Media
UK - Ingenious appoints Kip Meek to its board
Ingenious, the media investment and advisory group, has appointed Kip Meek as a director to the board, effective from 1 May. Meek was until recently chief policy partner at Ofcom and was chairman of the European Regulators’ Group. He will have a wide-ranging...
SPAIN - RCS makes EUR 1.3bn offer for Recoletos
Publishing group RCS, owner of Italian broadsheet Corriere della Sera, is reported to have made an offer of EUR 1.3bn for media group Recoletos.
FRANCE - Launch of Axonia Partners
Financial advisory boutique Axonia Partners has announced its launch. Axonia Partners is already working on several transactions, split equally between private equity clients and corporate clients.
UK - Octopus Investments backs acquisition of specialist history publishers
Octopus Investments has invested £5.5m in NPI Media Group to facilitate the acquisitions of two of its key competitors. Equity investment was provided as part of a combined deal valuation of £15m, which included funding from GMAC Commercial Finance...
GERMANY - KKR and Permira launch public offer for ProSiebenSat.1
A consortium comprising Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and Permira has made a public cash offer for the remainder of the publicly traded shares of German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG. The financial investors are paying EUR 22.45 for each preferred...
GERMANY - Triangle invests in iPharro
Triangle has invested EUR 4m in iPharro Media GmbH, a spin-off from the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics located in Darmstadt. The funding will enable the company, which has developed software to identify videos much faster than in real time,...
UK - NewMedia SPARK backs MarketClusters with $3m funding round
NewMedia SPARK has led a $3m series-A funding round for MarketClusters Ltd, developer of the 'StrategyWire' intelligence platform which enables corporates to accurately filter expert opinions created in blogs and news feeds.
UK - Founder of Ingenious Media joins NESTA board
Patrick McKenna, founder and chairman of Ingenious Media and a leading figure in the creative industries, will join the 11-strong NESTA board of trustees. The board, led by chairman Chris Powell, exists to help NESTA shape and develop its strategy and...
FRANCE - AXA Private Equity backs European expansion of rich contents producer
AXA Private Equity has announced it has invested in Brainsonic, a Paris-based rich media contents producer.
UK - Ingenious VCTs back Peter Gabriel
Ingenious Media's two music VCTs have made a further joint investment, totalling £2m, to support the North American release of the next solo album of international artist, Peter Gabriel. The investment will be made through the formation of a joint venture...
EUROPE - European Buyout Review shows 2006 record year for private equity
2006 was a record year for European buyouts with the total value of deals topping over EUR 160bn for the first time ever, according to the latest European Buyout Review due to be published in March 2007 by Incisive Media in association with Bridgepoint....
NL - Apax to sell stake in PCM
Apax Partners has reportedly sold its 47.5% stake in Dutch publishing firm PCM Uitgevers to Stichting Democratie en Media (SDM), currently owner of 41.9% of the shares.
UK - Nordic Venture Partners leads £5m funding for Player X
Mobile media company Player X has received a second round of venture funding provided by new investors Nordic Venture Partners and Long Acre Partners. This follows a first round of funding in 2005 from Arts Alliance and Bullion International.
UK - KKR looks at Pearson
Pearson the media group is the subject of buyout speculation. It is reported that KKR is weighing up a £7bn bid for the publisher of the Financial Times which has its core business in educational publishing.
UK - North West Equtiy Fund invests £250,000 in medical communications company
North West Equity Fund has invested £250,000 into Cheshire-based CSF Medical Communications Limited (CSF).
UK - Wellington Partners leads EUR 18m investment in Truphone
Wellington Partners has led an EUR 18m series-A funding round for London-based mobile VoIP start-up Truphone. Also participating in financing Truphone are existing investors Eden Ventures and a number of business angels, as well as Independent News and...
GERMANY - New principal at Waterland Private Equity
Waterland Private Equity Investments has appointed Jörg Dreisow as principal of its German branch. He had previously been investment director and will now co-lead a team of six.
UK - Charterhouse-backed Saga makes radio disposal
Charterhouse portfolio company Saga, the specialist service provider to the 50 plus age-group, has disposed of its radio assets. The three radio stations based in the Midlands and Scotland, plus another yet to be launched station, have been acquired by...
NL - 3i to acquire Business Media Europe from VNU
3i has announced that it has reached an agreement in principle to acquire substantially all of VNU Business Media Europe (BME), a Dutch careers classified and B2B magazines group, from VNU.
FRANCE - Canadian Telecom Media Fund invests EUR 8m in CheckPhone
Telecom Media Fund, a joint fund of Trio Capital and la Caisse de dépôts et placement du Quebec, has invested EUR 8m ($10.2m) in France-based VoIP security software developer CheckPhone.
UK - 3i sells Precise Media to Phoenix Equity Partners for £42m
3i has sold UK media monitoring agency Precise Media to Phoenix Equity Partners for £42m. The sale generated an IRR of 101% and a multiple of 3.2x for 3i, which backed the BIMBO of the company (then known as KBBI) in April 2005. During the holding period,...
GERMANY – KKR and Permira win auction for ProSiebenSat1
A consortium comprising Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and Permira Advisers has acquired a 50.5% stake in German broadcaster ProSiebenSat1. The value of the transaction is believed to be over EUR 3bn. Following the acquisition, media analysts expect the...
UK - Electra Quoted Management backs new extreme sports publisher
Electra Quoted Management has provided newco Factory Media with an initial investment of £3.85m to enable it to acquire three leading specialist extreme sports publishers in the 16-24 youth market; Action Sports Media, Permanent Publishing and 4130 Publishing....
FRANCE - Eurazeo sells Eutelsat shares to CDC and confirms interest in Conforama
A few days after Abertis’ acquisition of Eutelsat’s new largest shareholding, Eurazeo announced it had sold its entire 25.5% shareholding to state-backed Caisse des Dépots et Consignations (CDC) for EUR 862.7m.