~North America | Fusion Corporate Partners

Internet Brands acquires online professional directory network ExpertHub

April 28, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Internet Brands has acquired ExpertHub, a network of websites that connects consumers with atorneys and other professionals. The network joins the company’s rapidly growing Money and Business vertical.

The ExpertHub network of websites helps consumers find the right match by providing targeted content and listings of qualified local professionals. It is described as an efficient way for professionals to attract clients.

“SMB Internet advertising is growing very rapidly, especially amongst professionals,” said Bob Brisco, CEO of Internet Brands. “ExpertHub features targeted articles written by the experts that are attracting highly qualified audiences the professionals are seeking.”

The ExpertHub network includes dozens of websites that are leaders in their specific niches, such as www.CriminalDefenseLawyer.com, www.BankruptcyLawFirms.com, and www.LawFirms.com.

“ExpertHub has developed a leading platform for the professional services market, and the platform is compatible and complementary with Internet Brands’ strategy and technology infrastructure,”” said Steve Lombardi, President of ExpertHub. “Our team is looking forward to working with Internet Brands to further build out the ExpertHub network.”

Internet Brands owns and operates more than 100 websites including www.ApartmentRatings.com, www.CarsDirect.com, www.CruiseReviews.com, www.DavesGarden.com, www.DoItYourself.com, www.FitDay.com, www.FlyerTalk.com, www.HealthNews.org, www.Loan.com, www.Wikitravel.org, and many more. In total, these sites attract approximately 58 million unique visitors per month.

Location: USA, Los Angeles, CA
Sector: Internet, Publishing
Related article: Internet Brands acquires DoDTracker.com and PursePage.com Posted on April 28, 2010
Ref: F231109-403

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ShoeDazzle.com raises $13 million

April 27, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

ShoeDazzle.com, the online monthly fashion styling service, has announced the completion of its $13 million growth financing, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners of Menlo Park, California, and existing investor Polaris Venture Partners of Boston, Massachusetts. The funding will allow the company to launch related products that will continue to dazzle its members and to accelerate its leadership position in a new business category created by ShoeDazzle.com. This capital infusion brings the total funding raised for ShoeDazzle.com to over $20 million.

Location: USA, Los Angeles, CA
Sector: eRetail
Ref: F231109-402

Related article: ShoeDazzle Raises $7 Million Posted on November 19, 2009

Posted in e-Commerce, ~North America. Tags: eRetail. Leave a Comment »

Iconix Brand Group acquires “Peanuts”

April 27, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Iconix Brand Group has signed a definitive agreement with United Features Syndicate and The E.W. Scripps Company to acquire the Peanuts brand and related assets in partnership with the Schulz family. As part of the transaction, Iconix will also acquire the licensing and character representation business of United Media Licensing, a division of UFS, which, in addition to Peanuts, represents a number of character brands, including Dilbert and Fancy Nancy. The Peanuts brand and other acquired assets will be purchased through a newly formed subsidiary, which will be owned 80% by Iconix and 20% by the Schulz family.

The cast of Peanuts, includes, among others, iconic and well known characters such as Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus, Sally, Schroeder, Peppermint Patty and Woodstock. Peanuts has a strong diversified global licensing platform with over 1,200 licensing agreements including relationships with MetLife, Hallmark, Universal Studios, Warner Bros., Cedar Fair, H&M, Benetton, Old Navy, CVS and Walgreens. The Peanuts brand is licensed in over 40 countries and generates annual retail sales of over $2 billion.

The total purchase price for this acquisition is approximately $175 million of which Iconix will pay for its 80% share and the Schulz family will pay for its 20% share. Iconix portion will be funded from the Company’s existing cash balance.

On a pro-forma basis the Company expects Peanuts to generate approximately $75 million in annual royalty revenue and add approximately $0.12-$0.15 in annual EPS. Different from a typical Iconix acquisition, the costs associated with the Peanuts business will be higher than the Company’s existing brands as there is an existing contractual revenue share with the Schulz heirs, which is separate from the family’s 20% interest in the new partnership. There are also agent commissions and additional administrative costs associated with managing over 1,200 contracts around the world. Initially, EBITDA margins for this business are expected to be in a range of approximately 20%-25%. In 2010, the accretion will be impacted by deal costs and will depend on the timing of the close.

Location: USA, New York, NY
Sector: Publishing
Ref: F231109-400

Related articles

Scripps sells uSwitch to Forward Internet Group – updated Posted on March 2, 2010
Scripps Networks Interactive acquires 69% of NDTV Lifestyle Posted on November 19, 2009

Posted in Broadcasting, Content Media, Internet Media, Publishers, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Mail.com acquires Boy Genius Report

April 27, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Mail.com Media Corporation (MMC), the digital media company that owns and operates the Mail.com portal and email service as well as lifestyle brands including, Deadline.com, HollywoodLife.com, Movieline.com and OnCars.com, announced today its acquisition of BGR, or Boy Genius Report as it was formally known. At around one million user, BGR is one of the most visited mobile/gadget blogs in the world.

Launched in October 2006, BGR.com has grown quickly to become one of the top three sites in the mobile category. Demonstrating its appeal to a broad audience that extends beyond mobile, Technorati also lists BGR.com as one of the Top 50 most influential content destinations in the world, across all categories.

BGR was founded by Jonathan Geller who started off writing for Engadget as an anonymous blogger

Commenting on the move to MMC, Geller said “I’m excited to be able to partner with Jay Penske and MMC on the BGR property. I look forward to continuing to grow BGR globally with the support of MMC’s talented team and extended network. Our new platform will allow us to deliver the same high quality exclusive breaking news that we’re known for, but to an even larger audience. I’m also excited to have the opportunity to expand BGR beyond just the mobile category to reach a new core of ferociously dedicated readers”.

“We’re thrilled to announce our acquisition of BGR, and partnership with Jonathan. Very much in the mold of Nikki Finke of Deadline.com, Jonathan has singlehandedly built an influential site with original content that appeals to an extremely engaged and loyal following in one of the largest and most exciting categories online–and he’s done it all before his 23rd birthday” said Jay Penske, the founder, Chairman and CEO of MMC. “I believe MMC is a perfect fit for Geller and BGR.com–because we provide the most original and conversational content on the web, and have the skill-set, infrastructure and reach to accelerate the scale of the BGR brand”.

Link: Read Geller’s comments about the deal on the BGR blog
Location: USA, Los Angeles, CA
Sector: Internet, Publishing
Ref: F231109-399

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, Publishers, ~North America. Tags: Internet, Publishing. Leave a Comment »

MakeItBetter.net buys NorthShore Magazine from Sun-Times Media

April 26, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Fast growing MakeItBetter.net became metropolitan Chicago’s largest information and community networking source catering to suburban women Friday with the purchase of NorthShore Magazine’s assets, a 32-year-old publishing mainstay.

The purchase from Sun-Times Media Group comes six months after MakeItBetter.net launched a magazine companion to its 3-year-old popular Internet site. The website had over 35,000 unique readers in the first three months of 2010. The magazine—before this acquisition—was sent to more than 52,000 selected homes every month.

Deal Terms: Undisclosed

Acquirer: MakeItBetter.net
ACQ Web: http://MakeItBetter.net
Location: USA, Wilmette, IL
Region: North America
Description: Online resource and magazine for Chicago’s North Shore.
Category: News
Contact: founder Susan B. Noyes

Vendor: Sun-Times Media Group
Vendor Web: http://suntimesnewsgroup.com
Business Sold: NorthShore Magazine
Web Link: http://www.northshoremag.com/cgi-bin/ns-article
Description: On March 31, 2009, Sun-Times Media Group, Inc. filed a voluntary petition to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The Company and its principal operating subsidiary, the Sun-Times News Group, continues to operate its newspapers and online sites as usual while it focuses on further improving its cost structure and stabilizing operations. Sun-Times Media Group has retained Rothschild Inc. to commence a process for the sale of assets pursuant to Section 363 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
Category: News

FDN Reference: F231109-398

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Playdom acquires social game developer Merscom

April 26, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Playdom, a leading social gaming company, has acquired Merscom, LLC. Privately held Merscom develops online and social games for third parties with nationally recognized brands. Merscom is currently developing games for Sea World, Purina, National Geographic and NBC Universal. Playdom plans to leverage Merscom’s expertise in working with IP owners as Playdom moves to develop partnerships with powerful global brands. Playdom also plans to use the acquisition to leverage the talented North Carolina game development community.

Deal Terms: Undisclosed

Acquirer: Playdom
ACQ Web: http://www.playdom.com
USA, Mountain View, CA
Region: North America
Description: Playdom is a game developer on Facebook and MySpace with popular titles including Social City, Sorority Life, Mobsters, Tiki Resort and Big City Life. To date, over 100 million Playdom games have been installed on leading platforms including Facebook, MySpace, iPhone and Hi5.
Category: Online Games
Contact: John Pleasants, CEO

Vendor: Merscom
Vendor Web: http://www.merscom.com
Location: USA, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Region: North America
Description: Merscom was founded more than 16 years ago to produce games with third party branded content. Merscom’s core team has produced over 250 games in total and over 30 casual games for such brands as Lifetime Networks, Paramount and Starz Entertainment. Prior to 2009 Merscom produced games primarily using international engineering resources. In 2009 Merscom added in-house engineering staff and began building as well as producing social games. The company’s first internally developed social game “The Crazies” was released in conjunction with the movie of the same name in March 2010.
Category: Online Games
Contact: Kirk Owen, CEO

Other Playdom articles

Playdom acquires online games developer Three Melons Posted on March 31, 2010
Social Games Developer Playdom invests USD$5 million in Social Gaming Company MetroGames Posted on March 17, 2010
Playdom acquires Facebook developer Offbeat Creations Posted on March 4, 2010
Playdom Buys Green Patch and Trippert Labs Posted on November 13, 2009
Playdom has raised $43 million of investment Posted on November 12, 2009

FDN Reference: F231109-397

Contact us at pkelly@fusioncorp.co.uk or visit the Fusion Corporate Partners website

Posted in Games, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

FUND RAISING ROUND-UP

April 26, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

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1. Chinese online classifieds site 58.com has raised $15 million

Chinese online classifieds site 58.com has raised $15 million in its second-round funding according to news service Sina. The funds come mainly from Doll Capital Management (DCM) and SAIF Partners. CEO Yao Jinbo said that 58.com has retained control over the company, and that the funds raised will be mainly used towards expansion in second- and third-tier cities nationwide.

2. Daily Grommet raises $3.4 million

Daily Grommet the curated online marketplace and video review site, has closed its Series A financing at $3.4 million. Investors participating in the round include Jean Hammond (investor and member of Hub Angels and Launchpad Venture Group), John Landry (angel investor at Lead Dog Ventures), Nancy Peretsman, and Jill Preotle (co-founder of the Boston Golden Seeds forum and private equity investor). The round also includes existing investors Launch Capital and Gerry Laybourne, founder of Nickelodeon and Oxygen Media.

Contact: Jules Pieri, CEO and founder of DailyGrommet.com
Location: USA, Lexington, MA

3. News Corp. invests in Beyond Oblivion

News Corp. has made an investment in music start-up Beyond Oblivion as part of a $10 million series B funding round. The story was first reported on cnet. Allen & Co., a boutique bank that focuses onmedia, new media, communications & technology also took part. They are listed on the Beyond Oblivion website as their financial advisers.

Location: USA, New York, NY

Other News Corp. articles

News Corp. acquires games developer Irata Labs Posted on April 23, 2010
News Corporation is considering the sale of Berlin based Jamba Posted on March 11, 2010
News Corporation acquires a stake in Rotana Group Posted on February 23, 2010
CME buys 90% stake of the Dow Jones Indexes business for $607.5 million Posted on February 12, 2010
Lachlan Murdoch sells $28m News Corp stake Posted on November 30, 2009
MySpace Buys ad supported music streamer Imeem Posted on November 19, 2009

4. Networked Insights raises $5 million

Networked Insights, the social media analytics company, has closed $5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Kegonsa Capital Partners. The company will use the funds to continue to expand the powerful capabilities of its SocialSense social media listening platform, launch new product offerings based on the SocialSense architecture and accelerate the growth of its sales and marketing programs.

Contact: Dan Neely, founder and CEO of Networked Insights
Location: USA, Madison, WI

5. OpenSky raises $6M Series B Financing

OpenSky has closed a $6 million Series B financing led by Highland Capital Partners and Canaan Partners. This investment brings the total raised to $11 million by the year old New York startup that is re-imaging retail in today’s distributed media environment. The new investment will allow OpenSky to continue to move aggressively to scale its proprietary relationship commerce platform. OpenSky enables consumers to conveniently purchase goods directly from the people they follow and trust. OpenSky further supports these relationships by providing the consumer with a 365-day return guarantee and the ability to provide ongoing feedback to all parties.

Contact: John Caplan, Founder and CEO of OpenSky
Location: USA, New York, NY

6. TheWrap Secures $2 Million in Series B Funding

TheWrap.com, the news organization covering the business of entertainment and media, has raised a $2 million B round capital investment from parties including Maveron, a venture capital firm co-founded by Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, and a majority of the Company’s A round investors.. The B round investment will be used to accelerate the continued expansion of TheWrap.com and to provide flexibility to take advantage of new market opportunities. This latest investment follows TheWrap.com’s Series A funding in January 2009 from Maveron and a group of private investors.

Contacts: Sharon Waxman, TheWrap.com,Founder and Editor-in-Chief: Ben Choi, Maveron Principal and TheWrap.com board member
Location: USA, Los Angeles, CA

7. Tumblr raises another $5 million

Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures have invested $5 million into micro blogging site Tumblr. Spark and Union Square were also the only investors in Tumblr’s B round in 2008. Tumblr has now raised $10.2 million. The story was first reported on Media Memo.

Contacts: Founder David Karp
Location: USA, New York, NY

8. UK investment website Stockopedia raises $700K

UK investment website Stockopedia has secured over $700,000 in Seed Funding from a consortium of private City individuals. The site reaches close to 50,000 investors monthly and around 8,000 followers across all its Twitter feeds.

Contacts: Dave Brickell and Edward Croft – Stockopedia Founders

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, Market Data & Information, Publishers, ~Asia, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Twitter acquires messaging infrastructure company Cloudhopper

April 23, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Twitter has announced the acquisition of Cloudhopper, a messaging infrastructure company that enables Twitter to connect directly to mobile carrier networks in countries all over the planet.

Twitter has been working with startup Cloudhopper over the last eight months to become one of the highest volume SMS programs in the world—Twitter processes close to a billion SMS tweets per month.

Deal Terms: Undisclosed

Acquirer: Twitter
ACQ Web: http://www.twitter.com
Other Web Links: Blog @twitter
Location: USA, San Francisco, CA
Region: North America
Description: Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. People write short updates, often called “tweets” of 140 characters or fewer. These messages are posted to your profile or your blog, sent to your followers, and are searchable on Twitter search.
Category: Social Network, Blog
Contact 1: Jack Dorsey, Founder and Chairman
Contact 2: Evan Williams, Founder and CEO
Contact 3: Biz Stone, Founder and Creative Director
Contact 4: Ali Rowghani, CFO
Contact 5: Dick Costolo, COO

Vendor: Cloudhopper
Vendor Web: http://www.cloudhopper.com
Location: USA, Seattle, WA
Region: North America
Description: Cloudhopperprovides mobile messaging technology and expertise to businesses in the wireless space. Currently, Cloudhopper powers some of the largest and most successful mobile messaging (SMS and MMS) campaigns in North America, Europe, and Africa. Based on its patent pending intellectual property, Cloudhopper supplies the underlying software and infrastructure to reliably scale and geographically disperse some of the world’s highest volume messaging programs.
Category: Mobile, Technology
Contact 1: Joe Lauer, Founder bio Twitter
Contact 2: Kristan Kanaar, Founder Twitter

Related DigiNet article: Twitter buys Tweetie Posted on April 15, 2010

FDN Reference: F231109-396

Contact us at pkelly@fusioncorp.co.uk or visit the Fusion Corporate Partners website

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News Corp. acquires games developer Irata Labs

April 23, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

According to the LA Times, News Corp. has acquired Irata Labs.

Irata Labs describe themselves as “a small (3 people) group of friendly folks who build social software.” Their products are Spymaster, iList and Flyvly.

Irata Labs had previously received funding from Dmitry Shapiro was one of the angel investeors in the company and served as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Other investors included Alex Bard and Gary Benitt of Assistly, and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

Deal Terms: Undisclosed

Acquirer: News Corporation
ACQ Web: http://www.newscorp.com
Location: USA, New York, NY
Region: North America
Description: News Corporation is a publicly-traded company listed on the NASDAQ, with secondary listings on the Australian Securities Exchange. News Corporation had total assets as of December 31, 2009 of approximately US$56 billion and total annual revenues of approximately US$30 billion. News Corporationis a diversified global media company with operations in eight industry segments: filmed entertainment; television; cable network programming; direct broadcast satellite television; integrated marketing services; newspapers and information services; book publishing; and other. The activities of News Corporationare conducted principally in the United States, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, Asia and Latin America.
Category: Media Owner
Contact 1: Jon Mille, chief digital officer
Contact 2: Rupert Murdoch (Chairman & CEO)
Contact 3: Chase Carey (COO)
Contact 4: David DeVoe (CFO)
Contact 5: Lawrence Jacobs (Senior Executive & VP)
Contact 5: James Murdoch (CEO in Europe & Asia)

Vendor: Irata Labs
Vendor Web: http://iratalabs.com
Other Web Links: Twitter http://twitter.com/iratalabs
Location: USA
Region: North America
Description: “Irata Labs own description, “”We’re a small group of friendly folks who build social software. We’re currently working on a mobile, location-aware platform for social gaming.”
Category: Online Games
Contact 1: Chris Abad, CEO Twitter
Contact 2: Ben Myles, Lead Software Architect Twitter
Contact 3: D. Keith Robinson, Creative Director Twitter

The First American Corporation acquires Experian’s interest in FARES

April 23, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

The First American Corporation has exercised its option to purchase Experian Information Solutions, Inc.’s 20 percent ownership in the First American Real Estate Solutions, LLC (FARES) joint venture.

“Experian has been a valued partner in the FARES joint venture and we look forward to furthering our working relationship with them in the coming years,” said Parker S. Kennedy, chairman and chief executive officer of The First American Corporation. “Our exercising of the purchase option, combined with our previously announced transactions for the noncontrolling interests in First Advantage Corporation and First American CoreLogic, provide us with control over substantially all of our assets as well as provide the Information Solutions Group with increased financial and operational flexibility as it prepares to be a stand-alone public company.”

Deal Terms: Under the terms of the option, the exercise price for Experian’s ownership interest is $313.8 million and the transaction will close on Dec. 31, 2010. With the exercise of the purchase option, First American substantially eliminates Experian’s veto rights under the joint venture agreement and significantly enhances the company’s operational and organizational flexibility.

Acquirer: The First American Corporation (NYSE: FAF)
ACQ Web: http://www.firstam.com
Location: USA, Santa Ana, CA
Region: North America
Description: A FORTUNE 500® company that traces its history to 1889. With total revenues of approximately $6.0 billion in 2009, it is America’s largest provider of business information. The company operates within five primary business segments, Title Insurance and Services, Specialty Insurance, Information and Outsourcing Solutions, Data and Analytic Solutions, and Risk Mitigation and Business Solutions.
Category: Property. Market Data
Contact 1: Parker S. Kennedy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer bio
Contact 2: Anthony “Buddy” Piszel, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer bio

Vendor: Experian (LON:EXPN)
Vendor Web: http://www.experianplc.com
Location: UK, Nottingham
Region: Europe
Description: Global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients in more than 65 countries. The company helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. Experian also helps individuals to check their credit report and credit score, and protect against identity theft.
Category: Finance, Market data
Contact 1: John Peace, Chairman bio
Contact 2: Don Robert, Chief Executive Officer bio
Contact 3: Paul Brooks, Chief Financial Officer bio
Contact 4: ChrisCallero, President and Chief Operating Officer bio