DeNA acquires Gameview, a leading developer of mobile social games

September 25, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

DeNA has acquired 100 percent of Gameview Studios, LLC, formally know as Bayview Labs, LLC

Based out of Mountain View, CA, Gameview creates social gaming applications on iDevices. Gameview has created the popular applications Tap Ranch, Tap Fish: Exotic, and Tap Birds, the last two which have been ranked No.1 among free apps in the App store.

Gameview has some new mobile apps in its pipeline and plans to provide new apps in the Android market. It aims to establish a firm position in the smartphone market going forward.

DeNA is aggressively investing in promising social application developers all over the world to promote their “X-device” “X-border” strategy of promoting game development across different mobile devices and borders

“Our acquisition of Gameview today is congruent with our goal of rapidly expanding our mobile footprint as a leading brand and platform in mobile social gaming,” says Tomoko Namba, CEO of DeNA. “We were impressed by the creativity and passion that the Gameview team has for creating addictive and engaging gaming experiences, we’re excited to welcome them into the DeNA family.”

Through this acquisition, DeNA will promote an alliance between Gameview and MiniNation, DeNA’s strategic subsidiary in the smartphone market. By leading Gameview’s socially-active users to the MiniNation platform, DeNA aims to energize activities on MiniNation platform and further increase the platform’s value.

“The overwhelmingly wide range of games and active users in the community are the formula for success DeNA has utilized on Mobage-town in Japan,” says Namba. “This acquisition will enable DeNA to replicate this success in the smartphone market and MiniNation platform, further expanding DeNA in the global market.”

DeNA has a wide range of operations including social gaming, e-commerce, mobile phone related services and online advertising business. Its latest quarterly report puts it on track to create $1 billion in revenue this year. DeNA has been steadily increasing their American presence through strategic U.S. investments. They invested in mobile social gaming company, Aurora Feint, and made a full acquisition of IceBreaker, DeNA.

This latest acquisition follows a series of moves by DeNA including a strategic partnership with Yahoo!, called Yahoo Mobage, and the creation of a $27.5 million incubation fund to promote social gaming.

USA, San Mateo, CA & Japan, Tokyo

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WebMediaBrands acquires the Semantic Technology Conference and Semantic Universe Blog

September 24, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

WebMediaBrands has acquired all of the assets of the Semantic Technology Conference (SemTech) and the SemanticUniverse.com blog from Wilshire Conferences. SemTech is the largest conference in the world dedicated to the rapidly growing topic of the Semantic Web and Linked Data. Tony Shaw and Dave McComb, founders and operators of SemTech, will continue as consultants and will take an active role in expanding and operating SemTech for WebMediaBrands in coming years. SemTech 2011 is scheduled to take place in June 2011 in San Francisco, CA. SemanticUniverse is a blog and e-mail newsletter providing news and articles about the application of semantic technologies. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“The Semantic Web is a rapidly growing technology that is affecting search marketing, retail marketing, and publishing and media markets,” stated Alan M. Meckler, Chairman and CEO of WebMediaBrands. “SemTech was founded in 2005 and has become the main trade show for those interested in the future of Semantic Web developments in technology as well as commercial applications. WebMediaBrands already has one of the leading blogs covering the field, SemanticWeb.com, and has operated the Semantic Web Summit conference. By combining forces with Semantic Universe and SemTech, WebMediaBrands has become the definitive source of information for what appears to be one of the next great revolutions in Web search and marketing. We expect that this acquisition will be accretive to our earnings and cash flows,” added Meckler.

”Semantic technologies are clearly going mainstream, both on the W eb and in the enterprise,”  stated Tony Shaw. “We felt we needed the resources and expertise of a larger, robust media organization to keep pace with these rapid developments. Dave and I are thrilled to continue the job we started – building a world-class educational organization focused on semantics – and now with the enthusiastic support of Alan Meckler and WebMediaBrands” added Shaw.

USA, New York, NY

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LinkedIn acquires ChoiceVendor

September 24, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, has agreed to acquire ChoiceVendor, a startup that provides real-world ratings and reviews of business-to-business service providers in more than 70 categories across the United States. Financial terms of the acquisition are not being released.

“Our acquisition of ChoiceVendor is right in line with our top priority to build a world-class team at LinkedIn, says Jeff Weiner, chief executive officer of LinkedIn. “We’ve admired the work that Yan-David, Rama, and the talented ChoiceVendor team have done for some time now and are excited to have them join us, especially given their highly relevant work experience.”

ChoiceVendor is based in San Francisco and was founded by chief executive officer Yan-David Erlich and vice president of engineering Rama Ranganath. Prior to founding ChoiceVendor, Yan-David was an entrepreneur in residence at Battery Ventures and the founder and CEO of Mogad/Social.IM which was acquired by iSkoot in 2008. Previously, he also held software engineering and product management roles at Microsoft and Google. Rama was at Google before founding ChoiceVendor where he was an early engineer on the AdSense team and eventually managed several teams including the Google Ad Manager team. Prior to that, Rama worked at Microsoft.

“Since Yan-David and I worked with members of the LinkedIn team in the past during our time at Google, we’ve kept a sharp eye on the company’s phenomenal growth,” said Rama Ranganath, one of ChoiceVendor’s co-founders. “We’re excited about the direction that LinkedIn is headed, particularly in terms of helping its members derive valuable business insights from the site, and are looking forward to joining the team.”

USA, Mountain Views, CA

Related article – LinkedIn acquires mSpoke Posted on August 13, 2010

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Independent digital and direct interactive agency Rosetta acquires LEVEL Studios

September 22, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Independent digital and direct interactive agency Rosetta has acquired LEVEL Studios. A California-based integrated marketing and product development agency.  Purchase price and terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The combination, places Rosetta among the top five digital advertising agencies in the U.S. The addition of LEVEL’s three California locations gives Rosetta a significant West Coast presence.

LEVEL is forecasting $45 million revenues in 2010.  It has 215 staff across its San Luis Obispo (headquarters), San Jose and Los Angeles, CA studios.

LEVEL will retain its current management team and through 2011 will operate as “LEVEL, a Rosetta Company” as a separate group within Rosetta’s overall business.  The two agencies will soon begin to work through how to leverage each other’s expertise and team members across agencies to provide additional capabilities to existing and prospective clients.

With the acquisition, Rosetta will have estimated 2010 revenues of $215 million, more than 1,000 team members, 10 offices in the US and Canada, and unsurpassed expertise across all digital and direct touch points.  Prior to the acquisition of LEVEL, Rosetta ranked as the nation’s largest independent interactive agency and one of the 10 largest overall, according to Advertising Age. 

Rosetta’s revenues were $152.5 million in 2009.  Prior to this acquisition, Rosetta employed 850 staff in seven offices throughout the U.S. and Canada.  Some of their leading clients include Allergan, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Bristol Myers Squibb, Coach, Johnson & Johnson, Jos. A. Bank, M&T Bank, Marriott, Microsoft, Nationwide, OfficeMax, Rogers Communications, T-Mobile and Valvoline. 

New York-based mergers and acquisition firm AdMedia Partners acted as financial advisor to LEVEL in the transaction.

USA, Princeton, NJ & San Luis Obispo, CA

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Schawk acquires boutique digital agency Untitled London Limited

September 22, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Schawk, a brand point management services, has acquired the boutique digital agency Untitled London Limited, which is based in London, UK.

Untitled London Limited, with annual revenues of approximately $0.7 million, provides strategic, creative and technical services for digital marketing across web, mobile and social touch points.

President and Chief Executive Officer David A. Schawk commented, “With the acquisition of Untitled London Limited, we will be able to offer our clients a broader array of digital marketing services, enabling them to integrate their digital marketing programs more holistically with the balance of their marketing activities. On a broader level, this acquisition reflects our continued commitment to strategically enhance our brand point management capabilities.”

According to Rob Hollands, managing director of Untitled London Limited, “Schawk presented our agency with an opportunity to extend our creative reach across its extensive client base. Enhancing and expanding the offering that Schawk provides to an enormous wealth of brands means that we have an established platform to grow our business globally. We are proud of our body of creative work and look forward to using our talent and skills to complement Schawk’s approach to brand owners.”

UK, London & USA, Des Plaines, IL

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

Fairview Research acquires patent database leader IFI

September 22, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Fairview Research, a provider of data enrichment technology and services for technical information retrieval and analysis, has acquired IFI Patent Intelligence from Wolters Kluwer Pharma Solutions.  IFI is the leading producer of value-added U.S. patent databases and indexing services.  The acquisition allows Fairview to augment its existing data standardisation technologies and broaden its intellectual property expertise. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

IFI will continue to offer all of its current products and services and will operate as IFI CLAIMS Patent Services from its existing Delaware offices.  In the long term, the company believes customers will benefit from the combined strengths of the two organizations, which together will create one of the industry’s most powerful and comprehensive sets of patent analysis capabilities.

“The IFI acquisition is a good fit, both strategically and in terms of helping us to better serve our customers,” said Mike Baycroft, CEO, Fairview Research.  “We put in place plans to make the transition as smooth as possible for customers and a commitment to continue offering an unchanged, high level of customer service.”

USA, New Haven, CT

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Naspers internet unit acquires controlling interest in Multiply

September 22, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Naspers has acquired a controlling interest in Multiply, operator of the market leading Social Shopping site Multiply.com.

Multiply, which blends social networking with an online marketplace that now numbers over 70,000 merchants and 20 million monthly unique visitors, will continue to operate under the same management team. The Multiply Marketplace was launched earlier this year to provide an easy way for sellers to be found by buyers within the Multiply network.

“We are delighted to have partnered with Naspers, a recognized world leader in e-commerce in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa, and to be able to draw from their expertise and resources as we solidify our leadership in the Social Shopping space in Southeast Asia,” said Peter Pezaris, Multiply’s president and CEO. “We are continuing to grow the Multiply Marketplace in the region, and Naspers’s backing will no doubt help us accelerate that growth.”

USA, Boca Raton, FL

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Energy Solutions International has been acquired by GFI Energy Group

September 22, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Energy Solutions International, a portfolio company of Inverness Graham Investments, has been acquired by the GFI Energy Group of Oaktree Capital Management.  ESI is a leading global supplier of software solutions for oil and gas pipelines and terminals.

“At ESI we are very excited about this investment from GFI which will help us bring our technology to the next level of excellence and enhance our ability to provide cost-effective solutions to our customers around the world,” said Dr. Jo Webber, CEO of Energy Solutions. “Access to GFI’s significant expertise and relationships in the energy markets will strengthen ESI as a leading provider of mission-critical technology solutions to the pipeline industry.”

“GFI seeks to work with market leading companies and top notch management teams in the energy industry,” said Ian Schapiro, GFI’s Managing Director.  “As we investigated the energy logistics sector, it became evident that ESI’s technology and products are markedly superior and address a growing market need.  We look forward to working with ESI’s dedicated and experienced management team to help increase the scope of the Company’s solutions, portfolio, and global presence.”

USA, Houston, TX

Posted in B2B Services, Energy & Environmental Services, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Kendall Law Group investigates Internet Brands acquisition – says the transaction may be undervaluing the company

September 21, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Kendall Law Group is investigating Internet Brands for shareholders in connection with the proposed acquisition by an affiliate of Hellman & Friedman Capital Partners VI, L.P. The national securities litigation firm is investigating whether a fair process was used prior to entering into the merger agreement and whether the Board of Directors breached their fiduciary duties by not seeking a deal that would provide better value of the Company. 

On September 20, 2010, the companies announced the definitive merger agreement under which Internet Brands would be acquired by an affiliate of Hellman & Friedman in a transaction valued at approximately $640 million. Under the terms of the agreement, Internet Brands stockholders will receive $13.35 in cash for each outstanding share of Internet Brands/INET common stock held. While this offer represents a 46.5% premium over the closing price on September 17, 2010, Internet Brands stock was trading for close to $11.00 per share earlier this month. The firm believes that transaction may be significantly undervaluing the company.

USA, Dallas, TX

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Internet Brands to be acquired by PE firm Hellman & Friedman for $640 million

September 21, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Internet media company Internet Brands is to be acquired by an affiliate of Hellman & Friedman Capital Partners VI, L.P. in a transaction valued at approximately $640 million. Under the terms of the agreement, Internet Brands stockholders will receive $13.35 in cash for each outstanding share of common stock they own. This price represents a premium of approximately 46.5% over the closing price on September 17, 2010.

The Board of Directors, on the unanimous recommendation of a Special Committee of independent directors, approved the merger agreement and recommends that Internet Brands’ stockholders adopt the merger agreement.

“We are very happy for our stockholders — this is a great outcome. And we’re excited about continuing to build our business with a great new partner,” said Bob Brisco, CEO of Internet Brands. “We are deeply grateful to those who have shared the journey with us this far. And we are looking forward to the next leg of building a powerful New Media company with our new owners.”

“Internet Brands is a uniquely positioned internet media company,” said Andy Ballard, Managing Director at Hellman & Friedman. “The company has built an impressive platform for branded vertical websites. We look forward to partnering with Bob and the entire Internet Brands team to support the company’s continued success.”

Debt financing commitments have been provided by Bank of America, N.A., BMO Capital Markets, GE Capital and RBC Capital Markets. Idealab, which beneficially owns approximately 19% of Internet Brands’ outstanding common stock and approximately 64% of the voting power of the company, has entered into a voting agreement with an affiliate of Hellman & Friedman relating to the merger agreement. The transaction is subject to stockholder approval, including approval by holders of a majority of the outstanding common stock not owned by Idealab and certain other excluded parties, and customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2010.

Jefferies & Company, Inc. is acting as exclusive financial advisor and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP is acting as legal advisor to the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Internet Brands. Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP is serving as counsel to Internet Brands. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is serving as counsel to Hellman & Friedman.

USA, El Segundo, CA

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