Crenk » acquisition

Tsavo Media Purchase Open Source Food

Steven Finch — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:40:58 +0000

Several hundred thousand palates can’t be wrong. With this, Tsavo Media announced that it has acquired Open Source Food (OSF) from Egg & Co., a venture of Tokyo-based web producer Jon Anthony Yongfook Cockle.

With the acquisition, OSF has been renamed NibbleDish and will join Tsavo’s new network of content sites for consumers, currently in development.

Yongfook will remain with the company. A serial web-app builder, Yongfook is also responsible for the popular lifestreaming software Sweetcron and analytics tool Gumtrail. From his base in Tokyo, he works with various Japanese companies as an outside consultant, building web apps and overseeing production.

Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Live Nation and Ticketmaster to Merge

Steven Finch — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 15:46:26 +0000

Are Live Nation and Ticketmaster planning to merge? According to a Wall Street Journal report emerging Tuesday evening, the answer is yes. The paper noted that the pair are “close to a merger,” citing “people familiar with the matter”. The tie-up would effectively combine the largest live concert conglomerate with the biggest ticketing company, resulting in a massive conglomerate. The deal, expected to be cashless, could be announced in a matter of weeks, according to the report.

Sounds like a big deal, though regulators could hold up the marriage. That is no small consideration, especially in light of the massive delays experienced by recent newlyweds Sirius Satellite and XM Satellite Radio. Those partners required both the approval of the US Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission (FCC), though the Justice approval on its own was quite lengthy.

Other issues are also worth noting. Live Nation just launched a homegrown ticketing service; a merger could effectively nix that attempt. Moreover, it remains unclear which party is actually acquiring, and where the top executives would land.

Technorati Media Isnt Moving In The Right Direction

Steven Finch — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:57:35 +0000

I have been receiving a lot of emails lately from webmasters using Technorati Media as their ad network. Techn0rati is a blog search engine which launched an ad network back in June last year. At the time it was very big news, because Technorati was losing its way a little bit and also traffic at the same time. Thus, they launched Technorati Media which would open up a new revenues stream. At the same time Technorati purchased AdEngage which would be the backbone of the Technorati Media platform. AdEngage is a basic self service advertising platform which deals in CPC display advertising.

Anyways, Technorati Media launched their ad network with a lot of media attention and were offering some amazing CPM rates, in which was going to entice a huge amount of small and medium blogs. However, now since the economy is in a bit of a decline ad revenues have dropped but this is nowhere near the amount Technorati Media’s CPM rates have dropped.

I’m not too sure what Technorati Media is trying to achieve because using the current model they have for advertising, I’m sure they will be in a huge amount of trouble come the end of 2009. The economic crisis is not going to be fixed over night and it will take a couple of years to sort itself out, so Technorati please think of another advertising solution. CPC campaigns are great for advertisers because they get an instant return on investment for their money, but CPM is great for publishers because they can see a return on their investment. Technorati Media is struggling even to sell CPC campaigns even with some great sites on board, so this spells big trouble!

Disclosure: Im CEO of Adphilia which is a site representation company.

Spiral Frog (Ad-supported music service) In Trouble and Heading Towards Deadpool

Steven Finch — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:40:12 +0000

There is another music streaming service that we didn’t mention in our Top 10 free music streaming services and that is Spiral Frog. Spiral Frog is an ad-supported music download service which has had a huge amount of hype since launch.

Today it has been reported that Spiral Frog might be in a bit of trouble and heading towards the deadpool. These reports come from executives within the struggling company. Why is Spiral Frog in trouble? When launching Spiral Frog was in a growing advertising market in which was still yielding good CPM (cost per 1000 ads) rates, however now in the economic downturn these rates are quickly dropping. Therefore, companies need to keep increasing pageviews and presence to stay ahead of the curve. Spiral Frog has been losing a lot of traffic of late and this combined with the big licensing fees they had to pay upfront for major label catalogues means their in a lot of trouble.

There are only a couple of options that will save Spiral Frog. Firstly, a miracle could happen and they could turn around the traffic and the revenues, but that’s not going to happen. Secondly, they could get more funding and sell part of the shares, but they are running out of shares so I don’t think this would happen either. Finally, the only real option is for someone to step in and purchase the company just before they run out of money and get a bargain basement price.

To be fair in the past Spiral Frog has had a lot of issues and they have been in trouble a couple of times. This is probably what has lead to Spiral Frog getting a lot of media attention. I think Spiral Frog will be acquired by the end of 2009, its the only decent option of the company.

CD Baby Acquisition for $22m Was Way Too Cheap

Steven Finch — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 10:33:39 +0000

A couple of months ago CD Baby, one of the largest online sellers of music for indie bands, was acquired by Disc Makers. At that time the price was not disclosed, but now the founder Derek Sivers has disclosed to VentureVoice that the sale price was $22 million. Sivers owned 100 percent of the company he founded in 1998.

A lot of people are talking about a good winfall for Sivers, but Im really too sure what numbers they are looking at. Cd Baby published a report stating their sales from January to July 07, which made up of $21m in revenues, thus by the end of the year Im sure they would have around $50m in revenues. From what I have seen of web based enterprise acquisitions lately, they are normally around 5x revenues, thus placing Cd Baby around the $250m mark. Therefore selling at $22m is just a crazy cheap price and not a winfall!

Digg, Why The Hell Can’t They Sell Their Company!

Steven Finch — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 08:50:50 +0000

Digg has to be one of the biggest web properties currently on the internet, with one of the most loyal communities. However, they seem to be able to grow the community, add on new features, turnover good revenue figures and get millions of pageviews, but they simply can’t sell their company to anyone!

Digg has been trying to sell for the last 6 months and yet no one is actually biting. They currently have a Microsoft as an investor and running their ad campaigns, plus they have been in talks with Google for an acquisition, but how come they cant finalise anything?

Is it because the $300 million price tag they are after, it just too out of reach? Is it because the big conglomerates aren’t too sure how they are going to fit the Digg technology into their search engines or portals? Is it because Digg has such a strong community base, any acquisition will just kill the site?

Im hoping to find out why the average person think Digg cant sell.

Buzznet Acquire AbsolutePunk.net: Joins Stereogum, Idolator and More.

Steven Finch — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:57:31 +0000

Buzznet have been definitely on a buying spree lately, especially after obtaining $25 million in funding from companies such as Universal. Previously, Buzznet purchased Stereogum, Idolator, Qloud and started Videogum. This time they have purchased another music site, Absolutepunk.net.

Personally, im not too sure about the approach of Buzznet. Buzznet are trying to position themselves as the one stop music destination. Instead of maximising their own site first, they have received funding and are trying to buy marketshare. Why not simply find a better monetization strategy then just Google Adsense!! Im sure Buzznet will not be receiving a high click through rate with Adsense, so why not try to find a premium CPM based network instead?

Microsoft Withdraw Proposal for Yahoo!

Steven Finch — Sun, 04 May 2008 11:18:48 +0000

Well im sure that everyone has already heard, but if not Microsoft has today withdrawn their proposal to acquire Yahoo! Yahoo have issued a press release and Roy Bostock, Chairman of Yahoo! Inc., issued the following statement today in response to Microsoft Corporation’s announcement that it has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Yahoo!:

“We remain focused on maximizing shareholder value and pursuing strategic opportunities that position Yahoo! for success and leadership in its markets. From the beginning of this process, our independent board and our management have been steadfast in our belief that Microsoft’s offer undervalued the company and we are pleased that so many of our shareholders joined us in expressing that view. Yahoo! is profitable, growing, and executing well on its strategic plan to capture the large opportunities in the relatively young online advertising market. Our solid results for the first quarter of 2008 and increased full year 2008 operating cash flow outlook reflect the progress the company is making. Today, Yahoo! has:

– a refined strategic focus to drive enhanced volume and yield;

– reorganized to focus its efforts on its most promising products and services;

– invested in innovations designed to revolutionize display advertising and facilitate closing the competitive gap in search; and

– enhanced expense and resource management to support improved profitability.”

Here are also some of the thoughts from around the web:

Sphere Acquired by AOL: More Ad Inventory for Platform-A

Steven Finch — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:33:59 +0000

AOL has acquired Sphere. Sphere is a technology that increases the relevant articles, blog posts and content to websites, via their widget. Sphere will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL, the company said in a statement, part of the programming division led by Executive Vice President Bill Wilson. AOL–along with Newsweek, Time, Reuters, GigaOM, The Wall Street Journal, and other sites–already was a Sphere partner.

This is a very interesting acquisition, because the Sphere technology can be very useful for the larger conglomerates and because Google and Yahoo already have this kind of technology, that only left AOL and possibly Amazon left. The deal im sure will see more AOL content floating across it, while AOL will also be using the technology in amongst their services and finally, Platform-A will have some more ad inventory to sell.

Microsoft Is Losing Yahoo to Merger With AOL

Steven Finch — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:16:58 +0000

The soap opera that is Microsoft bid for Yahoo is continuing. Firstly it is reported by the WSJ that Yahoo is closing in on a merger with AOL. If the deal goes through, the two companies would combine their web and internet based services. Yahoo! would reportedly use some of the revenue from a merger with Time Warner/AOL to buy back a whole bunch of stock which woudl help the company fend off any further unwanted advances from Microsoft.

While at the same time it is reported that Yahoo has begun testing out Search Ads from Google. Then Microsoft hit back with the following statement about the search testing:

From Brad Smith, Microsoftâ€™s General Counsel:

â€œAny definitive agreement between Yahoo! and Google would consolidate over 90% of the search advertising market in Googleâ€™s hands. This would make the market far less competitive, in sharp contrast to our own proposal to acquire Yahoo! We will assess closely all of our options. Our proposal remains the only alternative put forward that offers Yahoo! shareholders full and fair value for their shares, gives every shareholder a vote on the future of the company, and enhances choice for content creators, advertisers, and consumers.â€

Well, what can I see happening? I expect that AOL and Yahoo will potentially merge, but this it might happen in about 6 months time. In terms of search advertising between Google and Yahoo, im sure this cant continue because of the amount of marketshare they will have between them. Finally, Microsoft have no chance of purchasing Yahoo, I cant see it happening because Yahoo shareholders and directors would have already agreed if there was something that was going to happen.

More news from around the world.

Seesmic Acquires Twhirl, But Their Still In Alpha Themselves!

Steven Finch — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 11:41:10 +0000

Seesmic which claims to be the Twitter for video has just acquired Twhirl. Although Seesmic is still in Alpha this seems to be a good purchase on the outside. Twhirl is one of the most popular Adobe AIR apps and allows users to post to their Twitter, Jaiku and Pownce accounts. This is the first acquisition ever of a pure AIR application and im sure it wont be the last.

For other coverage on this acquisition take a look at BlogHerald and Mashable. Im also interested to see what Arrington has to say about the acquisition, because he is an investor in Seesmic, however Mark Hendrickson did the review for Techcrunch of the story.

Buzznet Raises $25 Million

Steven Finch — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 21:18:59 +0000

paidContent.org have reported that Buzznet has raised $25 million in a third round of funding. Additionally, it was learned that Universal Music-owned Interscope has invested a few million in it. It hasnt been confirmed who the other investors are, but im guessing some of the funding would have come from previous investors such as Redpoint Ventures and Anthem Venture Partners.

Also, recently, investors Bob Pittman, of the Pilot Group and Sling Media’s Jason Hirschhorn traded their equity stakes in the influential indie music blog Stereogum for an ownership percentage of BuzzNet. Thus, it has been confirmed that Stereogum is now fully owned by Buzznet. Today it has also be reported that Buzznet has now acquired Qloud. Has this new $25 million gone to the acquisition or has it been raised to make Buzznet more like mainstream media.

LiveWire Mobile Acquires Groove Mobile for $14.5M

Steven Finch — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:02:51 +0000

LiveWire Mobile has acquire another mobile music service provider Groove Mobile for $14.5 million.

Groove Mobile powers the mobile music stores of such wireless operators as Sprint in the U.S., as well as Bell Mobility in Canada and 3 UK. LiveWire Mobile is a division of NMS Communications, which provides mobile personalization and content services to various carrier partners. According to the press release announcing the acquisition, Groove Mobile made $7.4 million in revenue last year operating the mobile music services for 12 wireless operators. That is not many download sales at all!

The acquisition allows LiveWire mobile to offer full song downloads along with ringtones and videos. However it also provides some insight into the state of the mobile music industry, still and industry that is currently underutilised and not on the rise.

Breaking News: Bebo is Aquired by AOL for $850 million

Steven Finch — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:39:26 +0000

AOL has announced this morning that they have acquired social networking service Bebo for $850 million in cash. Bebo is the third-largest social networking service in the U.S. behind MySpace and Facebook. Why has AOL done this? One reason is that the soon to be Platform-A will have a huge amount of inventory to sell. AOL has made a big step forward in targeting the youth demographic that use Bebo.Â

Bebo claims over 40 million members and is one of the leading social networks in the UK, and is ranked number one in Ireland and New Zealand, and number three in the U.S. Its users are heavily engaged and view an average of 78 pages per usage day. Together with its AIM and ICQ personal communications network, the acquisition will give AOL a premier position in the fast growing world of social media with a network of approximately 80 million unique users.

Faces.com Sells Assets to 3Bill, Who Will Relaunch At End of Year

Steven Finch — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:13:39 +0000

A couple of weeks ago we reported that Faces.com (Australian based social network) headed to the dead pool.Â Today, weâ€™ve learned that the assets of the company have been acquired by 3BILL, the UK-based mobile content company that now appears to be moving into the social realm. According to 3BILL, the plan is to integrate these recent acquisitions into one community and re-launch later this year, presumably under the premium Faces.com name.

Digg Will Find A Buyer Very Soon: Microsoft, Google or another?

Steven Finch — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 11:25:41 +0000

This has to be the biggest news since the Microsoft bid for Yahoo. Digg is still up for sale and Techcrunch reports that they are close to finding a buyer. If you dont already know, investment bank Allen & Co have been shopping around on Digg’s behalf to find a potential buyer. A source very close to the deal mentions that four companies are in heavy due diligence with Digg – two media/news companies, and two big Internet companies – Google and Microsoft. And Google and Microsoft are on the verge of making their bids.

Originally, Digg was looking for a price tag of around $300 million, but it is reported that Google are likely to bid approximately $200 million for Digg. Microsoft however will be offering a figure lower that the $200 million, solely because they already have a three year advertising deal with Digg.

Even at $200 million is Digg overpriced? I think it is. Digg has received a lot of rewards for their technology and product, but the community is the key. If Digg is bought by Microsoft will the community continue to use the product with the same intensity as they current do? I think not.

So far Digg has only raised $11.3 million in funding, so this will be a great out for Kevin Rose and friends.

Demand Media Acquire Pluck for $75 Million in Cash

Steven Finch — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:50:39 +0000

It has been reported by Mashable, Techcrunch and CenterNetwork that Demand Media has acquired Pluck. The story was broken by Mashable editor Adam Ostrow, and it has now been confirmed via an inside source that the acquisition price was $75 million, all in cash.

Pluck raised $17 million in three rounds of funding and their revenues are around $10 million per year. The deal marks a major new initiative for Demand Media, who has used more than $350 million in funding to build a network that reaches more than 64 million unique users per month and includes sites such as eHow, Cracked.com, and Answerbag.

Pluck itself has never really done too much, but currently has a strong product in BlogBurst which allows bloggers to syndicate their articles to major newspapers and news distribution outlets. Crenk is a member of BlogBurst.

Compete Inc Is Acquired by TNS

Steven Finch — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 09:11:42 +0000

Compete, the web analytics and online market research startup which is based in Boston has been acquired by Taylor Nelson Sofres plc (TNS), for $75 million. TNS which is based in London is a leading market information and insight company.

Additionally, it has been reported by Techcrunch that another $75 million is possible in earn-outs through 2010, which there for could potentially bring the acquisition to $150 million. This seems to be quite a good price for Compete, considering their main competitor comScorehas a market cap of $570 million.

Competeâ€™s revenues in 2007 rose 50 percent to $15 million, but it lost $4.5 million. Now in 2008 with an acquisition of the company, will Compete move into a more corporate business model and start to charge for ranking information?

According to Somewhat Frank, here is what we can expect to see from Compete now that they are acquired:

1. New products. Compete will continue to operate as a stand-alone company, but we have already identified stellar new product opportunities to develop with the TNS media intelligence and custom research teams;

2. Biggest data. We already had the most clickstream data in the industry pre-merger, and now the TNS consumer panels extend our advantage over the other digital research companies;

3. Rapid growth. From the start, the Compete vision has always been to become the number one digital intelligence company in the world. TNS has tens of thousands of clients across 80 countries. Thatâ€™s a nice global platform to be a part of.

Getty Images Has Been Purchased for $2.4 Billion!

Steven Finch — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:26:48 +0000

Getty Images the photo stock giant have actually found a company to purchase them at a premium price. It is being reported that Getty Images has been purchased for $2.4 billion to private equity firm Hellman and Friedman. The $34/share price is a 39% premium over Friday’s close, and more than 50% higher than GYI’s price in mid-January, when the sale started.

Insound Acquired and Napster Ups Subscription Price

Steven Finch — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 13:37:38 +0000

Insound.com has been acquired by Warner Music Group. Well the site was actually acquired by The Alternative Distribution Alliance, which is an independent distributor owned by Warner. This is quite a good acquisition for the ADA because Insound has a very good back end infrastructure that can be exploited by ADA to provide their own digital store. The site itself will continue to be operated by co-founder Matt Wishnow, hence a good deal for both parties involved.

Napster in a very interesting move has raised their monthly subscription fees. In true Napster style this was done in an email sent to subcriber, which stated the non-portable subscription rate will increase from $10 per month to $13. A 30% increase! Although this price change is Napsters first in four years, I really cant see this doing them any favours in the market that they are drastically behind in at the moment. These prices changes will take affect on January 30. I made a very bold prediction and said that they will be heading towards the dead pool by the end of 2008, so im very keen to see how much of an affect this price increase will have on the company.

Google Acquires Jaiku

Steven Finch — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 08:36:57 +0000

The news of the day must be that Google has acquired Jaiku. Jaiku is a microblogging site similar to Pownce and Twitter. It is a bit of a surprise that Google has opted to purchase Jaiku (which hails from Finland) instead of Twitter (the market leader) or Pownce (the new kid on the block with the best user interface).

Have a look at what everyone else has been saying about the deal:

Twitter has not long got Series A Funding, so it would have been rare for them to be purchased. Pownce on the other hand seems to be on the downhill slide. Since their highly publicised launch Pownce has never lived up to expectations and with the recent news about Kevin Rose potentially moving Pownce features over to Digg, it has just never recovered. If you look at Alexa data on Pownce you will notice it wont be too long until it dies a death, on the quick slide down. Its seems that Jaiku was an important match with Google because it has more of a presence in activity streams and mobile presence and those are the markets Google is trying to gain more market share. It that last week Google also launched Adsense for mobile, so this will be a nice addition to boost the start of that new service.

Newsvine Acquired by MSNBC.com

Steven Finch — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 07:46:50 +0000

It has been reported by Techcrunch that Newsvine has been acquired by MSNBC.com. It is reported that the deal was closed on October the 5th and all in cash. This is MSNBC’s for acquisition in its 11 year history. Look out for the site to become a citizens journal with social media thrown in.

I have always thought that MSNBC was just a copy of news stories from other Microsoft or NBC sites and not a stand alone news site and entity.

Google Acquires Mobile Platform Operator Zingku

Steven Finch — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 10:27:05 +0000

The latest news is the Google has agreed to acquire mobile startup Zingku. There is very little know about the company, but according to Zingku themselves this is what they do:

“Our service is designed from the mobile phone, outward, allowing you to create and exchange things of interest ranging from invitations to â€œmobile flyersâ€ with friends in a trusted manner. On the mobile phone, Zingku uses standard text messaging and picture messaging features that come with every phone. On the web, our service uses your standard web browser and instant messenger. There is nothing to install.â€

This is a bit of a strange one, Techcrunch cant even find out much about the company. Come on Arrington im sure you must have some contacts somewhere that can get you some inside information!