Mecom exceeds market expectations

August 13, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Newspaper publisher Mecom beat market expectations to report pre-tax profits of €29.5m (£24.6m) in the first six months of the year. Highlights from Interim Results Statement are below:

  • Adjusted EBITDA of €70.1 million (2009: €47.4m) up 48%
  • Circulation revenue of €280 million (2009: €275.1m) up 2 per cent
  • Advertising revenue of €334.7 (2009: €346.5m) down 3 per cent
  • Operating costs of €638.2 (2009: 677.4) reduced by 6 per cent
  • Adjusted earnings per share of 14.8 euro cents (2009: loss of 71.5 euro cents)
  • Net debt of €354.9 million (30th June 2009: €443.8m; 31st December 2009: €373.4m)
  • Gearing (net debt / adjusted EBITDA) reduced to less than 2.5 times
  • Good progress towards achieving 2012 targets set in March 2010

Alasdair Locke, Chairman, said:

‘This set of interim results continues the good progress made in the second half of 2009 and emphasises the stability and security of these businesses.  Given continuing advertising uncertainty, the Group continues to exercise tight cost discipline while the operating model is being transformed to meet the competitive trends in the media sector.’

David Montgomery, Chief Executive, said:

‘The circulation and cost performance in these six months demonstrates the robustness of our business and its assets.  We are especially pleased with the reduced rates of attrition in subscription volumes and the related growth in revenues.  Management and staff continue to focus on extracting new revenues from the wider consumer market, particularly online.’

Location: UK, London

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LinkedIn acquires mSpoke

August 13, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

LinkedIn, the professional network with more than 75 million members is acquiring mSpoke, a startup focused on making media more relevant through their recommendation technology with offerings for content publishers, research analysts and individuals.

“mSpoke and LinkedIn’s shared focus on generating relevant content make this acquisition a natural fit for us,” says Jeff Weiner, chief executive officer of LinkedIn. “We’re actively investing in solutions that help deliver valuable professional insights to LinkedIn members. The addition of mSpoke’s talented team of technologists make it an even more compelling opportunity for LinkedIn.”

mSpoke is based in Pittsburgh and was founded by chief executive officer Sean Ammirati, chairman of the board Dave Mawhinney and chief technology officer Dean Thompson. The company was also co-founded by seed investor and board member Ed Engler. The mSpoke team has deep ties with Carnegie Mellon University, a recognized world leader in advanced computer science technologies.

“As we spent time with the LinkedIn team, we were struck by how similar our visions are,” said Dean Thompson, one of mSpoke’s three co-founders. “Both LinkedIn and mSpoke are passionate about generating relevancy from the rich stream of content being created by our members. We’re looking forward to joining the team and helping provide useful recommendations that help professionals tackle problems quickly and more efficiently.”

Financial terms of the acquisition are not being released.

Location: USA, Mountain View, CA & Pittsburgh, PA

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Google acquires social technology company Slide

August 13, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Google has acquired Slide, a social technology company with an extensive history of building new ways for people to connect with others across numerous platforms online.

Quote from the Google Blog, “Slide has already created compelling social experiences for tens of millions of people across many platforms, and we’ve already built strong social elements into products like Gmail, Docs, Blogger, Picasa and YouTube. As the Slide team joins Google, we’ll be investing even more to make Google services socially aware and expand these capabilities for our users across the web.While we don’t have any detailed product plans to share right now, we’re thrilled to welcome Max (Slide was founded by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin) and his very talented team to Google, and we can’t wait to work together to give people more and better tools to communicate and connect.

According to Reuters, Google paid $182 million for Slide, along with $46 million in employee retention bonuses. Slide has around 120 employees. Google did not disclose financial terms.
 
Location: USA, San Francisco, CA & Mountain View, CA

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Demand Media IPO – Details

August 13, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

The SEC form is now available for the Demand Media IPO.

Highlights

“The business is comprised of two distinct and complementary service offerings: Content & Media and Registrar.

Substantially all revenue is generated through the sale of advertising in their Content & Media service offering and through domain name registrations in their Registrar service offering. For the year ended December 31, 2009 and the six months ended June 30, 2010, Demand media reported revenue of $198 million and $114 million, respectively. For these same periods, they reported net losses of $22 million and $6 million, respectively, operating loss of $18 million and $4 million, respectively, and adjusted operating income before depreciation and amortization, or Adjusted OIBDA, of $37 million and $26 million, respectively.

Read the full details here

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WPP Digital takes stake in digital advertising measurement firm in China

August 13, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

WPP Digital, the digital investment arm of WPP, announces that it has acquired a minority stake in Leading Smart Holdings Limited (“Leading Smart”),  which has a controlling interest in the parent company of Moment Systems, the leading digital advertising measurement company in China. Moment Systems was founded in 2006 in Beijing and currently employs 90 people.

WPP has invested in a series A preferred share round in Leading Smart alongside Redpoint Ventures.

This investment continues WPP’s strategy of developing its services in fast-growing markets and sectors and strengthening its capabilities in digital media. Greater China – a region WPP has been committed to for over 20 years – remains one of the fastest growth markets for WPP. The Group currently employs almost 12,000 people across Greater China, underlining its strong leadership position in the region – as in Asia overall – across all communications services.

Location: China, Beijing

Posted in Marketing/Advertising, ~Asia. Leave a Comment »

BSkyB to sell Easynet Global Services to LDC

August 13, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

BSkyB (Sky) has reached an agreement over the proposed sale of its business-to-business telecommunications operation, Easynet Global Services, to Lloyds Development Capital (LDC).

LDC will pay Sky £100 million for the business on completion of the transaction. LDC, which is fully funded by the Lloyds Banking Group, is backing current Easynet CEO David Rowe and his management team.

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Under the proposal, Sky will retain the UK network assets that it acquired as part of the original acquisition of Easynet Group in 2005. As part of the proposed sale, Sky and LDC will enter into a long-term supply agreement to grant Easynet Global Services continued access to Sky’s fibre network, which continues to support the fast-growing Sky Broadband and Sky Talk services. Easynet will also continue to be a key supplier to Sky.

Andrew Griffith, Sky’s Chief Financial Officer, said: “The acquisition of Easynet was central to the early success of Sky Broadband and Sky Talk. Whilst retaining the UK network assets to support the continued growth of our residential customers, we propose to exit the B2B segment with the sale of the business to a credible team and on attractive terms.”

Peter Brooks, Managing Director, LDC London , adds: “Easynet is a great example of LDC’s approach to TMT investments. Leveraging our sector knowledge and deliverability as an investor, we seek to back best-in-class management teams. Easynet provides innovative services to multinational clients across the attractive data networking and managed hosting sectors. Management consistently deliver industry leading levels of service whilst generating strong financial returns. We look forward to supporting David and his team as Easynet begins its next phase of development.”

UK, London

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Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC acquires Arete Consulting

August 13, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC (“Euromoney”), the international publishing, events and electronic information group, isd to acquire Arete Consulting Limited (“Arete”), the leading database of retail structured investment  products. The acquisition is in line with Euromoney’s strategy of investing in high-growth online subscription data businesses. This is Euromoney’s first sizeable acquisition since the purchases of Metal Bulletin and Total Derivatives in October 2006.

Arete is the definitive global data and news source covering structured retail products. The business was founded in 2001 by its managing director and principal shareholder, Robert Benson, formerly Global Head of Structured Products at HSBC. Arete’s proprietary Structured Retail Products database – www.StructuredRetailProducts.com – contains information on over 1.3 million products with significant derivative features from 33 countries, dating back nearly 20 years. Product information is given in both English and the original language, with source documentation provided in addition to data analysis. Its customers are in 52 countries, including emerging markets, and are mostly investment banks, issuers of structured retail products, regulators and financial indices. The business has operations in London, New York and Hong Kong and a full-time staff of 37.

Euromoney has acquired a 100% interest in Arete. The final price is dependent on Arete’s audited profits for its financial year to 28 February 2011. The acquisition will be financed from Euromoney’s existing borrowing facility.  Arete has gross assets of £1.1 million (derived from its audited accounts to 28 February 2010) and net liabilities of £183,000.

“We are delighted to acquire Arete and to receive the continuing support of Robert Benson and his excellent teams in London, New York and Hong Kong,” said Padraic Fallon, Chairman of Euromoney.  “We look forward to helping this high-quality subscription data business to grow and to develop additional sources of revenue. This acquisition fits our strategy perfectly.”

Robert Benson, who will stay with the business, until at least the end of June 2011, said: “We are excited about becoming part of the Euromoney Institutional Investor group. Working with Euromoney will enable us accelerate our geographical coverage and develop new products to deliver a significantly enhanced service to our subscribers.”

Location: UK, London

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Skype IPO – details

August 13, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

The SEC form is now available for the Skype IPO.

Some of the financials

6 months to June 30th 2010

  • Net Revenues $406.2 million
  • Gross Profit $206.3 million
  • Net income $13.1 million
  • Adjusted EBITDA $115.7 million
  • Registered users 560  million
  • Average monthly connected users 124 million
  • Average monthly paying users 8.1 million

Read the full details here

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Tiger Global Management acquires 50% stake of Wikimart

August 13, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Quintura reports that private equity firm Tiger Global Management has invested $5 million in exchange for a 50% stake in Russian online mall Wikimart. the article refers to a report in Russian language newspaper Vedomosti. 

Location: Russia, Moscow

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Faversham House acquires Utility Week from RBI

August 13, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Faversham House, the Croydon-based media company, has acquired the Utility Week portfolio from Reed Business Information (RBI).

Utility Week provides news, analysis and comment on Britain’s major electricity, gas and water utilities. The acquisition includes the Utility Week website www.utilityweek.com, the Utility Week Achievement Awards (6 December 2010) and the Utility Week Debt Conference (2 November 2010).

Faversham House Chief Executive Amanda Barnes, said: “We were delighted when RBI responded positively to our approach to acquire the Utility Week portfolio. We are extremely pleased to welcome the Utility Week team into our already successful and extensive portfolio of water, environment and sustainability titles. This acquisition underlines our commitment to grow our position as the premier provider of information into this market. There is considerable synergy with our Sustainabilitylive! exhibitions and with our world-leading edie.net environmental information portal. We look forward to working with the talented Utility Week team to maximise the opportunities this gives us.”

Jane Burgess, Managing Director of RBI said: “I’d like to thank the Utility Week team for their contribution to RBI – they are a talented team with deep experience in their sector and we wish them every success at Faversham House”

The seven-strong team joined Faversham House on Monday 26 July 2010.

How Utility Week reported the news.

Posted in B2B Services, Content Media, Energy & Environmental Services, Internet Media, Publishers, ~Europe. Leave a Comment »
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