Blackstone completes acquisition of PSAV

August 8, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

BlackstonePrivate equity and real estate funds managed by Blackstone have completed the acquisition of event experiences company PSAV. As part of the completed transaction, affiliates of Goldman Sachs will be reinvesting alongside Blackstone in the transaction to continue to participate in the ongoing growth of PSAV. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

PSAV is a global leader in event experiences, providing creative, production, advanced technology and staging services to help meeting planners deliver more dynamic and impactful experiences at their meetings, trade shows and special events. The team consists of more than 9,000 professionals across 1,500 on-site venue locations and 49 branch offices within the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. It was recently named to the Forbes 2018 America’s Best Employer list.

PSAV delivers on its purpose of connecting and inspiring people by creating impactful event experiences. Through its deep expertise in creative, production, advanced technology and staging services, PSAV is an invaluable partner to meeting and event planners. It is the trusted provider of choice at leading venues across the globe.

In June, the companies announced a definitive agreement for Blackstone to acquire PSAV from affiliates of Goldman Sachs and Olympus Partners.

USA, New York, NY & Schiller Park, IL

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Euromoney acquires price reporting business Random Lengths for $18.2M

August 2, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

Euromoney plcEuromoney Institutional Investor PLC has acquired Random Lengths, a price reporting agency for the global wood products industry.

Random Lengths provides unbiased and consistent price assessments and market reporting for the global wood products industry with a core focus on the North American lumber and panels markets, assessing and publishing over 1,500 prices per week. The acquisition strengthens Euromoney’s position in price reporting for the global forest products industry, following the acquisition of RISI in April 2017, which provides price reporting, analytics and industry events for the same sector.

Euromoney will pay $18.2 million in cash for Random Lengths, of which $2 million is deferred for up to 18 months. Pro forma EBITDA for the financial year 2018 is expected to be $1.1 million.

Random LengthsRaju Daswani, CEO of Euromoney’s PRA Division, said: “The acquisition of Random Lengths is an important step in our strategy to be a leading global cross-commodity PRA business for the markets we serve. Random Lengths has a strong reputation in North America and is complementary to our existing forest products business, established through the acquisition of RISI in 2017. By integrating these businesses alongside our metals & mining services, we will further establish our position as a global leader in the commodity price reporting industry. “

UK, London & USA, Eugene, OR

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Vitesse Media to buy InvestmentNews for $27.1M

July 31, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

Vitesse Media plcDigital media and events company Vitesse Media is to acquire InvestmentNews, a leading source of news, analysis and information to the financial advisory community from its parent, Crain Communications Inc., for approximately $27.1 million. The deal is expected to close mid-August.

As part of the deal, InvestmentNews’ leadership team will remain intact — as will its award-winning editorial, multimedia, audience, custom, research & data, marketing, sales and event divisions.

Crain launched InvestmentNews in 1997 as a weekly magazine covering the U.S. financial advice profession. InvestmentNews has since expanded its engagement with its core audience through the launch of an award-winning website, live events and research and data offerings. Today, InvestmentNews is the No. 1 media brand in the financial advice market, with more than 150,000 weekly print readers. InvestmentNews.com garners an average of 545,000 unique visitors each month. In addition, InvestmentNews operates a growing events business, which includes the Retirement Income Summit, Woman Adviser Summit and Best Practices Workshop. It is also produces editorial and custom research relevant to advisers and the businesses that serve them.

Simon Stilwell, who was appointed CEO of Vitesse in August 2017, said, “InvestmentNews is the leading brand in its community, it fits well into the Vitesse stable and provides the company with the opportunity to pursue other bolt on opportunities to expand, especially in its events and data business. Its American presence further allows us to expand our reach geographically, a key aspect of our future strategy.”

Upon completion of the deal, Vitesse will change its name to Bonhill Group plc, subject to shareholders’ approval.

UK, London & USA, New York, NY

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Enthusiast Gaming Media acquires The Escapist Magazine

July 26, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

Enthusiast GamingEnthusiast Gaming Media Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Enthusiast Gaming Inc. has acquired The Escapist Magazine from Defy Media. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded in 2005, Escapist is a leading online magazine focused on in-depth coverage of the video game industry in addition to movies, comics, TV, and more. Averaging over 6 million monthly visits since 2008, the acquisition significantly grows Enthusiast Gaming’s network and follows the successful acquisition of Destructoid.com in 2017, enhancing the company’s growth strategy as the fastest growing community of online gamers.

Former Editor-in-Chief of Escapist Russ Pitts will be returning to the position after leaving in 2011 to help Vox Media launch Polygon. Mr Pitts spent 5 years building and growing the online magazine and has an impressive track record with Escapist including: six Webby Awards, two Streamy nominations, a G.A.N.G. Award nomination, two dozen video series, over 1,000 written articles and a Time Magazine “50 Best Websites” mention.

Menashe Kestenbaum, Founder & CEO of Enthusiast Gaming, said, “The acquisition of Escapist is instrumental as we continue to grow our network of gamers. Escapist represents long form and intellectual content generation and will be another flagship platform in our network. Russ is a true visionary in online gaming journalism and we are thrilled to bring him back to lead Escapist.”

Canada, Toronto & USA, Durham, NC

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Kew Media completes acquisition of Essential Media Group

July 24, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

Kew Media GroupProduction and distribution firm Kew Media Group has completed the previously reported acquisition of the Essential Media Group.

The Essential Media Group is the newly formed international content company from the merger of two leading independent production companies and joint venture partners – Essential Media and Entertainment and Quail Entertainment. Headed by CEO and Executive Producer Chris Hilton and CCO and Executive Producer Greg Quail, EMG combines strong credentials and track records in both scripted and unscripted content.

Steven Silver, Kew Founder and CEO, said, “The addition of Essential to the Kew platform is another step forward in our growth strategy. It expands Kew’s US offering and gives us a first presence in Australia. We anticipate strong revenue synergies coming from Essential’s inclusion for 2019.

Canada, Toronto & USA, Los Angeles, CA

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Keywords Studios acquires Snowed In Studios for $4M (CAD)

July 20, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

keywordsKeywords Studios, the international creative and technical services provider to the global video games industry, has acquired Snowed In Studios Inc. from its current owners, Jean-Sylvain Sormany, Tim Vito and Evan Hahn, for up to $4 million Canadian dollars.

Founded in 2010 and based in Ottawa, Canada, Snowed In offers engineering and co-development services to the video-games industry and has a strong global reputation and well-established relationships with clients such as Ubisoft, Nickelodeon and Bethesda. The company has 29 employees all working in-house in its office in Ottawa led by the current owners, who will remain with Snowed In to drive its growth as part of Keywords.

Andrew Day, CEO of Keywords Studios, said, “The addition of Snowed In to the Group will add strength and scale to our recently established engineering service line and enable Snowed In to take advantage of the group’s very strong presence in the region to support its growth. Having grown the engineering service line from nothing in May 2017, we now employ over 300 software engineers in multiple regions, and I’m delighted that Jean-Sylvain, Tim, Evan and their highly talented and creative team are joining the group as we continue to grow.”

Ireland, Dublin & Canada, Ottawa

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Future to acquire Purch’s consumer division for $132.5M

July 18, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

Future plcGlobal specialist media platform Future plc is to acquire the consumer division of Purch, the next generation digital publishing and marketplace platform, operating in the consumer technology and science verticals. The deal will see Future acquire Purch’s publisher services division (ad sales) along with the Business-to-Consumer (B2C) group in a deal worth over $132 million.

The acquisition will give Future a leading position in consumer technology publishing in the U.S. Purch has successfully grown its digitally-led business and generates more than $1 billion annually in facilitated commerce through its tech, shopping, lifestyle and SMB brands, including Tom’s Guide, Tom’s Hardware, Top Ten Reviews, ShopSavvy and Business.com.

Future CEO Zillah Byng-Thorne said, “Future’s mission to be a technology-enabled global platform for specialist media takes another big step forward today with this announcement. I’ve been impressed by the strength of Purch’s technology platforms and the expertise of its people. Together we can build a combined organization that has scale and growth opportunities ahead. The two businesses share similar cultures – we both share our audiences’ passion, we’re data-driven, ambitious and both have an innovative mindset. From day one Future will be number one in the U.S. consumer technology sector, and beyond this we see clear opportunities for combined growth.”

UK, London & US, San Francisco, CA

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Electronic Arts acquires Industrial Toys

July 9, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

Electronic ArtsElectronic Arts Inc. has acquired Industrial Toys, a creative team of experienced game makers based in Pasadena, California. Led by Alex Seropian, founder and former CEO of Bungie Studios and former executive at Disney Interactive, the team is known for developing unique game ideas on different devices, and they join EA with a continued focus on bringing new game concepts to life. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The 14-person Industrial Toys studio is joining EA’s Worldwide Studios organisation, the global creative collective responsible for development of EA titles across all major platforms.

Samantha Ryan, SVP and Group GM in EA’s Worldwide Studios group said, “Creating breakthrough games takes passionate developers and incredible creativity, and each time we’ve worked with the Industrial Toys team, we’ve been inspired by their unique approach. We’re thrilled to have them join our studio organisation, pursue new ideas together and bring amazing new games to our players.”

USA, Redwood, CA & Pasadena, CA

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XLMedia acquires InvestorJunkie.com for $5.8M

July 5, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

XLMediaXLMedia, a provider of digital performance marketing, is to acquire InvestorJunkie.com, a US personal finance website for US$5.8 million.

InvestorJunkie is a website focused on providing information and reviews of various investment channels and financial products, including banking, stock brokers, robo advisors, lending, retirement accounts and more. The acquisition is expected to complete in the second half of 2018.

InvestorJunkieOry Weihs, Chief Executive Officer of XLMedia, commented: “We are delighted to announce the acquisition of InvestorJunkie, a very well known brand in North America. The U.S. personal finance market is a key growth market for our business, and this latest acquisition reaffirms our commitment to further diversify our revenue base. We are continuing to build a strong foothold in the North American market and look forward to accelerating our growth strategy to further leverage both our skillset and technology platform in what is a relatively nascent sector.”

UK, Jersey, St. Helier & USA, Long Beach, NY

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Uzabase to acquire business news outlet Quartz for between $75 and $110M

July 4, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

Uzabase QuartzUzabase, a Japanese business intelligence and media company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is to acquire Quartz, a global business news outlet created and owned by Atlantic Media. The deal values Quartz between $75 and $110 million depending on achievement of future financial and operating performance in 2018. The deal expected to close within the next 30 days.

Quartz is a guide to the new global economy for business professionals. Founded in 2012, staff numbers around 215 around the world, including around 100 journalists, with presence in New York, London, Nairobi, New Delhi, Hong Kong, and San Francisco.

Quartz Co-President and Editor in Chief Kevin J. Delaney and Co-President and Publisher Jay Lauf — will become Co-CEOs of Quartz, reporting to Uzabase and NewsPicks Founder and CEO Yusuke Umeda. Quartz Chief Revenue Officer Joy Robins and Chief Product Officer and Executive Editor Zach Seward will continue in their positions. Quartz will retain its name and brand and continue operating from its New York City headquarters.

Quartz will assume responsibility for the English-language version of NewsPicks on behalf of Uzabase. NewsPicks is a subscription business news platform and one of Uzabase’s two core businesses. The other is SPEEDA, a financial business-intelligence service.

“We created Quartz to be a new kind of news organization, pioneering better ways to serve readers with innovative news products and smart journalism from around the world. We’re proud of our accomplishments since 2012 and are really excited about this ambitious new chapter working with NewsPicks as part of Uzabase,” said Mr. Delaney.

Atlantic Media will continue to provide corporate support to Quartz through a transition period of at least 12 months following the acquisition. Atlantic Media Chairman and owner David Bradley will continue to work with the company as a senior advisor and shareholder. Bradley, with Atlantic Media President Michael Finnegan, will continue to own and operate the privately held holding company’s other businesses, National Journal Group, Government Executive Media Group, and The Atlantic. (Emerson Collective is the majority owner of The Atlantic.)

Uzabase was founded in 2008 by former investment bankers Yusuke Umeda and Ryosuke Niino, as well as Yusuke Inagaki, a former IT consultant. The company’s primary products are NewsPicks, a subscription business news platform, and SPEEDA, a B2B financial information and corporate intelligence platform.

Japan, Tokyo & USA, New York, NY

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