MOO.COM acquires Flavors.me from Hii Def

MOO.COM has acquired Flavors.me from Hii Def Inc. In the form of an asset purchase, MOO will retain the Flavors.me website, brand, technology, IP and customers in an all-cash deal. terms of the deal were not disclosed.

MOO one of the world’s fastest-growing online printers, focusing on both personal and professional identity products, such as business cards and now personal identity webpages. Flavors.me provides another way for customers to showcase themselves, but in a digital format that can be shared over email, mobile, social networks and the web.

Richard Moross, Founder and CEO of MOO.COM, said “We really admire what the Hii Def team has done with Flavors. It was clear that we shared many of the same values of good design and usability. When the opportunity arose to acquire the Flavors product we were very excited. Over the past six years, MOO has focused on helping people create beautiful print products to make them or their business look great. We’ve always had strong bonds with the web, from our first partnership with Flickr back in 2006, and more recently our integration with Facebook Timeline. Identity is core to what we do and this acquisition is a great fit for the MOO brand, giving us a 100% digital identity product to add to our existing range of print products. It’s a fantastic complement to our line-up, offering customers a beautiful personal web page that they can use to promote themselves or their business.”

Flavors.me will sit initially alongside MOO’s suite of physical products – business cards, postcards, greeting cards, stickers and other accessories – as a standalone product, but in the future the two businesses will become much more closely linked. MOO will continue to invest in the product to increase ease of use and enhance the mobile offering, as well as adding new design features.

UK, London and USA, Providence, RI

Dice Holdings acquires Geeknet’s online media business for $20M

Dice Holdings, a provider of specialised career websites has acquired Geeknet’s online media business, including Slashdot and SourceForge. Dice Holdings acquired the business for $20 million in cash.  In 2011, the online media properties generated $20 million in Revenues.

“The acquisition of these premier technology sites fits squarely into our strategy of providing content and services that are important to tech professionals in their everyday work lives,” said Scot Melland, Chairman, President & CEO of Dice Holdings, Inc. “The SourceForge and Slashdot communities will enable our customers to reach millions of engaged tech professionals on a regular basis and significantly extends our company’s reach into the global tech community.”

The sites include:

  • Slashdot, a user-generated news, analysis, peer question and professional insight community.  Tech professionals moderate the site which averages more than 5,300 comments daily and 3.7 million unique visitors each month.
  • SourceForge, a destination for technology professionals and enthusiasts to develop, download, review and publish open source software, much of which they use in their own organizations.  Approximately 80 percent of its roughly 40 million monthly unique visitors are outside the U.S.
  • Freecode, one of the largest indexes of Linux, Unix and cross-platform software, as well as mobile applications generates nearly 500,000 unique visitors each month.

USA, New York, NY & Canada, Fairfax, VA

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Essence Digital acquires Black Bag Advertising

London and New york based digital agency Essence Digital has acquired San Francisco-based media agency Black Bag Advertising. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Expansion in the U.S. is critical to our growth strategy and we expect this acquisition to be the first of a number,” said Matt Isaacs, Chief Executive Officer of Essence Digital. “The fit between Essence Digital and Black Bag Advertising is perfect; we share the same insight and innovation-driven approach to client work, as well as the same cultural ethos. We are excited about what our combined skills and experience will enable us to achieve in the future.”

Black Bag Advertising is an analytics and results driven media agency co-founded in 2004 by Eric Yang to provide media strategy, planning and buying, campaign management and analysis to clients in the automotive, banking, insurance, retail, and consumer packaged goods industries.

 USA, New York, NY & San Francisco, CA & UK, London
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Shutterfly acquires Penguin Digital

Online photo services company Shutterfly has acquired Penguin Digital, a mobile application developer that provides consumers with a way to create, share and purchase photo merchandise directly from their mobile devices.

Penguin Digital launched an iPhone app in January 2012 called Mobile Photo Factory or MoPho for short (www.mophoapp.com), which allows anyone to easily create physical prints and photo based merchandise such as iPhone & iPad cases, mugs, key chains, apparel, canvas prints and more. The MoPho application will be rebranded and updated over the next few months and will add to Shutterfly’s mobile offerings, which include the popular Shutterfly iPhone and iPad apps and the soon to be released Treat birthday card app. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Penguin Digital founders Reuven Moskowitz and Josh Friedman, along with the rest of the Penguin Digital team, will be establishing Shutterfly’s new technology centre in New York City.

“The acquisition of Penguin Digital supports our mobile strategy aimed at giving consumers better ways to engage with their photos and personalize products on the go,” said Jeffrey Housenbold, president and CEO of Shutterfly. “We believe it’s important to give consumers the choice and convenience of transforming their memories into high quality products and gifts from their PC, tablet and mobile phone. Our recent strategic acquisitions of Nexo, TinyPrints, Photoccino and now Penguin Digital combined with our continued investment in organic growth and innovation further enables us to fulfill our vision of making the world a better place by helping people share life’s joy.”

USA, Redwood City, CA

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Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting acquires the assets of BSI, a provider of international tax, legal, business and investment information

Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting has acquired the assets of BSI, a provider of timely international tax, legal, business and investment information. BSI was founded in 1992 with headquarters in Hastings, U.K. The company will remain in the U.K. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. BSI will become part of CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business.

“Keeping current with complex and changing tax law is a challenge faced by professionals today across the globe, and with the addition of BSI’s premier content and coverage to CCH and Wolters Kluwer, we’re now uniquely able to help our customers overcome that challenge,” said Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting CEO Kevin Robert. “The best just got better. And, we’ll continue to invest in expanding our international corporate tax solutions to help professionals around the world.”

CCH will continue to deliver BSI’s services as distinct offerings under the CCH brand name. CCH also plans to enhance current BSI offerings, creating new products and building out integration between CCH and BSI content. BSI has been a Wolters Kluwer business partner since 2008.

USA, Riverwoods, IL & UK, Hastings, East Sussex

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SimpleTuition acquires ValoreBooks

SimpleTuition has acquired ValoreBooks, an online textbook marketplace which offers discounts on new and used textbooks as well as rentals.

“SimpleTuition is dedicated to helping students and their families afford the cost of college,” said Kevin Walker, co-founder and CEO of SimpleTuition. “When you think about where students spend their money, textbooks are a big expense. The team at ValoreBooks has built a tremendous marketplace that has some of the best textbook selection and prices available today. Additionally, they share our vision for helping students save by comparing their options. SimpleTuition has done it with student loans, and ValoreBooks has done it for new, used and rental textbooks. Bringing the two companies together is a natural fit and allows us to help over 10 million students and families a year.”

ValoreBooks was founded in 2002 and was an early pioneer in the online textbook market. It provides students with the low textbook prices by connecting them with sellers from all over the country. The ValoreBooks marketplace now boasts over 18 million titles from 20,000 sellers. Customers can easily compare prices on titles and even see new, used and rental options side-by-side.

USA, Boston, MA

 

Performance Marketing Brands Announces Acquisition of OneReceipt

Performance Marketing Brands has acquired OneReceipt, a free web and iOS application that allows users to organize their receipts, track and manage purchases all in one place. OneReceipt adds an invaluable consumer service and mobile strength to one of the largest independent loyalty companies. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We are excited to bring the OneReceipt technology to the PMB family and help their community of online shoppers develop a deeper understanding of their purchases. Leveraging the PMB retailer and brand relationships, we hope to bring substantial savings and rewards to our deeply valued users”

Launched in 2011, OneReceipt extracts data from email receipts automatically, to help consumers better understand where and what they are purchasing. Paper receipts are added to the account to provide consumers with a comprehensive view of their spending. Additional benefits include updates on shipping information and status, return policies, alerts and item level details on purchases. Users can also view their receipts within their credit card or bank statements.

USA, San Francisco, CA

GlobalWide Media completes $40M acquisition of Neverblue Media Company

GlobalWide Media Inc. has closed its acquisition of Neverblue Media Company and AKMG.

Neverblue, based in Victoria, British Columbia with offices in Los Angeles, Europe and Asia, is a performance-based online marketing company with capabilities across all major media channels, including mobile, search, email, social media and display. AKMG is a performance based affiliate network comprised of premium publishers worldwide. While Neverblue will continue to operate under the Neverblue Media name, AKMG and its entire team will operate as GlobalWide Media going forward.

“We are delighted to formally welcome the Neverblue team, as their footprint into international markets together with their expertise and scale in mobile advertising complements our strengths in becoming the premier ‘One-stop’ solution for advertisers and publishers,” said Farshad Fardad, Chief Executive Officer of GlobalWide Media. “Our ultimate goal is to deliver highly targeted profitable customers to our advertisers while broadening the availability of additional branded campaigns to our publishing partners.”

USA, Westlake Village, CA & Canada, British Columbia, Victoria

Gannett acquires social media marketing solutions company BLiNQ Media

Gannett Co., Inc. has acquired BLiNQ Media LLC, a global innovator of Social Engagement AdvertisingSM solutions for agencies and brands. Since 2008, BLiNQ has managed social media marketing campaigns for more than 600 of the world’s largest advertisers.

“With demand for social media marketing solutions continuing to grow at a rapid pace, this acquisition is part of our ongoing transformation at Gannett and positions us to be a leader in both local and global social media marketing. BLiNQ will enhance Gannett Digital Marketing Services’ ability to deliver a one-stop shop for all marketing needs, including social marketing,” said Gracia Martore, president and CEO at Gannett.

BLiNQ will continue to operate its core business as part of Gannett’s portfolio of brands, providing technology and media solutions for social advertising and engagement to agencies and brands. As part of Gannett’s Digital Marketing Services organization, BLiNQ will help develop innovative social marketing solutions for businesses that want to reach local consumers. Gannett Digital Marketing Services will fully leverage BLiNQ’s BAM 2.0 technology platform, which facilitates social media campaign planning, set-up, management, optimization and insights. BLiNQ will have a strong focus on delivering robust solutions for local social engagement at scale, including working closely with ShopLocal to help shape best practices and results in reaching, engaging and building loyalty with retail consumers via social media. Dave Williams, BLiNQ’s CEO, will report to Vikram Sharma, president and CEO at Gannett Digital Marketing Services. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

BLiNQ’s headquarters will remain at TechSpace in New York City and its technology, finance and marketing groups will remain based in Atlanta. BLiNQ’s sales and support offices will continue in London, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

USA, McLean, VA & New York, NY

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The New York Times Company agrees to sell its About Group to IAC

The New York Times Company is to sell its About Group, which includes the websites of About.com, ConsumerSearch.com and CalorieCount.com, to IAC for $300 million in cash. The Company intends to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes.

“About.com has been a strong contributor to our company since its acquisition in 2005,” said Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., chairman, The New York Times Company. “About’s early expertise in search engine optimization, expert content and revenues from cost-per-click and display advertising made it a valuable component of our portfolio for the past seven years. This sale will allow the Times Company to focus on the development and growth of our core brands locally, nationally and on a global scale.”

USA, New York, NY

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