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Yahoo Sells Off European Comparison Shopping Site Kelkoo To PE Firm
Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), which has been trying to sell off its European comparison shopping service Kelkoo for a while now, has finally found a buyer, according to a report: it has been sold to a little-known UK-based private equity firm called Jamplant, for something less than euro 100 million ($126 million). Yahoo bought the service in 2004 for a price then of about 475 million euros (now $598 million). Also, the founder and ex-CEO of Kelkoo Pierre Chappaz wrote about the deal (in French) on his blog but again, Yahoo hasn't said anything yet officially.
Robert adds: Yahoo UK confirmed the sell off to us but it's not disclosing terms. First sign of the sell-off came when Yahoo re-tooled Kelkoo's Grenoble, France, HQ in September as a Yahoo R&D centre. Chappaz refused to name the price but said it was "below 100 million euros" - that means Yahoo makes a loss of at least 375 million ($472 million) euros (not including any profits in made in that time, of course). Chappaz said: "The difference is the price of management incompetence that led Yahoo's (stock price to fall) below $9."
Never heard of Jamplant? You're not alone. Chappaz said it's a new investment unit created by the founders of that other price comparison site USwitch, which sold to E.W. Scripps (NYSE: SSP) for £210 million in 2006. It seems the operators have not given up their hope of running a bargain-hunting engine, as the consumer economy begins to impact spending. From Yahoo UK MD Glen Drury's email to staff: "Philip Smyth, chairman of Jamplant, believes that, with our backing, Kelkoo should be able to accelerate its growth much faster as a standalone company.
Kelkoo has 270 staff in Grenoble and in London. Its latest business involved powering a white-label price comparison site for ITV (LSE: ITV) and similar deals with The Independent. Chappaz: "During the past year, several funds approached me to restart Kelkoo with them. I told them no. Despite my commitment to Kelkoo, I would prefer to devote myself to Wikio. The sell-off of Kelkoo by Yahoo ... after the failed agreement with Google (NSDQ: GOOG) ... illustrates the failure of this company to grow in the world of transaction services."
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Vivendi CEO: No Decision Yet On Whether To Sell Stake In NBCU; GE's Immelt: 'Would Buy In Heartbeat'
Vivendi (EPA: VIV) SA has yet to decide whether it will keep its 20 percent stake in NBC Universal or exercise its annual option to sell, CEO Jean-Bernard Levy told analysts at a Morgan Stanley conference in Barcelona today. According to Bloomberg, Levy said: "Right now, considering the general expectations for the value of the assets, the dividend flow we get from NBCU is very good. ... We will have to make a decision to optimize the proceeds that we get from NBC Universal (NYSE: GE). We will probably find a better allocation of assets at the right time, in the right environment.'' This may not be the time given NBCU's decent performance in a rough environment but he left the window wide open: "We will have to make the decision in the next two to three weeks, so you will hear about it shortly.'' The deadline is in early December.
Vivendi has an annual option through 2016 to call for an IPO to sell the stake; GE has the right to pre-empt that by buying it. Immelt told Bloomberg earlier this week that GE would do just that: "They have been a terrific partner. I'm not anxious to do it because they have been a good partner, but I would do it in a heartbeat.''
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News Corp Pulls Back On London Media Campus; Blames Economy
After spending hundreds of hours deliberating and thousands of pounds on consultants' fees in the search for a new London home only to decide to stay put in its Wapping HQ, News International has now declared it cannot afford to upgrade the east London site. The plan had been to improve the sprawling complex next summer and eventually move in News Corp (NYSE: NWS) family members like Dow Jones, MySpace and Harper Collins. But those plans have been shelved because of the adverse economic conditions, according to an internal memo by James Murdoch, CEO of News Corp Europe and Asia, seen by Reuters and MediaGuardian. This could be seen as a blow to News Corp.'s plans to further integrate its media brands and create synergies where possible—with every executive in one building it's not far to go for that breakfast meeting about that content-sharing deal. More details at our sister site PC:UK.
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MP3 'Inventor' Brandenburg Invests In DJTunes Dance Music Site
Karlheinz Brandenburg, credited with at least jointly "inventing" MP3, has joined with a German development bank to invest in DJTunes, a European music download site offering house, techno, trance and electro tracks in that very file format.
DJTunes targets DJs, club-goers and labels and claims over 300,000 tracks, all in the DRM-free format that is beloved of DJs for its lack of copyright locks - if not exactly for its high fidelity. The site lets users upload and sell their tracks and mixes, and will use the funds in part to branch out by launching a hip-hop site next year. The investment is made along with Beteiligungsmanagement Thüringen (BM|T) though the size is undisclosed; DJTunes also got seed funds in 2006. Release. More at paidContent:UK…
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
Social Net Multiply.com Gets $5 Million From Philippines Media Firm ABS-CBN
Social network Multiply.com has received $5 million in funding from ABS-CBN, one of the Philippines' largest media companies. ABS-CBN has acquired a five percent stake (or 2.5 million shares) in Multiply as a result, Business Mirror reports, with the option to invest $4 million more for a total of a 10 percent stake in the next three years. Launched in 2004, Multiply has raised $27.6 million in funding from investors including VantagePoint Venture Partners, Point Judith Capital and Japanese venture and marketing firm Transcosmos.
While Friendster is the big social media kahuna in the Philippines, it may have serious competition in 2009, as Multiply plans to use the new capital to increase its global user base, develop mobile applications, and grow its ad products. But Multiply has a steep growth curve ahead if it wants to catch Friendster, which closed a $20 million round in August, and boasts over 24 million active Filipino users. Multiply currently has just about three million.
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Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
UK's Independent Axing Quarter Of Editorial, Says Online Requires Fewer Editors
From our sister site PCUK: Independent News & Media (INM) plans to make about 60 redundancies from its 250 Independent editorial staff by the New Year, in a US-style slash-and-burn that this country has rarely seen outside regionals and magazines. In all, 90 of 424 total staff will go in a bid to save $15 million (£10 million), FT.com says. INM sales fell 14.1 percent in the UK between January and June - with the ad recession biting harder now, it's the staff who are in the firing line...UK MD Simon Kelner: "We have got 1986 working practices and 2008 technology. Reporter's copy can come under five sets of eyes. That is just not necessary with the technology we have now. You can get rid of at least one of those levels of process." More on PCUK.
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
European Mobile Network Blyk Raises Big $50.4 Million Round
Ad-funded, youth-oriented mobile virtual network operator Blyk has raised a massive $50.4 million in its third round from existing investors - Europe's second biggest media/tech investment this year, according to LibraryHouse. The funding is a real boost for the company, both in terms of money as well as belief in its business model, which some advertisers weren't always convinced of. It also has a new partnership with operators in place, though the brief statement did not go into detail as to what this new strategy entails. Full details on our sister site paidContentUK…
Check out the best business jobs in digital media. Go here for paidContent.org Job Board.
FT.com Relaunching This Week: Pink Front Page, New Name Target 'Obsessive' Users
FT.com will tomorrow roll out the latest installment of its long-term web redesign with a pink front page and a region-specific homepage for its growing Middle East audience. Those are some of the immediate changes but, as a redesign, it's more like a war of attrition: more changes are on the way but the whole process won't be over for some months. In an interview with paidContent:UK, FT.com editor James Montgomery spoke of his long-term goals and why there's no money to be made in attracting casual users.
-- Redesign brand ID: Only the site's homepages are getting the pink treatment for now, but the rest of the site will follow. And it's not just aesthetic, it's all about the brand: the fonts, design stylebook and color palette are all borrowed straight from the newspaper. "We think the Financial Times is a very strong brand and we want the website to have that core brand identity, not be some separate distant thing that it has been in the past," says Montgomery.
-- From 'FT.com' to 'Financial Times': There is also a conscious move away from calling the site "FT.com": now the front page will be clearly labeled 'Financial Times'. That's designed to tell traditional readers – the FT is one of the few newspapers in the UK with a level of growing print circulation – that the website has the same content they like and more. Though Montgomery is keen to stress that FT.com is "a very handy URL, and we won't be giving that up". Much more on paidContent:UK…
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Lifetime Buys S. Korean Dress-Up Site Roiworld; Expands Gaming With Lifetime Games Studio Korea
You're reading it here first ... Lifetime Networks is expanding its casual gaming with the acquisition of South Korean dress-up site Roiworld for an undisclosed amount and the simultaneous launch of Lifetime Games Studio Korea. Lifetime, a 50-50 joint venture of Hearst and The Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS) Company, plans to launch a U.S. version of Roiworld.com in early 2009. The site mixes "casual" virtual worlds, user-generated content and social networking with fashion. Lifetime says the Korean version had 2.8 million uniques and 117 million page views in September, with visitors averaging 50 minutes a month.
At the same time, Lifetime is investing further in casual gaming by launching Lifetime Games Studio Korea with headquarters in Seoul and a San Francisco office focused on biz dev, technology and sales. Roiworld founder Kiseo Kim, will head the new studio as CEO, extending Roiworld and developing new games. Kris Soumas, head of Lifetime Games, adds the new venture to her portfolio. Plans call for integrated ad packages and micro-transaction technology, in addition to more social networking.
It's the company's second digital acquisition. The first was ParentsClick in August for a price we reported at about $10 million. But gaming already plays a significant role for Lifetime, with Lifetime Games as the leading content section for myLifetime.com. Lifetime partners with RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) on casual online and downloadable games from Real Arcade, promoting titles and sharing revenue. Lifetime Games also has published its own games with partners. Downloadable game sales were up 100 percent for 2007 over 2006 and the company says growth is still strong in 2008.
A promo of the upcoming site should go live this morning. Tag line: Dress Up Games Are About To Grow Up. Lifetime promises 1,000-plus "fashion and style" games. It's all about digital escapism, giving women an excuse to play with virtual "paper dolls" and share the results. The same kind of games could be used to promote Lifetime shows—giving the Army Wives makeovers, for instance—but Soumas says that's not the initial intent.
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EMI Music To Reorg; Divided Into Three Global Units; EMI.com's Limited Scope
You wouldn't wish your enemies the job of trying to restructure and revive EMI at this point, but at least they are trying: Elio Leoni-Sceti, the new CEO of the troubled music label, will announce a restructuring of the company today in London, as part of the company's first half 2008 earnings announcement, reports FT. The company will be split into three global business units: new music, catalog and music services, with additional resources being put into marketing functions. For the six months ending September 30th, the company made $92 million in EBITDA, compared with a loss of $22 million last year.
Leoni-Sceti, who is embarking on a three-week global tour to explain this reorg, said: "EMI is absolutely not bankrupt, far from it. EMI has never been in such a financially sound situation".
Late last month we reported that EMI had even missed its digital music targets, something of a rarity even among music labels. We also noted earlier that the company is a planning to launch a music portal at EMI.com: now the CEO says the site will be limited in scope, as we suspected, but provide "learning value for the consumer," he said. Highly unlikely that it would have any other label licensing music for the portal, unless, say, it ties up with a third-party online provider.
Photo Credit: EMI
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NBA Launches International Video Subscription Via Broadband
The latest NBA expansion covers two growth areas for the league: international and broadband. NBA League Pass Broadband International is now available in 19 countries. The subscription includes access to 40-plus live games a week with play-by-play in English and VOD for 24 hours after they air. Some live games will be blacked out. Pay options include full season ($85 through Nov. 11; $100 after), monthly and daily. The international version follows a new U.S. option with NBA League Pass Broadband; before this season, broadband packages were available only as an extension part of the cable or satellite out-of-market package. Speaking of promos, EA NBA Live is sponsoring a free preview of the U.S. broadband service through Nov. 11.
The international package is available in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
Newspaper Roundup: Gannett; Canwest; A Good Day For Print
-- Gannett's Dubow slashes own salary: Adopting a policy of "spreading the pain," Gannett (NYSE: GCI) Chairman Craig Dubow has taken a voluntary $200,000 pay cut through 2009. The 17 percent reduction in Dubow's $1.2 million base salary will still leave the Gannett chair with a bonus, deferred compensation and stock awards and options, amounting to a total compensation of about $7.5 million. The move comes a week after Gannett said it would shed 3,000 jobs across its local papers.
-- Canwest scales back print delivery: Canada's National Post will cease home delivery in Manitoba—the home of parent Canwest—and will only offer Saturday papers through Manitoba stores and in nearby Saskatchewan. Instead, the Post will sell discounted digital subscriptions and will share content with the Winnipeg Free Press.
-- A good day for print: It looks like saving a screenshot just can't compare with an actual page one. The successful conclusion of Barack Obama's history-making presidential bid had NYC dailies all sold out by early morning. Still, it looks like news sites fared pretty well too, as NYT claimed it scored a "record-high 2.7 million" for mobile page views on Tuesday. For those who still avoided print the morning after election day, Romenesko has excerpts from newspaper front pages here.
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Almost-Dead Search Engine Accoona Bought By Denmark's Masterseek
Search/e-commerce firm Accoona, which withdrew its IPO late last year, has now been bought by B2B search engine Masterseek, which was founded in Denmark in 1999. Although the site once generated buzz as a search startup, most of its revenue came from e-commerce, a business running deeply in the red. The company does say it is has achieved some success in China, where Accoona has supplied the search function to both Sina.com and Sohu and has an exclusive partnership with China Daily News. After the integration, Accoona will initially be re-launched in the USA and China, and in Jan will also be launched throughout Europe. More details in release.
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China Introduces Tax On Virtual Goods: Will Other Countries Follow Suit?
In China, sellers of anything virtual--from the gold that is traded in MMO (massively multiplayer online) games to couture designs in virtual worlds--will now face a 20-percent tax on any real-world revenue from those sales. The FT reports that China's State Administration of Taxation has said that the virtual-goods market—a $1.45 billion (10 billion yuan) industry by some accounts—is subject to the same tax rates levied on real estate and other markets.
—Backtracking on a previous ruling : This is not the first time that China has tried to regulate the blurry line between virtual and real-world economies. Last year, the government cracked down on virtual currencies, forbidding the use of virtual money for the purchase of real items, and prohibiting virtual sellers from flipping for a real-world profit. This new law contradicts that ruling, which Techdirt notes was largely ignored anyway.
— But how would they make it work : We've seen that virtual economies can be affected by real-world financial turmoil, but this new proposal raises the question of whether authorities can use real methods to accurately track and tax virtual sales on a massive scale. The logistics behind regulating at least 10 different kinds of virtual currency are likely very complex, but if China is successful, other countries with burgeoning virtual economies (like ours) may follow suit.
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
New Deal Gives Chinese Fans Warner Bros. Films On VOD
Let's beat the bootleggers at their own game. That seems to be the sentiment at Warner Bros., as the studio has announced plans to make its movies available by VOD in China—becoming the first major Hollywood studio to do so. Warner Bros. has partnered with Beijing-based Union Voole Technology, a broadband technology and content distribution company, for the deal. Chinese users will be able to download DRM-protected movies like I Am Legend, Fool's Gold and Speed Racer through Voole.com for between 4-7 Yuan ($0.58-$1.02) with both classic and upcoming films and TV series to follow. The downloads include both Chinese-dubbed and subtitled versions of each film, extras Warner says should help woo movie fans away from their pirated versions.
Union Voole announced that it was building out a legal, studio-friendly online movie distribution service in late September, per ScreenDaily.com, touting exclusive, revenue-sharing deals with both Warner Bros. and Sony. The service lets users download video on both a one-off and monthly subscription basis. Tony Vaughan, managing director of CAV Warner (Warner Bros' Home Entertainment joint venture in China), made it clear that the deal was almost inevitable—fueled by a growing demand for high quality, full-length feature films over the Web in China: "Over 80 percent of the total China internet population has viewed online video content in the last six months alone, and now we can offer them a wider selection of top quality entertainment the way they want to watch it." Release.
Social Media Deals Report: This 199-page report, filled with charts and data, examines the categories, number and size of VC and M&A deal in social media from 2007 through 2008. Visit the ContentNext Reports page
Social Apps Distributor RockYou Adds $17 Million For $52M Third Round
Widget and social app firm RockYou is adding $17 million to its already hefty third round. Back in June, the San Mateo, Calif.-company started the round with $35 million led by DCM, with participation from several undisclosed backers. This latest capital infusion comes from Softbank and SK Telecom Ventures, the venture-capital arm of SK Telecom (NYSE: SKM), giving the company $52 million for the round and a total of $67 million for all three rounds.
The proceeds will go towards supporting a number of RockYou's ambitions. That includes extending its presence in the Asia-Pacific market, such as building its widgets and apps into China's largest social network, Xiaonei; working with SoftBank on a joint-venture company to develop products and services for use on PCs and mobile devices in Japan, Korea, Russia; and opening new offices in New York, Los Angeles and Detroit. RockYou is also considering acquisitions. Release
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