Press Release: WPP announces that it has acquired Design Bridge Limited (“Design Bridge”), a leading independent and highly-awarded brand design agency. Design Bridge combines strategic thinking, intuition and creative excellence to bring brands to life through great ideas that connect with people
Digital performance marketing company XLMedia continued its buying spree today with a swoop on a US comparison website. The Aim-listed firm has added young adult personal finance site Moneyunder30.com to its portfolio for $7m (£5.4m). XLMedia is targeting further US expansion, following its acquisition of Canadian credit card comparison site Greedyrates.
DMGT, which is ultimately controlled by Viscount Rothermere, has appointed boutique advisory firm Cardean Bell to work on a strategic review of the free newspaper, City sources said. Metro, the freesheet that was set up in 1999 and within five years drew a readership of 1m, could change hands for between £25m and £35m
MCI has announced the acquisition of Dallas, Texas-based Wyndham Jade, an event and travel management company specializing in integrated convention housing and registration, site selection, meeting management, incentive programs and business travel management, serving both associations and corporations
Reed Business Information (RBI) has announced today that it has agreed to divest personneltoday.com, personneltodayjobs.com, Occupational Health & Wellbeing, whatmedia.co.uk and the Recruitment Advertising Awards, and their associated products, services and events, to DVV Media International Limited, the UK professional publishing division of Rheinishe Post. Terms were not disclosed.
This decision reflects RBI’s continuing strategic priority of focusing on its data and analytics business.
Relx, the UK-listed information and analytics group, is buying California-based academic publisher Bepress — its third acquisition in the San Francisco Bay area in the past 18 months. Although Relx did not disclose the amount its science and health business Elsevier had paid for the company, which was founded in 1999 by three academics at the University of California, Berkeley, one person briefed on the deal valued the transaction at £100m.
Time Inc. is exploring the sale of three of its titles: Coastal Living, Sunset and Golf.
Time Inc. CEO Rich Battista told Bloomberg the focus is on “the key biggest growth drivers of this company that will move the needle the most. These are wonderful titles and wonderful brands.”
Time Inc. has sold its experiential business INVNT, ending a week of announcements from the publisher of plans to sell off multiple titles to focus on its core assets
A Saudi investor has taken a significant stake in the Independent, potentially pumping millions of pounds into the liberal news website but may spark a controversy about the human rights record of the Middle Eastern country. The deal, which was first report by Middle East Eye, could value the Independent at more than £100m
London: Informa (LSE: INF.L), the International Exhibitions, Events, Business Intelligence and Academic Publishing Group, today announces the majority acquisition of its German/Swiss domestic conference business Euroforum by leading German media group, Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt GmbH. The transaction continues the strategy of portfolio focus within the Knowledge & Networking Division, following on from a number of other portfolio changes over recent years in Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Portugal, South Africa and Brazil. It leaves the Division focused on specialist communities in its core end markets of Global Finance, Life Sciences and TMT.
The parent company of the Guardian and Observer cut its losses by more than a third to £45m in the last financial year and more than quadrupled its number of paying members, as it seeks to break even within two years. Guardian Media Group said total revenues increased by 2.4% to £214.5m in the year to 2 April, thanks to the popularity of its membership scheme, one-off contributions and growth in international operations
City A.M. understands that US private equity firm Blackstone, which owns stakes in businesses such as fashion house Versace and camera brand Leica, is set to buy Clarion Events for around £600m.
Blackstone Press Release: London, July 24, 2017 – Private equity funds managed by Blackstone (“Blackstone”) announce the acquisition of Clarion Events, one of the world’s leading independent events organisers, from private equity funds managed by Providence Equity Partners (“Providence”).
Press Release: Comexposium Group today announces the entry into an agreement to acquire the group MFV which includes major Franchise trade shows and conferences in the United States (International Franchise Expo in New York, Franchise Expo West in Los Angeles, Franchise Expo South in Dallas); Franquicias Feria International, the leading annual event in Mexico and The Franchise Show in London. A portfolio of developmental events in Latin America and Europe also are part of the acquisition.
Press Release: Diversified Communications, organisers of the highly successful natural and organic trade shows in London, Scandinavia, Hong Kong and Australia, and publishers of Natural Products magazine and Natural Products Global, have announced the launch of a major new consumer event, The Go Organic Festival, to take place at London’s iconic Battersea Park, over the weekend of 8-9 September 2018
Richard Desmond has opened the books of his newspaper and magazine business as it progresses towards a sale, City A.M. understands
Press Release: Next 15, the digital communications group, is pleased to announce the acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Velocity Partners Limited (“Velocity”), a B2B digital agency with a focus on technology clients. Velocity was founded by Doug Kessler and Stan Woods in 2000, who will remain in the business following its acquisition. Clients include multi-national technology groups, such as Sprint, Xerox and Informatica. Velocity is based in the UK, however, 70% of its revenues came from US-based clients in financial year ended 30 April 2017
Press Release: Cello Group plc (AIM: CLL; “Cello”, the “Group” or the “Company), the healthcare and strategic marketing group, is pleased to announce the acquisition of the assets of Advantage Healthcare Inc (“Advantage Healthcare”). The proposed initial consideration for the Acquisition is US$1.5 million, which is payable in cash. Further cash consideration will be paid to the vendors on a dollar for dollar basis to the extent that the acquired net current assets of Advantage Healthcare are over US$0.5 million at the date of completion. In addition, deferred consideration of up to US$3.00 million will be payable in a mix of cash and shares, dependent on financial performance over the period from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2021. This deferred consideration will be paid in a minimum of 75% cash, with the balance in new ordinary shares
Press Release: WPP announces that it has agreed to acquire thjnk AG (“thjnk”), a leading independent creative agency group in Germany. Founded in 2012 in Hamburg, with offices in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Munich, Zurich and New York, thjnk is a multi-award winning agency group specialising in advertising, design and corporate publishing. Recently it was named Agency of the Year 2017 by German trade publication Werben & Verkaufen. The agency employs 400 people
Press Release: 17 July 2017: UDG Healthcare plc (“the Group”), a leading international healthcare services provider, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Cambridge BioMarketing LLC, a US-based healthcare communications business, for a total consideration of up to $35m.
Cambridge BioMarketing is an industry leader in orphan and rare disease drug launches, a fast-growing area of drug development and commercialisation. The orphan drug and rare disease market is forecasted to grow by a CAGR of 11% between 2017 and 2022 to $209bn, with orphan drugs estimated to account for 21.4% of prescription sales by 20221. Cambridge BioMarketing also has a strong creative and digital function in a market where digital content is becoming increasingly important for pharmaceutical companies.
