Data center energy resource management solutions company Viridity Software has raised an additional $8 million in Series B funding from current investors Battery Ventures and North Bridge Venture Partners. This follows-on a successful Series A funding round of $7 million. The additional funding will be used to expand the development of the company’s EnergyCenter software platform, as well as greatly accelerate its go-to-market activities.
USA, Burlington, MA
Online textbook rental company, Chegg.com, has acquired CourseRank, the Mountain View-based start-up that provides college students an easy and convenient way to create and share their course schedule, take classes with their friends, read and write reviews on classes and professors as well as find out how professors grade.
“We are excited about adding CourseRank to the portfolio of content and services we can offer students to make college easier and more affordable,” said Dan Rosensweig, President and CEO of Chegg.com. “We all share a commitment to saving students time, money and making them smarter. It’s amazing how popular CourseRank has become on campus, having nearly 100,000 users and growing every day.”
Founded by three college students and already being used on 175 colleges and universities across the U.S., CourseRank helps students manage and plan their academic careers. CourseRank’s scheduling, planning and course review system guides students by arranging relevant course information in an easily accessible display where they can track their progress towards the goal of graduation, mapping courses taken, and grades received. A feature for students to find textbooks for their courses using CourseRank is currently in beta for select schools.
“We’re excited to be part of the number one online textbook rental company in such a hot space,” said Filip Kaliszan, Co-Founder and CEO of CourseRank. “We share Chegg’s commitment to using technology to make life easier and cheaper for college kids, and we are excited about expanding our reach to more schools, adding many new features in the next few months.”
CourseRank, founded in 2007 by three Stanford University students, has seen tremendous growth in the past year. To date, the company has achieved adoption by some of the country’s top schools including Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Cornell University.
USA, Santa Clara, CA
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Total Beauty Media , a USVP-funded company,has acquired LimeLife.com, the multi-platform female lifestyle and celebrity news site, which also features LimeLife’s MySnaps social shopping service.
Total Beauty Media operates a suite of digital media properties including TotalBeauty.com, BeautyRiot,com, KateLuxe.com, ModernMan.com, and the Total Beauty Media Network. Total Beauty Media has grown rapidly since its founding in 2007. Now, with the addition of LimeLife’s audience, Total Beauty Media ranks #6 among Beauty, Fashion, and Style Web properties according to Comscore’s June 2010 report. And among female lifestyle mobile web sites, Total Beauty Media now ranks #1.
By offering its services across multiple environments including the web, mobile, and iPhone, LimeLife.com provides its consumers, wherever they are, with the latest in celebrity news, fashion tips, and lifestyle information. In addition, LimeLife’s MySnaps social shopping service allows consumers to create, share, and shop from their own personal shopping wish lists via the web and mobile.
“We are excited to expand Total Beauty’s offerings into the female lifestyle, mobile, and social shopping markets,” said Emrah Kovacoglu, founder and CEO of Total Beauty Media, Inc. “By combining LimeLife with our other digital media properties, we continue to create a powerful and scalable digital media company. We will now be able to connect our sizable audience with the brand advertisers who want to reach these women wherever they are — at home, at work, or on-the-go. LimeLife’s unique capabilities in reaching women on mobile are especially interesting to the future of marketing and commerce. We intend to build upon this foundation to provide women and brands with unique mobile content and advertising opportunities.”
“We’re thrilled to become a part of the Total Beauty Media family with its ability to monetize at three times the industry average, reach millions of female readers, and produce engaging premium content,” said Kristin McDonnell, CEO and Co-Founder of LimeLife. “Total Beauty will help accelerate LimeLife’s audience growth and expand our strong advertiser base to include even more consumer brands.”
USA, Santa Monica, CA
Heavily indepted Nielsen plans to raise $2.01 billion through its IPO, according to its latest S-1 filing. This is up from the $1.75M Fusion DigiNet reported in June.
As a result of the 2006 purchase of our Nielsen by a consortium of private equity firms (AlpInvest Partners, The Blackstone Group, The Carlyle Group, Hellman & Friedman, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Thomas H. Lee Partners), Nielsen has incurred a significant amount of indebtedness and have a net tangible book deficit ($8.4 billion and $8.8 billion, respectively, as of June 30, 2010).
They have also have generated net losses since that time ($489 million, $589 million and $354 million for the years ended December 31, 2009, 2008 and 2007, respectively).
Nielsen report that certain of their financial performance metrics have improved significantly between the year ended December 31, 2006 and the year ended December 31, 2009:
Nielsen intend to some of the proceeds of the share issue to reduce their indebtedness.
Financial performance summary
Nielsen is a global information and measurement company that provides clients with a comprehensive understanding of consumers and consumer behavior.
Full details are available here
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In 2009, the demand for worldwide energy saw its first decline since 1982, according to a new report from IMAP. However, the combined revenue of the three major sources of alternative energy was $144.5 billion, up 15.8 percent from 2008. Government support, including stimulus packages, helped to boost the global capacity for wind by 31 percent, solar by 47 percent and biofuels by 21 percent. Additionally, for the first time in 2009, energy smart technologies such as digital energy applications, power saving appliances and electric vehicles attracted more venture capital and private equity investment than any other renewable energy technology. Although the industry faced the 2009 financial crisis in North America and Europe, its long-term growth fundamentals remain intact.
From the second quarter of 2009 through the second quarter of 2010, the industry saw 391 transactions, valued at $20.4 billion in total transaction value, up 54.8 percent in deal value versus the previous period. Solar and wind accounted for nearly 58 percent of total dollar volume for the period. In terms of country, China saw the highest transaction value of $5.4 billion with a total of 23 transactions during the last 12 months. The U.S. came in second with a transaction value of $2.6 billion from 72 transactions, followed by Spain, the Philippines and India. Among regions, Asia led with a total of 63 transactions, followed by Europe with 183, North America with 110 and the Middle East with 4.
In the future, the growth of energy demand will be largely concentrated in developing economies due to the high demand in these regions. As emerging markets rapidly expand their power generation capacity, IMAP advisers predict they will focus on wind, solar, bio and hydropower.
For more information about the The 2010 Alternative Energy Global Report go to www.imap.com
Idle Media has acquired www.HipHopEarly.com, an online music destination for Hip Hop single pre-releases. This acquisition follows the company’s recent agreement to acquire the assets of three other online properties: www.prisonblock.com, www.chixr.us, and www.tweetvibe.com.
“Adding HipHopEarly.com to our portfolio allows us to touch the music the fans of Dat Piff love in a much different way,” stated Mr. Marcus Frasier, Idle Media, Inc.’s President and CEO. “This acquisition is just another step in our strategy to continually expand our on-line presence in both the social gaming and hip hop niches. We’ve taken an established site with respectable user traffic, breathed new life into it and immediately integrated it into our business without incurring any additional expense. The revenue from these types of acquisitions basically flows straight through to the bottom line.”
Idle Media, Inc. is a publicly traded new media technology company that delivers cutting-edge content and online gaming through its wholly-owned operating companies, including Dat Piff, a provider of online mix tapes and user-generated content.
USA, Leesport, PA
Coastal Capital Acquisition has acquired 100% of the shares of Planet Impact through a share exchange agreement in which Mr. Michael Lambert (current CEO of Planet Impact Inc.) and Mr. Stephen Remondini, (current President of Planet Impact Inc.) join the Board of Directors of the Company.
“We have been in discussions for 5 weeks with Mr. Remondini’s team and believe that the ‘green business model’ will create significant value for the shareholders of CCAJ,” stated Jeff Berkowitz, past President and CEO of the Company. As a result of the transaction Mr. Berkowitz has resigned as an officer and director of the Company, effective immediately, and Mr. Tracey Anderson will assist the new Board in the transition and resign effective August 27th. Mr. Berkowitz further added, “We have been through many opportunities and iterations of the Company over the last 4 years and I believe this transaction will bring lasting stability and infinite opportunities for CCAJ and its shareholders.”
Planet Impact distributes innovative energy-efficient carbon emission and water purification products designed to meet the burgeoning demands of government, industry, agriculture, consumer and recreational needs, humanitarian assistance, and emergency response. Planet Impact’s flagship products include; the Vitalizer™ for the reductions of carbon emissions, and the Aqualizer™ and AquaMaster™ for water purification, disinfectants and desalination.
As a result of the transaction, Mr. Remondini will accept the role of Chairman and President of the Company, Mr. Lambert will accept the position of Chief Executive Officer and Director. “We are excited about entering into a transaction of this type because of its potential to provide additional resources by which we can grow the company at a faster pace in this economy and create greater opportunities for the shareholders,” stated Mr. Remondini. He added, “We are big on communicating the ‘Green Message’ to the investing public, and to educating as many people as possible about the Company’s mission and our planned approach into multiple green markets. As a result of this desire, we will hold an investor conference call within the next few weeks, and will inform the public in advance of the date and time.”
USA, Atlanta, GA
Summer Street Capital Partners, a private equity fund based in Buffalo, NY, has completed an equity investment in Action Environmental Services, a provider of waste management services for the business community in the City of New York. The investment will support the acquisition of select New York City assets from Republic Services. “The addition of these assets, including two transfer stations, positions Action to serve our customers more effectively in the highly competitive and demanding New York City market,” said Ron Bergamini, Action’s CEO.
Bergamini continued, “We look forward to continuing to provide the local university, hospital, sports stadium, and corporate market with impeccable collection services and state of the art technologies designed to help them meet their ‘green’ objectives to reduce, reuse and recycle.” The two new transfer stations will enable the company to increase the quantity and quality of their recycling capabilities, further advancing Action’s mission to be the foremost environmentally friendly collection & recycling provider in the city.
Brian D’Amico, Summer Street managing partner and head of the firm’s environmental services investment team, commented: “After working and investing together in a successful environmental services company in the early 2000s, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to invest again in support of the talented team at Action.” Summer Street joins Ironwood Capital as private equity partners to finance the acquisition of these strategic assets.
USA, Buffalo, NY
According to TechCrunch, Google is in the final stages of acquiring visual image technology business Like.com, for something north of $100 million.
Read the story at Techcrunch
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Zynga has acquired Boston-based social games company Conduit Labs. Effective immediately, the Conduit Labs office will become Zynga Boston, a new game studio focused on new product development. The acquisition expands Zynga’s studio operations adding to locations already in San Francisco, Austin, Baltimore, Bangalore, Beijing and Los Angeles. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Conduit Labs’s CEO, Nabeel Hyatt, will become head of the new Boston studio. The Conduit Labs team will be immediately integrated into Zynga’s workforce. Conduit Labs, founded in 2007 and funded by Charles River Ventures and Prism VentureWorks, has developed several free-to-play social games for the web.
“Boston is an epicenter for technology and has a strong talent market, making it an ideal location for us to expand operations,” said Mike Verdu, senior vice president of games at Zynga. “As one of the most prominent social game companies in Boston, the Conduit team shares a similar culture and drive with Zynga, and together we anticipate great successes from our new studio.”
Zynga is the world’s largest social game developer. More than 215 million monthly active users play its games. Zynga’s games include FarmVille, Treasure Isle, Zynga Poker, Mafia Wars, YoVille, Café World, FishVille, PetVille and FrontierVille. Zynga games are available on Facebook, MySpace and the iPhone.
USA, San Francisco, CA
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