SFX to acquire dance music events producer ID&T

March 21, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

SFX Entertainment is to acquire ID&T, the producer of dance music festivals and events worldwide. The deal follows a previously announced joint venture between SFX and ID&T, which will bring ID&T events to North America. SFX is to acquire 75 percent of the company, which is valued at approximately $130 million.

Based in Amsterdam, ID&T is a privately held company that has produced events in Europe and around the world for more than 20 years, welcoming every type of dance music fan to indoor and outdoor events. Among the brands in the ID&T family are Sensation and Mysteryland. Sensation is an indoor house music brand, with events in 20 countries around the world. Mysteryland hosts 60,000 visitors in the Netherlands, 25,000 visitors in Santiago de Chile and will further expand worldwide the next few years.

“This is a hugely significant and strategically important acquisition for SFX,” said Robert F.X. Sillerman, Chairman and CEO of SFX Entertainment. “With ID&T, SFX has an immediate global footprint in more than 20 markets worldwide. ID&T productions are known for being of the highest quality and for producing maximum entertainment for their fans. Their exceptional team has developed amazing dance music brands with tremendous global reach.”

The acquisition of ID&T follows recent acquisitions by SFX of dance music brands Life In Color, Disco Donnie, Miami Marketing Group and Beatport.

USA, New York, NY & The Netherlands, Amsterdam

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WPP makes strategic investment in SFX Entertainment Posted on March 18, 2013

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WPP makes strategic investment in SFX Entertainment

March 18, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

wppWPP has made a strategic investment in SFX Entertainment, Inc., a digital media company described as a global platform for electronic dance music events.

Based in New York City, SFX was founded by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert F. X. Sillerman in 2011. Sillerman and his senior management team average over 30 years’ experience in entertainment and music-related businesses, including acquiring and consolidating companies that specialise in producing and promoting live events.

SFX has created a global platform for dance music through acquisition and partnership with some of the leading festivals, events, clubs and online brands. It has a collective audience of over 100 million connected, highly mobile music fans through its various properties which include: Beatport, ID&T North America (Sensation and Mysteryland), Life In Color, Disco Donnie Presents and Miami Marketing Group, home of LIV, Story and Arkadia.

WPP Chief Executive Sir Martin Sorrell said, “We recognize the value in what SFX is creating and believe we can help bring this valuable audience to our agencies’ global clients. The challenge of navigating through digital and social media is daunting for clients and we believe this partnership can further develop WPP’s content capabilities, particularly in new media in the youth consumer segment.”

UK, London & USA, New York, NY

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M&C Saatchi – Results for the year ended 31 December 2012

March 18, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

18/3
M&C Saatchi has announced its results for the year ended 31 December 2012

Financial Highlights 2012

  • Revenue £169.5m +11% (2011: £153.1m)
  • Operating Profit £17.1m +11% (2011: £15.4m)
  • Profit Before Tax £17.2m +10% (2011: £15.6m)
  • EPS 15.10p +6% (2011: 14.30p)
  • Dividend 4.95p +10% (2011: 4.50p)

Operational Highlights

  • Strong growth in both revenue and earnings, driven by new business wins and new businesses
  • Global Network performed well across all geographies:
    • UK: revenues up 13%, with CRM and mobile performing particularly well, operating profit up 17%
    • Europe: revenues up 11%, operating profit up 14%, in spite of macro-economic challenges
    • Middle East and Africa: revenues up 121%, well positioned to take advantage of growing African market
    • Asia and Australasia: revenues up 8%, operating profit up 46%
    • Americas: revenues up 19% with the New York agency relaunched in Q4
    • Clear had a disappointing year and have restructured (resulting in a good start to the year)
  • Strong balance sheet maintained, focus on cash control with net cash of £17.9m
  • Final dividend increased 10% to 3.85p, which takes the full-year dividend up 10% to 4.95p

Commenting on the results, David Kershaw, Chief Executive, said:

“M&C Saatchi has made very good progress in 2012. The Group returned double digit revenue and operating profit growth. This arose from new business success, increasingly international and integrated, the profitable growth of new businesses in the mature markets and the rolling out of proven models across the network. This was whilst continuing to invest in further new offices and businesses.

“Looking ahead, we are confident that we will continue to make progress in 2013 and beyond. The strategy continues to deliver. ”

More information here.

UK, London

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WPP’s XM acquires majority stake in Thomas Idea in Thailand

March 14, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

wppXM Asia, a division of WPP’s wholly-owned operating company JWT, has acquired a majority stake in Thomas Idea, a digital marketing agency in Thailand.

Founded in 1995 in Bangkok, Thomas Idea employs 45 people and had total assets of around THB 50 million at 31 December 2012. Thomas Idea services include online strategy consulting, website design and development, digital marketing and applications design. Clients include Beiersdorf, Reckitt Benckiser, TIPCO, Abbott Laboratories and Pruska.

UK, London & Thailand

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ePublishing acquires B2B Audience Network

March 14, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

ePublishing has acquired B2B Audience Network. A business-to–business advertising network, B2B Audience reaches more than 300 online publications for clients including UBM, Cygnus, and GIE.

Andy Kowl, founder of B2B Audience Network, will be joining ePublishing as Senior Vice President of Publishing Strategy.

“We have always focused on maximizing publishers’ revenue by increasing reader engagement and enabling them to monetize it at every level,” said Thomas Chaffee , CEO of ePublishing. “Adding another contextual revenue opportunity for the hundreds of B2B titles powered by our EPS benefits both our clients and their customers.” In 2012, ePublishing acquired Ellington CMS and Marketplace software and 330 news websites from The World Company.

USA, Chicago, IL

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Publicis Groupe acquires Convonix

March 11, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

PublicisPublicis Groupe has acquired Convonix, one of India’s leading Digital Marketing Consulting firms based in Mumbai. The company will align with Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) in India to provide Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search Marketing, Social Media Marketing and Online Reputation Management to an extensive roster of clients.

Founded in 2003, Convonix was the first Search Engine Optimization organization in India, and currently employs over 200 digital advertising specialists serving clients such as Taj Hotels, Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Group, Club Mahindra, Kodak, Aditya Birla Group, among others. Convonix has a strong international footprint with over 60% of its business coming from overseas. Convonix has also recently developed a proprietary in-house brand monitoring and social listening platform called IrisTrack which enables clients to gather market insight on their products and competitors and also engage customers online to improve their customer service.
The three founding members, Vishal Sampat , CEO, Sarfaraz Khimani , co-COO and Pallav Jain , co-COO, will continue to lead the agency. Convonix will sit within SMG and will operate as SMG Convonix, with two market-facing brands: SMG Digital, and Convonix.
“As the first SEO organisation in India, Convonix has continued to innovate and build the very best digital capability whilst being highly respected for its ability to recruit the best talent from universities each year, and transform them into digital advertising experts through a rigorous training program,” said Laura Desmond , Global Chief Executive Officer for Starcom MediaVest Group. She continues: “Combined with our existing talent in the market, this deal strengthens our offering to ensure we are the market leaders in digital.”
Year on year, Convonix has increased revenues on average 66 percent since 2008.

Srikant Sastri , VivaKi Country Chair for India who is presiding over the acquisition and transition of Convonix, adds: “First Resultrix, and now Convonix. We are now clearly the digital marketing leaders in India, ahead of any other global network. We are positive that this acquisition will set the tone for our next phase of digital pre-eminence both in terms of expertise and revenue and we are continuing to explore other agencies that can help us capitalize on the outstanding potential of the digital marketplace in India.”

France, Paris & India, Mumbai

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WPP acquires john st. a creative agency in Canada

March 7, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

wppWPP has acquired john st., one of Canada’s top creative agencies.

Founded in 2001 and based in Toronto, john st. employs approximately 100 people and has unaudited revenues for the year ended 31 December 2012 of approximately $14.0 million, with gross assets at the same date of $5.5 million. Clients include AstraZeneca, Kruger, ING Direct, Maple Leaf Foods and Tata.

Over the last 12 years, john st. has built an international reputation as one of Canada’s leading innovative johnstcreative agencies. It was recently named Silver Agency of the Year as well as Silver Digital Agency of the Year by Strategy, a leading Canadian marketing publication.

The acquisition of john st. strengthens WPP’s presence in Canada. “We see enormous value in being part of WPP,” says Arthur Fleischmann President of john st. “We’ll now be able to augment our current services in areas that clients are asking for, such as media, direct and public relations.”

UK, London & Canada, Toronto

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Ogilvy & Mather acquires majority stake in South African mobile marketing agency Strike Media

March 1, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

ogilvyWPP‘s wholly owned subsidiary Ogilvy & Mather has acquired a majority stake in Strike Media Proprietary Limited in South Africa.

Strike is a mobile marketing and technology agency delivering customised mobile strategy, campaigns,design and development services to clients across the financial, retail, consumer and telecommunications sectors.

Established in 2003 by Russel Stromin, Strike is headquartered in Cape Town and employs 20 people. Key clients and partners include Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and Metropolitan Health.

Strike’s revenues for the financial year ended 29 February 2012 were approximately ZAR 16 million with gross assets as at the same date of approximately ZAR16 million.

UK, London & South Africa, Cape Town

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Y&R acquires majority stake in Turkish creative digital agency C-Section

March 1, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

y&rWPP‘s wholly-owned operating company, Y&R, has acquired a majority stake in CS Reklam Hizmetleri Sanayi Ve Ticaret A.Ş., trading as “C-Section“, a creative digital advertising agency based in Istanbul, Turkey.

Founded in 2004, C-Section specialises in creating microsites, apps, digital campaigns and video csection-logo2production/virals for the Turkish market. The agency employs approximately 40 people and clients include Coca-Cola, Vodafone, and TEB BNP Paribas.

C-Section’s unaudited revenues for the year ended 31 December 2012 were TRY 7.5million, with gross assets as at the same date of TRY 3.0million. The agency will retain its distinct independent identity and will not be merged with Y&R Istanbul.

UK, London & Turkey, Istanbul

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WPP reports better-than-expected full-year 2012 results

March 1, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Advertising giant WPP has reported better-than-expected full-year 2012 results.wpp

Full preliminary WPP results

Highlights

  • Reported billings decreased slightly to £44.4bn, primarily reflecting the strength of the £ sterling, although up 1.6% in constant currency driven by leadership position in net new business league tables
  • Revenue growth of 3.5%, with like-for-like growth of 2.9%, 2.9% growth from acquisitions and minus 2.3% from currency
  • Like-for-like revenue growth in all but one region, characterised by particularly strong growth in Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East and all but one sector (public relations and public affairs), with strong growth in advertising, media investment management and specialist communications
  • Like-for-like gross margin growth at 2.4%, with slower growth in the Group’s consumer insight businesses in the mature markets of North America, the United Kingdom and Western Continental Europe
  • Headline EBITDA growth of 7.0% giving 0.5 margin point improvement, with operating costs (+2.8%) rising less than revenues
  • Headline PBIT increase of 7.1% with PBIT margin rising by 0.5 points to 14.8%, surpassing the previous historical pro forma high of 14.3% achieved in 2011
  • Exceptional gains of £102 million on sales of stake in Buddy Media and New York property
  • Exceptional restructuring charges of £93 million taken chiefly in respect of Western Continental European businesses and IT infrastructure
  • Gross margin margins, a more accurate competitive comparator, up 0.6 margin points to an industry leading 16.1%
  • Headline diluted EPS up 8.4% and reported diluted EPS down 2.6% (reflecting last year’s exceptional release of corporate tax provisions), with 15% higher final ordinary dividend of 19.71p and full year dividends of 28.51p per share up 15.9%
  • Average net debt increased £373m (13%) to £3.203bn reflecting increased spending on acquisitions (chiefly AKQA) and higher dividends, partly offset by relative improvement in working capital
  • Creative excellence recognised by the award, for the second consecutive year since its inception, of the Cannes Lion for the most creative Holding Company
  • Over last two years alone headline diluted earnings per share up almost 30%, dividends per share up 60% and the dividend pay-out ratio increased from 31% to 39%

UK, London

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