WPP’s XM acquires majority stake in Thomas Idea in Thailand

March 14, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

wppXM Asia, a division of WPP’s wholly-owned operating company JWT, has acquired a majority stake in Thomas Idea, a digital marketing agency in Thailand.

Founded in 1995 in Bangkok, Thomas Idea employs 45 people and had total assets of around THB 50 million at 31 December 2012. Thomas Idea services include online strategy consulting, website design and development, digital marketing and applications design. Clients include Beiersdorf, Reckitt Benckiser, TIPCO, Abbott Laboratories and Pruska.

UK, London & Thailand

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Trinity Mirror plc – Preliminary results for year ended 30 December 2012

March 14, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Trinity Mirror plc has announced its preliminary esults for the year ended 30 December 2012

Highlights

  • Revenue fell by £54.2 million to £706.5 million – in part due to the launch of a new national Sunday tabloid during February 2012.
  • Operating profit up 2.5% to £107.1 million.
  • Structural cost savings of £25 million.
  • EPS growth of 10.7% from 27.0 pence to 29.9 pence – driven by increased operating profit and reduced interest costs on falling debt.
  • Further reduction in net debt of £64.2 million – net debt reduced to £157.0 million after funding £14.2 million investment in Local World.
  • Continued de-risking of the Group’s defined benefit pension schemes – 25% of gross liabilities hedged through insurance contracts.
  • A non cash impairment charge of £60 million against the carrying value of goodwill in the acquired digital recruitment and digital property businesses.

Commenting on the results, Simon Fox, Chief Executive, Trinity Mirror plc, said:

“It has become clear to me in my first six months that not only is Trinity Mirror a strong and cash generative business, as evidenced by this past year’s financial performance, but that there is significant further unrealised potential.

We will be investing £8 million during 2013 to deliver our strategic objectives whilst ensuring we repay maturing long-term debt over the next 15 months. Over this period our financial flexibility will improve such that we can both meet our pension funding obligations and consider the potential for returning capital to shareholders.

Although the trading environment is expected to remain difficult, the strategic initiatives I have implemented will bring significant benefits with the ambition of delivering sustainable profit growth over the medium term.”

More information here.

UK, London

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ePublishing acquires B2B Audience Network

March 14, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

ePublishing has acquired B2B Audience Network. A business-to–business advertising network, B2B Audience reaches more than 300 online publications for clients including UBM, Cygnus, and GIE.

Andy Kowl, founder of B2B Audience Network, will be joining ePublishing as Senior Vice President of Publishing Strategy.

“We have always focused on maximizing publishers’ revenue by increasing reader engagement and enabling them to monetize it at every level,” said Thomas Chaffee , CEO of ePublishing. “Adding another contextual revenue opportunity for the hundreds of B2B titles powered by our EPS benefits both our clients and their customers.” In 2012, ePublishing acquired Ellington CMS and Marketplace software and 330 news websites from The World Company.

USA, Chicago, IL

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Complex Media acquires Sole Collector

March 14, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Complex Media has acquired Sole Collector expanding the company’s network of owned and operated sites. Sole Collector’s GM Steve Mullholand , along with his 10-person team, will join Complex Media. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Sole Collector was founded 10 years ago by Steve Mullholand, and is based in Portland, Oregon. The site has 4.4 million unique monthly visitors and an online sneaker forum, with over 385,000 members. Sole Collector offers a sneaker database with over 15,000 listings, each quarter publishes Sole Collector print magazine and each month publishes Sole magazine on iPad.

“We’re thrilled to acquire Sole Collector and to bring on its talented team. They’ve created a uniquely successful destination for sneaker-obsessed males – some of the most discerning lifestyle consumers anywhere,” said Rich Antoniello , CEO of Complex Media. “With its authentic voice, enormous and constantly updated database, and loyal and engaged users, Sole Collector is exactly the kind of property we’re looking to add to our expanding collective of sites that define and influence youth culture. This is just the beginning of our aggressive and strategic expansion plan for 2013.”

USA, New York, NY & Portland, Oregon

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RetailMeNot acquires Dutch online coupon site Actiepagina.nl

March 13, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

RetailMeNot, Inc., a marketplace for online coupons and deals, has acquired Actiepagina.nl, a publisher of online coupons in the Netherlands. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

RetailMeNot, Inc.’s existing portfolio of European websites also includes VoucherCodes.co.uk (www.vouchercodes.co.uk) in the U.K.; Bons-de-Reduction (web.bons-de-reduction.com) and cash-back website Poulpeo (poulpeo.com) in France; and Deals.com (www.deals.com) in Germany. In North America, RetailMeNot, Inc. also operates Deals2Buy (www.deals2buy.com) and RetailMeNot (www.retailmenot.com), the most widely used online coupon site in the United States.

Maurice Buijs , who founded of Actiepagina in 2005, will continue to serve as general manager of RetailMeNot, Inc.’s Dutch operations. The transaction includes transitioning all existing full-time staff to RetailMeNot, Inc. employees, bringing RetailMeNot, Inc.’s total global headcount to approximately 330 employees.

“In addition to our two websites in North America, the acquisition of Actiepagina.nl puts us in our fourth country in Europe,” said Cotter Cunningham, Founder & CEO, RetailMeNot, Inc. “I look forward to working with Maurice and our new team in the Netherlands so we can show more Dutch consumers how easy it is to save money while shopping online, and help our merchant partners grow their business.”

USA, Austin, TX & The Netherlands

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Expedia Completes Acquisition Of Majority Interest In trivago

March 12, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

expediaExpedia has completed its acquisition of 61.6% of the fully-diluted equity of trivago, a German hotel metasearch company, paying approximately €434 million in cash (approximately US$564 million based on March 8, 2013 exchange rates) and agreeing to issue a total of 875,200 shares of Expedia, Inc. common stock over five years. trivago will continue to operate independently from its headquarters in Dusseldorf, Germany.

Previous DigiNet reporting

“Metasearch is an incredibly popular product because it enables consumers to find their ideal hotel at the lowest possible rate. The trivago team built one of the best hotel search user experiences and gained tremendous brand recognition in Europe. We are thrilled to officially welcome them to the Expedia, Inc. family,” said Dara Khosrowshahi , Expedia, Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer.

“Our focus remains on rapidly growing revenue as we expand globally,” said Rolf Schromgens, trivago co-founder and Managing Director. “The ability to leverage Expedia’s knowledge of and experience with global scale operations will be invaluable to profitably achieve this goal,” added Schromgens.

USA, Bellevue, WA & Germany, Dusseldorf

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Middle Eastern daily deal site Cobone.com acquired by Tiger Global Management

March 12, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Cobone LogoCobone.com, a daily deal company in the Middle East, has been acquired by investment firm Tiger Global Management. Irish entrepreneur Paul Kenny , founder and current CEO of Cobone.com, along other members of Cobone’s management team including Warrick Godfrey , Pieter Sleeboom, Tahira Khan and Loai Ayoub will remain with Cobone. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Dubai based Cobone was founded in August 2010 by Kenny with backing from the Jabbar Internet Group. Cobone.com is the largest deal site in the Middle East region, and has grown its registered user base to more than 2 million customers.

“This deal represents a very exciting future for Cobone as it reaffirms its commitment to the Middle Eastern market and e-commerce industry,” said Paul Kenny . “Tiger Global gives us the international clout and the financial resources to expand regionally and surpass already high customer expectations. Loyal Cobone users can look forward to many exciting developments and innovative offerings in the very near future.”

USA, New York & UAE, Dubai

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Publicis Groupe acquires Convonix

March 11, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

PublicisPublicis Groupe has acquired Convonix, one of India’s leading Digital Marketing Consulting firms based in Mumbai. The company will align with Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG) in India to provide Search Engine Optimization, Paid Search Marketing, Social Media Marketing and Online Reputation Management to an extensive roster of clients.

Founded in 2003, Convonix was the first Search Engine Optimization organization in India, and currently employs over 200 digital advertising specialists serving clients such as Taj Hotels, Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Group, Club Mahindra, Kodak, Aditya Birla Group, among others. Convonix has a strong international footprint with over 60% of its business coming from overseas. Convonix has also recently developed a proprietary in-house brand monitoring and social listening platform called IrisTrack which enables clients to gather market insight on their products and competitors and also engage customers online to improve their customer service.
The three founding members, Vishal Sampat , CEO, Sarfaraz Khimani , co-COO and Pallav Jain , co-COO, will continue to lead the agency. Convonix will sit within SMG and will operate as SMG Convonix, with two market-facing brands: SMG Digital, and Convonix.
“As the first SEO organisation in India, Convonix has continued to innovate and build the very best digital capability whilst being highly respected for its ability to recruit the best talent from universities each year, and transform them into digital advertising experts through a rigorous training program,” said Laura Desmond , Global Chief Executive Officer for Starcom MediaVest Group. She continues: “Combined with our existing talent in the market, this deal strengthens our offering to ensure we are the market leaders in digital.”
Year on year, Convonix has increased revenues on average 66 percent since 2008.

Srikant Sastri , VivaKi Country Chair for India who is presiding over the acquisition and transition of Convonix, adds: “First Resultrix, and now Convonix. We are now clearly the digital marketing leaders in India, ahead of any other global network. We are positive that this acquisition will set the tone for our next phase of digital pre-eminence both in terms of expertise and revenue and we are continuing to explore other agencies that can help us capitalize on the outstanding potential of the digital marketplace in India.”

France, Paris & India, Mumbai

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Middle Eastern daily deal site Cobone.com acquired by Tiger Global Management

March 11, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Cobone.com, a daily deal company in the Middle East, has been acquired by investment firm Tiger Global Management.

Irish entrepreneur Paul Kenny , founder and current CEO of Cobone.com, will remain in his position along other members of Cobone’s leadership team including Warrick Godfrey , Pieter Sleeboom, Tahira Khan and Loai Ayoub.

Cobone.com was founded in August 2010 by Kenny with backing from the Jabbar Internet Group. It is the largest deal site in the Middle East region, and has grown its registered user base to more than 2 million customers.

“This deal represents a very exciting future for Cobone as it reaffirms its commitment to the Middle Eastern market and e-commerce industry,” said Paul Kenny . “Tiger Global gives us the international clout and the financial resources to expand regionally and surpass already high customer expectations. Loyal Cobone users can look forward to many exciting developments and innovative offerings in the very near future.”

Samih Toukan , Chairman of Jabbar Internet Group, commented on the deal, saying, “This deal represents the international recognition of a highly successful local business. With Paul Kenny , we created a company that led the way in regional group buying, and took on global players on our own turf. While this deal represents a successful exit for the Jabbar Group, we have little doubt in Cobone’s commitment to the region and in Paul’s determination to continue excelling and leading his brainchild to new successes.”

UAE, Dubai

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Perform acquires Dutch football site Voetbalzone.nl

March 7, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

performDigital sports rights business, Perform Group plc,  has acquired Voetbalzone.nl.

Voetbalzone is an independent sports site in the Netherlands. The acquisition will be for an initial voetbalzoneconsideration of €2.0m with an additional contingent consideration of up to €10.5m payable based on the EBITDA of Voetbalzone for the years to 31 December 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Voetbalzone covers all the news from the world of football and is the number one independent sports site in the Netherlands attracting an average of 2m unique users per month, and ranked as the 6th largest sport site on comScore.

Oliver Slipper, joint CEO of Perform commented: “We are delighted to have announced the acquisition of Voetbalzone. The Dutch market is extremely exciting and one of the leading media markets in Europe and this acquisition really positions us a strong player here. We have set out a growth strategy focused on augmenting Perform’s strong organic growth with selective acquisitions including ‘local champions’ and today’s announcement is an excellent example of us executing this strategy.”

Perform Group also announced full year results today with revenue growth of 47% and adjusted EBITDA growth of 103% – full details.

Perform Group recent acquisitions:

  • Acquisition of RunningBall, a leading real-time data provider in May for total cash and equity consideration of €120 million.  Post acquisition integration complete and new product development progressing well.
  • Acquisition of 51% of Mackolik in June, Turkey’s leading digital sports business for £14.5 million (with a further £1.0 million payable in 2013 due to the above expected performance of the business in 2012).  Remaining 49% to be acquired in 2016.

UK, Feltham & The Netherlands

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