Publicis Groupe acquires Schwartz Communications

September 18, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Publicis Groupe has acquired Schwartz Communications, a leading independent public relations firm in the United States. The agency will become part of MSLGROUP, Publicis Groupe’s strategic communications, public relations and events network. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Founded by Steve and Paula Mae Schwartz in 1990, Schwartz Communications currently has 180 employees in four locations: Boston, San Francisco, Stockholm and London. Schwartz’ clients include companies such as Accuray (medical devices), E Ink (IT), ESET (IT), MicroStrategy (IT) and GE Healthcare-Americas. Over time, Schwartz developed expertise in two sectors: technology and healthcare, providing the full range of communications services, with emphasis on public relations, social media, digital content marketing, and public affairs.

This acquisition will add key assets to Publicis Groupe’s public relations capabilities, notably in the U.S. where MSLGROUP becomes the largest PR agency in the Boston region, with more than 100 employees. MSLGROUP is also now the second biggest tech agency in the San Francisco region and a major presence on the West Coast, with more than 160 employees in four offices. In the U.S., Schwartz will operate under the name Schwartz MSL. Bryan Scanlon, President of Schwartz, and Ari Milstein, Chief Operating Officer, will run Schwartz MSL, reporting to Jim Tsokanos, President of MSLGROUP Americas. European offices will be integrated immediately into existing MSL operations.

“This is an acquisition that will strengthen our network in a number of key fields,” said Olivier Fleurot, CEO of MSLGROUP. “The deal also adds to MSLGROUP’s existing technology and healthcare practice. Schwartz is a company that perfectly complements our existing skill-set and our geographical strengths.”

France, Paris & USA, Boston, MA

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Chegg is to acquire Zinch

September 17, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Chegg is to acquire Zinch, a business that connects prospective college and graduate students to scholarships, admissions officers and other students who have been through the same process. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of this month.

The acquisition of Zinch, with over 3.5 million members, $1.9 billion in scholarships and over 5,000 school profiles, significantly expands Chegg’s customer base and its social education platform.

“Our mission has always been to save students time, money and help them get smarter,” said Dan Rosensweig, president and CEO of Chegg. “With our acquisition of Zinch, we’re extending our mission to high school students through the $7 billion college recruiting market, while continuing to break down the barriers of a college education, from the high cost of tuition and textbooks to helping students make money, pick their courses and get the academic help they need.”

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InMobi receives a massive £200M investment

September 15, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

InMobi, the independent mobile ad network, is to receive a massive $200 million investment from SOFTBANK Corp. The funding will take place in two tranches- $100 million in September 2011 followed by an equivalent tranche in April 2012.

Softbank joins existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sherpalo Ventures. The $200 million investment, one of the largest to date in the mobile internet space , will help the company create value across the mobile ecosystem globally through advertising, mobile payments using SmartPay™, and HTML5 rich media production and distribution using the recently acquired Sprout™ platform.

Naveen Tewari, Founder & CEO of InMobi, commented: “The size of the investment and quality of investor validate the enormous potential in mobile today and strengthen our role in helping the industry evolve. We have already established ourselves as a leader in mobile advertising on every continent. This is just the beginning. With a global leader like Softbank behind us, we are now well positioned to fully capitalize on the opportunity before us through substantially increased product innovation, deeper market penetration, and acquisitions across the mobile ad value chain.”

“I am delighted at this opportunity to partner with InMobi, one the world’s largest mobile ad networks”, said Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of Softbank. “I hope the partnership with InMobi, a fast-growing startup with significant mobile expertise and an outstanding technology platform; will further accelerate the pace of development in the mobile Internet space globally. We believe this partnership will help Softbank become the No. 1 Internet company in Asia and I look forward to working with the InMobi team.”

This partnership will provide Softbank and InMobi with opportunities to further explore global scale collaboration in the fast growing mobile ad market. It is also expected to generate further synergies between InMobi and Softbank, given the significant number of prominent Asian Internet companies in Softbank’s investment portfolio.

USA, San Mateo, CA & Japan, Tokyo

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Pearson acquires Connections Education

September 15, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Pearson has acquired Connections Education from an investor group led by Apollo Management, L.P. Connections Education has produced revenue growth of more than 30% in each of the past three years. The transaction is subject to a Hart-Scott-Rodino review. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Based in Baltimore, Maryland, Connections Education is headed by co-founder Barbara Dreyer. She will stay on as CEO of Connections Education and as a senior executive at Pearson.

Through its Connections Academy business, the company operates online or ‘virtual’ public schools in 21 states in the US—serving more than 40,000 students in the current school year. These virtual charter schools are accredited and funded by the relevant state and are free to parents and students who choose a virtual school in place of a traditional public institution or other schooling options.

Since its founding in 2001, Connections Academy has built a complete virtual school system to support personalized learning for each student. This includes high-quality teachers, training for learning coaches (who are often parents), digital and print curriculum materials (already often from Pearson), provision of computers, assessment and reporting tools, social events and learning technologies. Connections Academy has developed proprietary technologies including education management system Connexus which provides on-demand access to schedules, lessons, gradebooks, resources and teachers; teaching tool LiveLesson which allows teachers to lead real-time interactive and adaptive classes over the internet; and a wide range of multimedia curriculum tools and games.

For Pearson, the acquisition provides a leading position in the fast-growing virtual school segment and the opportunity to apply Connections Education’s skills and technologies in new segments and geographic markets. It extends Pearson’s investment in education services and technologies that have both a direct connection with the learner and a strong record of enhancing student achievement.

Will Ethridge, CEO of Pearson North America, said, “We see Connections Education as highly complementary to our own business, and it provides an opportunity for developing new models of instruction and increasing the effectiveness of Pearson’s global educational programs. Our joint goal is to ensure that every student is college and career-ready when they graduate.”

USA, New York, NY & Baltimore, MD

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Populis acquires mokono for €8.2 million

September 15, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Digital media company Populis is acquiring Berlin-based mokono for €8.2 million. mokono is Germany’s largest blog network and one of Europe’s leading blog communities, a pioneer in social media advertising.

Vasco Sommer-Nunes and Florian Wilken, Co-founders and Managing Directors of mokono, will continue to manage the company’s operations and staff from its headquarters in Berlin.

The acquisition adds blog networks across 13 European countries and Canada adding 14 million unique monthly users across its 700,000 registered blogs to Populis’s network of online media properties. Included in the deal are http://www.blog.co.uk and http://www.blog.de.

Included in the acquisition is mokono’s social advertising platform, which provides advertisers with a single access to a wide range of premium and highly-customisable social advertising solutions such as social ads, videoseeding or product reviews across the mokono network and its affiliated blog portals.

‘We are delighted to welcome mokono to the Populis Group. The strategic acquisition reinforces Populis’s leadership in the production of multilingual vertical content and greatly increases its presence in key European markets such as Germany and the UK,’ said Luca Ascani, Co-Founder and Chairman of Populis.

UK, London & Germany, Berlin

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Mountain News Corporation acquires SkiReport.com

September 15, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Mountain News Corporation, publisher of OnTheSnow, has acquired North American ski report website SkiReport.com.

The SkiReport website will be merged with the OnTheSnow website for the winter 2011-2012 season, which will augment OnTheSnow’s 9.6 million annual unique visitors to more than 12 million. The acquisition increases Mountain News Corporation’s installed mobile application base in North America from 85,000 to 945,000, a 10- times increase.

The SkiReport mobile platform consists of an iPhone and Android application that has generated 860,000 downloads and an estimated 54 million in screen impressions for last ski and snowboard season.

“This acquisition positions us well to take advantage of the strong growth we are seeing in mobile platforms around the world,” said Dyer. “The SkiReport mobile user base coupled with our powerful online portal instantly makes OnTheSnow the market share leader in reaching skiers and snowboarders through all channels in North America, creating both a terrific user experience and an excellent opportunity for our advertising partners.”

The SkiReport mobile app will become the default application for OnTheSnow and Dyer plans to integrate user-generated snow reports into OnTheSnow’s web site for this winter season. Going forward Mountain News will be providing the snow reports for the SkiReport mobile app, replacing the reports provided by SnoCountry Mountain Reports.

USA, Broomfield, CO

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Genpact to Acquire EmPower Research

September 15, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Genpact is to acquire EmPower Research, an integrated media and business research company with strong capabilities in social media research, media monitoring and measurement. Closing is expected by the end of the month. Terms of the deal are not disclosed.

EmPower Research provides a range of services including social and traditional media monitoring and measurement, event impact research, brand tracking, and data management. The services of EmPower Research are used by some of the largest pharmaceutical companies, PR agencies, technology firms, and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies in the world.

“EmPower Research is a fantastic fit for our business, with numerous cross-sell opportunities particularly in the pharmaceutical and CPG industries,” said Tiger Tyagarajan, President and CEO, Genpact.

EmPower Research has approximately 360 employees based in New York, Bangalore, Cincinnati, New Jersey, San Francisco, and London.

EmPower Research was jointly represented by The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI) and India based Veda Corporate Advisors Pvt. Ltd.

USA, New York, NY

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Energy efficiency lighting company Nualight acquires Lumoluce

September 14, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Nualight, an Irish energy efficiency lighting company that specializes in  lighting for food retail displays, has acquired Lumoluce, an LED lighting technology company based in the Netherlands. The deal will bring Nualight to revenues above €25m for 2011 with more than 200 employees.

The acquisition was funded partly in Nualight shares and partly with an equity issuance led by existing shareholders Climate Change Capital Private Equity and ESB Novusmodus. Further terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The deal accelerates Nualight’s expansion into the accent lighting market for food retail, an early-stage market which is predicted to grow rapidly as food retailers around the world continue to transition to energy-efficient LED lighting. Nualight’s customers include Tesco, Migros, Sainsburys, The Co-operative Group, Tengelmann, Stop and Shop and Carrefour.

Lumoluce, based near Amsterdam, provides Nualight growth opportunities in four additional markets: high-end retail, infrastructure, commercial lighting and drivers.

Dr Liam Kelly, CEO of Nualight, said the transaction is the latest move in his company’s drive to expand its reach and capabilities.  “Food retailers today are very focused on deploying new technologies to make their business models as sustainable as possible.  In terms of price and performance, LED technology is fast approaching the tipping point for accent lighting in food retail.  Through this acquisition, Nualight has acquired a portfolio of products and excellent technology expertise that allows us to move very quickly into accent lighting for food retail and doubles the speed at which we can bring new products to market.  It also offers us instant entry into complementary market sectors. We have high growth targets and expect to maintain and build leadership positions in our niche sectors.”

Gerard Kroone, current CEO of Lumoluce, will remain in the company and joins the Nualight Board,

Ireland, Cork & Netherlands, Amsterdam

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IAC’s Match.com invests in Chinese matchmaking site Zhenai

September 14, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Match.com, an operating business of IAC, has acquired a 20% interest in Zhenai, a provider of online matchmaking services in China. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Launched in 2005 by Dr. Song Li, Zhenai provides integrated Internet and telephone matchmaking services to China’s rapidly growing single population who are looking for long-term relationships.  Zhenai has established a large and growing user base of over 30 million registered members that have the ability to create their own personal profiles, search or browse for member profiles, and communicate with members through the Zhenai.com website.  Most distinctly, Zhenai commands especially high subscription rates due to subscribers’ access to over 1000 professional matchmakers at Zhenai’s call centers who are available to provide subscribers with advice and consultation throughout the dating process.

“Given the rapid growth in China’s online personals market, we felt that Zhenai was the best opportunity for Match.com to further expand our global footprint by partnering with a local market leader,” said Greg Blatt, IAC, CEO. “With a strong management team led by Founder, Chairman, and CEO Dr. Song Li, we believe that Zhenai will continue to flourish as the Chinese online personals market expands and we are excited for the many opportunities that this investment brings.”

“We are thrilled to have the global leader in online dating join us as a strategic investor,” said Zhenai founder and CEO Dr. Li. “We look forward to leveraging their vast knowledge in this arena to continue to innovate and develop new services to meet the growing demand for online personals in China.”

Cowen Latitude acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Zhenai on the transaction.

USA, New York, NY & China

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World Energy Solutions acquires Co-eXprise’s energy procurement business

September 14, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

World Energy Solutions, an energy management services firm, has purchased the energy procurement business of Co-eXprise, a privately-held enterprise software firm. The acquisition adds valuable new government, institutional, and commercial & industrial clients to its customer base. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Our acquisition of Co-eXprise’s book of business in energy increases our market share, expands our government franchise, and adds to our backlog,” said Richard Domaleski, CEO of World Energy Solutions. “Bigger picture, this deal highlights our ability to put the capital we raised earlier this year to smart use in advancing our strategic growth objectives. We have long said that consolidating the energy procurement industry, eliminating competitors and supplementing our strong organic growth is a path we will actively pursue to drive future success, and today we are making good on that promise.”

Added William Blair, Founder and CEO of Co-eXprise: “This transaction is a key component of Co-eXprise’s strategy to generate working capital to invest in the continued growth of our enterprise software business. We chose to sell the energy procurement business to World Energy, a true leader in the space, to ensure our customers will continue to receive a high level of professional support for their energy management initiatives. This transaction represents a win for all parties.”

The deal is World Energy’s second in energy management. In 2007 World Energy acquired natural gas procurement business Energy Gateway.

USA, Wexford, PA & Worcester, MA

 

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