Recently in Mergers and Acquistions Category
Virgin Mobile USA announced that it has completed its acquisition of Helio,
a joint venture between SK Telecom and EarthLink,) The company believes that the acquisition complements Virgin
Mobile USA's strengths.
Dan Schulman, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Mobile
- a set of unique and differentiated data applications;
- entry into the postpaid market, with a sophisticated billing and customer
care platform;
- approximately 170,000 Helio customers;
- revised terms for the Sprint
- reduction in net debt of approximately $35 - $40 million, through the
investments of $25 million each by SK Telecom and Virgin Group in the form of
preferred mandatory convertible stock at the price of $8.50 per share;
- an increase to Virgin
- the addition of SK Telecom as a strategic shareholder with two seats on
the Company's Board of Directors.
Nuance Communications, Inc.announced a definitive agreement to
acquire privately-held SNAPin, a provider of mobile device and server
self-service technology. With the strengths and resources of Nuance and SNAPin,
the combined organization can deliver innovative, highly scalable mobile
customer care solutions that transform the way mobile operators and enterprises
interact with consumers in real-time on mobile devices.
Synchronica , mobile synchronization solutions, today announced that it is
acquiring consumer mobile email specialist AxisMobile
The AxisMobile acquisition aims to make Synchronica the leading player in
mass market mobile email and synchronization middleware for mobile operators
and service providers. It will enable Synchronica to provide mass-market mobile
email solutions that work on more than three billion mobile phones in the
market today.
AxisMobile’s consumer mobile email platform complements Synchronica’s
award-winning Mobile Gateway software by adding ‘email to SMS’ and ‘email to
Connect 2 Media, the recently created cross-platform games publisher has
announced an investment from Hands-On Mobile, Inc ("Hands-On".) In
return for a minority stake in the enlarged entity, Hands-On is injecting the
bulk of its EMEA assets into Connect 2 Media, which is backed by leading
London-based venture capital firm Acuity Capital LLP ("Acuity").
Hands-On and Connect 2 Media will maintain a reciprocal global publishing
partnership ensuring both companies strengthen their global distribution
capabilities. Connect 2 Media intends to build upon the success of Hands-On's
web-to-wireless gaming efforts and extensive expertise in publishing,
developing and distributing mobile games to consolidate its vision of offering
games across multiple platforms incorporating mobile, web and interactive TV.
Sony Corporation and Bertelsmann AG today announced that
Sony has agreed to acquire Bertelsmann's 50% stake in Sony
As part of the transaction, the parties have also agreed to continue to share
the company's manufacturing and distribution requirements between Sony's
manufacturing subsidiary, Sony DADC, and Bertelsmann's services company, Arvato
Digital Services GmbH ("Arvato"), by extending the agreements with
Arvato for additional terms of up to six years. In addition, Bertelsmann will
be taking over selected European music catalog assets from Sony
Forrester Research announced the acquisition of JupiterResearch, LLC., and its parent company, JUPR Holdings, Inc., from MCG Capital Corporation for $23
JupiterResearch has 83 employees and 2007 revenues of approximately $14 million. Forrester, with 2007 revenues of $212 million, now has more than 1,000 employees. JupiterResearch joins Forrester's Marketing & Strategy Client Group, which contributed $46.4 million to Forrester's total revenue in 2007.
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New Motion, Inc., doing business as Atrinsic an Internet media and mobile entertainment company, today announced that it has acquired the assets of Ringtone.com, a popular mobile entertainment destination for downloadable mobile content and a highly valuable Internet domain which receives more than 1,000 signups per day.
SilverBirch Inc. a leading digital
media company, today announced an agreement in principle to acquire all of the
outstanding shares of Red Mile Entertainment, Inc., a
California-based video game publisher with worldwide rights to established
brands and intellectual properties including the "Heroes" flight combat
franchise.
Red Mile, an NASD OTC Bulletin Board listed company, has developed and published a number of successful console and PC titles including Heroes Of The Pacific, which sold over 600,000 units. Current projects in development include a sequel, Heroes Over Europe, which is anticipated to be released in early 2009, and another highly anticipated licensed title, for which the company will seek a co-publishing partner.
Red Mile is expected to contribute over $7 million in revenue and roughly $2 million in EBITDA starting in 2009. SilverBirch has advanced a bridge loan of $750,000 CAD dollars to Red Mile as part of the acquisition terms, and will also issue seven-eighths of one SilverBirch share from treasury in exchange for each Red Mile share, plus an earn-out based on future revenue targets. Currently 16,544,461 Red Mile shares and warrants qualify for the transaction, which equates to 14,476,403 new Silverbirch shares. The transaction is subject to regulatory and exchange approvals both in Canada and the United States as well as, in the case of Red Mile, shareholder approval.
NAVTEQ, provider of digital map data for location-based solutions and vehicle navigation, announced today that Nokia has received unconditional approval from the European Commission for its planned acquisition of NAVTEQ. With this, Nokia now has received all approvals for the purchase. The parties expect to close the deal within the next five business days.
"We welcome this news. NAVTEQ will play a key role in our Internet services strategy with world-leading maps and navigation industry expertise, a strong customer base and industry-leading map data and technology platform offering the broadest geographical coverage," said Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, President and CEO, Nokia.
"We are pleased that the Commission has reached the same conclusion we have regarding NAVTEQ's ability to continue providing broad access to all our customers," said Judson Green, President and CEO, NAVTEQ. "We believe NAVTEQ will be better positioned to serve all our customers under Nokia ownership."
Microsof announced it intends to acquire MobiComp, supplier of backup and restoration of mobile data and mobile posting of social content to websites such as Facebook. The acquisition would combine MobiComp’s expertise building imobile data protection and sharing services with Microsoft’s platforms across mobile phones, the web and PCs. Terms of the planned acquisition are not being disclosed.
The Portugal-based company is known for a variety of breakthrough mobile services including MobileKeeper Backup & Restore, MobileKeeper Sharing & Communities, and Active mTicker. These services help mobile operators and people round the world back up personal content stored on a phone, publish updates to online communities, and get entertainment and news content delivered to phones.
MobiComp will contribute to a rapidly expanding list of offerings from Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business while continuing to serve its existing partners and customers, which include 11 mobile operators worldwide.
Verizon Wireless has entered into an agreement with Alltel
Corporation and Atlantis Holdings LLC, to acquire Alltel
Corporation in a cash merger. Verizon Wireless will acquire the equity of Alltel for approximately $5.9 billion. Based on Alltel's projected net debt at closing of $22.2 billion, the aggregate value of the transaction is $28.1 billion. The deal will make Verizon Wireless the #1 wireless operator in the U.S. with nearly 80 million subscribers.
The merger should be completed by the end of the year, subject to regulatory approval.
Alltel and Verizon Wireless both use the same network technology - CDMA using the Qualcomm's BREW platform for content delivery. Alltel also has recently said it plans to migrate to the LTE technology for its 4G path, the same technology Verizon plans to deploy.
Mobile content provider of infrastructure
and services, Motricity, announced that it has sold its smartphone and direct-to-consumer
businesses to an entity owned by Motricity co-founder, former board member and
executive 27 year-old Jud Bowman. The new company will operate going forward as PocketGear, Inc.The sale includes Motricity's direct-to-consumer businesses PocketGear.com, SymbianGear.com, PalmGear.com, Smartphone.net, Mobile2Day.de, and smartphone application storefronts powered for partners including Palm, Sony Ericsson and AOL.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
In conjunction with the closing of the transaction, Bowman has resigned his position on the Motricity board of directors. The company announced layoffs earlier this year.
comScore, Inc. a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the acquisition of M:Metrics, Inc., the recognized leader in mobile measurement. The acquisition makes comScore the immediate leader in measuring the emerging and strategically important mobile Internet market and adds to comScore’s leading position in measuring PC-based Internet usage.
The transaction involves a cash payment of $44.3 million and the issuance of approximately 50,000 options to purchase shares of comScore common stock to certain M:Metrics unvested option holders.
Clearwire Corporation (and Sprint Nextel Corporation y announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement to combine their next-generation wireless broadband businesses to form a new wireless communications company.
The new company, which will be named Clearwire, will be focused on expediting the deployment of the first nationwide mobile WiMAX network to provide a true mobile broadband experience for consumers, small businesses, medium and large enterprises, public safety organizations and educational institutions.
Sprint and Clearwire also announced today that five innovative technology, content and communications leaders - Intel Corporation ) through Intel Capital, Google Inc.), Comcast Corporation: Time Warner Cable Inc. and Bright House Networks - have collectively agreed to invest $3.2 billion into the new company.
Upon completion of the proposed transaction, Sprint will own the largest stake in the new company with approximately 51 percent equity ownership. .
