Publicis Groupe acquires Interactive Communications Ltd in Taiwan

February 23, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Publicis Groupe is to acquire Interactive Communications Ltd (ICL), a Taiwan public relations and social media consultancy. For the past seven years, ICL has been an affiliate of MSLGROUP, Publicis Groupe’s flagship specialty communications, PR and events network.
Founded in 1998 and employing 30 communications professionals, ICL specializes in innovative communications campaigns combining public relations, social media and event experiences. The ICL team has worked for companies across more than 25 different sectors, and clients include Procter & Gamble, The Coca-Cola Company, Sony, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Particularly renowned for its creativity and innovative social media capabilities, ICL was recently recognized at Campaign Asia-Pacific’s 2010 ‘Digital Media Awards’ for its social media work for Hong Kong Tourism Board.

Following the acquisition, the agency will continue to be led by founders Cindy Chou, who serves as Chair of ICL MSL, and Mario Fang, Managing Director. Both leaders have more than 15 years of experience in the marketing industry. Cindy Chou was named Taiwan CEO of the year in 2009 and 2010 by BRAIN magazine, Taiwan’s leading marketing and technology publication. Both Cindy Chou and Mario Fang will join the MSLGROUP Greater China Management Board, and Cindy Chou will henceforth report to Glenn Osaki, President, MSLGROUP Asia.

The acquisition of ICL is Publicis Groupe’s fourth in Asia for the MSLGROUP network in the past five months. MSLGROUP Greater China is a top five international PR agency with eight offices and 225 staff across Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Olivier Fleurot, Chief Executive Officer, MSLGROUP remarked, “We are delighted that ICL has become a fully fledged member of MSLGROUP. This new addition reflects our commitment to provide our local and multinational clients with a best-in-class team in Taiwan and seek out partners who share our long-term vision and commitment to building an innovative offering for clients.”Cindy Chou, Chair of ICL MSL and member MSLGROUP Greater China Management Board, commented, “ICL has worked with the MSLGROUP global network as an affiliate for the last seven years and our staff and clients have come to rely upon this relationship to add value to our activities in Taiwan. Now that we are officially joining MSLGROUP, we will be focused on expanding our role in the Greater China team to service key clients and deepening our expertise in social media marketing.”

France, Paris & Taiwan, Taipei

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Publicis Groupe acquires digital content and social media agency Holler for Leo Burnett

February 17, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Yet another Publicis Groupe acquisition!

Publicis Groupe has acquired Holler, London-based digital content and social media agency Holler. The Holler brand will become part of the Leo Burnett Group in the UK.

Founded in 2001, Holler is specialised in branded entertainment strategy, content creation and social media. The agency’s clients include Channel 4 (E4, More4), Global Radio (Capital, Heart, Galaxy, Classic, XFM), Red Bull and Logica. Holler has won several industry awards including 3 Gold IPA Effectiveness awards including ‘Best Innovation’ for work on E4’s Skins, plus a Guardian MEGA Award and IMA Grand Prix. The agency’s team of 35 digital specialists strengthen Leo Burnett’s rapidly-expanding digital capabilities, bringing the number of digital specialists in the UK Leo Burnett Group to more than 70.

The agency will continue to be managed by founding partners, James Kirkham, Managing Partner, and Will Pyne, Executive Creative Director, together with Simon Hankin, Joint Managing Partner.

The acquisition of Holler is in line with Publicis Groupe’s policy of continuing to expand its digital business throughout all of its networks. Digital is one of the two growth drivers at the heart of Publicis Groupe’s targeted acquisition strategy and today accounts for 28% of the Groupe’s revenue. Over the next three years, Publicis Groupe aims to increase the percentage of revenue derived from digital to 35%.
Andrew Edwards, Group Chairman and CEO Leo Burnett (UK) said: “Our mission is to ingrain digital thinking into every aspect of Leo Burnett’s work and culture. The acquisition of Holler, with its outstanding track record in social and branded content, will provide us with greater depth and specialization in these important and fast-growing areas. We want to provide our clients with the best advice on these decisive trends and to continue to create great brand thinking, throughout all platforms.”

France, Paris & UK, London

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Local.com to acquire the assets of Rovion

February 17, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Local.com Corporation is to acquire the assets of Rovion, a wholly-owned subsidiary of DigitalPost Interactive.

Rovion is a rich media advertising company which sells, creates, delivers and tracks rich media advertising including animated and video-based ads for local and national advertisers, including CBS Radio, Cisco and LendingTree.

Under the terms of the agreement, Local.com will acquire the assets of Rovion for $1.5 million in cash with an earnout of up to $7 million in cash and/or stock if certain performance criteria are met in the three-year period following the closing. The transaction is expected to close within approximately 90 days.

USA, Irvine, CA

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Resource Nation acquires Business.com

February 17, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Resource Nation has acquired the brand and associated assets of Business.com the online destination for business buyers looking for business-to-business solutions.  JMI Equity, a growth equity firm that specialises in investments in internet companies, provided funding in support of the transaction and the Company’s ongoing growth.  Resource Nation Chief Executive Officer Ryan Peddycord will continue to lead the Company with a combination of Business.com and Resource Nation management teams.  Terms of the transactions were not disclosed.

“We are excited about this transaction and believe the combination of Resource Nation and Business.com will allow us to offer opportunities for our customers to reach a larger number of B2B purchasers at multiple stages in the purchasing process,” said Mr. Peddycord.  “We are committed to providing the most comprehensive service and product offering available in our space.  With the acquisition of Business.com, Resource Nation’s audience will have the ability to utilize the site as a one-stop destination for all the information and resources they need when making a purchase.”

As part of the transaction, JMI Equity General Partner Peter Arrowsmith and Vice President David Greenberg have joined Resource Nation’s Board of Directors.  “JMI Equity is a sophisticated investor with strong expertise in our industry and helping companies similar to ours grow,” continued Mr. Peddycord.  “We are deeply impressed with their understanding of our business and its growth drivers.  With JMI Equity as our partner, I am confident we have the strategic and financial support to execute our strategy for the benefit of our employees, customers and service partners.”

Resource Nation will retain a number of current and former Business.com sales and account managers as well as other key employees.  The company will remain headquartered in San Diego, with offices in Santa Monica and Boston.

USA, San Diego, CA

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Great Hill Partners backs All Web Leads to acquire InsuranceLeads.com

February 17, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

All Web Leads, an online sales lead generation company supplying the US insurance industry, has acquired InsuranceLeads.com, a provider of online leads to insurance agents, brokers and carriers. To finance the acquisition All Web Leads has teamed with Great Hill Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm with over $2.5 billion under management, who have made a majority investment in the combined entity. All Web Leads’ current executive team will lead the combined company, which will continue to be based in Austin, Texas. Morgan Keegan served as an advisor to All Web Leads, Inc for the transaction. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“We are very excited to welcome the InsuranceLeads.com team to the All Web Leads family,” said Bill Daniel, CEO of All Web Leads, Inc. “This acquisition will create tremendous additional value for the insurance agents, brokers and carriers that purchase Internet leads by more closely matching their business needs and those of online consumers.”

“All Web Leads has built an impressive, data-driven online marketing business focused on the insurance sector,” said Michael Kumin of Great Hill Partners. “We are pleased to partner with Bill and the team at

USA, Austin, TX

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DMN3 Acquires Digital Agency SPUR INTERACTIVE

February 17, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Texas-based marketing firms DMN3 has acquired SPUR INTERACTIVE. the combined business will operate under the DMN3 name.

“SPUR INTERACTIVE is a perfect addition to DMN3. Not only will it enhance our digital marketing capabilities for our existing clients, but it will add new marketing services for the SPUR clientele as well,” said DMN3 Founder and CEO, Pamela Lockard.

Established in 1992, DMN3 has offices in Houston and Dallas, TX and focuses on the energy, financial and health care industries. DMN3 clients include Reliant Energy, KelseyCare Advantage and American Airlines Federal Credit Union.

The SPUR purchase brings a new talent pool and client base to DMN3, including ConocoPhillips, Star Furniture and The Scooter Store. Among the digital team joining DMN3 is Sara Stiles. She assumed a co-director role at SPUR a year ago and will add her digital and social media expertise as Director of Online Services at DMN3. Steve Latham founded SPUR eight years ago and will remain in an advisory position through the transition for SPUR clients.

USA, Houston, TX

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Omnicom Group’s Diversified Agency Services acquires The Modellers, marketing research firm

February 9, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Omnicom Group‘s Diversified Agency Services has acquired marketing research company The Modellers. The Modellers will continue to service clients from its Salt Lake City headquarters.

“We’re extremely pleased to have The Modellers become part of DAS,” said Thomas Harrison, Chairman and CEO of DAS.  “Their unique and powerful capabilities are exciting and the need in the marketplace for the kinds of insights that can only come from the smart application of advanced analytics is growing. The Modellers enhance our capability to offer cutting-edge services to help our clients succeed in this demanding and ever changing environment.”

USA, New York, NY & Salt Lake City, UT

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Three JVs in India to become subsidiaries of Dentsu India Group

February 4, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Dentsu has purchased the respective 26% equity stakes held by Mogae Consultants Pvt. Ltd. in Dentsu Communications Pvt. Ltd., Dentsu Marcom Pvt. Ltd. and Dentsu Creative Impact Pvt. Ltd., three full-service advertising agencies established as joint ventures between Dentsu and Mogae.

As part of a strategy to grow the Dentsu brand in India, the three companies, together with other companies under the Dentsu Communications umbrella that includes Dentsu Mediatech and Clickstreamers, were integrated into an organization referred to as the Dentsu India Group.

In accordance with the terms of the transaction, Sandeep Goyal, the incumbent Chairman of the Dentsu India Group, will resign his position. He will also resign from the boards of the three advertising agencies. Mr. Goyal will, however, continue to support the Dentsu India Group as its Founder Chairman. Ms. Tanya Goyal will also resign from the boards of directors and will become a Principal Advisor to the Dentsu India Group.

Since the establishment of Dentsu Communications and Dentsu Marcom in 2003, and Dentsu Creative Impact in 2005, Dentsu has been steadily expanding its business in India through the three agencies. In view of the recent growing importance of the Indian market, however, and faced with the need to provide an increasingly higher level of unique services to its global clients, Dentsu decided that the time had come to make the joint-venture companies into wholly-owned subsidiaries. With this move, Dentsu will be able to positively expand its business domain from advertising to other areas such as sports and digital-related services.

According to the December 2010 edition of Advertising Expenditure Forecasts published by ZenithOptimedia, India’s advertising market, which grew slightly in 2009 to US$4,463 million, is expected to grow 13% in 2010 and 13–15% in 2011–2013, year on year. The total projected market size of US$7,548 million in 2013, an increase of 69% when compared to the 2009 figure, will make India one of the world’s leading advertising markets.

Yuzuru Kato, the Dentsu Inc. Executive Officer in charge of global business development, said, “By making these three companies wholly-owned Dentsu subsidiaries in the rapidly developing and increasingly important Indian market, we aim to enhance our infrastructure to provide the best integrated solutions to our clients in all the business domains. Focusing on the area of communications, we will implement marketing communication strategies that solve the management and business issues facing advertisers and media content companies today. Ideas that reach beyond the imaginable. Technology that crosses the bounds of possibilities. Entrepreneurship that surpasses the expected. We will use these three sources of strength stated in the Dentsu Group Corporate Philosophy to create innovation.”

India (Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumba)

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Outbrain acquires Surphace from AOL

February 4, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Outbrain has acquired the Surphace technology and other assets (formerly known as Sphere) from AOL.

Outbrain provides online publishers with a service for recommending content links to increase traffic and page views, generate revenue and enhance the user experience. The Outbrain service also enables publishers to better monetize their content pages by leveraging recommended links to 3rdparty content.

“By putting the best of both platforms together, we will further establish Outbrain as the leading content discovery platform for premium online publishers,” said Yaron Galai, Co-Founder and CEO of Outbrain. “Our primary goal at Outbrain has always been to provide readers with the most compelling content recommendations possible and to empower publishers to increase revenue from their content in a user-friendly way. Merging the Surphace technology into our platform allows us to advance that mission in a very significant way.”

Surphace CEO Josh Guttman will be joining the Outbrain team as Senior Vice President and will head Outbrain’s strategic platform integrations. “I’m thrilled to see this come to fruition and to join the Outbrain team. Surphace and Outbrain have a long shared mission in helping publishers grow their business while providing readers with an engaging experience. Combining the two businesses to create the clear winner in content discovery was an easy decision,” said Guttman.

USA, New York, NY

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Smart Business Network acquires Wise Group

February 4, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Smart Business Network has acquired Wise Group, a Northeast Ohio custom content firm, to expand its Smart Business Content Marketing Division.

“We’re pleased to grow further in the booming field of content marketing,” said Fred Koury, president & CEO of Smart Business Network. “Adding Wise Group’s experienced team and a 10-year track record in custom content to Smart Business’ national B2B presence enables us to provide even more sophisticated services to companies eager to develop their content marketing strategies.”

Wise Group President Tammy Wise will become the vice president of business development at Smart Business Content Marketing, and will report to Michael Marzec, president & chief operating officer of the division. All Wise Group staff will be retained following the acquisition.

Smart Business Content Marketing provides a full range of custom content marketing solutions, including: print and digital magazines, ebooks, enewsletters, websites and microsites, marketing collateral and consulting services.

USA, Cleveland, OH

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