World Energy Solutions acquires energy efficiency firm Northeast Energy Solutions

October 26, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Energy management services firm World Energy Solutions has acquired Northeast Energy Solutions, a privately-held energy efficiency company. The acquisition provides World Energy an immediate foothold in the New England market, where utility incentives are available for commercial and industrial energy efficiency projects.

The move accelerates the growth of World Energy’s energy efficiency practice, complementing the recent addition of Bruce Buckbee and John Duquette, who joined the Company in July. Together, this expanded team provides World Energy the expertise, relationships and capabilities to plan and execute comprehensive energy efficiency services, including lighting, mechanical and HVAC retrofits and energy management systems for small and mid-sized C&I customers.

“The energy efficiency market holds great potential for World Energy,” said Richard Domaleski, CEO of World Energy Solutions. “Not only is it a large and growing market, but more and more customers are asking for our help with efficiency as we take on a wider swath of their energy management needs. The addition of Northeast Energy Solutions bolsters our energy efficiency capabilities, giving us immediate access to new customers and cross-sell opportunities.”

Based in Cromwell, CT, Northeast Energy Solutions is a regional provider of energy efficiency services, completing numerous energy efficient HVAC, refrigeration controls and other mechanical system upgrades for its commercial, industrial and institutional customers.

It is World Energy’s second acquisition in as many months. In September DigiNet reported that World energy had acquired Co-eXprise’s energy procurement business

USA, Cromwell, CT & Worcester, MA

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Mattel acquires HIT Entertainment

October 26, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Mattel has entered into an agreement to acquire HIT Entertainment for $680 million in cash from a consortium led by Apax Partners funds. HIT Entertainment owns a global portfolio of popular preschool brands, including Thomas & Friends®, Barney®, Bob the Builder®, Fireman Sam® and Angelina Ballerina®. With more than $180 million of revenues, HIT Entertainment represents one of the largest independent owners of preschool intellectual property. The purchase price equates to a multiple of about 9 ½ times trailing earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

“Mattel is the right home for Thomas & Friends®. This powerhouse brand is joining the ranks of such iconic brands as Barbie®, Hot Wheels®, Fisher-Price® and American Girl®,” said Robert A. Eckert, chairman and chief executive officer of Mattel. “Thomas & Friends® routinely ranks among the world’s leading preschool toys. Additionally, with more than half of the Thomas & Friends® revenue generated from non-toy products, this transaction will marry Mattel’s global marketing, distribution and brand management capabilities with HIT Entertainment’s global programming and licensing expertise to accelerate growth of the combined portfolio.”

Thomas & Friends® is the premier brand in the HIT Entertainment portfolio. Created more than 65 years ago, the brand has grown into the number 1 licensed preschool property in the world, with television programming, home entertainment products, toys and other consumer products available throughout the globe.

Mattel currently markets many Thomas & Friends® toy products under a license from HIT Entertainment which extends through 2014. Mattel’s global sales of Thomas & Friends® die-cast and plastic toys are more than $150 million, and Mattel believes that this transaction will allow the company to continue to expand and grow these product lines into the foreseeable future. Another key advantage to the acquisition is that Mattel will be able to reunite two key pieces of the Thomas & Friends® toy business: plastic and die-cast toys with the wood-based business. The current wood license expires at the end of 2012, at which time Mattel expects to add that line of business to its portfolio. Historically, the sales of wood-based toys have been around half the size of the plastic and die-cast business.

The HIT Entertainment portfolio also includes a number of other highly popular preschool brands with established television broadcast and licensing relationships around the world. The acquisition does not include HIT Entertainment’s interest in the cable network station, Sprout.

RBC Capital Markets, LLC acted as financial advisor and Latham & Watkins LLP served as legal advisor to Mattel in connection with the transaction. BofA Merrill Lynch acted as financial advisor and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP served as legal advisor to HIT Entertainment in connection with the transaction.

USA, El Segundo, CA & UK, London

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Meredith to Acquire Every Day with Rachael Ray

October 25, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Meredith Corporation has reached agreement in principle with author and American television personality Rachael Ray for Meredith to acquire Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine and its related digital media assets from the Reader’s Digest Association. The transaction is expected to close before the end of the year. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“The acquisition of Every Day with Rachael Ray will further extend our leadership and deepen our reach in providing women with best-in-class food content, while offer advertisers multiple avenues to reach them,” said Meredith National Media Group President Tom Harty. “We are excited to add this well-recognized franchise to our strong portfolio of national media brands.”

“We are constantly looking for strategic acquisitions and investment opportunities like this to expand our reach and create shareholder value,” said Meredith Chief Development Officer John Zieser.

USA, Des Moines, IA & New York, NY

 

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Google acquires social graph analytics service SocialGrapple

October 25, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Google has acquired social graph analytics service SocialGrapple. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

SocialGrapple was created one year ago by Andrey Petrov, who described the tool as a Twitter analytics tool that tracks changes in a user’s social graph and sends users interactive charts and email reports reflecting the data. Petroc will join Google and SocialGrapple will close. All payment subscriptions have been cancelled and users must download their SocialGrapple data by November 8, 2011, or it will be deleted.

Petrov said, ” Since the first launch, we have explored keyword tracking and branched out to other social networks, but this was only scratching the surface. I’m looking forward to taking these ideas to the next level and revealing metrics on an incredibly larger scale.”

Most commentators say that Google is likely to integrate social grapple into its Google+ social network. Petrov said all payment subscriptions have been canceled and users must download their SocialGrapple data by Nov. 8, 2011, or it will be deleted.

USA, Mountain View, CA

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Sainsbury’s acquires Global Media Vault

October 25, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Sainsbury’s has acquired online entertainment company Global Media Vault Ltd from MBL PLC for £1 million. The acquisition will support the retailer’s drive into the growing online and digital entertainment market following the launch of the Sainsbury’s Entertainment website in November 2010.

Global Media Vault Ltd is a white label online digital entertainment business operating with Sainsbury’s as its main client. It began trading in January 2009 and has developed a unique entertainment ecommerce and digital media platform. GMV’s digital database already includes over three million music, film and game assets for the UK market, all of which can be browsed, purchased and distributed via web, mobile, TV and kiosk applications.

Luke Jensen, Sainsbury’s Group Development Director, said, “Online retailing and the delivery of digital content will play a key role in the future of entertainment so this is an important acquisition for Sainsbury’s. Taking full control of GMV Ltd will enable us to develop our existing Sainsbury’s Entertainment website even further enhancing the functionality and customer experience, meaning customers will soon be able to buy, rent or stream content from Sainsbury’s.”

UK, London

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Federated Media Publishing has acquired Lijit Networks

October 6, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Federated Media Publishing has acquired Lijit Networks, Inc. Lijit is a provider of advertising services, audience analytics and reader engagement tools for online publishers of all sizes. The combined entity will reach nearly 300 million global unique visitors according to Quantcast.

Lijit, headquartered in Boulder, Colorado will continue to operate independently but in conjunction with the rest of Federated Media Publishing. Lijit CEO Todd Vernon and COO Walter Knapp will take on corresponding EVP of Technology and SVP of Platform Revenue responsibilities at Federated Media Publishing and will report directly to Federated Media Publishing’s CEO, Deanna Brown. Additionally, Lijit board member Seth Levine from Foundry Group will join the Federated Media Publishing board of directors, effective immediately.

USA, San Francisco & Boulder, CO

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Universal Magazines acquires Westwick-Farrow Media

October 6, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Here is one we missed in August.

Universal Magazines has acquired Westwick-Farrow Media from founding owners Adrian and Yvonne Farrow. The business will retain its current staff and continue to operate from the existing Westwick-Farrow Media offices in Wahroonga on Sydney’s north shore.

Westwick-Farrow Media celebrated its 30th anniversary earlier this year and the acquisition includes titles such as What’s New in Electronics, What’s New in Process Technology, Radio Comms Asia-Pacific and Voice+Data. The acquisition will enhance Universal’s ability to grow further by entering into new trade publishing markets in Australia, New Zealand and Asia.

“We have always been interested in opportunities to advance Universal’s position as a dominant media company and today’s news represents such an opportunity to expand our presence into new domestic and international trade markets,” said Prema Perera, CEO of Universal Magazines. “Most importantly, the deal emphasises Universal’s commitment to and belief in print as well as digital media, as magazines continue to be profitable tools of communication for advertisers who want to reach engaged and receptive audiences.

Universal plans to maintain much of the original operating structure. Current Associate Publisher Geoff Hird, who has been with Westwick-Farrow for more than 21 years and is Chairman of Publishers Australia, will stay on in his new role as Publisher of the Westwick- Farrow businesses.

Australia, Sydney

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Sanoma acquires Tammi Learning and Bonnier Utbildning AB from Bonnier / Bonnier acquires Werner Söderström from Sanoma

October 6, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Sanoma has acquired the assets of the Finnish educational publisher Tammi Learning and all the shares of the Swedish educational publisher Bonnier Utbildning AB from the Swedish media group Bonnier AB.

At the same time, Sanoma has sold the shares of its Finnish general literature publisher Werner Söderström Ltd. (WSOY) to Bonnier. The transaction of WSOY is subject to the approval of the Finnish competition authorities. The closing of the transaction is expected during the autumn.

Currently Sanoma has learning operations in Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Poland and Russia. The total net sales of Sanoma’s learning business were EUR 249 million in 2010. This transaction is in line with Sanoma’s strategy to focus its operations and to concentrate on consumer media and learning solutions.

“Learning solutions are one of Sanoma’s key focus areas. These transactions are logical steps for us as they support our ambition to grow this business and focus our operations” says Harri-Pekka Kaukonen, President and CEO of Sanoma.

“We are delighted with this transaction which brings us to the Swedish learning market and strengthens our Finnish learning business. Both Bonnier Utbildning and Tammi Learning are excellently performing learning companies, which extend well our portfolio” says Jacques Eijkens, CEO of Sanoma Learning & Literature.

On the acquisition of WSOY Maria Curman, CEO of Bonnier Books, said.”Our ambition is to provide WSOY, its authors and employees, the means needed to reach their full potential. WSOY together with Tammi forms a perfect match within the Bonnier publishing family. I see this as an important step in successfully developing our offering of general literature to the Finnish market.”

In 2010, net sales of Tammi Learning, Bonnier Utbildning and WSOY General literature were EUR 10.2 million, EUR 17.6 million and EUR 32.5 million, respectively. Tammi Learning and Bonnier Utbildning employed some 80 people (FTE) and WSOY General Literature some 100 people. The transaction is estimated to improve Sanoma’s profitability from 2012 onwards.

Following the transaction with Bonnier, the net sales of Sanoma Learning & Literature in 2011 are estimated to be at the previous year’s level and operating profit excluding non-recurring items is expected to decrease somewhat. Previously, the net sales of Sanoma Learning & Literature were estimated to increase slightly and operating profit excluding non-recurring items was expected to be at the previous year’s level. Learning business has a strong seasonality within the year, the first and fourth quarter being typically loss-making. For general literature, on the other hand, the fourth quarter is typically the strongest one. Due to this seasonality, this transaction will lower Sanoma Learning & Literature’s fourth quarter result in 2011.

Finland, Helsinki & Sweden, Stockholm

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Kiwibox.com acquires German social network Kwick!

October 5, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Kiwibox.com, a New York City based social network, has acquired the social network, Kwick! Community GmbH & Co. KG, a private German Limited Partnership and its General Partner Kwick! Community Beteiligungs GmbH for €7.1M, or approximately $10,000,000.

Kwick! is a European Social Network Community focused on the German-speaking market. With more than 10 million members and more than 2.5 Million Unique Users a month, this platform extends the Kiwibox marketplace toEurope. In addition, combined with the recently acquired Photobook-Community, “Pixunity.de,” this acquisition adds 2 Billion Page impressions a month to the Kiwibox.com network.

Founded in 1999, Kwick! had revenues in 2010 of approximately $5 million, and has been cash flow positive since inception.  Kwick! has 32 employees and uses a network of over 150 volunteers to moderate its website. Following this acquisition, Kiwibox.com expects to be cash flow positive for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2011. As part of the acquisition, the former management team at Kwick! has signed agreements to remain with the company.

“Kiwibox.com”, states Andre Scholz, its President, “will continue to follow its strategic plan to identify other viable social networks as potential acquisition candidates. We also intend to continue to expand our own community, while leveraging operational costs through technology integration within our expanding social  network.”

USA, New York, NY & Germany, Weinstadt (near Stuttgart)

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TrueCar acquires ALG

October 5, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

TrueCar, a publisher of real-time new and used vehicle pricing data in the U.S. market, has completed its acquisition of ALG. formerly a subsidiary of DealerTrack Holdings. and an industry source for automotive residual values.

“TrueCar has shown a tremendous commitment to maintaining the continuity of ALG operations,” said Raj Sundaram, Senior Vice President of the Services and Solutions Group at DealerTrack Holdings.  “The TrueCar executive team has exhibited a profound understanding and respect for the strong relationship ALG has with the entire automotive industry – and I believe they will actively seek ways maintain and enhance that relationship now and in the years to come.”

TrueCar has also announced that Larry Dominique will be joining TrueCar as Executive Vice President of the Data Solutions Group. Dominique comes to TrueCar from Nissan North America where he served as Vice President, of Advanced and Product Planning and Strategy.

USA, Santa Monica, CA

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