Infogroup acquired by CCMP Capital

July 8, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Infogroup, the provider of data-driven and interactive resources for targeted sales, marketing and research solutions, has been acquired by CCMP Capital Advisors and announced its new executive leadership team and Board of Directors.

Clare Hart has been named Infogroup’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Ms. Hart is considered an innovator and leader in the world of interactive data and business information services. She most recently served as President of the Dow Enterprise Media Group, which generated over $700 million in annual sales and comprised Dow Jones Indexes, Dow Jones Newswires, Factiva, Dow Jones Licensing and Financial Information Services units. Prior to that appointment she was a founding member and ultimately President and Chief Executive Officer of Factiva, when it was a joint venture of Dow Jones and Reuters.

Rich Zannino, CCMP Managing Director and Chairman of Infogroup’s newly constituted Board of Directors, said, “We’re thrilled to have completed our acquisition of Infogroup and to be partnering with its highly talented management team and staff. Clare Hart has the perfect blend of skills – executive leadership, customer focus, product innovation, change management, technological savvy and deep relevant industry experience – to lead the transformation of Infogroup and deliver even greater value for its customers and ultimately its shareholders.”

Ms. Hart said, “I am looking forward to working with the Infogroup leadership team and all of the Infogroup employees as we help our clients win business, drive financial performance and attain market leadership through the use of Infogroup’s high quality, proprietary data, innovative technologies and results-driven targeted marketing solutions.”

Ms. Hart’s new leadership team will include current Infogroup executives that have contributed to the company’s success in the past as well as several newly appointed executives with highly relevant business experience.

Details of the new leadership team are in the announcement

Location: USA, Omaha, NE

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eMeter business Smart Grid raises $12.5 million

July 8, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

eMeter Corporation, a Smart Grid management software company, has closed a $12.5 million round of private financing led by longtime investors Sequoia Capital and Foundation Capital, and joined by new investor Northgate Capital looking to leverage eMeter’s leadership providing software solutions to enable successful Smart Grid implementations. Given the exponential growth of the Smart Grid industry over the past year, eMeter will use the new funding to expand eMeter’s sales and marketing efforts in key markets, enhance services to current customers and continue investing in new products.

Since the last round of funding almost a year ago, the company has hired industry-recognized enterprise software veteran Gary Bloom as CEO, while continuing to show tremendous growth working with leading technology partners, such as IBM, Intergraph, SAP and Siemens, and signing new utility customers including Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative, Burbank Water and Power, Centerpoint Energy, Silicon Valley Power, Westar Energy, Central Vermont Power and most recently, Wabash Energy here in the U.S. Internationally, eMeter inked deals with UK-based Electralink, Ontario, Canada’s Independent Electricity System Operator, Germany’s EnBW Ostwurttemberg Donau Ries AG and Umetriq, and Vattenfall AB, Europe’s fourth largest generator of electricity and the largest producer of heat, and is responsible for over 6 million utility customers across Finland, Sweden, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands. Finally, leading analyst firm Gartner gave eMeter a “positive” ranking in its latest “Marketscope for Meter Data Management Products” report, while The Wall Street Journal recognized the company as one of the top 10 venture-backed clean technology companies.

Gary Bloom, CEO of eMeter, said, “As a result of our maniacal focus on the customer, the eMeter platform is being used in the most successful Smart Grid deployments around the world. I’m pleased to welcome Northgate Capital to our growing list of investors at a time when more and more utilities and consumers are embracing Smart Grid technology. With this additional capital, and the continued support of both Sequoia and Foundation, we have further strengthened the company for continued growth and momentum working with and educating utilities and consumers worldwide about eMeter’s unique approach to enabling the Smart Grid.”

Location: USA, San Mateo, C

Posted in B2B Services, Energy & Environmental Services, ~North America. Leave a Comment »

The9 invests in Aurora Feint

July 8, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

The9 Limited, an online game developer and operator in China, has made a strategic minority equity investment in Aurora Feint.

Based in Burlingame, California, Aurora Feint Inc. develops mobile games and operates OpenFeint, a leading mobile social platform and application for smartphones, OpenFeint includes a set of online game services such as leaderboards and achievements running in a cloud based web service operated by Aurora Feint Inc. OpenFeint’s developer SDK is a toolkit that can be integrated in any iPhone based game. Thousands of mobile game developers use OpenFeint and there are more than 28 million registered users and 2,200 games live in the Apple App Store. OpenFeint also announced OpenFeint X in 2010, which is a virtual goods management system that enables developers to build free-to-play social games for mobile phones.

Mr. Jun Zhu, The9’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We are confident of the prospect for this mobile platform and believe it will play an important role in the future development of global mobile internet. The investment in Aurora Feint is an important step of The9’s establishment of a mobile gaming platform and is also an integral part of our global strategy.”

Location: China, Shanghai & USA, Burlingame, CA

Ref: F231109-487

Related article – The9 Limited acquires a majority interest in Red 5 Studios Posted on March 24, 2010

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MTV Networks acquires Social Express

July 8, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, has acquired Social Express, a social gaming development company, marking the company’s first entry into the social gaming space.  MTV Networks will develop social games based on original IP, as well as shows and characters from MTV, Nickelodeon and its other brands, with the first game to be introduced in the third quarter of 2010.  MTV Networks will also leverage Social Express’s expertise to launch a publishing platform for independent game developers.  Based in San Francisco, Social Express’s veteran management team boasts former executives and developers from Apple, AOL, Yahoo! and Zynga.

“Social gaming is one of the biggest drivers of the explosive growth in social media – it’s fun, it’s engaging, and it’s shareable,” said Judy McGrath, Chairman and CEO of MTV Networks.  “Social Express brings us strong experience and know-how in this burgeoning space, which we’ll supercharge with the IP and scale of Nickelodeon and other MTV Networks brands to create great new social gaming experiences for our fans and cool tools for independent developers as well.”

Social Express will be integrated into Nickelodeon Digital, with Social Express co-founder and CEO Tony Espinoza overseeing social gaming strategy and development as Vice President and General Manager of Social Gaming for MTV Networks’ Nickelodeon Kids & Family Group.  Neil Souza, co-founder of Social Express and FoulPlay Media, will be Vice President of Technology, Social Games. Both will report to Dave Williams, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Games, Nickelodeon Kids & Family Group, who reports to Stephen Youngwood, Executive Vice President for Digital, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids & Family Group.

“The Social Express team is a great addition to our gaming unit, and they are set to be a key part of our growth strategy,” said Youngwood.

In May, MTV Networks game sites attracted more than 22 million unique visitors and ranked as the number one destination in the online gaming category (MTV Networks game sites are a custom entity in ComScore – MMx). MTV Networks game sites include AddictingGames.com, Shockwave.com, Nick.com Games, Nick.com Arcade, Neopets, GameTrailers, and Xfire.  The acquisition of Social Express is the latest gaming initiative for the Nickelodeon Kids & Family Group, which has also launched AddictingGames on the iPhone with the AG iNetwork and introduced a virtual goods platform to the site in the past year. 

Location: USA, New York, NY & San Francisco, CA

Ref: F231109-486

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Playdom acquires Metaplace

July 8, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Social gaming company Playdom has acquired Metaplace, a privately held social gaming technology and game design company based in San Diego, California. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Raph Koster and John Donham founded their virtual world game engine development studio after leaving Sony Online Entertainment in 2006, following their groundbreaking work on such games as Star Wars Galaxies and Everquest II. For the last three years Metaplace has focused on building state-of-the-art virtual world and social gaming technology leading to the launch of the company’s first social games “Island Life” and “My Vineyard” in early 2010.

“Playdom is very excited to add the Metaplace game design group to its growing family of game studios,” said John Pleasants, Playdom CEO.

“We expect that the Metaplace social game engine will form a key part of our unified back-end technology platform for Playdom’s games going forward,” added David Sobeski, Playdom CTO. “We think the Metaplace engine is a competitive advantage in that it will take other companies years to duplicate its capabilities which will streamline and quicken our game development cycles.”

“We are thrilled to be joining the Playdom family and contributing to their stellar roster of social games with both new titles and technology,” said John Donham, CEO of Metaplace. “I look forward to running the Playdom-San Diego office while Raph continues his creative design work with Dan Yue, Playdom Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, and Jason Hable, Metaplace’s VP of Business Operations, moves to Mountain View to oversee Playdom’s company-wide Monetization efforts,” Donham concluded.

Metaplace is the latest in a long line of acquisitions for Playdom. Metaplace was funded by Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, Crescendo Ventures and Charles River Ventures.

Location: USA, San Diego, CA

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Andrew Miller appointed chief executive officer of Guardian Media Group

July 5, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Andrew Miller has been appointed chief executive officer of Guardian Media Group. He succeeds Carolyn McCall, who left the Group at the end of June to become chief executive of easyJet. Andrew was previously chief financial officer of GMG and takes up his new position with immediate effect.

Amelia Fawcett, chair of GMG, said: “Andrew is the ideal appointment to this role, following a rigorous recruitment process that produced a very high-quality shortlist of candidates. He has great financial acumen, an intimate understanding of GMG’s portfolio and a full appreciation of our unique purpose and values. He knows how to drive successful digital transformation and has led large-scale financial transactions. Most importantly, he has the ability, desire and vision to lead GMG through the next stage of its development and to ensure a sustainable future for our journalism.”

Andrew Miller said: “It is a great privilege and responsibility to lead Guardian Media Group and to play a key role in supporting the independence of our journalism. While the media sector faces continued change, to which we will need to adapt, our strong portfolio of businesses and investments means we have a solid base from which to move forward.”

Location: UK, London

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Related article – Trinity Mirror plc to acquire GMG Regional Media Posted on February 9, 2010

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Live Promotions acquires Vintage and Classic Events

July 5, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Live Promotions has aquired Vintage and Classic Events with immediate effect. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Bob Limming, Director of Live Promotions said: “It is really a question of passing the baton on to Live, who are the leading automotive event organisers in the UK.”

Live Promotions owns the high octane winter motorsport event Race Retro, held at Stoneleigh Park, and classic outdoor event Bromley Pageant of Motoring. Live also own the massively popular Truckfest series, that together with Land Rover events throughout the country as well as several motorcycle and modified car shows.

Bob added: “Live Promotions are very conscious that the VCE events started by Neil Bateman and then latterly organised by Lyn Bateman, have been a labour of love for many years. Live Promotions intend to retain the core values of the Restoration Show and the MG and Triumph shows, all of which are held at Stoneleigh Park, and at the same time adding one or two new features to enhance each event. An added bonus is that Lyn Bateman will not be a stranger and will help us with the transition. We look forward to the first of the shows, which will be the Restoration Show on 24th October 2010.”

Location: UK, Spalding, Lincs

Ref: F231109-483

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Wilmington in talks to acquire Dods

July 4, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

According to The Sunday Times, Wilmington is in talks to acquire Dod’s Parliamentary Guides and The House Magazine in a deal said to be valued at around £20 million – based on an estimated price per share of 15p. The stock closed on Friday at 10.5p per share. According to The Sunday Times report, due diligence is currently underway and the deal may still be several weeks away.

Dod’s has provided contact and biographical information about and to the Houses of Parliament and the Civil Service since 1832. In 2002 Huveaux PLC acquired Vacher Dod Publishing Ltd. In 2004 Huveaux PLC also acquired Parliamentary Communications Ltd and merged it with Vacher Dod Publishing to form Dod’s Parliamentary Communications. This brought the Vacher Dod books and the House Magazine, the Parliamentary Monitor, Parliament Magazine, Whitehall and Westminster World and ePolitix.com under one imprint. Vacher’s Parliamentary Companion was renamed Vacher’s Quarterly. Famously, in over 173 years Vacher’s has never missed an issue.

Shareholders of Dods include Mike Danson of Progressive Digital Media and former owner of Datamonitor (sold to Informa) and Schroders.

Location: UK, London

Ref: F231109-482

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Quadrant Private Equity acquires Media Monitor

July 2, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

Australian private equity provider, Quadrant Private Equity, has acquired media intelligence company, Media Monitors.

Media Monitors was founded in 1982. Today, the company has over 800 employees across the Asia-Pacific region and services more than 5,000 clients.

Media Monitors’ CEO John Croll said: “We are delighted by the opportunities Quadrant Private Equity brings to our business. We operate in a very dynamic industry where clients needs and media developments occur at a very fast pace. We are looking forward to the agility that the Quadrant team brings to leverage opportunities and to further enhance services to our corporate and government clients.”

Mr. Croll said that Quadrant Private Equity’s experience combined with the expertise of the Media Monitors’ management team creates a strong opportunity to accelerate the company’s next phase of growth.

Mr. Chris Hadley, Quadrant Private Equity Managing Director, said “Our acquisition today of Media Monitors is a significant investment in the rapidly evolving media space. Media Monitors has a highly successful track record, a strong management team and a leading market position in Australia, New Zealand and across the Asia-Pacific region with a strong presence in China”.

“We are looking forward to working with the Media Monitors’ management team to further develop the business through innovative products, services and potential strategic acquisitions” – Mr. Hadley said.-

Media Monitors engaged Greenhill Caliburn as financial adviser and Baker & McKenzie as legal adviser. Quadrant Private Equity was advised by Ernst & Young with Minter Ellison as legal adviser.

Location: Australia, Sydney

Ref: F231109-481

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Disney acquires Tapulous, a developer of music games for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch

July 2, 2010 — Fusion DigiNet

The Walt Disney Company has acquired Palo Alto-based Tapulous, a developer of music games for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Through a merger agreement, Tapulous is now a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company reporting into Disney Interactive Media Group (DIMG).

As a part of DIMG’s mobile games group, Tapulous strengthens the company’s portfolio of games and entertainment offerings in the fast-growing mobile arena. Through this deal, Tapulous founders, Bart Decrem and Andrew Lacy, as well as their development team in Palo Alto, CA will be joining DIMG’s mobile content group. Decrem and Lacy, previously CEO and COO of Tapulous, will now take on the leadership roles for the DIMG mobile group with Decrem reporting to DIMG President Steve Wadsworth.

“Mobile gaming is seeing unprecedented growth and this is the right time to invest to strengthen our position in the mobile business,” said Wadsworth. “In a short time, Bart and Andrew have built Tapulous into a successful and accomplished mobile games developer that’s emerged as one of the most successful companies in the industry. We welcome the Tapulous team to the Disney family and look forward to integrating their popular games into Disney’s offerings.”

“Tapulous has been on the leading-edge of mobile gaming. By joining Disney, we will be able to continue to excel in this evolving industry and more quickly realize our vision to lead the mobile, social entertainment revolution,” said Decrem. “With Disney’s powerful breadth of content and heritage in technological innovation, they are the perfect partner for Tapulous. It is a true honor to join the Disney team.”

Location: USA, Burbank, CA

Ref: F231109-480

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