Energy management software Hara receives $25 million in Series C funding

May 30, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Hara, a leading provider of environmental and energy management software, has received $25 million in Series C funding, the company’s largest round, bringing total investment to $45 million. Participants include Energy Technology Ventures, a joint venture of GE (NYSE: GE), NRG Energy (NYSE: NRG) and ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), and ITOCHU Technology Ventures (ITV), as well as existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), JAFCO Ventures and Nth Power and new backers Focus Ventures and Navitas Capital. The funding will allow Hara to accelerate global expansion and product innovation, to meet growing demand from Fortune 1000 companies and government agencies for solutions to help optimize energy and resource use while minimizing environmental impact.

Hara is adding new strategic investors as it advances its growth plans across industries including manufacturing, utilities and oil and gas. These investors include – through Energy Technology Ventures –world-renowned advanced technology, services and finance company GE; ConocoPhillips, the third-largest integrated energy company in the U.S.; NRG Energy, owner and operator of one of the largest power generation portfolios in the nation; and ITV, the venture capital arm of leading Japanese trading group ITOCHU which has also entered into a strategic partnership with Hara to serve clients in Japan. The funding supports Hara’s global focus as an industry leader and is a testament to the adoption, comprehensiveness and scalability of the Hara Environmental and Energy Management (Hara EEM) solution.

USA, San Mateo, CA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in B2B Services, Energy & Environmental Services, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Internet Advertising Revenues Hit $7.3 Billion in Q1 ’11 Highest First-Quarter Revenue Level on Record According to IAB and PwC

May 30, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Internet advertising revenues in the U.S. hit $7.3 billion for the first quarter of 2011, representing a 23 percent increase over the same period in 2010, according to figures released today by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). This marks the highest first-quarter revenue level ever for the industry and a significant increase over last year’s first-quarter revenue level, which had been the highest on record to date.

“The consistent and considerable year-over-year growth we’re seeing demonstrates that digital media is an increasingly popular destination for ad dollars, and for good reason,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. “As Americans spend more time online for information and entertainment purposes, digital advertising and marketing has emerged as one of the most effective tools businesses have to attract and retain customers.”

“The year-on-year 23 percent increase in first quarter revenues is not just impressive in its own right, but especially so when you take into account the fact that 2010 was a record-breaking year itself for Internet advertising revenue,” said David Silverman, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. “These numbers indicate that the interactive advertising field hasn’t simply bounced back since the recession; it’s growing with dynamic energy.”

The full report is issued twice yearly for full and half-year data, and top-line quarterly estimates are issued for the first and third quarters. Past reports are available at www.iab.net/AdRevenueReport.

USA, New York, NY

Other Research Reports:

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Research Reports, ~Asia, ~Europe, ~Latin America and Caribbean, ~Middle East & Africa, ~North America, ~Oceana. Leave a Comment »

France: Match.com announces planned public offer for all outstanding shares of Meetic S.A.

May 30, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Dating website Match.com, an operating business of IAC, is to launch a voluntary public tender offer for all of the outstanding shares of Meetic S.A. at a price of euro 15.00 per share in cash. The offer price represents a premium of approximately 11.6% on the closing price of Meetic shares on May 27, 2011.

Match.com owns approximately 27% of the outstanding shares of Meetic, which it obtained when it combined its European businesses with Meetic in 2009.

“Today we are announcing a big step forward in strengthening our partnership with Meetic and aligning the companies for even greater growth,” said Greg Blatt, CEO of IAC.  “We believe people will increasingly meet online, and increasing our ownership stake allows us to leverage our commitments to product, marketing and technology innovation in the space across Europe.  Meetic has done a fantastic job realizing the synergies from the 2009 merger, and now we believe we can apply the same lessons learned in revitalizing Match.com’s growth trajectory in the U.S. beginning in 2009.”

Marc Simoncini, Meetic’s founder and Chairman, has entered into a binding agreement to tender in the offer approximately 3.7 million shares, representing approximately 16% of the total number of shares outstanding.  Mr. Simoncini will retain the balance of his stake (approximately 1.6 million shares, representing approximately 7% of the total number of shares outstanding) and intends to remain on Meetic’s Board.

Philippe Chainieux, Meetic Group’s Executive Vice President, said, “Meetic’s Executive Committee fully supports this transaction which, considering the globalization of the dating and matchmaking business, will offer Meetic new growth opportunities with the implementation of existing financial and industrial synergies between Match and Meetic.”

Match expects to file the public offer with the French Securities Regulator (Autorite des marches financiers) within two to three weeks.  The offer will not be subject to a minimum tender condition.

Meetic is a French stock corporation, with its registered office in Paris.  It’s online dating business is established in 16 European countries, and is available in 13 languages. In 2010, Meetic posted sales of euro 186.0mand an EBITDA margin of 20.6%.  Meetic is listed in Compartment B of Euronext Paris of the NYSE Euronext.   Match does not intend to de-list the Company following completion of the tender offer.

Match.com has experienced record growth over the last year. Core revenue increased 18% to $93.3 million in first quarter 2011, driven by a 22% increase in subscribers. Through its subsidiary Match Pegasus, Match owns approximately 6.1 million shares of Meetic, representing approximately 27% of Meetic’s outstanding shares.  These shares were obtained in a 2009 transaction merging the European operations of Match.com and Meetic.

USA, New York, NY & France, Paris

Related articles:

 

 

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, ~Europe, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Local online marketing business Yodle has acquired ProfitFuel

May 29, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Local online marketing business Yodle has acquired ProfitFuel, Inc. ProfitFuel, based in Austin, TX, is the largest and fastest growing provider of local search engine optimization (SEO) services to small businesses across the United States. With over 11,000 clients, ProfitFuel has achieved breakout growth serving small businesses that have a moderate marketing budget. Outrank, the company’s main service, is designed to generate inbound phone calls and emails cost effectively by delivering prominent rankings on top search engines for clients.

Historically, Yodle has focused its local online marketing services on small business advertisers that typically spend larger budgets of $1,000+ monthly and national brand advertisers; Franchise, Multi-location, and Manufacturer/Dealer organizations that advertise locally across hundreds of locations. With the acquisition of ProfitFuel, Yodle now adds a product and a sales force capable of serving a much broader set of clients who have smaller marketing budgets, but who still want the accountability of measuring their marketing performance.

“With ProfitFuel, Yodle is doubling down on its approach of providing a clear ROI to the local advertiser, delivered through a combined 450 person sales and client service team,” said Yodle CEO Court Cunningham. “ProfitFuel’s dedication to customer results and sales excellence made it a natural fit with Yodle. I look forward to bringing Yodle’s expanded suite of SEM, SEO, Social and Display marketing products to market more quickly in collaboration with ProfitFuel’s world class team.”

David Rubin, previously CEO of ProfitFuel, will join Yodle as SVP of Sales. Mr. Rubin has a proven 20 year track record as a successful CEO and sales leader in the technology space. Prior to ProfitFuel, Mr. Rubin was founder and CEO of HomeCity, an online real estate brokerage that pioneered utilizing web-based content to acquire clients. Before founding HomeCity, David held leadership positions at various companies including Intraware as Vice President of New Services Development, BITSource as founder and CEO and Computize as National Sales Director.

Yodle plans to grow ProfitFuel’s Austin, TX office, making it a major hub, and to fully integrate the company’s infrastructure and technology by year’s end.

USA, New York, NY & Austin, TX

Related Articles:

Yodle, a local online advertising and lead generation company,has completed a $10M funding round Posted on February 2, 2010

Posted in Marketing/Advertising, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Glam Media has acquired BabyWorld

May 29, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Glam Media has acquired BabyWorld community site, a purchase that’s meant to both spur the company’s growth in the “family/parenting” vertical and solidify its presence in the UK. Details of the deal were not disclosed.

Babyworld, a commercial online magazine for the expectant and new parent community, was started in 1996 by Radcliffe Medical Press. The company describes itself as “an interactive ‘one-stop shop’ resource where our parent community can attend our unique on-line antenatal classes, seek advice, make friends and share experiences, birth stories and information in the discussion forums. They can also read articles, find product information and product reviews as well as shop in our online shop.”

It is being reported that Glam is preparing for an IPO. Glam Media raised its fifth round of venture capital last year – $50 million from aeris CAPITAL. The company did not disclose the valuation of the round, but it was rumoured to be around $750 million.

USA, Brisbane, CA & UK, London

Related articles:

 

 

Posted in Content Media, e-Commerce, Internet Media, ~Europe, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

KKR to Acquire Ipreo from VSS

May 29, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (together with its affiliates, “KKR”) has signed a definitive agreement with private investment firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson (“VSS”) whereby an affiliate of KKR will acquire Ipreo Holdings LLC, a premier global provider of capital markets related data, market intelligence, and productivity solutions. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“Ipreo is a sophisticated capital markets and corporate analytics firm managed and staffed by many of the most knowledgeable, creative and client-focused people in the industry. We see great potential for growth and are excited to partner with an industry leader with Ipreo’s depth of experience and reputation for service,” Thomas Uger, Director of KKR, said.

Ipreo is a leading provider of market intelligence, deal execution platforms, and investor communication tools to investment banks and corporations around the world. Ipreo is privately held, with a significant portion of the company owned by management and employees. Ipreo clients include hundreds of corporations listed on all the major exchanges around the globe.

Ipreo is the only provider of new issuance software solutions across the equity, fixed income, and municipal markets, including bookbuilding systems, roadshow & conference management platforms, and electronic document delivery. In addition, the company is known for its Bigdough database, widely recognized as the leading source for institutional contact data and investor profiles, which is available via a suite of sophisticated CRM and prospecting applications and relied upon by both capital markets and investor relations professionals to facilitate effective investor outreach initiatives.

“KKR is a leading global investment firm with a track-record of partnering with world-class enterprises; it’s very exciting for us to have their support,” said Scott Ganeles, Chief Executive Officer of Ipreo. “This is a new chapter in our history, and it is an endorsement of our success to date and a validation of our employees’ commitment to ensuring our clients have the best tools, analysis, and insights to enable them to achieve their capital raising goals.”

USA, New York, NY


Posted in Content Media, Market Data & Information, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

dunnhumby to acquire social marketing company BzzAgent

May 29, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

dunnhumby Ltd is to acquire Boston-based social marketing company BzzAgent, Inc. Following completion of the deal, BzzAgent will become a subsidiary of dunnhumby and operate as a stand-alone business. Dave Balter, CEO and Founder of BzzAgent, will continue in his current role and will report directly to Simon Hay, CEO of dunnhumby Ltd. Balter will also join the dunnhumby executive team. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The acquisition is a marriage of one of the leaders in shopper marketing with a social marketing pioneer. dunnhumby analyzes shopper data that helps consumer goods companies and retailers better understand the behavior and motivation of their customers. BzzAgent helps marketers reach their customers, encouraging brand advocacy and product recommendations among them. Together, the companies will use the power of peer influence and word-of-mouth to improve customer insights and product sales for consumer goods companies and retailers.

“The customer today is as influential as the marketing gurus were a decade ago. Customers’ choices are influenced in many places and social media and word-of-mouth are playing a key role for brands and retailers,” said Simon Hay, CEO of dunnhumby Ltd. “Not only does BzzAgent leverage a base of 800,000 influential customers in the word-of-mouth space, it is focused on measuring return on investment and the role of social media. Our focus has always been on building loyalty. With BzzAgent, we believe we can now help our clients understand advocacy and use this knowledge to earn more loyal customers for retailers and brands,” Hay continued.

“dunnhumby has built a stellar reputation in the retail and CPG space by focusing on customer attitudes and behaviors,” said Balter. “BzzAgent shares that focus and we are excited to leverage dunnhumby’s unmatched targeting and analytic capabilities to provide our programs greater scale and proof of impact. Together we think we have a huge opportunity to connect the dots between shopper marketing and social media.”

BzzAgent, founded in 2001, a pioneer in the word-of-mouth marketing space, enlists “agents” to generate awareness for consumer goods and services among their peers. The company’s network of 800,000 consumers helps its clients create word-of-mouth endorsements of its products. Clients include some of the world’s largest marketers, including Procter & Gamble, Unilever, L’Oreal and Michelin. BzzAgent has completed more than 2,000 programs for 500-plus companies since it was founded.

Cowen and Company is acting as exclusive financial advisor to BzzAgent, Inc. in connection with the transaction.

UK, London & USA, Boston, MA

 

 

 

Posted in Marketing/Advertising, ~Europe, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Evolve Media Corp. acquires WholesomeBabyFood.com

May 29, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Evolve Media Corp., an integrated digital media company, has acquired WholesomeBabyFood.com, which will become a part of Momtastic, a leading online destination and community for American moms.

WholesomeBabyFood.com features fresh, fast and simple homemade baby food recipes & easy guides on introducing solid foods to babies. The site was founded by Margaret Meade in 2003 out of a desire to provide healthy food for her twin boys. The content of the website combines pediatric and nutrition advice, medical recommendations and motherly knowledge of food, in order to create recipes that inspire parents to make their own baby food. WholesomeBabyFood.com is the number one searched site for “baby food” on the web and reaches 510,000 monthly unique visitors (Google Analytics, March 2011).

“WholesomeBabyFood.com is the epitome of a premium content rich site with a mommy blogger voice which is exactly what Momtastic offers to moms,” says Mike Dodge, President of AtomicOnline, Evolve’s publishing division. “Adding WholesomeBabyFood to the Momtastic family allows us to offer our community as well as marketers more in depth content surrounding parenting, health and food.”

“I am thrilled to have WholesomeBabyFood become a part of Momtastic,” says Margaret Meade, Founder, Creator, and Contributor to WholesomeBabyFood.com. “I look forward to seeing how Momtastic takes WholesomeBabyFood to the next level by adding mobile, social and video features to our existing strong content.”

totallyher, Evolve’s female vertically-focused online branded sales company, will continue to lead all sales efforts for Momtastic including WholesomeBabyFood.com by creating custom integrated marketing programs incorporating mobile, video, social media and rich display products.

USA, Los Angeles, CA

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, Publishers, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Yahoo! to acquire 5to1 Holding Corp

May 29, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Yahoo! has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 5to1 Holding Corp. 5to1 is an online advertising alliance consisting exclusively of major media publishers. Built on a proprietary publisher-controlled platform, 5to1 offers top brand advertisers premium inventory at mass scale. The acquisition of 5to1 will enable Yahoo! to build upon its publisher partnerships and expand its premium inventory.

“5to1’s innovative platform and premium private marketplace will further enable Yahoo! to extend our advertising leadership,” said Wayne Powers, SVP, Advertising Sales for the North America region. “5to1 provides additional access to publishers and unlocks the value of unsold inventory for premium brand advertisers.”

5to1 focuses on premium brands and media partnered in a marketplace environment, enabling major media publishers to fill unsold inventory with premium advertisements. 5to1 works with more than 20 premium publishers.

“We’re thrilled for our media partners that Yahoo! is backing our platform and the alliance,” said James Heckman, 5to1 CEO and co-founder. “The 5to1 team is looking forward to joining Yahoo! at the close of the transaction and being part of its global reach.”

Yahoo! expects to close the acquisition in the second quarter. After the close of the transaction, the 5to1 team will be joining Yahoo! as part of the Ad Marketplaces group.

USA, Sunnyvale, CA

Related articles:

Posted in Content Media, Internet Media, Marketing/Advertising, Publishers, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

Pricetector acquires price-alert services business Price Protectr

May 29, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Pricetector, a private Social Loyalty company, has acquired price-alert services business Price Protectr LLC for an undisclosed sum.

“Priceprotectr.com has earned great recognition for having saved consumers millions of dollars through their innovative price-alert services,” said Rob Levy, Pricetector Founder and CEO.  “We look forward to incorporating their technology into our Social Loyalty platform.  Current and future users can expect major enhancements in the coming months that will make it easier for consumers to save more money in more ways.”

As part of the transition, the Price Protectr team will stay on as strategic consultants as Pricetector makes final its preparations for launch.

“We are thrilled to be working with Pricetector and are looking forward to their launch later this year,” said Price Protectr CEO,James Wallace. “Price Protectr will live on as the foundation for Pricetetor’s Social Loyalty platform.”

“Early in our engagement, they saw our innovative approach to helping people save money,” said Tim Tonella, President of Price Protectr. He continued, “With the additional capital and resources that Pricetector brings, the value of the platform can grow exponentially.”

“Price Protectr has been our pride and joy for a long time,” said Dave Cohen, Price Protectr co-founder and CTO. “We look forward to this next phase being even more successful than the last.”

The acquisition heralds Pricetector’s strategic and aggressive investment in preparation to launch and lead the Social Loyalty revolution.  The U.S. retail market is over $1.8 trillion per year. Unveiling later in 2011, Pricetector intends to fundamentally change the relationship between retailers and their customers by creating a platform that rewards both the retailer and the consumer and creates a sustained mutually beneficial relationship.

USA, Los Gatos, CA


 

Posted in Content Media, e-Commerce, Internet Media, ~North America. Leave a Comment »
« Older posts
Newer posts »