Thomson Reuters acquires Apsmart

June 14, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

Thomson Reuters has acquired Apsmart, a London-based mobile platform and product development firm that was majority owned by DN Capital. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The Apsmart acquisition will improve Thomson Reuters ability to provide customers with mobile solutions that drive a competitive differentiation in the marketplace.

Mobile is an increasingly significant way in which professionals work and consume information. The acquisition of Apsmart will enhance Thomson Reuters mobile product creation, design and development, allowing the company to deliver even more expert-enriched content, news and solutions through the interfaces that professionals want on the mobile devices they use.

Founded in 2009 by DN Capital and Rahul Powar, creator of the first Shazam iPhone application, Apsmart is at the cutting edge of mobile build and design. The team is well known for creating connected, data-driven applications for iOS and Android devices.

“This new team brings strong experience in end–to–end mobile development capabilities from user experience and design through to product realization and platform services,” said Robert Schukai, global head of mobile technology at Thomson Reuters. “As we move forward, we will have a greater ability to develop foundational mobile capabilities that build significant brand value in our mobile product portfolio.”

“The team at Apsmart is excited about the opportunity to apply our diverse mix of skills to the large Thomson Reuters customer base. We look forward to helping drive the strategy and creation of significant new experiences in mobile across the organization,” said Rahul Powar, new head of mobile application development at Thomson Reuters.

The addition of the Apsmart team will build upon the success of the advanced suite of Thomson Reuters mobile offerings which include Thomson Reuters WestlawNext and Thomson Reuters ProView eReader.

USA, New York, NY & UK, London

Related articles:

Posted in Content Media, Market Data & Information, Mobile Apps, ~Europe, ~North America. Tags: , , . Leave a Comment »

JWT to acquire majority stake in Hungama Digital Services in India

June 13, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

WPP’s wholly-owned operating company JWT Singapore, is to acquire a majority stake in Hungama Digital Services Private Limited, the digital and promotions marketing division of Hungama Digital Entertainment Private Limited.

Based in Mumbai, Hungama Digital Services’ offering includes strategic planning, web design and maintenance, digital marketing, search engine marketing, social media optimisation and communications strategy, rich media, viral marketing campaigns, merchandising, events and conference management, and sampling. The agency employs 110 people and clients include Mahindra & Mahindra, Bacardi, Godfrey Philips, Britannia Industries, Tupperware India and Hindustan Unilever.

India remains one of the WPP’s fastest growth markets, with revenues of approximately $500 million including associates.  The Group collectively employs around 12,000 people.

UK, London & India, Mumbai

Related articles:

Posted in Marketing/Advertising, ~Europe. Leave a Comment »

MITIE acquires Norwegian facilities management business

June 8, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

MITIE Group PLC, the strategic outsourcing and energy services company, has acquired the facilities management business of Dalkia Energy & Technical Services AS  in Norway.

MITIE has acquired the FM contracts and the majority of the employees of Dalkia FM for a total maximum cash consideration of NOK 10m (£1.06m) subject to certain conditions being satisfied over the period to 7 September 2012. Dalkia FM reported revenues of NOK 27.7m in the year ended 31 December 2011.

Ruby McGregor-Smith CBE, Chief Executive, MITIE Group PLC, commenting on the transaction, said, “This is a further step in our strategy to develop MITIE’s ability to support our clients overseas.  We are delighted to welcome the employees to MITIE.”

UK, Bristol & Norway, Oslo

Posted in B2B Services, Energy & Environmental Services, ~Europe. Tags: , . Leave a Comment »

Mood Media Corporation acquires BIS for €22.5M

June 1, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

Mood Media Corporation has acquired BIS Group, a provider of commercial audio-visual installation in the Benelux region, for a consideration of €22.5 million in cash. Mood Media is an in-store media specialist that helps its clients communicate with consumers with a view to driving incremental sales at the point-of-purchase.

In the year ended December 31, 2011, BIS recorded revenue of €46.1 M and Profit Before Tax of €2.6 M.

Lorne Abony, CEO & Chairman of Mood Media Corporation, commented, “We are excited about the BIS acquisition for a number of reasons.  Firstly, the acquisition’s merits on a stand-alone basis are compelling; Mood is acquiring a well-established business with a strong market position at an attractive value. Most critically, however, we believe that BIS’s sophisticated and comprehensive installation capabilities will enable Mood to better capitalize on its tremendous visual market opportunity and grow its visual recurring revenue base more efficiently.

The acquisition is in step with Mood’s growth strategy of driving organic sales growth by enabling the enlarged group to offer an expanded range of products and services.  The integration of BIS with Mood also offers further opportunities to centralise and realise scale economies from the combined organisation.

Canada, Toronto & The Netherlands, Ridderkerk

Posted in B2B Services, Broadcasting, Consultancy, Content Media, Internet Media, Marketing/Advertising, ~Europe, ~North America. Tags: , , , . Leave a Comment »

MoneySupermarket.com acquires MoneySavingExpert for £87m

June 1, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

MoneySupermarket.com has conditionally agreed to acquire MoneySavingExpert as a going concern from founder Martin Lewis, for consideration of up to £87m.

MoneySavingExpert operates one of the UK’s leading personal finance and personal finance journalism websites which was established in 2003 by personal finance journalist Martin Lewis.

According to Google Analytics, the MoneySavingExpert website attracted approximately 39 million unique visitors and approximately 277 million page impressions in the year ended 31 October 2011.

In the year ended 31 October 2011, MoneySavingExpert reported revenues of £15.773 million (2010: £11.361 million) and EBITDA of £12.642 million (2010: £8.379 million).

UK, Ewloe, Wales
Related articles:
Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, ~Europe. Leave a Comment »

KBM Group to acquire a majority stake in digital data agency Predictys SAS

May 29, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

WPP’s wholly-owned operating network KBM Group, is to acquire a majority stake in Predictys SAS in France.

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Grenoble, Predictys is a marketing company specialising in digital data and campaign technology. Predictys’ cooperative database includes information from 140 million opted-in consumers from among more than 25 co-op partners. The majority of Predictys’ clients are affiliation networks which use Predictys as a third party provider to supply their own clients with direct marketing services.

Predictys’ revenues for the year ended 31 December 2011 were EUR 3,360,685, with gross assets of EUR 3,090,853.

WPP’s digital revenues currently total around US$4.8 billion, representing over 30% of the Group’s total revenues of over U$16 billion. WPP has set a target of 35 – 40% of revenue derived from digital in the next five years. Collectively, WPP companies employ nearly 5,000 people in France (including associates) with revenues of approximately US$850 million. On this basis, France is WPP’s seventh largest market.

UK, London & France, Grenoble

Related articles:

Posted in Marketing/Advertising, ~Europe. Leave a Comment »

Hearst Magazines UK sells Coast Magazine and transfers Psychologies licence to Kelsey Publishing

May 29, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet
Hearst Magazines UK is sell  CoastMagazine and transfer its licence with Groupe Psychologies to publish Psychologies in the UK, to Kelsey Publishing Ltd

Coast Magazine, which has a circulation of 40,464, is solely owned by Hearst Magazines UK and is edited by Clare Gogerty. Psychologies UK, which launched in 2005, is published by Hearst Magazines UK under licence from Groupe Psychologies in France. The UK magazine is edited by Louise Chunn and has a circulation of 104,491.

Kelsey Publishing Ltd, a family-owned business based in Kent, publishes specialist magazines and books including Period Home and Interiors, Jaguar World Monthly and Grow it!

Arnaud de Puyfontaine, Chief Executive, Hearst Magazines UK, says: “The decision to sell Coast Magazine and transfer our Psychologies UK licence to Kelsey Publishing Ltd is part of our overall strategy to focus on our core print titles and digital expansion. This move will enable both brands to grow and succeed under new ownership and we wish the team at Coast and Psychologies the very best for the future.”

Steve Wright, Managing Director of Kelsey Publishing Ltd, says:“We are proud to take on these two upmarket publications. Coast complements our portfolio of home interest magazines, while Psychologies, which is a prestigious international brand, will be our biggest title. This is a new and major strategic step in the development of Kelsey Publishing.”

After a short period of consultation, the Psychologies and Coast teams will move to the Kelsey HQ in Kent. There will be no interruption to the publishing schedule of either title.

UK, London & Kent

Posted in Content Media, Publishers, ~Europe. Leave a Comment »

Pearson acquires GlobalEnglish for $90M

May 25, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

Pearson has acquired GlobalEnglish for $90 million in cash.

Founded in 1997 in California, GlobalEnglish is a leading provider of cloud-based, on-demand Business English learning, assessment and performance support software. It serves more than 450 corporate customers, including 20 per cent of the Forbes Global 2000 companies, including General Electric, HSBC, Tata Consultancy Services and Unilever. Its product suite is uniquely suited to serve the needs of global professionals with a comprehensive offering – formal Business English learning coursework, informal and social learning capabilities, performance support tools, an enterprise collaboration platform, a mobile app, assessments and a premium one-on-one coaching service. GlobalEnglish’s Business English content is also entirely focused on the application of Business English to real life business situations such as composing emails and participating in conference calls, and its efficacy is highly rated by global companies and their employees. Approximately 75 per cent of GlobalEnglish’s more than 200,000 active subscribers are in fast growing economies in Latin America and Asia.

GlobalEnglish complements Pearson’s adult English language training business, Wall Street English, by enabling Pearson to expand more rapidly into the corporate market with cost-effective and scalable cloud-based Business English software solutions and to offer the world’s pre-eminent companies a full suite of relevant products and services.

In 2011 GlobalEnglish generated revenues of approximately $42m with high renewal rates. The company has more than 200 employees across more than 20 countries and has product development offices in Silicon Valley (USA), India and Korea. Pearson will be expensing integration costs relating to GlobalEnglish in 2012 and expects the acquisition to enhance adjusted earnings per share and to generate a return on invested capital above Pearson’s weighted average cost of capital from 2013, its first full year.

John Fallon, Chief Executive of Pearson’s International education business, said, “The rise of English as a global language of business continues. This acquisition enables Pearson to play a much more systematic role in meeting the need of major companies around the world for quality, effective, scalable and relevant English language learning. We can combine services, technology, brands and content from across the Pearson family with the GlobalEnglish product portfolio to enrich the learning experience and enhance further the effectiveness of the teaching.”

UK, London &  USA, Silicon Valley, CA

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, Publishers, Training/Education, ~Europe, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Ogilvy & Mather to acquire a stake in Today Advertising in Myanmar

May 21, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

Ogilvy & Mather, a wholly-owned subsidiary of WPP, is to acquire a stake in Today Advertising, an advertising agency in Myanmar.  Based in Yangon, Today Advertising employs 60 people.

This investment continues WPP’s strategy of developing its services in fast-growing and important markets and sectors and brings the total number of countries in which the Group operates to 108. WPP’s businesses in the Asia Pacific region now generate revenues of over US$4 billion (including associates) and employ approximately 42,000 people, contributing to Group revenues of over US$16 billion (including associates) and total employees of over 158,000.

UK, London & Myanmar, Yangon

Related articles

Posted in Marketing/Advertising, ~Asia, ~Europe. Tags: , . Leave a Comment »

UBM Aviation Routes Limited acquires Airlineroute.net

May 20, 2012 — Fusion DigiNet

UBM Aviation Routes Limited has acquired Airlineroute.net, an online blogging website for route development scheduled changes. Airlineroute.net is the airline network planning community’s top blogging site and it is used by thousands of airline network planners and airport aviation professionals each day.

The blog will be integrated into the news section of Routesonline, the online route development forum and official website of Routes, which has, since its re-launch in May 2008, been a central source of route development information to airports and airlines.

Routesonline also allows airports to promote their market opportunities and airlines to access one resource for all their market data and route development information, as well as being a key source of route development news and analysis through their HUB newsletter.

David McMullen, Business Development Director of Routesonline stated “Airlineroute.net is the most highly regarded source of airline route development news and is currently used by over 800 companies, the synergies between this site and the Routes brand are clear and we are delighted to offer our clients this tool to track changes in airline schedules.”

Routesonline has developed year on year since its inception in 2008, it now offers its 18,000 registered users not only industry and event news but also the unique Route Exchange facility which is where airports and airlines create profiles.  Airlines post available aircraft capacity and airports can send proposals direct to the airlines  Airline users also have direct access to Route Exchange airport profiles, which have full airport intelligence and allow contacts to be made before or after Routes events. The Route Exchange also facilitates an online Request for Proposals (RFP) process where airlines use the Route Exchange to request for proposals from airports to assist them in their network developments plans. This facility was only introduced last year and has already had Air Asia X, Scoot and Indigo airlines participate with further RFPs planned for later in the year.

UK, London & Estonia, Tallinn

Related articles:

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, Publishers, ~Europe. Leave a Comment »
« Older posts
Newer posts »