Skimlinks Raises $4.5 Million Series B Round

November 11, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Skimlinks, an in-text monetization platform for Web publishers, has raised $4.5 million in Series B funding. Led by Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI), the new investment will help continue Skimlinks’ growth in existing and new vertical markets within the United States and around the globe. It will also finance product research and development.

The new funding round continues Skimlinks’ strong investor momentum, bringing its total investments to $7.5 million to-date. In addition to BDMI, new investors 500startups and Venrex Investment Management and existing investors – Sussex Place Ventures, The Accelerator Group, and NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) – also contributed to the latest funding round.

“We chose BDMI to lead this round because of its stellar experience in both online publishing and advertising,” said Alicia Navarro, CEO of Skimlinks. “We’re delighted that all of our investors continue to believe in the value Skimlinks delivers, and we look forward to using this investment to continue our rapid expansion throughout Europe and the United States.”

“We are excited to be investing in Skimlinks. The team is energetic and inventive, and the space is open for technical innovation,” said Urs Cete, managing director of BDMI, who will be joining the Skimlinks Board.

USA, San Francisco, CA & UK, London

 

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Serious Energy acquires building energy management technology company Agilewaves

November 9, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Energy efficiency solutions business Serious Energy has acquired Agilewaves, a building energy management technology company.

Agilewaves is a building energy management system firm based in Menlo Park, CA. The firm’s Building Optimization System is a turnkey energy monitoring and resource management system that provides facility managers and building owners with real-time, actionable information to effectively optimize building performance. The BOS system solution provides the rigorous metrics needed to increase energy efficiency, reduce energy costs and meet the persistent monitoring requirements for commissioning projects. The engineering and capabilities of the Building Optimization System will be integrated with those of Serious Energy’s SaaS energy efficiency platform .

“We are developing and deploying the most innovative solutions in the industry that make building operations and efficiency better, cheaper, and faster,” says Kevin Surace, CEO of Serious Energy, Inc. “We are excited to integrate the customers, team, and world-class partners and technologies of Agilewaves into our comprehensive building upgrade solutions for our collective customer base.”

USA, Sunnyvale, CA & Menlo Park, CA

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RLJ Equity Partners acquires Media Source

November 9, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

RLJ Equity Partners has acquired Media Source, the parent company of three businesses that promote and sell children’s books and a variety of services and products geared toward the library industry, including book collection development, magazine subscriptions, book reviews, websites, webinars, and conferences. RLJ Equity Partners, LLC was joined by 21st Century Group, LLC and New Canaan Funding Mezzanine, LLC in the transaction.

“We believe MSI is a very important company in terms of its contributions to improving library systems and public school systems,” said Robert L. Johnson, founder of The RLJ Companies and chairman of RLJ Equity Partners. “We are pleased to own a company that is a trusted resource for librarians and school systems across the country and look forward to expanding in metropolitan markets domestically and internationally,” he concluded.

Media Source is the leading provider of information content and editorial book reviews for academic, public, and school librarians serving tens of thousands of libraries and more than 100,000 librarians. MSI’s Junior Library Guild division reviews thousands of new children’s books each year and selects the best titles in more than 40 different categories. Its School Library Journal, Library Journal, and Horn Book divisions provide critical information and reviews to the library market via digital and print media products.

USA, Bethesda, MD

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The E.W. Scripps Company third quarter results

November 9, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Consolidated revenues from continuing operations were $168 million, a decrease of 8.6 percent from $184 million in the third quarter of 2010.

Operating expenses totalled $165 million, down 4.9 percent from the second quarter, and down 2.3 percent compared with the year-ago quarter. Restructuring costs, largely for the ongoing efforts to standardise and centralise certain functions that should benefit the newspaper division starting in 2012, were $2.6 million.

The third quarter results include a non-cash charge for the impairment of long-lived assets at four of the company’s newspapers. The company concluded that the fair value of certain of its newspapers was less than the carrying value of its net assets. Scripps recorded in the third quarter a $9 million, pre-tax, non-cash charge to reduce the carrying value of property and equipment.

Largely due to the impairment charge, the company reported an $18.2 million loss from continuing operations before income taxes, compared with what was essentially a break-even quarter a year ago.

The loss from continuing operations, net of tax, was $10.7 million, or 19 cents per share in the 2011 quarter, compared with income from continuing operations, net of tax, of $5.4 million, or 8 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Excluding the effect of the impairment charge, the loss from continuing operations, net of tax, would have been 9 cents per share in the most-recent quarter.

The tax provisions in the third quarter of both 2011 and 2010 include the impact of favourable settlements of the examinations of prior-year tax returns.

“We continue to reshape Scripps, improving the company’s short-term and long-term opportunities for growth,” said Rich Boehne, Scripps president and CEO. “We believe local TV stations are both good businesses today and attractive launching pads for the future, which is why during the quarter we agreed to purchase the nine stations now owned by McGraw-Hill Broadcasting. At a purchase price of $212 million, we should show a strong return on investment and gain access to TV and digital media consumers and advertisers in Indianapolis, Denver and San Diego. Plus we picked up a great small-market station in Bakersfield, Calif., and access to the developing Spanish-language market through five Azteca stations in Colorado and California. We’re eager to close the deal and bring these businesses into the Scripps fold.

USA, Cincinnati, OH

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Demand Media reports third quarter 2011 financial results

November 9, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Content and social media company Demand Media has reported financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2011.

Financial Summary

GAAP

  • Revenue increased 25% to $81.5 million, compared with $65.4 million in Q310.
  • Loss from operations of $(3.3) million compared with income from operations of $0.9 million in Q310.
  • Net loss of $(4.1) million compared with a net loss of $(0.3) million in Q310. Net loss per share of $(0.05) compared with $(0.64) in Q310.
  • Cash flow from operations grew 36% to $22.1 million, from $16.3 million in Q310.

Non-GAAP (see the full statement Non-GAAP measures)

  • Revenue ex-TAC increased 26% to $78.1 million, from $62.2 million in Q310.
  • Adjusted OIBDA grew 33% to $21.7 million, or 27.7% of Revenue ex-TAC, compared with $16.3 million, or 26.2% of Revenue ex-TAC, in Q310.
  • Adjusted Net Income of $5.0 million increased 12% compared with $4.5 million in Q310. Adjusted Net Income per share – diluted of $0.06, grew 20% compared with $0.05 in Q310.
  • Discretionary Free Cash Flow increased 116% to $19.9 million compared with $9.2 million in Q310.
  • Free Cash Flow of $6.0 million compared with $(4.0) million in Q310.

“We reported another strong quarter as we continue to build Demand Media’s foundation for long-term growth,” said Richard Rosenblatt, Chairman and CEO of Demand Media. “The Company is uniquely positioned to deliver data-driven professional content through its robust content publishing platform. We are now in the process of optimizing that platform while increasing our investment in video content and enhancing the quality, engagement and user experience of our sites.”

  • Content & Media Revenue increased 27% to $50.7 million, compared with $39.8 million in Q310.
  • Traffic acquisition costs (TAC), which represent the portion of Content & Media revenue shared with Demand Media partners, of $3.4 million, or 6.7% of Content & Media revenue, compared with $3.2 million, or 7.9% of Content & Media revenue, in Q310.
  • Content & Media Revenue ex-TAC grew 29% to $47.4 million, from $36.7 million in Q310.
  • Registrar Revenue increased 20% to $30.7 million compared with $25.5 million in Q310.
  • Investment in Intangible Assets of $13.9 million increased 5% from $13.3 million in Q310.
Read the full statement here
USA, Santa Monica, CA
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Yell’s half year interim results

November 9, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Revenue in line with expectations

  • Print directories – deteriorating trend continues – down 20.1%
  • Digital directories – deteriorating trend continues – down 12.3%
  • Strong growth in digital services – up by 136.5%
  • Underlying growth – down 13.3%
  • A £100m debt buy-back is being considered.
  • The company built up a debt pile after a series of acquisitions which included its Spanish directories business. The company has no plans to sell existing businesses.

FY12 Outlook

  • EBITDA within current market expectations
  • Full year exceptional – reorganisation costs of circa £25m
  • Not expecting covenant breach within FY12
See the full presentation here
UK, Berkshire

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Adconion Media Group acquires smartclip

November 9, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Adconion Media Group has acquired digital video advertising business smartclip. terms of the deal were not disclosed. Adconion will gain 118 employees in Europe and expand to 27 offices servicing clients throughout the UK, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Portugal in Western Europe; Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland in Northern Europe; and Russia.

The acquisition will strengthen Adconion’s position in online video in its existing markets and accelerate the deployment of its digital distribution platform into the emerging markets of Eastern and Central Europe and into the segment of Connected TV. The smartclip business with its expertise in digital video advertising will complement Adconion’s existing product range. The proprietary in-stream video and Connected TV technology of smartclip will be integrated with the Adconion platform, which is already delivering targeted ads and content across display, email, social and both in-banner and in-stream video

Prior to this acquisition Adconion had a potential reach of 687m unique users monthly across its global platform or just over half the global online population. Now, with the inclusion of over 500 new publisher sites from the smartclip portfolio, this number will grow significantly as well as increase the Adconion global footprint to 17 countries worldwide.

Tyler Moebius, Adconion’s  founder and CEO commented, “The addition of smartclip’s exclusive in-stream reach and Connected TV apps to our platform is an important development in growing the online video industry globally. We will now be providing advertisers an exclusive audience which they can reach in scale across in-banner, in-stream and Connected TV,” said

Matthias Quadflieg, Adconion’s chief operating officer international commented “We believe advertising will be the main monetisation vehicle for Connected TV programs and apps. The heritage of Adconion Media Group lies in maximising revenue for commercial partners through delivering the right audience, on the right platform, to the right brand, at the right time, at unprecedented scale.”

UK, London

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Adconion Media Group raises £21M to support acquisition plans and general operations Posted on May 12, 2011

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Endemol to reject bidders

November 9, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

According to the FT, Endemol and its lenders are set to rebuff recent approaches for the indebted television production group behind Big Brother and Deal or no Deal, and pursue a debt for equity swap. Time Warner recently tabled an offer of about €1bn ($1.4bn).

Read the full story here

Netherlands, Amsterdam

 

 

 

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Rakuten to Acquire Kobo US$315 million in cash

November 9, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Rakuten is to acquire Kobo for US$315 million in cash. The transaction is expected to close in Q1 2012.

Kobo was founded by and spun out of Indigo, the largest book, gift and specialty toy retailer in Canada, in December, 2009. Since that time, Kobo has become a fierce competitor in the eBook marketplace, with a family of innovative eReaders, a wide range of eReading apps, one of the largest eBook catalogues, an innovative social platform and retail partners around the globe.

The acquisition marks a major step forward for Rakuten, one of the world’s top 3 e-commerce companies by revenue, as it continues to expand its B2B2C borderless e-commerce business globally, by adding an ecosystem to provide downloadable media products to consumers, starting with eBooks.

Hiroshi Mikitani, Chairman and CEO of Rakuten, commented on the acquisition, “We are very excited about this next step. Kobo provides one of the world’s most communal eBook reading experiences with its innovative integration of social media, such as Facebook and Twitter; while Rakuten offers Kobo unparalleled opportunities to extend its reach through some of the world’s largest regional e-commerce companies.

Upon closing the acquisition, Kobo will continue to maintain its headquarters, management team and employees based in Toronto, Ontario.

Japan, Tokyo & Canada, Toronto

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FindaProperty, Primelocation and Zoopla to merge to take on Rightmove

November 7, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

A&N Media, the consumer media division of DMGT plans to merge the online property business of its Digital Property Group, which includes FindaProperty.com and Primelocation.com, with those of Zoopla Limited operator of Zoopla.co.uk. Zoopla is a privately-owned company which has venture capital interests as its largest shareholders.  Under the proposed merger, A&N Media will retain a 55% interest in the newly merged entity. The merger has been referred to the Office of Fair Trading.

The companies hope that the merged businesses will be able to compete better with Rightmove, the dominant player in the market. Martin Morgan, Chief Executive of DMGT said: “This merger will create a genuine opportunity to challenge the dominant market leader in the online property sector. We believe that the combination of our respective digital property assets will benefit both consumers and clients.”

UK, London

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