Seth Gilbert, 02-25-2008
In less than two years, San Francisco private equity firm Hellman Friedman turned a $1.1b investment in advertising network DoubleClick into a $3.1b windfall. Now they will set out to try and wring a similar result out of the struggling financials but solid intellectual property of stock photo and content licensor Getty Images.
The $2.1b buyout deal ($2.4b with the assumption of debt) was announced Monday. It effectively closes a month long auction process in which Getty, beaten and battered in the markets, was seeking bailout assistance from a deep pocketed suitor.
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Seth Gilbert, 02-24-2008
About a week ago, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello acknowledged many of EA’s past merger efforts proved disappointments. The post merger integration process, and EA’s style at the time, simply didn’t accommodate the needs of incoming creative talent. Effectively, the company ended up buying existing game titles but doing a poor job of leveraging the human capital behind them to build for the future. Now, about 7 months after restructuring the company and creating an organizational hierarchy designed to better balance creative development and fiscal accountability, EA is setting out to prove they can acquire assets without stiffling (and losing) their creative game development talent.
The first test of the new approach began several months ago with the acquisition of Bioware and Pandemic. The second test began to take shape today.
In a press release, EA made public a proposal to buy struggling game developer Take Two Interactive for approximately $2b in cash. Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert, 02-21-2008
Bracing for the possibility of further economic downturn and to reduce exposure to related volatility in the ad markets, Anglo Dutch media powerhouse Reed Elsevier announced a surprise plan to sell off their publishing arm, Reed Business Information (RBI), Thursday. The group is home to a number of high profile online/offline specialty news outlets including the entertainment industry staple Variety and the publishing trade magazine Publisher’s Weekly.
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Seth Gilbert, 02-15-2008
The devil is in the details, they say. That’s especially true with business rumors. More often than not they start with a kernel of truth and then distort around the facts. Last week, the rumor was Internet video site Revver was gasping for last breaths and on the verge of sale for a fraction of the $12.7m so far invested. Speculation was that it might be had for as little as $500k plus the assumption of debt. Now, correcting prior reports, Newteevee is reporting the web video company did in fact sell but for a far less desperate price than originally speculated.
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Seth Gilbert, 02-14-2008
It’s about the price… News Corp is in… News Corp won’t play… Microsoft will destroy Yahoo…Yahoo isn’t worth more than what’s offered.
There’s been so much commentary on the proposed mega merger, it borders on overwhelming. Anyone with an inkling of insight on tech and an opinion is weighing in while we all wait for the next dose of fact to supplant innuendo. While I wait, one wonder keeps hitting me: is Microsoft’s collective head in the cloud?
That phrasing may sound odd but it’s not a typo. It is meant to be just one cloud – as in the so named concept of Cloud Computing.
As much as web traffic and advertising dominance make an approachable, and rational, near term justification for this deal. There’s also a longer term vision; something more in Microsoft’s strategic vision. Cloud computing, as esoteric as it sometimes seems, could be part of it. Research, sound bytes from the executives themselves and a deeper look into just what this vague concept of computing actually means seems to make for a logical argument:
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Seth Gilbert, 02-13-2008
One of the rumors floating around the potential merger of Microsoft and Yahoo is that News Corp. is in discussions to get involved. The idea, which started floating on blogs like Tech Crunch and Silicon Alley Insider late last night and since escalated to Wall Street Journal reporting, speculates that News Corp is considering rolling MySpace (and possible more of Fox Interactive Media’s assets) into Yahoo. In exchange, and along with cash paid to Yahoo, News Corp and possible private equity partners would take a substantial stake, as much as 30% of the combined property.
Anything is possible in the Wild West like fog of the Micro-Hoo scenario. News Corps opportunistic investigation certainly makes sense. Where I’m having a difficult time is forming an opinion as to whether such conversations have any shot at being fruitful. It’s not that Rupert Murdoch has explicitly said no to buying Yahoo (“We are definitely not going to make a bid for Yahoo”). Click to Read More
Seth Gilbert, 02-11-2008
The attempted acquisition of Yahoo is the big story but in smaller news Microsoft has fortified their mobile software efforts by acquiring Palo Alto based Danger Inc.
Danger is best known for developing T-Mobile’s Sidekick along with software and services that enhance multimedia and web functionality and cell phones. The company was founded by Andy Rubin who is now heading Google’s competitive Android mobile platform project.
Microsoft’s Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices division, said in a statement that “the addition of Danger serves as a perfect complement to our existing software and services and also strengthens our dedication to improving mobile experiences centered around individuals and what they like.”
As recently as December, Danger was in the process of preparing to go public. Click to Read More
