Axel Springer and SeLoger.com agree on a revised offer at €38.05

January 19, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Following an agreement reached between the two groups, Axel Springer is to file a friendly revised offer for the shares of SeLoger.com at a price of €38.05 per share. This price represents a premium of nearly 12% compared to the price of the initial offer filed by Axel Springer on 28 September 2010.

The Revised Offer will include a minimum acceptance threshold, set at 50.01% (including Axel Springer’s current 12.4 % stake) of the share capital and voting rights of SeLoger.com, below which the Offer will be unsuccessful.

Ralph Buechi, President Axel Springer International at Axel Springer AG said: “The agreement paves the way for a transaction based on mutual consent between Axel Springer and the Board and management of SeLoger.com. Our intention has been friendly from the beginning, and we strongly believe that it is in the best interest of all parties involved that we move ahead on agreed terms. This is especially true for the management and employees of SeLoger.com, who will now be able to fully focus on the business and continue with their excellent work. Following a careful assessment, the recent share price developments of the peer group as well as SeLoger.com’s recent upward revisions of their financial targets led us to reconsider our offer price, which is now even more attractive for the shareholders of SeLoger.com.”

Germany, Berlin & France, Paris

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Strobe Promotions, RedStapler and Zezza Network merge to form Tenthwave

January 19, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Strobe Promotions, RedStapler and Zezza Network have merged to form Tenthwave, a fully integrated digital marketing agency headquartered in New York.  Lead by former i33 Communications Founder and Chairman Drew Rayman, Tenthwave reunites Rayman with former colleagues Steve Caputo and Rob Kaplan; Brian Hack and Mike Mazar; and Eric Schwamberger, the respective founders of Strobe, RedStapler and Zezza.

Tenthwave will provide digital and social marketing, promotions, web design and development from ideation through implementation for clients including CBS Consumer Products, eBay, Visa, Pepperidge Farm, Jim Beam, Hearst Magazines, and Sports Illustrated, among others.  Drew Rayman and Steve Caputo will serve as the agency’s managing partners with Brian Hack, Eric Schwamberger, Mike Mazar and Rob Kaplan serving as agency partners.

USA, New York, NY

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Experian acquires a majority stake in Techlightenment

January 19, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Experian, the information services company, has acquired a majority stake in Techlightenment, a UK-based provider of social media marketing tools.

Founded in 2007, Techlightenment is a data-driven technology and marketing business that provides social media marketing services to multinational companies and global advertising agencies. Techlightenment uses its proprietary technology platforms to help its clients market and advertise effectively using social media. Techlightenment’s clients include GlaxoSmithKline, Universal Pictures and Dr Martens.

The acquisition is a further step in Experian’s strategy to grow its digital marketing activities. It extends Experian’s capability into the increasingly important social media channel, adding to Experian’s presence in the online, email and mobile channels.

Techlightenment’s revenue in the year to 28 February 2011 is expected to be approximately £5m, with gross assets at the year-end of £2.5m. The stake in Techlightenment was acquired from its founders. Techlightenment will form part of Experian’s UK Marketing Services division.

Germany, Dusseldorf & UK, London

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Deloitte expands energy analytics capabilities with acquisition of Altos Management Partners and MarketPoint

January 14, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Deloitte has acquired substantially all of the assets of Altos Management Partners, a consultancy to energy companies that was founded in 1995, as well as those of MarketPoint, an Altos sister company best known for MarketBuilder, an analytic suite for energy market modeling and price forecasting.

The acquisition will provide Deloitte’s clients with the ability to gain a better understanding of market fundamentals for energy commodities, including oil, gas, refinery products, electricity and coal.

“Supply, demand and price analytics are critical to energy companies,” said Greg Aliff, vice chairman and U.S. energy and resources sector leader, Deloitte LLP. “In order to be leaders, these companies must understand the future better than their competitors and act first. The acquisition of Altos and MarketPoint, combined with Deloitte’s existing solutions and services, will provide our clients with tools and services to improve their planning for future markets, enabling them to act faster and more comprehensively with greater confidence, and giving them a leg up in an increasingly competitive market.”

Andy Dunn, a partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP, explained that the acquisition is the foundation for a newly created offering named Deloitte MarketPoint, which is located within the Deloitte Center for Energy Solutions. Dunn, who will manage Deloitte MarketPoint, said the acquisition “will allow Deloitte to provide the energy industry with decision support solutions, including MarketBuilder, its models and data, in addition to consulting services.”

As part of the acquisition, Dale Nesbitt, Ph.D., has joined Deloitte. Nesbitt founded MarketPoint in 1995 and is well known in the energy industry for his market analysis modeling tools, including the North American Regional Gas Model, the World Gas Trade Model, the World Oil Model, the Western European Gas Model, and the North American Regional Electricity Model. MarketPoint’s models have been widely used by companies in the North American energy industry, as well as in energy markets in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South America and Australia.

According to Nesbitt, “The success of MarketPoint, combined with the strength and quantitative experience of Deloitte, will bring a wide array of advanced analytics services to energy and resources companies of all varieties.”

USA,

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Archant has acquired 50% of group deals service Tickles

January 14, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Hold The Front Page is reporting that regional media business Archant has acquired 50% of Tickles. 

Tickles is a money saving website which uses the power of online group buying to bring members money saving deals from businesses in their local area.

Tickles was launched in May last year and operates Norfolk and Cambridge. They have 15,000 local members and plan to launch to the rest of the country within weeks.

Read the full story on HTFP

UK, Norwich

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RockYou acquires social game developer Playdemic

January 14, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Social entertainment company RockYou has acquired social game developer Playdemic. Based in Manchester, Playdemic will operate independently as Playdemic, a RockYou studio, and develop Facebook games for the mainstream audience. The acquisition brings extensive game development talent and an established Facebook game, Gourmet Ranch, to the company. Playdemic’s management team has held senior positions at major publishers including Ubisoft, THQ and Eidos. Ian Livingstone, co-founder of Games Workshop and life president of Eidos, was a chief investor in Playdemic. Paul Gouge, CEO and Founder, will lead the studio as VP and General Manager. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
“At RockYou we place great value on the art of game-making,” said Jonathan Knight, RockYou’s SVP of Games, “and we’re elated to welcome the Playdemic team into our studio system. Playdemic will retain their culture and creative control, as they bring their significant game industry experience to making social games of today and tomorrow.”

“Being a part of RockYou gives us the opportunity to remain creatively independent, while leveraging RockYou’s vast network and expertise at scale to reach a wide audience with our games,” Paul Gouge said. “We see a massive opportunity to expand the depth and quality of social games, and have found an ideal partner in RockYou.”

RockYou will grow the user base for Gourmet Ranch, Playdemic’s first title that is currently playable on Facebook with half a million monthly active users. A combined farming and baking simulation, Gourmet Ranch invites players to grow organic crops, raise animals and prepare and serve meals to their friends. Players can use cash to build and decorate their own homestead in a mountain wilderness, trading and helping friends to increase the value of their properties.

USA, Redwood, CA & UK, Manchester

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Google acquires eBook Technologies

January 14, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Google has just acquired eBook Technologies, according to a notice on the eBook Technologies homepage. Here is the notice:

“eBook Technologies, Inc. is excited to announce that we have been acquired by Google. Working together with Google will further our commitment to providing a first-class reading experience on emerging tablets, e-readers and other portable devices.”

The business was founded by former business and technology managers from the Gemstar eBook Group. John Rivlin, CEO  was previously the Senior Vice President of Technology for Gemstar-TV Guide. Garth Conboy, President, was previously the General Manager and Vice President Software Engineering for the Gemstar eBook Group.

According to their websited (cached page), “eBook Technologies provides the leading end-to-end electronic book platform offering a full range of eBook products and services that are unrivaled in the marketplace. Unlike other players, the company has both deep industry knowledge and the end-to-end technology components to support the entire electronic book publishing value chain: content acquisition, conversion, wholesaling and retailing.”

Google have issued the following statement, “We are happy to welcome eBook Technologies’ team to Google. Together, we hope to deliver richer reading experiences on tablets, electronic readers and other portable devices.”

USA, La Jolla, CA

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Concur to acquire mobile trip management company TripIt

January 13, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Concur, a provider of integrated travel and expense management solutions, has agreed to acquire privately held TripIt, a mobile trip management company that helps people organize and share their travel plans no matter where they book.

Concur will pay approximately $27 million in cash and approximately $44 million in Concur stock at closing, plus a contingent cash amount settled upon 30 months from closing of up to approximately $38 million, subject to certain adjustments and escrow provisions set forth in the definitive agreement.  As part of the acquisition, Concur will exchange unvested TripIt options into Concur restricted stock units having an aggregate value of approximately $11 million at closing.  All components of consideration bring the total deal value to as much as $120 million.  However, there is no payment of the contingent cash amount if the value of the approximately $44 million of stock consideration issued exceeds approximately $82 million during the 30 month period following closing, subject to limitations.  In addition, individual holders of the approximately $44 million in stock consideration will lose their rights to payment of the contingent cash amount if they sell their holdings of such stock.  Though the payment of the contingent cash amount is uncertain, the maximum contingent cash amount to be paid, if any, at the end of the 30 month period is approximately $38 million.  The contingent cash amount will be recorded as a liability at fair value and marked-to-market each quarter through GAAP earnings. The acquisition of TripIt is expected to close in our second quarter of fiscal 2011 and to be dilutive to our pro forma operating margin for fiscal 2011.  Concur will provide more details in early February at their earnings conference call for the first quarter of fiscal 2011.

Concur was advised by Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC and Fenwick & West LLP, and TripIt was advised by Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and Gunderson Dettmer Stough Villeneuve Franklin & Hachigian, LLP on the transaction.

“The advancement of mobile solutions has changed the way business travelers buy, share, manage and expense their travel plans,” said Steve Singh, Concur’s chairman and chief executive officer. “There is a universal need to bring order to the chaos of travel and make life better for business travelers. That is true for both managed and unmanaged travel. Together, we solve challenges along the entire business travel process – from booking, through in-trip activities and sharing trip information, to post-trip expense management and reconciliation. We welcome the entire TripIt team to Concur and look forward to working together to deliver even more value to travelers, our customers and our partners.”

“This is great news for the millions of travelers who trust TripIt as a better way to manage travel and the hundreds of third party developers who are a part of the TripIt API ecosystem. Together with Concur, we can move even faster to realize our vision of making travel easier for even more people and companies around the world,” said Gregg Brockway, TripIt co-founder and president. “It’s also a testament to the passion, hard work, and commitment to excellence the entire TripIt team has demonstrated since day one to be the best at solving tough travel problems to help improve the lives of travelers everywhere.”

USA, Redmond, WA

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Social commerce site LivingSocial acquires a majority stake in Let’s Bonus

January 13, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Social commerce site LivingSocial has acquired a majority stake in Let’s Bonus. The partnership bolsters LivingSocial’s rapid international expansion, making it now live in ten countries with the addition of Let’s Bonus’ Spain, Italy, Portugal, Argentina and Mexico presences. LivingSocial now has more than 16 million subscribers, is live in more than 170 markets, and is projected to book in excess of $500 million in revenue in 2011. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“The addition of Let’s Bonus to the LivingSocial team is a great opportunity to expand into Latin America and continue our European growth,” said Tim O’Shaughnessy, CEO and co-founder of LivingSocial. “Not only is LivingSocial available in ten countries, but with this acquisition we’ve gone multilingual, offering deals in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. We’re thrilled to expand our footprint with a company that believes in building the same great merchant and consumer relationships that LivingSocial has always upheld.”

Launched in September 2009 in Barcelona, Let’s Bonus helped to pioneer the collective buying movement in Europe and is the leader in the Spanish market. The company offers daily deals with discounts of up to 70% on fun, exclusive activities including gourmet dinners, luxury spas and romantic escapes. Let’s Bonus has a strong management and sales team of more than 200 employees, including local city experts in each market where the company’s daily deals program is live, and offices in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Rome, Milan, Lisbon, Buenos Aires and Mexico. Let’s Bonus’ “Planes de Viaje” section, which offers pre-packaged travel deals to users, also naturally supports LivingSocial Escapes’ international expansion.

“LivingSocial is the perfect fit for Let’s Bonus as we share the same goal of offering unique, top notch deals for subscribers,” said Miguel Vicente, founder and CEO of Let’s Bonus. “With LivingSocial’s support, we look forward to growing Let’s Bonus even faster and stronger throughout Europe and in South America.”

In 2010, LivingSocial acquired adventure company Urban Escapes  and has expanded its reach in Australia with a controlling stake in Jump On It.

USA, Washington DC & Spain, Barcelona

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Cox Digital Solutions acquires Internet Broadcasting’s local network business

January 13, 2011 — Fusion DigiNet

Cox Digital Solutions, a digital media solutions provider for national, regional and local agencies, advertisers and publishers, has acquired the IB Local Network business and advertising sales group of Internet Broadcasting. Earlier this week it was announced that Adify and Cox Cross Media and merged to form Cox Digital Solutions.

With the acquisition, Cox Digital Solutions, a division of New Yorkbased Cox Reps, now has more than 150 employees across 10 markets.

“Today is a significant step forward in securing our position in the market,” said Steve Shaw, President of Cox Digital Solutions. “IB Local Network’s publisher relationships and media sales power are a natural fit with Cox Digital Solutions. This combination will enable us to meet a wider set of customer needs through a richer solution set, increase efficiencies, and significantly expand our opportunities for growth.”

With the sale of its local network business to Cox Digital Solutions, Internet Broadcasting (http://www.ibsys.com) is now able to fully focus on providing publishers with its digital publishing platform and services. “We can now concentrate on what has always been our core business –helping our media publisher clients use their content and consumer relationships to build a powerful digital presence by providing them with the most contemporary publishing platform and services available in North America,” said Roger Keating, Interim CEO of Internet Broadcasting and SVP Digital Media for Hearst Television. “At the same time, by placing the IB Local Network with an outstanding organization like Cox, we’re doing right by our former advertising clients and employees.”  

USA, New York, NY

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