Silver Lake to launch new investment strategy focused on innovation in the energy and resource sectors

February 24, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Technology investor Silver Lake is launching Silver Lake Kraftwerk, a new investment strategy focused on providing growth capital to business innovators in the energy and resource sectors. Soros Fund Management LLC will join Silver Lake as a strategic partner in the new initiative, which will be led by Adam Grosser, an investment veteran who served for a decade as a General Partner at Foundation Capital.

Operating out of offices in Silicon Valley and China, the new strategy will invest in companies that leverage technology and business model innovation to improve energy efficiency, reduce waste and emissions, harness renewable energy, and more efficiently use natural resources, among other applications.

“We are excited to launch Silver Lake’s fourth investment strategy, this one focused on the energy and resource sectors, where we will target growth stage companies with proven technologies and business models,” said Greg Mondre, a Silver Lake Managing Director and member of the investment committee for the new business.

“There are many parallels between the development of the technology sector and the innovation that is occurring in the energy and resource sectors today. We have been actively planning our expansion for some time, and believe that Adam Grosser’s formidable expertise and vision combined with Silver Lake’s global investment platform will offer the companies we invest in a compelling partner to grow their businesses, both in developed and emerging markets.”

Mr. Mondre added: “Our goal with this new initiative is to match Silver Lake’s established leadership in large cap and middle market technology investing with a new strategy we believe will drive growth around the world in coming decades.”

USA, Menlo Park, CA

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Max Media Group acquires www.PatriotsTV.com

February 24, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Max Media Group has acquired http://www.PatriotsTV.com, an investigative reporting-focused company providing the latest news about Homeland Security, America’s Most Wanted Terrorists, and the 9-11 conspiracy.

James Grady CEO of MXMI. stated, “Wes and http://www.patriotstv.com brings a valuable asset in our news and information division. Wes’ contacts both domestic and abroad give him access to very high level officials that enable him to create exclusive breaking news in the fight against terrorism. This acquisition is another example of our business model and how we will continue to grow. We seek companies and content producers to add value to our growing media network! ”

Wesley T. Rodgers founder of PatriotsTV stated, “I am excited to be part of the Max Media team! After lengthy conversations with Jim about the MXMI plan I was convinced that we share the same vision about how news and information will be presented and consumed. The ability to combine the written word with pictures and video surely is the future in journalism. ”

Additionally, Grady addressed recent activity regarding MXMI share structure and shareholders concerns by stating, “There has been speculation amongst shareholders that the Company issued stock and sold shares. The increase in our float was caused by removal of a restrictive legend on shares issued for an acquisition 14 months ago. The acquisition was for Twenty (20) Million shares and the shares have been held well past the 12 month required holding period. The Company has not nor does it intend to participate in any so-called death spiral or “free-trading” share-based financings. Any issuance of securities will be under Rule 144 for both acquisitions and or potential financings. Consultants, employees and other third party providers will also only receive stock under Rule 144. “

Grady continued, “We value our shares and the role they play in our acquisition strategy. With all the acquisition opportunities before us and that we are in the final stages of completing, it would not be in the Company’s best interest to do anything destructive to our share structure. It is our intent to continue on an aggressive, shareholder-friendly growth strategy to fuel our revenue model.

USA, Palm Harbor, FL

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Disney acquires kids social online community site Togetherville

February 24, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

TechCrunch is reporting that Disney has acquired Togetherville, a social online community for families where parents create safe online neighborhoods for their kids (under 10) to play and connect with the real-life friends and family they already know and trust.

Togetherville mimics adult social networks in a kid-appropriate way. Each neighborhood is built around each specific child and remains closed to outsiders. Kids have their own profile pages, complete with their photos.

TechCrunch were were tipped off on the acquisition by one of their readers. Togetherville’s terms of service states: “Welcome to the Internet sites of the Walt Disney Internet Group (“WDIG”). “WDIG Sites” include Disney.com, ABCNEWS.com, ABC.com, ESPN.com, DisneyShopping.com, Go.com, Movies.com, FamilyFun.com, and other Internet sites on which these terms of use are posted.” TechCrunch also report another clue, CEO and founder Mandeep Dhillon’s LinkedIn profile,  states he is “Vice President, Togetherville at The Walt Disney Company.”

Read the full story

USA, Burbank, CA & Menlo Park, CA

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Collective acquires video ad platform Oggifinogi

February 24, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Collective, a full service provider of media and technology solutions for display and video advertising, has acquired video advertising platform and services provider, Oggifinogi. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“The dramatic growth in video viewership over the past three years led to television quality video being more widely distributed online,” said Joe Apprendi, CEO, Collective. “The full potential of online video advertising has yet to be unleashed. This acquisition enables us to bring the right mix of art and science to brand advertisers, especially as they rethink their television advertising budget and look to online to complement their broadcast and cable ad spend.”

Oggifinogi provides highly interactive video advertising in both the banner and interactive pre roll space and is recognised for the significant interactive rates that its product drives. Collective’s acquisition of Oggifinogi combines audience targeting with engaging ad units, making it possible for AMP clients to more readily tap the benefits of rich media and video ad formats into their existing AMP capabilities.

Oggifinogi’s platform is already seamlessly integrated into Collective’s AMP platform and media network, with more than 300 campaigns executed since 2009.

Based in Bellevue, Washington, Oggifinogi’s client roster includes more than 100 companies, including Bing, Best Buy, Sony, NBC, Paramount and others. Oggifinogi reaches more than 150 million unique users across more than 2,500 publisher sites, and will continue to operate as a subsidiary of Collective, servicing its existing agencies, advertisers and publishers.

“We are thrilled to become a part of Collective, integrating our creative and technical know-how with Collective’s access to publisher, agency and marketer channels,” said Michael Hyman, CEO, Oggifinogi. “Together, we can offer a turn-key video advertising solution for brand advertisers.”

USA, New York, NY & Bellevue, WA

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Mediabistro.com (a division of WebMediaBrands) acquires Twittercism.com

February 24, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Mediabistro.com (a division of WebMediaBrands) has acquired the assets of the Twittercism.com blog from Shea Bennett. Mr. Bennett will continue working with and writing for Mediabistro. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“Shea Bennett has been covering Twitter for over two years on Twittercism and we will now combine his well-known analysis and commentary with our blog AllTwitter to create what we believe to be the most complete coverage of the evolution of Twitter and its rapidly expanding social media business model,” stated Alan M. Meckler, Chairman and CEO of WebMediaBrands. “We are excited to continue building on our leadership in covering the huge growth of social media through our various social media blogs including AllFacebook, SocialTimes, and AllTwitter, as well as our SocialTimesPro research service and social media events.”

USA, New York, NY

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QED Connect to acquire StockProfile.com

February 24, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Investment firm QED Connect is to acquire StockProfile.com. In addition, QED Connect intends to acquire StockProfileTV.com and SPnewsWire.com as part of the acquisition.

StockProfile.com provides the investing public with a unique information portal for investors who like to conduct their own research as well as make their own investment decisions. The StockProfile.com platform allows users to discover dynamic publicly traded companies in a free, user-friendly environment.

SPnewsWire.com (powered by StockProfile.com) is a web portal displaying public news and information issued by, or related to, the companies that have displayed on the StockProfile.com platform.

StockProfileTV.com (powered by StockProfile.com) is a new website displaying certain videos related to publicly traded companies displayed on the StockProfile.com platform.

“This Letter of Intent to acquire StockProfile.com and its related web properties provides valuable assets to the Company and helps our overall strategy of making QED more diversified and dynamic,” commented Tom Makmann, CEO of QED Connect. “The cross marketing potential with the public companies on the StockProfile.com platform provides an additional area which QED plans to exploit for its long term benefit. We are excited about the opportunity to acquire a strong media platform such as StockProfile.com.”

The companies expect to finalise a definitive agreement by April 4, 2011. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

USA, New York,NY & Manchester, NH

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PERFORM acquires Goal.com

February 23, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

PERFORM has acquired Goal.com, the world’s largest football portal, from a consortium of investors including Bessemer Venture Partners.

The deal is a major development for PERFORM, rapidly increasing its scale and reach in the global digital sports market to over 95 million users a month.

Over the last three years, Goal.com has used its strong brand and broad news coverage in fifteen languages to build up a leading position in the online football portal market. In January 2011, Goal.com was visited by 19.4 million unique users (Comscore).

PERFORM will integrate its live sports data (GSM), video news (OMNISPORT), video highlights (ePlayer) and live streaming (LIVESPORT.TV) from its catalogue of over 40 different football leagues and competitions.

Goal’s CEO, Ron Elwell, commented. “Over the last 5 years, Goal.com has grown from nothing to the largest football site in the world, reaching tens of millions of passionate fans thanks to the vision of our founder, Gian Luigi Longinotti-Buitoni. The acquisition by PERFORM provides a great platform for the continued growth of the site with the addition of world class video content and I’m sure it will continue to be a fantastic business.” Michael Simpson, one of Goal.com’s original founders assumes the role of Senior Vice President for Product and Content, Jonathan Gamble becomes Senior Vice President for Commercial and Sales and Scott Rothrock will continue as Chief Technology Officer of Goal.com. All three members will report to Simon Denyer, joint-CEO, PERFORM.

UK, Middlesex & USA, Waltham, MA

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Eurogamer is expanding to North America and has acquired games content publisher Hammersuit.

February 23, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Eurogamer, the Brighton UK based company founded by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman, has acquired games content publisher Hammersuit. Founded in 2004 and based in New York, Hammersuit is the publisher of the US games industry website IndustryGamers.com, as well as mobile gaming website Modojo.com. The company also provides content to businesses such as The Ayzenberg Group and Prima Games.

Eurogamer Network has created a division called IndustryGamers Inc, which will be responsible for publishing IndustryGamers.com as well as the newly formed IndustryGamers Content Services business. This division will also become responsible for representing existing Eurogamer Network properties such as Eurogamer.net, GamesIndustry.biz, VG247.com, RockPaperShotgun.com and Megaton in the US.
Rupert Loman, managing director of Eurogamer Network, commented on the acquisition: “We have been looking for the right opportunity to expand our business across the Atlantic and we are delighted to complete the acquisition of Hammersuit. They are a great fit for us and the potential as we expand our business to North America is huge.” He added, “We already have a significant US readership that values our distinctive editorial voice so adding a local team will greatly strengthen our offering for readers and advertisers in both Europe and North America.”

John Benyamine, co-founder of Hammersuit added: “The whole team at Hammersuit is looking forward to being part of the Eurogamer Network. Their reputation precedes them in the US, and we have no doubt this marriage will lead to even more success in the near future.”
Founder John Benyamine and the entire Hammersuit team will stay with the business following the acquisition.

UK, Brighton & USA, San Francisco, CA

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Access Intelligence acquires Red7 Media

February 23, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Access Intelligence, a portfolio company of Veronis Suhler Stevenson, has acquired Red7 Media, establishing a division serving professionals in the media and event management industries. Red7 Media is a producer of content and community for the event industry via Event Marketer, EXPO, Best Events and Event Design magazines; as well as the Event Marketing Institute, several industry conferences, and numerous websites. It also publishes FOLIO and Audience Development magazines, hosts the Folio Show and recently launched a research and consulting practice to provide business intelligence to its customers.

Access Intelligence’s new Media and Event Marketing Group will be led by Kerry Smith. Kerry founded Red7 Media in 2002 and grew the Norwalk, CT-based company into a market leader attracting more than 7,000 executives and 500 sponsors to its events and more than 800,000 unique visitors to its web sites. Kerry will continue in his role as President of the expanded Red7 Media Group and become a Senior Vice President of Access Intelligence.
USA, Rockville, MD & Norwalk, CT

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Evolve Media Corp. acquires PlayStationLifeStyle

February 23, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Evolve Media Corp., has acquired PlayStationLifeStyle, the largest PlayStation enthusiast site in the US. PlayStationLifeStyle will become a part of GameRevolution. GameRevolution.com is part of AtomicOnline, Evolve Media Corp.’s publishing division.

PlayStationLifeStyle is one of the leading PlayStation-specific news and review sites with over 169,000 Unique Visitors a month (comScore, December 2010). The website publishes up-to-the-minute industry news, in-depth game reviews, and a comprehensive trophy guide that outlines various videogame achievements users can obtain. PlayStationLifeStyle is also heavily focused on the gaming community and provides a forum for users to discuss games, tips, rumors and developments.

“PlayStationLifeStyle not only provides great coverage of PlayStation-focused news, but also has a very enthusiastic community of gamers,” said Paul Hanges, Managing Director of GameRevolution. “We recognized PlayStationLifeStyle’s potential and wanted to bring it to a larger platform by coupling it with GameRevolution’s extensive reach, therefore creating the ultimate gaming destination.”

GameRevolution will migrate PSLS to Evolve’s publishing platform, manage all editorial content and will merge the PlayStationLifeStyle’s editorial team with its own writing staff, enabling it to improve site features and functionality as well as further provide in-depth coverage of PlayStation news. Also, PlayStationLifeStyle’s founder, Anthony Severino, will now stand as GameRevolution’s Managing Editor.

“I am confident that GameRevolution will take PlayStationLifeStyle to new heights previously thought to be unreachable. Not only is this exciting for myself and the PlayStationLifeStyle staff, but also for the site’s growing audience,” said Anthony Severino, Managing Editor of GameRevolution. “We are excited to be able to leverage the enormous resources of Evolve to improve the site, adding mobile, social and original video functionality and programming to the site.”

USA, Los Angeles, CA

 

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