takeover is subject to approval under cartel law, and a decision is expected in July. In future the company will be headed by Magdalena Malicka (formerly G+J) and Justyna Namięta (Burda Poland).  With a combined reach of 23 per cent, Burda becomes the second largest Polish magazine publisher.

Fabrizio D’Angelo, Managing Director Burda International, explains: “For Burda in Poland the strong position this creates is an excellent basis for expanding its core business of magazines, and provides optimal conditions for further investments in the digital future. This will enable us to make the very best use of the growth opportunities in the booming economic environment of Poland.”

Germany, Munich & Warsaw, Poland
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Publicis Groupe to acquire Neev in India

April 18, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

PublicisPublicis Groupe is to acquire Neev, an Indian technology services providers specialising in eCommerce, SaaS (Software as a Service) and cloud applications across web, social and mobile. Neev will be aligned with Razorfish, one of the largest interactive marketing and technology companies in the world; the acquisition triggers the launch of the Razorfish brand in India.

Founded in 2005 and based in Bangalore, Neev has  grown quickly and now employs a team of 250 specialists.

“Razorfish can now offer scaled expertise in India, complementing its already strong presence in Greater China and Australia,”says Vincent Digonnet, President APAC of Razorfish and Digitas networks. “At the core of Razorfish lies innovation and technology, and we can only launch the brand in a market with a very deep tech development capability. Neev is providing us with the right engine, including an ability to deliver sophisticated state of the art web, ecommerce, mobile and social solutions. In addition, the acquisition will support the development capabilitiesof Razorfish technology teams in the US.”

Earlier this year, Publicis Groupe acquired the digital agency Convonix based in Mumbai and back in 2012 acquired  iStrat (December 2012), Resultrix (August 2012) and Indigo Consulting (April 2012).

The agency will operate as Razorfish Neev led by Neev CEO, Saurabh Chandra . He will report into Kanika Mathur , Managing Director for Razorfish and Digitas India, with a direct connection to Ray Velez , Global CTO for Razorfish.

UK, London & India, Bangalore

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Bertram Books acquires academic library services contracts from Blackwell

April 18, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

SmithsnewsSmiths News PLC ‘s wholly owned book business Bertram Books, is to acquire certain European and African academic library services contracts from Blackwell UK Limited.  The acquisition is expected to be  completed on 20 May 2013 and the net consideration of around £2.1 million .

The acquisition brings with it a  customer base with a strong presence in Germany, France and South Africa.  The high  contracts being acquired generate revenues of £10.5 million at FY12 levels increasing Bertrams’ total international sales to £60 million.

The acquisition will be earnings neutral in FY13, adding an incremental £0.7 million in FY14.

Mark Cashmore, Chief Executive Officer of Smiths News PLC, said:

“We are delighted to be further extending our international books business offering following the completion of this complementary bolt-on acquisition.  Our ability to build both scale and reach will enable Bertrams to target key international markets as we continue to capitalise on expansion opportunities.”

UK, Wiltshire, Swindon

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Utilitywise plc acquires Aqua Veritas Consulting Limited

April 18, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

utilitywise-logoUtilitywise,  a company that specialises in energy procurement and energy management services for businesses, has acquired Aqua Veritas Consulting Limited, a supplier of water consultancy services.

The acquisition will add Aqua Veritas’ product portfolio to Utilitywise’s  energy services. In addition, the acquisition secures ‘Osiris’ the intellectual property used to develop Utilitywise’s multi-utility reporting platform.

The initial consideration payable is £162,000, payable in cash on completion with a further deferred amount payable based upon 4 times Aqua Veritas’ adjusted EBITDA to April 2014 capped at £4 million. The deferred consideration will be financed equally from the Company’s cash resources and through the issue of new ordinary shares in Utilitywise. Aqua Veritas reported revenue of £1,296,288 in the year ended 31 March 2012.

Geoff Thompson, CEO of Utilitywise, commented:  “We have a stated strategy of supplementing our strong organic growth with selective aquavacquisitions which enhance our range of services. Aqua Veritas has an excellent reputation for high quality service in the market for water management solutions for businesses and a blue chip client base. It fits well with our core energy services and increases the range of products and services we can offer our customers.”

UK, South Shields & Leicestershire, Enderby

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Argonon buys factual indie Transparent TV

April 18, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

argononArgonon group has acquired UK indie Transparent Television which specialises in popular factual documentaries. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Transparent has made factual documentaries (My Daughter Amy, Channel 4;Extraordinary People: The Baby with a New Face, Channel 5), formats (Restoration Roadshow, BBC Two) and features (Leslie Ash: Face to Face, ITV1). In 2013, two of its series ran on Channel 5, Great Northern Cookbook and Botched Up Bodies.

The deal sees Argonon wholly acquire Transparent Television for an undisclosed sum and founders Jazz Gowans and Richard Hughes transparent TV(pictured) become shareholders in the group.

“Their track record of delivering high quality, innovative and talked about TV shows based on popular themes makes them the perfect fit for Argonon,” says Argonon CEO James Burstall, who describes Transparent’s production team as “very clever….they can go to dark places, but still retain their integrity.”

UK, London

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Next Fifteen Communications Group acquires Connections Media

April 9, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

next15Next Fifteen Communications Group plc has acquired an 80% stake in Connections Media LLC, a Washington DC based, full service digital agency specialising in politics and public affairs.

Connections Media has been acquired from Jonah Seiger (CEO & founder), Phil Lepanto (Chief Technology Officer) and Andy Weishaarcmlogo (Chief Creative Officer). The initial consideration is $1.85 million, paid in cash at completion. Deferred consideration may be payable over the course of the next 5 years subject to the achievement of revenue and profit performance targets. Any deferred consideration that becomes payable will be satisfied by cash or up to 25% in Next Fifteen shares, at the option of Next Fifteen.

 

For the year ended 31 December 2012 Connections Media had revenues of $2.65 million and profit before tax of $0.85 million. The gross assets at 31 December 2012 were $1.15 million. The business will be acquired with $0.55 million of net working capital.

Seiger, Lepanto, Weishaar and the Connections Media design, development and client services leadership team will remain with the company post-acquisition, with Seiger serving as CEO and Operating Manager.

“Connections Media is a great addition to the Group. As political and corporate worlds becomes more social and digital, the products and services offered by Connections Media become increasingly valuable. Being able to offer such services helps us accelerate our transition from being a PR only group into a full service digital and social communications group,” said Tim Dyson, CEO of Next 15.

UK, London & USA, Washington, DC

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Elsevier acquires Mendeley – cloud-based research management and collaboration platform

April 9, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

elsevierElsevier has acquired Mendeley, a London-based company that operates a global research management and collaboration platform. Researchers use Mendeley’s desktop and cloud-based tools to manage and annotate documents, create citations and bibliographies, collaborate on research projects and network with fellow academics.

“Mendeley is an innovative company with great culture, talent and collaborative spirit, and we will keep it that way,” said Olivier mendeleyDumon, Managing Director of Academic and Government Research Markets at Elsevier. “Not only that, but together we intend to scale and evolve Mendeley in ways that benefit the entire research community. We will provide greater access to content, data, and analytics tools to Mendeley’s users and its flourishing third-party app ecosystem, all of which will enable us to increase both Elsevier’s and Mendeley’s engagement with researchers.”

Launched in late 2008, Mendeley was the brainchild of three PhD students wanting an easier way to manage their research papers and collaborate with colleagues overseas. They developed a desktop app that could automatically extract metadata and keywords from PDFs, thus turning loose collections of PDFs into structured, searchable research paper databases that were synchronized to the cloud.

From the start, they were thrilled by the idea that this crowd-sourced data would allow Mendeley to analyse research trends across academic disciplines in real time, show readership statistics for individual research papers, connect researchers with similar interests and generate research paper recommendations based on collaborative filtering.

The Netherlands, Amsterdam & UK, London

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Euromoney Institutional Investor to acquire HSBC’s Quantitative Techniques operation

April 4, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Euromoney logoEuromoney Institutional Investor PLC is to acquire HSBC’s Quantitative Techniques operation.  QT is the benchmark and calculation agent business of HSBC Bank plc and creates and maintains more than 100 equity and bond indices for HSBC’s Global Markets division as well as over 60 external clients. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Completion of the sale will take place after a transition phase, which is expected to take six months.  Once the transaction has completed, HSBC has agreed to purchase index calculation services from QT for a minimum period of three years.

Euromoney believes the acquisition creates an opportunity to build a new business providing independent index compilation services.  Over more than 40 years Euromoney has built strong relationships with financial institutions which should help expand QT’s customer base and encourage other institutions to engage QT to calculate the indices for their own investable index products.  Euromoney also plans to use QT’s index calculation expertise to develop new index families across other parts of its business.

“We are delighted to acquire the Quantitative Techniques operation from HSBC,” said Richard Ensor, chairman of Euromoney.  “HSBC is a trusted and important partner as well as a key client.  Euromoney looks forward to working with HSBC over the next three years and, it hopes, for many years afterwards to develop the QT business.  This acquisition gives Euromoney the opportunity to establish a significant footprint in the attractive index compilation market.”

UK, London

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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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