Verisk acquires energy information business Genscape from DMGT for GBP 297M

September 6, 2019 — Fusion DigiNet

Verisk logoThe Daily Mail and General Trust, owner of the Mail titles, has sold its energy information business Genscape for GBP 297 million to US firm Verisk. Genscape collects data and offers forecasts and analytics to customers in the market, as well as providing software solutions.

New York-listed Verisk, which also provides risk analysis to the insurance sector, acquired the energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie for GBP 1.85 billion in 2015. Genscape will become part of Wood Mackenzie.

DMGT chief executive Paul Zwillenberg said, “This transaction marks another major milestone in DMGT’s continued transformation and is in line with our strategy. It will further increase the focus of the portfolio and will result in DMGT operating in five sectors, compared to ten in 2016.”

He added that the sale of Genscape was “consistent with our strategic priorities” and would add more than GBP 200 million net cash to the company’s balance sheet.

UK, London, USA, Louisville, KY & Jersey City, NJ

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Ascential acquires Flywheel Digital for $60M

November 1, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

Ascential plcGlobal specialist information and events company Ascential plc is to acquire Flywheel Digital, a leading US-based provider of managed services to consumer product companies trading on Amazon, for an initial cash consideration of $60 million plus earn out payments payable over three years.

Founded in 2014, Flywheel offers customers Amazon-specific software, tools and expertise to drive sales and brand performance across Amazon platforms by directly actioning solutions for clients. Flywheel’s proprietary platforms and processes optimise brands’ online operations, including merchandising, supply logistics and media management. Flywheel primarily serves large-scale US consumer product companies, with more than 70 customers and more than 90 staff based in Baltimore and Seattle.

The initial consideration of US$60m (subject to normal working capital adjustments) is being paid out of Ascential’s existing cash reserves using capital released from the sale of the Exhibitions business. Earn out consideration is payable in cash based on the revenue of the business for the next three years to 2021 and is expected to total between approximately US$47m and US$196m. A portion of the earn out is subject to the founders remaining in employment with the company. The total potential consideration, including both initial consideration and earn out payments, is capped at US$400m in the event that extremely stretching revenue levels are reached.

In the year ended December 2017, Flywheel grew its revenue by more than 150% and delivered unaudited profit before tax of $4.8m. It had gross assets of $23.9m at December 2017. The transaction is expected to be earnings accretive in Ascential’s current financial year.

Flywheel will report to Duncan Painter, CEO of Ascential. The business will be reported as part of Ascential’s Sales segment alongside the newly integrated Edge business (comprising One Click Retail, Clavis, Planet Retail RNG and Brand View) which offers a range of insight and advisory solutions to improve performance across Amazon and other eCommerce platforms.

Duncan Painter, CEO of Ascential, commented, ‘We have a clear focus on providing information and capabilities that enable our customers to succeed in the digital economy. The acquisition of Flywheel is in line with this strategy, further strengthening our offerings in eCommerce for brands navigating the digital market places, particularly Amazon.’

UK, London & USA, Seattle, WA

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IBM to acquire Red Hat for $34bn

October 28, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

IBMIBM and Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source cloud software, have reached a definitive agreement under which IBM will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Red Hat for $190.00 per share in cash, representing a total enterprise value of approximately $34 billion.

Red Hat is a leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to deliver reliable and high-performing Linux, hybridRed Hat cloud, container, and Kubernetes technologies. Red Hat helps customers integrate new and existing IT applications, develop cloud-native applications, standardize on our industry-leading operating system, and automate, secure, and manage complex environments.

Ginni Rometty, IBM Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “The acquisition of Red Hat is a game-changer. It changes everything about the cloud market. IBM will become the world’s #1 hybrid cloud provider, offering companies the only open cloud solution that will unlock the full value of the cloud for their businesses. Most companies today are only 20 percent along their cloud journey, renting compute power to cut costs. The next 80 percent is about unlocking real business value and driving growth. This is the next chapter of the cloud. It requires shifting business applications to hybrid cloud, extracting more data and optimizing every part of the business, from supply chains to sales.”

Upon closing of the acquisition, Red Hat will join IBM’s Hybrid Cloud team as a distinct unit, preserving the independence and neutrality of Red Hat’s open source development heritage and commitment, current product portfolio and go-to-market strategy, and unique development culture. Red Hat will continue to be led by Jim Whitehurst and Red Hat’s current management team. Jim Whitehurst also will join IBM’s senior management team and report to Ginni Rometty. IBM intends to maintain Red Hat’s headquarters, facilities, brands and practices.

USA, Armonk, NY and Raleigh, NC

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Silver Lake Partners and Battery Ventures to acquire EDR from DMGT for $205M

March 13, 2018 — Fusion DigiNet

Silver LakeSilver Lake and Battery Ventures have agreed to acquire EDR, a leading provider of real estate data and software-as-a-service, from the Daily Mail and General Trust plc for $205m. The investors areBattery Ventures global, growth-oriented firms focused on partnerships with market-leading technology companies. The transaction is expected to close in the coming weeks and is subject to
customary closing conditions.

EDR is a leader in property due-diligence and risk management technology and information. The company’s solutions enable clients — including environmental consultants and engineers, appraisers, and lenders — to manage real estate due diligence processes efficiently and effectively.

Joe Osnoss, Managing Director at Silver Lake, said, ”The real estate sector is continuing to evolve with the introduction of new technologies. EDR has a rich history of thought leadership in this area, and we plan to invest behind the company’s developing product roadmap to serve its important client ecosystem.”

Battery Ventures General Partner Scott Tobin added, ”We look forward to working closely with Chris Aronson and EDR’s management team. We believe that our investment will enable EDR to accelerate growth — including in the state-of-the-art Collateral360 SaaS platform — and extend its reputation as a leader in real estate data and software with a developing range of products and services.”

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Keywords Studios acquires games developer Sperasoft

December 13, 2017 — Fusion DigiNet

keywords

Keywords Studios, an international technical services provider to the global video games industry, has acquired Russian game development business Sperasoft from the founders Igor Efremov, Alexei Kudriashov and Mark Rizzo.
The total consideration is $27 million. Keywords Studios are paying $22 million in cash, $1 million of which is deferred until the first anniversary of the acquisition. The remainder will be paid through the issue of new shares, which will be issued to the sellers on the first anniversary of the acquisition.

 

Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Sperasoft provides game development, art creation and software engineering services to video game developers and publishers around the world from its production studios in St Petersburg and Volgograd, Russia and Krakow, Poland. Founded in 2004, Sperasoft employs 400 software engineers and artists. The company offers a full range of services for initial game development as well as developing games in live operations.

Andrew Day, Chief Executive Officer of Keywords Studios, said, “The acquisition of Sperasoft provides us with an entry point into co-development, positioning us as a strategic partner to games developers at the early stages of the games development lifecycle. As games are becoming bigger and are higher definition, game developers are increasingly relying upon co-development arrangements with companies like Sperasoft to provide them with broader capability to develop both initial games and additional content and features post launch.”

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betaworks acquires a majority stake in Instapaper

April 26, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

betaworksbetaworks has acquired a majority stake in Instapaper. The acquisition was announced by Instapaper founder and developer Marco Arment. Marco posted details of the acquisition on his blog. Instapaper is a simple tool to save web pages for reading later. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.instapaper

“I’m happy to announce that I’ve sold a majority stake in Instapaper to Betaworks. We’ve structured the deal with Instapaper’s health and longevity as the top priority, with incentives to keep it going well into the future. I will continue advising the project indefinitely, while Betaworks will take over its operations, expand its staff, and develop it further.”

Other Betaworks products include digg, bit.ly, Chartbeat, Giphy and tapestry.  Wall Street Journal reported that Digg was acquired for around $500,000 last year.

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IHS acquires Fekete Associates

April 8, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

ihs_logo_mpInformation and analytics company IHS Inc. , has acquired Fekete Associates, a provider of integrated reservoir management software and services to the oil and gas industry. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“The acquisition of Fekete plays an important role in better supporting our customers as we continue to seamlessly connect IHS information and expertise with the right tools and technologies linked to key energy workflows,” said IHS Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jerre Stead. “The products and services offered by Fekete build on existing IHS Energy solutions and provide new opportunity to expand Fekete offerings to a high-growth global energy marketplace.”

Fekete is a provider of integrated reservoir and production engineering tools and workflow solutions to the oil and natural gas exploration and production industry. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and with an office in Houston, the company’s digital solutions help customers find and develop new oil and gas reserves, and optimize production from new and existing assets by processing, analyzing, interpreting and modeling digital subsurface information.

“Combining Fekete workflow tools with IHS Energy information will create new efficiencies for customers and speed time to decisions in exploration and production. In a very dynamic global energy environment, providing integrated solutions that improve productivity and allow an even greater level of insight in making investment decisions is a great outcome for our customers and for IHS,” said IHS President and Chief Operating Officer Scott Key.

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Experian acquires Decisioning Solutions

April 3, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

experianExperian has acquired Decisioning Solutions Inc., a provider of a hosted SaaS customer acquisition platform.

Founded in 2004 and based in Canada, Decisioning Solutions provides SaaS solutions to small and mid-tier companies, including financial institutions and telecommunication companies in the US and Canada, to manage their customer acquisitions and loan originations. Decisioning Solutions’ products are multi-lingual and easily deployed to different geographies.

Customer acquisition and origination is a key sector for Experian globally and this acquisition provides Experian with a scalable, cross-industry global platform to complement its existing mid- and large-tier, on-premise and country specific solutions.

It is a further step in Experian’s strategy to extend its global lead in credit information and analytics and will form part of Experian’s Decision Analytics activities. The acquisition has been funded from Experian’s existing cash resources

UK, London & USA, New York, NY & Canada, Toronto

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Ipreco acquires Debtdomain

February 5, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

ipreo-logoIpreo, a provider of market intelligence and productivity solutions to capital markets and corporate professionals, announced the acquisition of Debtdomain, a provider of web-based systems for loan syndication. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Debtdomain is a web-based system for managing the loan syndication process from pitch to agency. The solution covers deal setup, pipeline reporting, sole and joint bookrunning, and secure document distribution. Debtdomain also offers an investor CRM tool debtdomainpowered by a database of over 250,000 contacts, and integrated with bookrunning and deal sites. Debtdomain is used by over 150 leading loan market arrangers and agents. Debtdomain was founded in 2000 and has offices in New York, London, and Hong Kong.

The Debtdomain business will become part of Ipreo’s Capital Markets vertical, completing Ipreo’s offering of web-based new-issuance solutions for all types of syndicated products. Ipreo’s capital markets solutions include end-to-end bookbuilding systems, roadshow & conference management platforms, and electronic document delivery. Additionally, Ipreo’s suite of investor prospecting and CRM solutions offers comprehensive institutional contacts data and investor profiles. Ipreo is the only financial services provider to offer solutions across all asset classes including Equity, Fixed Income, Municipal bonds, and Syndicated Loans.

“Syndicated loan solutions are a natural extension of our Capital Markets business, fulfilling our goal of being able to cover all types of syndicated products,” said Scott Ganeles , CEO of Ipreo. “Debtdomain is the preeminent player in the syndicated loan space, with a strong client focus, a winning track record, and an approach to technology that is well aligned with our own.”

Debtdomain co-CEOs Sean Tai and David Levy will both be joining Ipreo’s Executive Committee and together will run the Loan Syndication business under Ipreo’s Capital Markets vertical.

USA, New York & UK, London

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Adobe acquires creative social media platform Behance

January 3, 2013 — Fusion DigiNet

adobeAdobe Systems Incorporated has acquired privately held Behance, an online social media platform that enables creatives to showcase and share their work.

According to TechCrunch, Adobe paid slightly more than $150 million in cash and stock, with certain growth goals to attain over multiple years.

“When we launched Creative Cloud earlier this year, we committed that we would give members new value on an ongoing basis.  Last week, we launched new training features, file synchronization and sharing capabilities, digital publishing services and significant updates to a number of our tools, including Photoshop,” said David Wadhwani, senior vice president and general manager, Adobe. “Behance will play a key role in Adobe’s efforts to serve the creative world in the years to come and will accelerate our efforts to enable a more open and collaborative creative behancecommunity.”

In the last 30 days, portfolios on Behance-powered sites have received over 90 million views and today there are over 3 million projects hosted on the Behance platform.

As well as providing a showcase for creative work across industries and disciplines, Behance also powers the portfolio display for thousands of other websites around the Web, including AdWeek, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and The Smithsonian National Design Awards. As Behance has grown, it has evolved into more than a destination that creatives use to forge connections. Behance has now become a place where creative professionals also find work and market their unique skills.

Adobe plans to integrate Behance’s community and portfolio capabilities with Adobe Creative Cloud, allowing members to seamlessly create content, seek feedback, showcase their work and distribute it across devices.

Further details

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