Bloomberg completes acquisition of BNA

October 1, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Bloomberg has completed its acquisition of The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc (BNA) which is now a stand-alone wholly-owned subsidiary of Bloomberg. Originally reported by Fusion DigiNet in August, Bloomberg has acquired all of the outstanding shares of BNA for $39.50 per share in a cash tender offer followed by a merger for a total purchase price of approximately $990 million.

The acquisition was overwhelmingly accepted by the BNA owner/employees, who tendered approximately 95% of their stock within the 20 business day offering period. Additionally, Bloomberg received an early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act.

“Together, Bloomberg and BNA will offer a unique combination of premium content, deep subject matter expertise, proprietary data and world-class technological capabilities,” said Dan Doctoroff, CEO and President of Bloomberg. “BNA’s trusted and respected research and analysis will significantly enhance our professional offerings including Bloomberg Law, Bloomberg Government and the Bloomberg Professional service.”

The combination propels Bloomberg Law’s expansion into the legal information market and increases Bloomberg’s presence in the Washington, D.C. area where BNA is based. In addition, the combination expands Bloomberg’s coverage and analysis of tax and accounting, labor and employment, healthcare, intellectual property, and telecommunications issues. BNA will be led by its current management team and it will be part of the Bloomberg Industry Verticals Group.

 

“We’re delighted to formally welcome BNA to the Bloomberg family, and we look forward to working with BNA’s leaders and employees as we shape our future together,” said Peter Grauer, Chairman of Bloomberg. “We will work diligently over the coming months to determine how we will provide the best products for our customers, and will share more information as we progress.”

USA, New York, NY & Arlington, VA

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PennWell Corporation acquires the assets of eMarket Software

October 1, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

PennWell Corporation, a media and information company, has acquired the assets of eMarket Software, a Fort Worth, Texas company offering mapping products and services to energy industry.  Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed.

eMarket Software has created a sophisticated mapping and database platform that will become the web-based mapping platform for PennWell’s MAPSearch business which provides GIS data for the petroleum, natural gas, electric power, and renewable energy industries.  MAPSearch provides comprehensive date in geospatial form on over 1,000,000 miles of pipelines and 750,000 miles of transmissions lines in North America.

Shawn McCarthy, founder of eMarket Software and its president since 2007, will join PennWell’s MAPSearch group as director of product development.  McCarthy will report to Edward Metz, vice president and general manager of PennWell MAPSearch based in Houston.

PennWell President & Chief Executive Office Robert F. Biolchini said, “The eMarket products will offer MAPSearch an innovative online and mobile mapping platform that will extend our best-in-class geospatial data for oil and gas, electric power, and renewable energy to new markets and customer groups.  Shawn McCarthy has an extensive background in software and product development and we are pleased he will join PennWell to help build innovative products for leveraging and delivering our vast data and content assets.”

Tulsa, OK

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Reed Elsevier to acquire Accuity

September 28, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Reed Elsevier is to acquire the entire issued share capital of Accuity Holdings Inc. from Investcorp, a global investment firm, for a consideration of £343m payable in cash.

Accuity is a US provider of online subscription-based data solutions for the financial services industry which enable customers to maximise the accuracy of their banking and payment transactions, and to minimise the risk of non-compliance with government regulations in these transactions. Accuity is a highly complementary business with both Reed Elsevier’s Bankers’ Almanac and the financial services business of LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

Reed Business Information CEO Mark Kelsey said: “Bankers’ Almanac and Accuity are both strong brands with highly complementary products and strengths and excellent geographic fit. The combination of the two companies will enable us to offer customers much more comprehensive products and services to meet their developing needs.”

Accuity operates in three principal segments:

  • Payment Efficiency: provision of bank routing data files, filters, directories and look-up tools which enable financial institutions and corporates to execute transactions globally, increasing straight-through-processing rates, and reducing errors and costs;
  • Risk Reduction: provision of data and software solutions that enable financial institutions and corporates to screen against sanctioned and high risk entities and people through customer filtering, account screening and transaction monitoring; and
  • National Regulatory Services: provision of workflow, information and consultancy services which help investment institutions remain compliant with regulations.

Accuity is, like Bankers’ Almanac, an online data business with subscription-based revenues, 95%+ customer retention rates and double digit revenue growth. It has offices across the US and in the UK, and provides solutions to the banking financial services, corporate and government communities with over 14,000 clients, including most of the world’s leading financial institutions and all of the top 25 US banks. Accuity has over 300 staff and is based in Skokie, Illinois, United States.

Accuity will be integrated with Bankers’ Almanac and will share the combined data assets with LexisNexis Risk Solutions. The CEO of Accuity is joining Reed Elsevier to run the enlarged business within the data businesses of Reed Business Information.

The acquisition will be accretive to Reed Elsevier’s adjusted earnings from the outset, with post tax returns expected to cover its weighted average cost of capital by the third year. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

James M. Peck, CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solutions said: “Accuity is a business with prestigious content, in an attractive space with strong fundamental growth characteristics. The combination will provide our customers with expanded resources to contribute further to managing their AML and Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements.”

The Netherlands, Amsterdam & USA, Skokie, IL

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Scientific Games Corporation, acquires gaming content and machines business Barcrest Group

September 28, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Scientific Games Corporation, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Global Draw Limited, has acquired Barcrest Group Limited, a supplier of gaming content and machines in Europe, from International Game Technology.

Barcrest will be integrated into Scientific Games’ Diversified Gaming Group that includes its server-based gaming businesses, Global Draw and Games Media.  The deal will extend the company’s U.K. presence to new betting shop and pub locations as well as complementary gaming venues, such as bingo halls and other gaming centers, along with providing access to new video lottery customers in Italy and the Czech Republic. Barcrest also provides the Company with an existing base of business in interactive gaming, where game content is currently available through internet, mobile and other digital delivery channels.

Based on preliminary, unaudited results provided to the Scientific Games Corporation, for the twelve months ended June 30, 2011, Barcrest had revenue of approximately £41.9 million, which included approximately £23.2 million of product sales and approximately £18.7 million of recurring revenue.  For the same period, Barcrest’s operating income and depreciation expense were approximately £6.5 million and £4.5 million, respectively. Barcrest had an installed base of over 5,000 terminals as of June 30, 2011.

USA, New York, NY & UK, Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester

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Time Warner and Vivendi bid for a share of TVN

September 23, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

The FT is reporting that Time Warner and Vivendi aim to bid for 56 per cent of TVN, the largest Polish private broadcaster by revenue and audience share.

TVN is controlled by ITI Group, holding around 62% ownership. In a report in the Warsaw Voice, ITI president Wojciech Kostrzewa says that only price matters in the deal and admits that a further downturn in the global economic conditions could undermine the deal.

Warsaw voice also reports that ITI’s price expectations are believed to be around PLN 22 to 24 per share, versus recent valuations near PLN 12.

Other companies named as having a potential interest when the process began last year included Discovery Communications, Viacom and News Corp, RT, and private equity companies including Advent, Bain Capital and Providence Equity Partners.

Read more at:

USA, New York, NY & France, Paris & Poland, Warsaw

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Julpan acquired by Twitter

September 22, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Julpan has been acquired by Twitter. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Julpan analyses the way people share information on the social web. Studying the way stories develop and how people react to them provides a wealth of data to help determine what exactly people care about at any given moment. From this data, Julpan are able to understand and follow the most popular topics and track the highest quality content.

Here is the announcement from Julpan’s founder, Ori Allon.

I am very proud to announce that Julpan has been acquired by Twitter.

We founded Julpan more than a year ago. In that time we’ve created innovative, early-alpha-stage search technology that analyzes social activity across the Web to deliver fresh and relevant content to users.

Twitter houses an industry-leading engineering team that is tackling some of the Internet’s most interesting opportunities. With more than 230 million Tweets per day on every subject imaginable, Twitter gives us a chance to make an even greater contribution toward instantly bringing people closer to what is most meaningful to them. We look forward to joining forces with Twitter’s engineering team to explore how we can best integrate and optimize Julpan’s innovations.

I’d like to personally thank the talented engineers, architects and designers of Julpan. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people with whom to invent some of the world’s best social search technology.

Ori Allon, Director of Engineering, Twitter (former Founder & CEO of Julpan)

USA, San Francisco, CA & New York, NY

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Commercial building energy analytics company FirstFuel Software Closes a $2.4M Investment

September 22, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

FirstFuel Software, a commercial building energy analytics company, has secured a $2.4 million initial round of financing led by Battery Ventures and Nth Power, with participation from individual investors. The company, formerly called iblogix, Inc., will use the financing to quickly scale and accelerate adoption of its Rapid Building Assessment (RBA) platform, which provides zero-touch analysis of the energy performance of commercial buildings.

“Utilities have had difficulty engaging their commercial customers and realizing energy efficiency savings on a large scale. The FirstFuel platform applies deep analytics to consumption data, delivering highly insightful profiles of energy-use at a speed and cost that enables scalable delivery across a large portfolio,” said Swapnil Shah, co-founder and CEO of FirstFuel Software. “We look forward to working with utilities to help them engage their commercial customers and achieve energy efficiency goals.”

“FirstFuel Software has a profound opportunity to help the utility industry maximize their energy efficiency goals across commercial building portfolios,” said Jason Matlof, Partner, Battery Ventures. “We look forward to supporting the company’s growth and are excited by FirstFuel’s vision of establishing the de facto information platform for large scale energy efficiency in commercial buildings.”

USA, Boston, MA

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Online global travel network TravelShark acquires eat.shop guides

September 22, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Online global travel network TravelShark has acquired eat.shop guides, a publisher of independent, hyper-local travel guides for the world’s top travel destinations. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition gives TravelShark eat.shop’s visually powerful, curated content related to thousands of unique and “unexpected” dining and shopping venues in 30 cities around the world. TravelShark will retain the book business, and it will extend the success of eat.shop guides by exposing the print content for the first time in the digital realm.

TravelShark plans to expand the reach of the business with the addition of 100 new cities in the next year. The company will integrate eat.shop’s original content into its major-market websites, a range of new travel products it is developing in the area of trip planning, and new mobile applications designed for travelers who enjoy discovering the local flavor of a destination on their smartphones and tablets.

“TravelShark is excited to be at the forefront of the trend favoring original content in travel, most recently reflected by Google’s acquisition of Zagat,” said Sue Heilbronner, TravelShark’s CEO. “Web users are craving curated, original content about unique places to see on their next trip, and eat.shop’s content – which has never appeared online – fills a void for travelers weary of seeing the same old repurposed online content when they are researching their next vacation.”

Launched in 2006 by founder and CEO Kaie Wellman, eat.shop guides has print distribution in bookstores and gift stores around the world. In addition, the company has grown a private-label publishing business, creating branded editions of its city guides for large companies and hotel chains. As part of the acquisition, Wellman joins TravelShark as Head Curator and will continue to develop this brand of hyper-local content for print and online under the eat.shop brand and TravelShark’s new “As a Local” sub-brand.

 

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Tagged acquires social game discovery company WeGame

September 22, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Tagged, the social network for meeting new people, has acquired WeGame, a San Francisco based game discovery startup.

“WeGame has built a compelling social gaming and discovery business. Their creative direction and expert execution will help further accelerate our growth trajectory at Tagged,” said Tagged’s CEO Greg Tseng. “The WeGame team will immediately begin to contribute to our product and game studio teams, helping extend our industry leadership in social discovery.”

WeGame was founded in 2007 as a new kind of social gaming application company. WeGame and its team make gaming experiences easier to discover and share. Tagged will reveal more about the use of WeGame’s technology in the coming months. For now WeGame users can continue to use the client as usual.

USA, San Francisco, CA

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Glam Media to acquire Ning

September 21, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Glam Media, the vertical social content platform company, is acquiring Ning, the online platform for building social websites, including more than 100,000 custom branded fan sites.

“Ning is the clear leader for creating custom social websites and communities. Acquiring Ning adds a natural extension to our social media platform, new distribution channels and a talented Silicon Valley team, all of which support our aim to connect brands with engaged, passionate audiences,” said Samir Arora, Chairman and CEO of Glam Media. “With the addition of Ning, Glam Media will truly become the first next generation media company in the post-social world.”

Ning will operate as a new business unit within Glam Media. Jason Rosenthal, Ning’s CEO, will join Glam as EVP Social Media & General Manager of Ning, and will be a member of the Glam Media executive team.

Additionally, Marc Andreessen will join Glam Media’s board of directors, joining the venture firm investors in Glam — Accel’s Thereisa Ranzetta and DFJ’s Tim Draper — as well as Co-Founder of Glam Media Fernando Ruarte, Dr Marcel Reichart from print media leader Hubert Burda Media, and Glam Media Founder & Chairman Samir Arora. Andreessen is a Silicon Valley pioneer who created Mosaic, the first web-browser and was the co-founder of Netscape Communications. In 2009, Andreessen created the venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, with Ben Horowitz that invests in leading edge technology companies. He currently serves on the boards of Facebook, HP, eBay and other leading technology companies.

USA, Brisbane, CA

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