LexisNexis® to Sell its Screening Solutions Portfolio to Symphony Technology Group

January 18, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

lexisnexisReed Elsevier’s LexisNexis Risk Solutions has sold its LexisNexis screening business to the Palo Alto-based private equity firm Symphony Technology Group (STG). STG plans to combine LexisNexis screening with its portfolio company, First Advantage.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the FT is reporting that analysts at UBS valued the screening unit at up to $300m, based on estimated revenues of $180m and earnings before interest, tax and amortisation of $30m.symphonytg

“The decision to sell the screening business came after a careful review of the needs of the business and the strategic goals we have in place,” said Mark Kelsey, CEO, LexisNexis Risk Solutions. “While the screening business has been a significant offering within the LexisNexis portfolio, there is greater long-term opportunity for the business with an organization like First Advantage, which is focused on bringing background screening solutions to the marketplace.”

“The combination of these two leading companies will transform how employers select and screen their employees, dramatically improving the quality of their talent and their recruiting processes and productivity,” said Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, Chairman and CEO of Symphony Technology Group. “The customers of First Advantage and LexisNexis Risk Solutions now have access to the industry’s broadest set of services and expertise and the best technology and solutions for acquiring and retaining the best and most skilled talent available.”

USA, Atlanta, GA & Palo Alto, CA

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The $80M merger of Viggle and GetGlue is Terminated

January 17, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

viggleThe $80M merger of Viggle and GetGlue is Terminated. Why the deal is off is not clear.

On Sunday the GetGlue blog said “We are moving forward as an independent company.”

Today a short announcement was issued by Viggle in which Robert F.X. Sillerman, Executive Chairman and CEO of Viggle said;

“During the time we started talking to GetGlue about an acquisition and since the merger agreement was signed in November, we have getglueseen impressive growth in our business”

“During the time we started talking to GetGlue about an acquisition and since the merger agreement was signed in November, we have seen impressive growth in our business,” Sillerman said. “We are pleased with this positive momentum.” He added that the termination of the agreement was cordial. “We wish GetGlue and Alex all the best.”

Previous DigiNet reporting – Viggle to acquire GetGlue for $25M cash and 48.3M shares

USA, New York, NY

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RPS Group PLC acquires Petroleum Institute for Continuing Education

January 17, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

RPSlogoRPS Group PLC, an energy and natural resources consultancy, has acquired Petroleum Institute for Continuing Education (“PEICE”), a Canadian based business providing geoscience and engineering training to the oil and gas industry, for a maximum consideration of C$11.7 million (£7.4 million).

PEICE has been providing training to the oil and gas industry for 12 years. During 2012 it delivered over 200 courses, primarily in Canada and the US. The courses cater for a wide range of participants including recent graduates and technical and administrative support staff, as well as senior energy company staff. Course formats include open courses, in-house at client facilities and on-line delivery. peice

In the year ended 31 August 2012 PEICE had revenues of C$7.4 million (£4.7 million) and profit before tax of C$2.0 million (£1.3 million), after adjustment for non-recurring items.  Net assets at 31 August 2012 were C$0.4 million (£0.25 million).  On the same basis, gross assets at 31 December 2012 were C$1.0 million (£0.6 million).

RPS is acquiring the entire share capital of PEICE for a maximum total consideration of C$11.7 million (£7.4 million), all payable in cash.  Consideration paid at completion was C$5.7 million (£3.6 million).  Subject to certain operational conditions being met, two further sums of C$3 million (£1.9 million) will be paid on the first two anniversaries of the transaction.

The founder and joint owner (with his wife) of the business will be remaining with RPS after the transaction, along with all current PEICE staff. They will work with RPS’ existing energy training teams in the UK and US to extend the range of courses offered and the geographical reach of the business.

Alan Hearne, Chief Executive of RPS, said, “The acquisition of PEICE extends the geographical reach and capability of our existing energy training business.  This remains a growth market, as technical training continues to be important for most of our E&P clients.”

UK, Abingdon, Oxforshire & Canada, Calgary, AB

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Tarsus Group plc to acquire 51% of Indonesian exhibition organiser PT Infrastructure Asia

January 17, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

TarsusB2B media group Tarsus Group plc is to acquire 51% of Indonesian exhibition organiser PT Infrastructure Asia (PTIA) from PT Event Pro International. The founders and the existing management will continue to run the business post acquisition. The acquisition is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2013. The Consideration will be met from Tarsus’s existing cash resources. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Tarsus will pay an initial cash consideration on completion of $0.5 million for the 51% interest, with estimated total deferred payments of approximately $2.4 million in aggregate during 2014 and 2015.

Tarsus and the PT Event Pro International have conditional put and call options at various points in 2016 and 2017 in respect of the outstanding 49% shareholding in PTIA. The total consideration for 100% of PTIA has been capped at US$23 million.

PTIA currently owns and organises three annual business-to-business exhibitions and one seminar series in Indonesia:

  • IIICE, focused on the development of Indonesia’s infrastructure;
  • IFTS, a series of infrastructure related seminars, that support IIICE;
  • ITMIT, a new launch in November 2013 which will co-locate with IIICE and focus on the Telecommunications, Media and IT sectors; and
  • APSDEX, an event for the security and defence industry.

Douglas Emslie, Tarsus Group Managing Director, said, “PTIA is an excellent fit with our strategic objective of quickening the pace of our earnings by investing in fast growth markets. PTIA has the leading events serving the Indonesian infrastructure sector, which is earmarked to receive an unprecedented $243 billion of investment by 2025.”

UK, London & Indonesia, Jakarta

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Argus acquires FCC, boosting fertilizer consulting business

January 14, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

ArgusGlobal energy and commodity price reporting agency Argus has acquired Fertilizer and Chemical Consultancy (FCC), a provider of long-term outlooks and strategic consulting for fertilizer markets.

FCC was founded in 2004 by Bernard Brentnall and Frances Wollmer, who between them have 50 years of experience in the fertilizer industry. Argus previously had a 49pc stake in FCC, which it acquired when it purchased leading fertilizer price reporting agency FMB in June 2011 (a Fusion Deal). Argus has now bought the remaining shares in FCC. Bernard and Frances will join Argus as principals, Fertilizer Consulting Services.

Argus Media chairman and chief executive Adrian Binks said: “We are delighted to bring FCC wholly into Argus. Bernard and Frances are well respected professionals with extensive experience and knowledge on fertilizer and fertilizer raw material markets. They are a welcome addition to both our fertilizer service range and our global consulting team.”

Frances Wollmer added: “We are looking forward to developing fertilizer consultancy services further using Argus’ global resources. There is a growing need for intelligent and relevant insight in our industry and we are now even better equipped to deliver that to our growing number of customers.”

UK, London

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Shutterfly Acquires ThisLife

January 14, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

shutterflyShutterfly has acquired ThisLife, a cloud-based solution offering intuitive photo and video organization, storing and sharing.

“Since 1999, Shutterfly has made it easier for consumers to be more creative with their memories,” said Jeffrey Housenbold, president and chief executive officer of Shutterfly. “The combination of ThisLife’s best in class cloud organization and storage solution with Shutterfly’s award-winning product creation paths, uniquely positions Shutterfly to be the leading full service solution for storing, organizing, and sharing life most important memories.“this life

In the coming months, Shutterfly will add ThisLife’s technology to the Shutterfly platform. ThisLife’s intelligent organization platform offers features like facial recognition and presents photos and albums in an elegant timeline for convenient sharing and product creation. ThisLife’s employees, including founders Andrea and Matt Johnson, will join Shutterfly.

The company will share additional details about the acquisition on its Q4 2012 earnings call.

USA, Redwood City, CA

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Match Marketing Group acquires Marketing Drive and WELD media

January 14, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

Match Marketing Group, a Canadian shopper marketing agency, has acquired Norwalk, CT-based Marketing Drive, along with its digital subsidiary, WELD media. The agencies are owned by Chicago-based River North Group and specialise in retail, digital, shopper marketing and consumer promotion services.

This is Match’s fifth acquisition this year. This summer, Match acquired three marketing promotion and brand engagement agencies – Action Marketing Group, OSL Marketing Group and Ignite Activation. The addition of Marketing Drive’s offices in Norwalk, Boston, Chicago, New York and Bentonville will build upon Match’s existing office in Boulder and help establish a strong U.S. footprint for the company.

“Our goal is to quickly become the top, full service shopper marketing agency in North America,” said Brett Farren, Match Marketing Group president and CEO. “Bringing a top ten U.S. shopper marketing and digital agency into the fold provides us with a strong platform in place to pursue new opportunities, new clients and added market success.”

Canada, Toronto & Norwalk, CT

 

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Elsevier acquires Knovel, provider of web-based productivity application for the engineering community

January 11, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

elsevierElsevier has acquired Knovel Corp. New York City-based Knovel provides a web-based application that integrates technical information with analytical and search tools for the engineering community.

Founded in 2001, Knovel has developed a deep knowledge of the engineering community and is a valuable tool for thousands of knovelengineers and students in more than 700 corporations and engineering schools worldwide. Knovel integrates information and data from more than 100 engineering societies and publishers and makes it highly searchable and interactive so that engineers can easily manipulate the data they find and use it in other engineering applications.

“Knovel’s comprehensive list of content contributors, engineering-specific search, and tools such as interactive graphs, together with Elsevier’s deep engineering content base and global market reach, will allow us to deliver an even more comprehensive and better integrated solution for engineers and engineering students,” said Alexander van Boetzelaer, Managing Director of Elsevier Corporate Markets. “This acquisition will give us the opportunity to provide an enhanced experience for our customers as they work to overcome engineering challenges and improve technical outcomes.”

The Netherlands, Amsterdam & USA, New York

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Elsevier acquires Aureus Sciences

January 11, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

elsevierElsevier has acquired Aureus Sciences, a Paris, France based privately held company that provides databases and information tools to pharmaceutical and biotech companies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Formed in 2002, Aureus Sciences gathers quantitative biological activity data for major therapeutic drugaureus-logo

“The acquisition of Aureus Sciences provides us with tremendous opportunities to generate more value for our customers,” said Mark van Mierle , Managing Director Elsevier Pharmaceutical and Biotech Group. “With the combination of Aureus content assets and the content already available by Elsevier, we can create a valuable solution for those in need of improving speed and accuracy of lead-finding, decision-making and other key processes.”

The Netherlands, Amsterdam & France, Paris

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TBWA acquires Indian digital company Magnon

January 11, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet
tbwaTBWA has acquired Magnon Group, one of India’s largest digital agencies. The acquisition includes Magnon Solutions, the domestic digital agency, and Magnon International, a digital outsourcing agency that serves clients across five continents.

Founded in 2000 by Vineet Bajpai , Magnon employs nearly 150 professionals between Mumbai and New Delhi.magnon

Magnon offers clients the full spectrum of digital services, including graphic design for web and mobile; digital marketing; search and social media optimization; bespoke technology applications development; online brand strategy consulting; eCommerce solutions; and mobile sites and apps development.

Effective immediately, Magnon will become part of the TBWA Group of companies in India. The digital agency, Magnon Solutions, will join TBWA’s global Digital Arts Network (DAN) and the digital outsourcing company, Magnon International, will become part of E-Graphics and an accelerator for DAN’s production offering.

“We are delighted to join forces with Magnon Group,” said Keith Smith , President – International at TBWA Worldwide. “We’ve been extremely impressed with both their digital capabilities and the strength of their management team. Globally, TBWA is building a strong, integrated digital network and we’re confident that Magnon Group will deliver the expertise and talent we need to deliver innovative work and added value for our clients in India.”

Bajpai, who will continue in his role as Founder and CEO of Magnon, said, “Being a part of TBWA is an ambition fulfilled. TBWA’s global reach and excellence will provide Magnon with the right platform towards becoming a market-leading digital agency in India and the region. And TBWA’s empowering culture allows us to retain our adaptability and entrepreneurial fabric.”

TBWA is part of Omnicom Group Inc.

USA, New York, NY & India, Mumbai

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