Safari Books Online acquires web developer Threepress

Safari Books Online, the on-demand digital library for technology, digital media and business professionals, has acquired Massachusetts-based Threepress Consulting Inc, makers of the Ibis Reader online EPUB reading system. The acquisition, was completed on January 1, 2012. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

As part of the acquisition, Threepress co-founders Liza Daly and Keith Fahlgren and the rest of the Threepress staff will join the Safari Books Online engineering team, working from their East Coast and Bay Area locations. Daly will become the VP of Engineering while Fahlgren will assume the role of Director of Engineering.

“This acquisition is a critical step in support of all three of Safari Books Online’s key strategic initiatives: growing and strengthening our base business; developing new products and new markets; and developing truly new ways of learning online,” explained Andrew Savikas, CEO, Safari Books Online. “The Web is a very different (and much more mobile!) place than it was more than 10 years ago when Safari Books Online opened its virtual doors. These phenomenal additions to our team will help us make sure Safari Books Online will continue to be at the forefront of online reading and learning for the next 10 years and beyond.”

USA, Sebastopol, CA & Massachusetts, MA

Shine Group acquires ChannelFlip

Elisabeth Murdoch’s Shine Group has acquired ChannelFlip the online broadcaster and original content producer. ChannelFlip’s programming includes Richard Hammond’s Tech Head, David Mitchell’s Soapbox and Dom Joly’s Joystick. ChannelFlip, was founded in 2008 by Justin Gayner and Wil Harris.

Elisabeth Murdoch, the CEO and chairman of Shine Group, said: “Wil and Justin are true like-minded creative entrepreneurs and we welcome them and their team to Shine Group. They have built ChannelFlip into its leadership position through creative and commercial excellence, producing compelling and innovative online productions whilst persuading advertisers of the deeper relationships they can play within these. Following our entry into social gaming with Bossa Studios, this acquisition further underlines Shine Group’s relentless commitment to delivering excellence across all platforms and our determination to develop powerful direct to consumer models and connections to audiences, wherever they may be.”

Shine Group was acquired by News Corporation in April 2010 for a reported £415M.

USA, New York, NY & UK, London

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Glam Media to go public in Q2 2012

According to Ad Age Digital, sources close to Glam Media said that its North American business became profitable in fourth-quarter 2010 and that it will file to go public in the second quarter of 2012. The company is considering Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley to lead the offering and Bank of America to underwrite it.

Glam Media is led by its founder and CEO Samir Arora. Fernando Ruarte, CTO, and VP Engineering and Raj Narayan are Co-Founders with Arora.

Glam is a vertical media company with 2000 plus lifestyle websites and blogs. It is best known for Glam.com, a website targeted at women. The company also operates the male counterpart Brash.com.

Funding

  • 2004 – Seed stage, £1.1M series A led by Information Capital LLC
  • 2005 – Series B, £10M led by Accel, with DFJ and Walden VC
  • 2006 – Series C, £18.5M led by Accel, with DFJ and Walden VC, Information Capital LLC and DG Ventures
  • 2008 – Glam Media raises $85 million in private strategic funding
  • 2010 – Glam raises $50 million in private equity mezzanine funding

Read the fill story here.

USA, Brisbane, CA

Siemens acquires Pace Global Energy Services

Siemens Industry has acquired Pace Global Energy Services in Fairfax, Va. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition of Pace Global supports Siemens strategic commitment to enhance enterprise value for its global clients by truly optimising energy and resource efficiency. Pace Global’s deep knowledge of energy markets, its experience with C-Suite decision support and its commercial solutions—including energy and carbon management (ECM) capabilities—are a natural fit with Siemens sustainability and energy management solutions. This creates a valuable, useful and seamless solution set that supports both the executive decision process and operating efficiencies.

“Sustainability and energy efficiency are top priorities for enterprises and municipalities,” said Andreas Schierenbeck, president of the U.S. Building Technologies Division of Siemens. “With a current portfolio ranging from energy services to performance contracting, we have expanded our capabilities with the addition of energy consulting and procurement services. By combining both companies’ market-leading solutions, Siemens has formed an end-to-end energy consulting and project delivery capability that is unique in the market, and is a perfect complement to the realities of running today’s business operations.”

Pace Global has a 36-year history providing energy services to a global portfolio of clients. The company manages more than $5 billion in energy spend for 200 clients around the world, oversees a risk portfolio valued at approximately $10 billion, and supports the development, acquisition, and financing of over $100 billion of energy assets worldwide. Pace global combines in-depth industry knowledge with commercial,technical, financial, and regulatory expertise to help organizations maximize enterprise value and manage risk in today’s complex energy and environmental markets.

Pace Global will integrate within the Siemens Building Technologies division, but will continue to operate as a separate operating unit. Timothy F. Sutherland will continue to lead the operating unit after the acquisition, and Pace Global’s executive staff and employees will remain intact. With offices in Fairfax Virginia, Houston Texas, Columbia South Carolina, London and Moscow, Pace Global provides international reach and integrated access through the company’s experience, knowledge base, tools and consulting services for clients in more than 60 countries around the world.

“The purchase of Pace Global allows us to extend our reach into the energy market and enhance our current building automation portfolio of energy management solutions and services to both the private and public sectors,” said Dave Hopping, Vice President of the U.S. Siemens Building Automation business unit. “Together, Siemens and Pace Global have established a recognized and client-valued position in the marketplace.”

Pace Global’s unique business model includes the combination of strategic enterprise consulting with ECM. This supports the Siemens objective of helping solve complex energy-related problems through resource planning, sustainability and energy master planning, risk management and regulatory guidance. This solution set also includes infrastructure development support and provides utility spend and billing, energy purchasing advisory services, carbon management and tracking, and energy asset management.

USA, Buffalo Grove, IL & Fairfax, VA

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Prince Alwaleed makes a $300 million investment in Twitter 


Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud of Saudi Arabia and his investment company Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) have invested $300 Million in Twitter. Bloomberg are reporting Ahmed Halawani, a Kingdom Holding director, saying in an interview that the investment values Twitter at over $10 billion.

Prince Alwaleed commented: “Our investment in Twitter reaffirms our ability in identifying suitable opportunities to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with a global impact.” 


Prince Alwaleed, was ranked the richest Arab businessman for the eighth year by Arabian Business magazine http://richlist.arabianbusiness.com. He is the largest individual investor in Citigroup and a significant investor in News Corporation’s and holds a 29.9% stake in Saudi Research and Marketing Group, which includes the publications Asharq Al Awsat, Al Eqtisadiah, Arab News, Hia magazine, Al Majalla magazine, Arrajol magazine and Sayidati magazine. In addition, Prince Alwaleed recently announced his plans to launch his privately owned Alarab news channel, the news channel.

Saudi Arabia & USA, San Francisco, CA

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Zynga’s IPO raises around $1 billion

Zynga, the games developer founded and led by Mark Pincus, has sold 100 million shares (around 11% of the company) at $10 each in its initial public offering, raising around $1 billion. This is at the top end of expectations. Two weeks ago its bankers projected a range of $8.50 to $10. The IPO values Zynga at around $7 billion, roughly 11 times last year’s sales. A good result, but still far less than recent social network offerings. A valuation of $20 billion dollars was suggested earlier this year. Zynga’s most-senior executives and early investors largely are holding onto their shares.

Zynga makes games mainly for Facebook. Games include FarmVille, Words with Friends, CastleVille, Adventure World and Mafia Wars 2.

USA, San Francisco, CA

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Wolters Kluwer Financial Services acquires PRINGLE Compliance Polices & Procedures content

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, a worldwide provider of compliance, risk management and audit solutions for the financial services industry, has acquired the regulatory compliance content of PRINGLE Policy and Procedure Solutions from PRINGLE Publications Corporation. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“What sets Wolters Kluwer Financial Services apart from our competitors is our ability to deliver actionable and intelligent regulatory compliance and risk management content to our customers,” said Brian Longe, CEO of Wolters Kluwer Financial & Compliance Services. “This acquisition allows us to provide our customers with even more value by expanding access to the industry-leading PRINGLE compliance policies and procedures content to a larger number of financial institutions.”

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services will integrate PRINGLE’s compliance and safety and soundness policies and procedures, worksheets, forms, and regulatory checklists and tests into the Policies and Procedures module of the company’s ARC Logics for Financial Services enterprise risk management solution. The company will offer its ARC Logics customers with direct access to PRINGLE content through the module, which will provide a common, dynamic platform to proactively manage, edit, and update their policies and procedures.

USA, Minneapolis, MN

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CBS Television Stations Group to acquire New York Station WLNY-TV

CBS Television Stations, a division of CBS Corporation, has signed a definitive agreement to purchase independent New York television station WLNY-TV (Channel 55).  Terms of the agreement with the seller, WLNY Holdings, Inc., were not disclosed.  The acquisition of WLNY-TV (whose call letters stand for We Love New York), along with WCBS-TV (CBS 2), will give CBS a duopoly in America’s largest media market.

“Our acquisition of WLNY-TV presents a tremendous opportunity for our TV Stations Division,” said Peter Dunn, President, CBS Television Stations.  “The combined strengths of CBS 2 and WLNY-TV will give us a terrific platform for serving the entire New York area.  Our plans for the station include adding people and resources to fuel a significant expansion of local news programming well beyond the nightly half-hour that currently airs.  And, of course, in doing so we will continue to honor the station’s already deep commitment to serving the people of Long Island and the entire tri-state area.  We also look forward to having a bigger and better news bureau on Long Island that will be a terrific resource for WCBS.”

WLNY-TV is widely distributed by cable, satellite and other subscription television service providers in the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut tri-state area.  The station appears as either Channel 10 or Channel 55 on most channel lineups and Channel 55 as an over-the-air service.

Once the acquisition of WLNY-TV has been finalized, CBS will own duopolies in 10 markets, including New York, Los Angeles,Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, Detroit, Miami, Sacramento and Pittsburgh.  Currently, the CBS Television Stations group includes 28 stations, including 16 that are part of the CBS Television Network, eight affiliates of The CW Network, two independent stations and two MyNetworkTV affiliates.

USA, New York, NY

Cinsay acquires LaunchFish social media marketing firm

eCommerce technology company Cinsay has acquired LaunchFish, the Dallas-based social media marketing firm. The combined companies offer a social commerce marketing solution focused on driving measurable results and completing transactions through content syndication.

“This acquisition is extremely synergistic for Cinsay, as we have had tremendous demand for our Smart Container™ managed services,” said Briggs in making the announcement. “It is a huge game changer for our clients, especially when considering the exponential growth that continues to take place in both video sharing and social commerce.”

LaunchFish was founded in 2009 by Kyle Nelson, a 20-year marketing veteran whose experience with emerging growth companies has generated tremendous success. During his career, Nelson has secured nearly $130 million in funding for startup ventures, and led exclusive partnerships with Fortune 1000 companies, including Yahoo!, broadcast.com, CBS, Sprint, Adecco and The Tom Peters Company. As part of the acquisition agreement, Nelson will head Cinsay’s Social Services division.

USA, Austin, TX and Dallas, Tx

 

ePals Corporation completes the acquisition of Carus Publishing Company

ePals Corporation has completed its previously reported acquisition of Carus Publishing Company.

Carus, which includes the Cricket Magazine Group, Cobblestone Publishing and Open Court Publishing, publishes 14 magazine titles covering all age groups (0 to 14+) on a variety of subjects (fiction, science, history, culture), hundreds of books and a growing collection of recognized Web and mobile applications.

The acquisition of Carus accelerates ePals’ entrance into the home subscription market by adding Carus’ subscriber base of more than 300,000 grandparents, parents and extended family members, as well as a broad array of publications for children across a variety of subjects. Carus also brings to ePals an experienced team of creative professionals and a unique library of high quality, leveled content for use throughout the ePals Global Community in building collaborative learning experiences for students around the world.

USA, Washington DC

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