TripAdvisor acquires EveryTrail

February 4, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

TripAdvisor, an operating company of Expedia, has acquired EveryTrail. EveryTrail has developed a GPS-enabled publishing platform to create outdoor tours and city guides for mobile devices. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“Every day, more people are opting to use mobile apps as a way of consuming travel information,” said Adam Medros, vice president of global product for TripAdvisor. “EveryTrail bolsters our continued commitment to grow TripAdvisor’s mobile offering, and enable travelers to access walking tours, city guides and hiking trails directly from their smartphones.”

“Like TripAdvisor, EveryTrail is possible because of a global community of travelers who share their stories every day,” said Joost Schreve, CEO of EveryTrail.  “The mobile platform that we provide lets travelers turn these stories into highly engaging mobile travel guides that help other travelers enjoy their trips even more. We are delighted to join TripAdvisor in this exciting new phase that will give us the ability to bring our tours and guides to TripAdvisor’s 40 million travelers all over the world.”

USA, Newton, MA & Palo Alto, CA

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SourceMedia acquires Insurance Broadcasting

February 4, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

SourceMedia has acquired Insurance Broadcasting, a provider of online news and live events to employee benefits professionals. The company’s assets will be operated in tandem with Employee Benefit Adviser’s market-leading media portfolio.

With the acquisition, SourceMedia adds 184,000 new professionals to the community it serves through its well-established and growing Employee Benefits Group. In addition to Employee Benefit Adviser, the group includes the monthly Employee Benefit News and its online service, as well as two live annual events: The Employee Benefit Adviser Summit and The Benefits Forum & Expo.

Insurance Broadcasting founder & CEO Walt Podgurski will continue as an executive with SourceMedia. Podgurski will provide direction for Insurance Broadcasting’s offerings as they are integrated into SourceMedia.

“This acquisition extends the platform for SourceMedia’s award-winning content and insight, enabling us to reach more advisers and brokers online,” said Jim Callan, Group Publisher for the Employee Benefits Group. “It also allows us to deliver a larger audience of qualified professionals to our advertisers, marketing clients, and event sponsors.”SourceMedia Acquires Insurance Broadcasting
“SourceMedia is committed to expanding and diversifying its portfolio of market-leading brands, both organically and through acquisitions,” said Douglas J. Manoni, the company’s Chief Executive Officer. “And the addition of Insurance Broadcasting to our Benefits Group gives evidence of our commitment to this strategy.”

USA, New York, NY

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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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Quepasa to acquire Brazilian Social Game Development Studio for $4 million

February 4, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Quepasa Corporation, creator and operator of Quepasa.com, the online social network for the Latino community, is to acquire XtFt Games S/S Ltda (XtFt), the owner of substantially all the assets of TechFront Desenvolvimento de Software S/S Ltda (TechFront), a social game development studio based in Curitiba, Brazil.

Quepasa will acquire XtFt for net consideration of approximately $4 million, comprised of $3.7 million in shares of Quepasa common stock (as determined by Quepasa’s average closing price over a 10-day period) and a $300,000 brokerage fee. XtFt’s key partners have also been offered option-based retention packages. The transaction will close upon the delivery of all outstanding items outlined in the agreement.

Founded in 2006 as a developer of multiplatform console, Web and mobile games, TechFront began developing social games for the Orkut platform in 2010 in partnership with various international publishers, including U.S.-based eGames.

The acquisition of XtFt will allow its team of 41 full-time game developers to focus on developing culturally relevant social gaming IP for the Quepasa platform and other social networks with audiences in Latin America. The acquisition will also better position Quepasa to capitalize, as both a publisher of social games and a platform for playing social games, on the rapid growth and monetization of social games throughout Latin America.

Quepasa recently reported that its membership base increased 255% in 2010 to total more than 27.2 million registered users. The site added 2.2 million users and generated 16.4 million unique visits in December 2010, compared to 1.2 million new users and 7.1 million unique visits in December 2009. Page views increased to 184 million page views in December 2010 from 175 million in the previous month.

Brazil, Curitiba  & USA, West Palm Beach, FL

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Market Research Report – 2010 Private Equity in the Information Industry Merger & Acquisition Trends – Valuation Metrics up 53% from 2009

February 4, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Berkery Noyes, a middle market investment bank, has released its 2010 Private Equity in the Information Industry M&A Trends Report.  The report analyses merger and acquisition activity in 2010 and compares it with activity in the three previous years.

Total transaction volume in 2010 increased by 24 percent over 2009 from 222 in 2009 to 275 in 2010, while the aggregate transaction value in 2010 increased by 57 percent from $16.21 billion to $25.45 billion.  The median revenue multiple also experienced a gain of 53 percent over 2009, from 1.3 to 2.0 in 2010.

“It’s encouraging that both the number of deals and the value are up from 2009, as are the revenue and EBITDA multiples.  I would expect this improvement to continue for the next 2 to 3 years,” said John Shea, Chief Operating Officer of Berkery Noyes.

Large, active financial buyers have focused their acquisitions on adding to existing portfolio companies rather than the acquisition of new, stand alone investments.  Indeed, over 80 percent of their transactions have been incorporated into existing investments, where across the acquisition landscape in the information industry, the number has been closer to 60 percent.Thoma Bravo was the most active financial acquirer in the information industry by volume, with 10 acquisitions: UPS Logistics Technologies, Computer Systems Company, Inc., Hershey Systems, Inc., LANDesk Software, Inc., Beyond Appraisal, Inc., SonicWALL, Inc., Double-Take Software, ManageSoft Corporation, PLATO Learning, Inc. and eWebHealth.

To view the full report click HERE

USA, New York, NY

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IAC’s Match.com acquires OkCupid

February 4, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Match.com, an operating business of IAC, announce has acquired OkCupid, the U.S. online dating company, for $50 million in cash, plus potential future payments contingent upon performance.

Over the past 18 months, OkCupid has experienced substantial member growth by establishing a more casual, low-hurdle dating environment that has resonated with younger adults.  Unlike IAC’s other dating sites, OkCupid generates revenues primarily through advertising, and over the last year has been the fastest growing dating site in the advertising-based category.

“OkCupid has been a real innovator in our space, and the dating environment they’ve created has struck a chord with a younger demographic.  I think it’s clearly the best site in its competitive set, with better features and a more distinctive personality than any other advertising-based site,” said Greg Blatt, CEO of IAC.  “We know that many people who start out on advertising-based sites ultimately develop an appetite for the broader feature set and more committed community, which subscription sites like Match.com and Chemistry.com offer, creating a true complimentary relationship between our various business models.  2010 saw record growth both for Match and OkCupid, and we believe coordinating the adjacent business models will help fuel continued growth for both.  This acquisition therefore goes a long way toward our objectives of bringing new people into the online dating world, offering the ability to meet in whatever type of online setting, and at whatever commitment level, our members desire, and facilitating a seamless evolution of the online dating experience without ever having to leave our portfolio of sites.”

“We are excited to join forces with Match because it is clear that no company is more committed to helping people find relationships,” said Sam Yagan, co-founder and CEO of OkCupid.  “This marriage offers us the best of both worlds: the autonomy to continue pursuing OkCupid’s original vision and the ability to leverage Match’s reach and expertise to grow even faster.”Sam Yagan, the co-founder and CEO of OkCupid will continue to run the business and oversee all day-to-day operations from OkCupid’s office in New York.

USA, New York, NY

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Verve Wireless acquires Deconstruct Media

February 4, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Verve Wireless has acquired Deconstruct Media, a mobile advertising technology company founded by a team of former Advertising.com product and engineering executives.  

Deconstruct’s product is an automated mobile display advertising system that allows mobile publishers to manage their ad sales and offer their ad inventory through a self-service interface. Advertisers, in turn, can review available advertising opportunities and can buy ad campaigns directly using a credit card. The system manages pricing, targeting, creative management and reporting. The Deconstruct system will be integrated into Verve’s Ad Manager platform.

“We were looking for the best mobile display self-serve toolset available and found it in Deconstruct Media.  When we understood who was behind it and their expertise in ad technology product development, we wanted to own it. We’re thrilled to have the Deconstruct team joining Verve,” said Tom MacIsaac, CEO of Verve. “Our mission is to monetize local mobile media and clearly the self-service channel is one of the keys to doing that in a scalable fashion.”

“Verve is a great fit for Deconstruct. With over 1000 local media publishers, Verve allows us to take the core advertising technologies we have built and rapidly deploy them to a category that should really benefit from self-service advertising,” said Brent Halliburton, founder and CEO of Deconstruct who will join Verve as VP of Product Management. “Verve’s multichannel approach will continue to unlock ad dollars for local mobile publishers and will now include a smart and easy-to-use self-service channel.”

Prior to founding Deconstruct, Halliburton was Senior Director of New Product Development at Advertising.com. He and the rest of the Deconstruct team, all former Advertising.com senior software developers, will be based out of Verve’s DC office.

USA, San Diego, CA & Washington, DC

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Elsevier acquires oncology journal portfolio From Cancer Information Group

February 4, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Elsevier, the global publisher of scientific, technical, and medical information products and services, has acquired the oncology portfolio of journals previously published by CIG Media Group LP., (operated as Cancer Information Group). The journals publish peer-reviewed, disease specific original research and review articles that disseminate cutting-edge data to physicians, medical researchers and health care professionals.

“These journals provide an excellent addition to Elsevier’s oncology portfolio and will further enhance the depth and quality of oncology content published by Elsevier,” said Glen P. Campbell, Executive Vice President, Global Medical Research, for Elsevier. “We look forward to working with the editorial teams and to leveraging Elsevier’s global resources and market-leading online platforms for the continued development and growth of the quality, international profile and visibility of these prestigious journals.”

The specific journal titles are: Clinical Breast Cancer, Clinical Lung Cancer, Clinical Lymphoma Myeloma & Leukemia, Clinical Colorectal Cancer, Clinical Ovarian Cancer, and Clinical Genitourinary Cancer.”Authors will benefit from the upcoming release of enhanced online manuscript submission and review systems for the journals, as well as the range of author support tools provided by Elsevier,” said Campbell.

USA, New York, NY

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Dentsu Network West acquires digital creative agency Firstborn

February 4, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Dentsu Network West has acquired Firstborn, a leading New York-based digital creative agency specializing in design, development, production and digital strategy for top US national and global brands and advertising agencies. Firstborn develops multi-platform user experiences that extend across all media platforms, including web, mobile, broadcast and digital out-of-home. Firstborn will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Dentsu Network West.

“Firstborn’s digital creativity and technology expertise will accelerate our ability to offer the most innovative and forward-thinking solutions to our clients,” said Tim Andree, CEO, Dentsu Network West and Executive Officer at Dentsu Inc. “We are building a real network with the client at the center, comprised of the most respected and innovative companies in their arenas. This acquisition supports this mission, and our efforts to place digital at the heart of our growth strategy.”

Firstborn was founded in 1997, growing steadily into a current team of 65 employees made up of designers, producers, technologists and strategists. The company will continue to operate under the leadership of Founder & CEO, Michael Ferdman; President, Dan LaCivita; and Chief Creative Officer, Joon Yong Park.

“For the past 14 years, Firstborn has always been about two things – the work and the people that create the work.  The opportunity to align with Dentsu will give Firstborn’s work, and its people, a dominant global platform on which to drive innovation and effect measurable change in this industry,” remarked Michael Ferdman, CEO of Firstborn. “For years, Firstborn has had a lot of outside interest, but it wasn’t until now that a partnership made sense for both parties.  Timing is always crucial, and finding a partner with a history of respecting its agencies’ individual cultures made this deal a no-brainer.  I am excited for Firstborn’s next chapter; and in the meantime, we will continue to focus on doing what has always worked for us – letting the consistency and the quality of our work do the talking.”

USA, New York, NY

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US entertainment and media M&A activity has outpaced the overall US deal market in 2010

January 31, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet
  • Content developers remain attractive investments
  • Expect increased activity in video games and social media sectors ample cash available to fuel future M&A

US entertainment and media (E&M) merger and acquisition activity outpaced the overall US deal market in 2010, according to PwC US. With the industry’s fast-paced shift to digital – and attractive levels of corporate cash reserves and private equity dry powder, PwC believes the catalysts are in place for more E&M deal activity during 2011.

In 2010, completed E&M deal volume increased slightly by 3% to 804 transactions, while total completed and disclosed deal value fell from $37.2 billion in 2009 to $33.5 billion in 2010. A primary driver of the increase in deal volume was Internet software & services (B2C) deals. PwC notes an increase in the percentage of announced transactions that did not disclose value, which could have an impact on the actual 2010 value trends. However, despite the decrease in announced deal value, the pipeline for E&M deals in 2011 points to continued improvement and a strong outlook, with more than 200 deals and $24 billion of deal value already announced and pending (including the recently approved NBC Universal joint venture between Comcast and GE).

Total entertainment & media deals by sector

Corporate deal activity remained at the forefront in 2010 with strategic buyers contributing 83% of total deal volume. However, with the decline in reported and completed corporate mega-deals (deals greater than $1 billion), total corporate E&M deal value decreased from 81% of disclosed deal value in 2009 to 59% in 2010.

Private equity solidified its presence within certain E&M subsectors with acquisitions of platform and strategic bolt-ons throughout 2010 (particularly within casinos and gaming, recreation and leisure, publishing and broadcasting). The number of private equity-backed deals increased from 126 in 2009 to 140 in 2010, while their announced value nearly doubled from $6.9 billion in 2009 to $13.7 billion in 2010. PwC sees the potential for an increased appetite for mega-deals by private equity firms.

“With almost $1 trillion of untapped committed capital worldwide, private equity is still primed to make significant acquisitions in the future,” Spiegel continued. “Look for a selection of E&M companies to re-evaluate existing business portfolios and accelerate their divestiture plans, as valuations continue to rebound and interest from private equity intensifies.”

More detail of PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2010–2014 is available here.

USA, New York, NY

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