Fusion Corporate Partners

The Fusion Team have completed over 70 digital and media transactions for its private, corporate and private equity clients. For more information contact pkelly@fusioncorp.co.uk or visit our website

ACQUISITION 
FDN Database Reference:  F231109-313
 
Acquirer:  Martini Media
ACQ Web:  http://www.martinimedianetwork.com
Other Web Links: Twitter   Blog
Location:  USA, San Francisco, CA
Region:  North America
Description:  Martini Media Network connects premium advertisers with affluent consumers online – the 50M Americans with HHI $100K+. Martini’s vertical media network has over 300 invitation-only, brand-safe publisher websites focusing on the Lifestyles & Passions of the $100K+ HHI Audience, in Channels such as Sailing & Yachting, Travel, Wine, Philanthropy, Golf & Arts. Martini Life, Martini Media’s owned and operated product, is a daily, online lifestyle newsletter targeting affluent enthusiasts in the Bay Area.
Category:  Media Owner, Advertising
Contact 1:  Skip Brand, CEO
Contact 2:  Ryan Kiskis, founder
 
Vendor:  Decision Maker Media
Vendor Web:  http://www.decisionmakermedia.com
Other Web Links: Twitter
Location:  USA, San Francisco, CA
Region:  North America

Description:  Decision Maker Media is a vertical media platform connecting Fortune 1000 advertisers with a targeted audience of top-level managers, company owners, and key decision makers in all small, mid-size and big American businesses. The company has over 750 industry specific websites across more than 70 professions and US business industries.
Category: Media Owner, Advertising
Contact 1:  Michael Downing, founding team
Contact 2:  Pete Scott, Jr., founding team
Contact 3:  Chris Redlitz, founding team
Contact 4:  Beverly Parenti, founding team
 
Aprox. Value:  Undisclosed
 
Details:  Martini Media, the media group targeting affluent consumers, has acquired Decision Maker Media a vertical media platform online capturing Business-Decision-Makers. With the acquisition, Martini Media wil now have more than 40M unique users with annual household incomes exceeding $100K, on a combination of professional and lifestyle sites.
 
Link: Press Release

The Fusion Team have completed over 70 digital and media transactions for its private, corporate and private equity clients. For more information contact pkelly@fusioncorp.co.uk or visit our website
 
FUND RAISING 
Database Reference:  F231109-336

Business:  Yelp
Web:  http://www.yelp.com
Other Web Links: Blog  Facebook  Twitter
Location:  USA, San Francisco, CA
Region:  North America
Business description:  A website that connects people with local businesses. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in July 2004. Since then, Yelp has developed communities across the US, Canada, UK and Ireland; Yelp drew an audience of more than 26 million unique visitors in December 2009. Yelpers have written more than 9 million local reviews on everything from boutiques and mechanics to restaurants and dentists
Category: Reviews, Directory
Contact 1:  Jeremy Stoppelman, Yelp chief executive officer and co-founder
Contact 2:  Marc Bodnick, a Managing Director and Co-Founder, Elevation Partners 
Contact 3:  Bono (lead singer of Irish rock group U2), a Managing Director and Co-Founder of Elevation Partners
Contact 4:  Fred Anderson, a Managing Director and Co-Founder, Elevation Partners  
 
Investors:  Elevation Partners, a newly formed private equity firm that makes large-scale investments in market-leading media, entertainment, and consumer-related
 
Amount raised:  $25,000,000 investment in Yelp through the purchase of Series E preferred stock. Elevation Partners will also seek to increase its total investment in Yelp to $100 million through a planned purchase of shares from vested employees and other eligible shareholders. 
 
Details:  Yelp, the community-led local search site, has announced that private equity firm Elevation Partners has agreed to make a $25 million investment in Yelp. The details of the offer to purchase are expected to be announced to qualified participants in the near future. Yelp plans to use the additional funding to deepen its market leadership position throughout the US, accelerate growth in Canada and throughout Western Europe, and continue the development of innovative mobile applications.

Link:  Press Release

The Fusion Team have completed over 70 digital and media transactions for its private, corporate and private equity clients. For more information contact pkelly@fusioncorp.co.uk or visit our website
 
FUND RAISING 
Database Reference:  F231109-335
 
Business:  Alvenda
Web:  http://www.alvenda.com
Other Web Links: Facebook     Twitter
Location:  USA, Minneapolis, MN
Region:  North America
Business description:  Alvenda operates a distributed commerce network that creates opportunities for selling on Facebook and through advertising media. Alvenda was founded in 2008 by executives with domain expertise in retail software, online retail marketing, and interactive advertising industries. In July of 2009, launched the first store on Facebook with 1-800-FLOWERS.COM.
Category: Social Network, Retail, Advertising
Contact 1:  Wade Gerten, CEO and co-founder
Contact 2:  Brian Howe, Chief Strategy Officer, co-founder
Contact 3:  Jamie Thingelstad – Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer
Contact 4:  Michael Gorman, Managing Director, Split Rock  
 
Investors:  Split Rock Partners www.splitrock.com 
Round:  Series A
Amount raised:  $5,000,000  
 
Details:  Alvenda, Inc. has received $5 million in venture capital funding from Split Rock Partners to support its  growth. Split Rock Managing Director Michael Gorman has joined the Alvenda Board of Directors.”

Link:  Company Announcement

The Fusion Team have completed over 70 digital and media transactions for its private, corporate and private equity clients. For more information contact pkelly@fusioncorp.co.uk or visit our website
 
FUND RAISING 
Database Reference:  F231109-334
 
Business:  Joonto (society.me)
Web:  http://society.me/society/create
Other Web Links: Twitter
Location:  USA, Mountain View, CA
Region:  North America
Business description:  Society is a social publishing platform that helps people start conversations on Twitter and Facebook and to nurture and grow communities of interest.
Category: Social Network
Contact 1:  Leonard Speiser, President, Director and co-founder
Contact 2:  Kelvin Zheng, co founder
 
Investors:  Undisclosed
Amount raised:  $575,000  
 
Details:  Joonto, owner of Society.me, a platform that helps people nurture and grow communities of interest using social networks like Twitter and Facebook, has raised $575,000.

Link:  Regulatory Filing

The Fusion Team have completed over 70 digital and media transactions for its private, corporate and private equity clients. For more information contact pkelly@fusioncorp.co.uk or visit our website
 
ACQUISITION 
FDN Database Reference:  F231109-310
 
Acquirer:  Yellow Pages Group
ACQ Web:  http://www.ypg.com
Other Web Links: Twitter 
Location:  Canada, Montreal, Quebec
Region:  North America
Description:  Yellow Pages Group publishes more than 340 Yellow Pages and residential print directories in Canada. YPG also owns and operates Canada’s most visited online directories – YellowPages.ca and Canada411.ca, along with CanadaPlus.ca, a network of seven local city sites. YellowPages.ca can be accessed on mobile devices atmobile.yp.ca. Yellow Pages Group is indirectly held by Yellow Pages Income Fund (TSX:YLO.UN).
Category:  Directory, Search
Contact 1:  Marc P. Tellier, President and Chief Executive Officer
Contact 2:  Christian M. Paupe, Executive Vice President – Corporate Services and Chief Financial Officer
Contact 3:  Nicolas Gaudreau, Vice President, Digital Media, Yellow Pages Group
 
Vendor:  Restaurantica
Web: http://www.restaurantica.com 
Other Web Links: Twitter  Blog  
Location:  Canada
Region:  North America

Description:  Established in 2003, Restaurantica currently lists some 400,000 restaurants, bars and cafes, with more than 200,000 user-generated reviews on these establishments in North America. Diners in local cities can search by specific neighbourhood and by cuisine type. Restaurantica receives more than 540,000 visits and over 1.7 million page views each month (source: Google Analytics, December 2009).

Category: Reviews, Dining
Contact:  Lance Mohring, President of Restaurantica
  
Aprox. Value:  Undisclosed
 
Details:  Yellow Pages Group (YPG) has completed the acquisition of Restaurantica, one of Canada’s largest growing restaurant and dining communities.This acquisition gives YPG the opportunity to further enhance its local content and meet users’ search needs to find trusted recommendations and reviews.

Link: Press Release

The Fusion Team have completed over 70 digital and media transactions for its private, corporate and private equity clients. For more information contact pkelly@fusioncorp.co.uk or visit our website
 
ACQUISITION 
FDN Database Reference:  F231109-308
 
Acquirer:  StockTwits
ACQ Web:  http://www.stocktwits.com  BLOG   TWITTER
Region:  North America
Description:  “StockTwits is an open, community-powered idea and information service for investments. Users can eavesdrop on traders and investors, or contribute to the conversation and build their reputation as savvy market wizards. The service takes financial related data and structures it by stock, user, reputation, etc.”
Category:  Finance
Contact 1:  Soren Macbeth, Co-Founder and CTO  Bio   TWITTER
Contact 2:  Howard Lindzon, Co-Founder and CEO of StockTwits  Bio   TWITTER
Contact 3:  Phil Pearlman, Director of Community at StockTwits  Bio   TWITTER
 
Vendor:  Abnormal Returns
Vendor Web:  http://abnormalreturns.com  TWITTER
Region:  North America
Description:  Abnormal Returns brings the best of the finance web to its readers.
Category: Finance
Contact:  Tadas Viskanta, founder and editor-in-chief
 
Aprox. Value:  Undisclosed
 
Details:  StockTwits has acquired finance website Abnormal Returns. Founder and editor in chief of Abnormal Returns, Tadas Viskanta, is joining Stocktwits.  StockTwits has raised $4.6 million over three rounds of funding. StockTwits has also announced an entire revamp of its web platform for two weeks time.
 
Link: StockTwits Blog – January 25th, 2010 entry
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The Fusion Team have completed over 70 digital and media transactions for its private, corporate and private equity clients. For more information contact pkelly@fusioncorp.co.uk or visit our website
 
ACQUISITION 
FDN Database Reference:  F231109-307
 
Acquirer:  AOL
ACQ Web:  http://www.aol.com
Location:  USA, New York, NY
Region:  North America
Description:  AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL) is a leading global Web services company. AOL’s business spans online content, products and services that the company offers to consumers, publishers and advertisers. In addition, AOL operates one of the largest Internet subscription access services in the United States.
Category:  Online Media, Advertising
Contact:  Tim Armstrong, AOL CEO and chairman

Vendor:  StudioNow
Vendor Web:  http://www.studionow.com
Location:  USA, Nashville, TN
Region:  North America
Description:  StudioNow partners with blue chip, mid-sized and local companies to create, store, and manage content and syndicate it to online video channels and portals.
Category: Video
Contact 1:  David Mason, co-founder and CEO
Contact 2:  Adam Solesby, co-founder, CTO
Contact 3:  David Corts, COO
  
Aprox. Value:  $36,500,000 in cash and stock with a portion of the cash paid out over multiple years.
 
Details:  AOL Inc. has acquired StudioNow Inc., the online platform for video creation and distribution. The acquisition will allow AOL to integrate a fully functional video creation platform into its newly-launched content management system, Seed.com. StudioNow will also continue to develop its existing business as a provider of online video creation, management, storage and syndication services to commercial companies.
 
Link: Press Release

The Fusion Team have completed over 70 digital and media transactions for its private, corporate and private equity clients. For more information contact pkelly@fusioncorp.co.uk or visit our website
 
FUND RAISING 
Database Reference:  F231109-326
 
Business:  BuyWithMe.com
Web:  http://www.buywithme.com
Location:  USA, Boston, MA
Region:  North America
Business description:  The company is focused on providing  marketing solutions using group buying mechanisms and leveraging social media. By aggregating the purchasing power of its buyer network, the company enables special pricing to be made available only to the groups of users that band together on its site.  These deals deliver immediate customer interest and merchants get a very effective “pay-per-customer” marketing medium with great recognition and no risk.
Category: Social Network, Retail
Contact 1:  Andrew Moss, CEO and founder of BuyWithMe.com
Contact 2:  Nicholas Beim, General Partner at Matrix Partners
 
Investors:  Matrix Partners
  
Amount raised:  $5,500,000  
 
Details:  BuyWithMe.com has secured $5.5 million in growth capital from Matrix Partners.  The company intends to scale rapidly, benefiting from its loyal vendor relationships and tens of thousands of dedicated buyers from three initial markets of Boston, Washington DC and San Diego.  Under the terms of the agreement, Nicholas Beim, General Partner at Matrix Partners, will join BuyWithMe’s board of directors.

Link:  Press Release

The Fusion Team have completed over 70 digital and media transactions for its private, corporate and private equity clients. For more information contact pkelly@fusioncorp.co.uk or visit our website
  
FUND RAISING 
Database Reference:  F231109-327
 
Business:  Sway, Inc. (Shoutlet)
Web:  http://www.shoutlet.com
Location:  USA,  Middleton, WI
Region:  North America
Business description:  Sway, Inc. is a Middleton, Wisconsin-based social media company which licenses its social media marketing platform, Shoutlet. Founded in 2004, Sway, Inc. works with leading B2C and B2B companies to integrate Shoutlet into their overarching social media outreach efforts.
Category: Social Network, Marketing
Contact 1:  Jason Weaver, Sway, Inc. CEO
Contact 2:  Steve Miller, Managing Director at Origin Ventures
 
Investors:  Origin Ventures and Leo Capital Holdings   
Amount raised:  $2,000,000 
 
Details:  Sway, Inc. has secured a $2 million Series A funding round to support the growth of Shoutlet, its social media content distribution and communications platform. The financing was co-led by Origin Ventures and Leo Capital Holdings, both based in suburban Chicago. This funding follows a $1.2 million seed round raised in 2007.  Current Shoutlet customers include American Family Insurance, Solo, and Cannondale.

Link:  Press Release