Tag: Acquisition

Singapore – Nium, the global platform for modern money movement, has acquired Socash, a Singapore-based alternative payments network platform in a definitive agreement. The acquisition provides Nium with the team and technology to enable multiple forms of local payment acceptance for digital commerce, especially in emerging markets. Cash is still a preferred method of payment across the Asia Pacific and Latin American markets, and the acquisition of Socash allows Nium to accept cash for transactions online – bridging the physical and digital worlds. 

Socash brings together financial institutions and digital commerce merchants into a thriving network that allows consumers to deposit, withdraw, and make payments with cash from more than 30,000 local shops, cafes, and grocery stores.

Together, Nium and Socash become the full-stack, platform-of-choice for global merchants with capabilities for local acceptance, multicurrency accounts, foreign exchange, and global payouts.The acquisition is expected to close in third quarter of 2022, subject to customary regulatory closing conditions.

Pratik Gandhi, co-founder and COO of Nium, said that the Socash team has built an impressive platform that bridges payments in the digital space with payouts in the physical world.

“When compared to current in-app payment costs, we estimate Socash saves up to 30 percent in commissions paid. With this acquisition, Nium can offer a lower-cost payment processing alternative for digital merchants, spanning local payment acceptance through to global payouts,” Gandhi said.

San Francisco, USA – Social media giant Twitter has announced that they will be acquired by multi-billionaire CEO of Tesla Elon Musk for US$44b, based on US$54.20 per share in cash. Upon completion of the transaction, Twitter will become a privately held company.

This follows after Elon Musk announced that he had previously bought a 9.2% stake in the company and invited to be part of the company’s board. However, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal clarified back then that Musk won’t be joining the board.

Speaking about his acquisition of Twitter, Musk said, “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.”

He added, “I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it.”

Meanwhile, Agrawal commented, “Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world. Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important.”

The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by the Twitter Board of Directors, is expected to close in 2022, subject to the approval of Twitter stockholders, the receipt of applicable regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.

Bret Taylor, Twitter’s Independent Board Chair, said, “The Twitter Board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive process to assess Elon’s proposal with a deliberate focus on value, certainty, and financing. The proposed transaction will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter’s stockholders.”

Bengaluru, India – Digital commerce giant The Flipkart Group has announced the acquisition of ANS Commerce, a full-stack e-commerce enabler that helps brands sell online. Through this acquisition, Flipkart continues its efforts to strengthen the Indian e-commerce ecosystem by investing in the capabilities of technology enablers that will address the needs of the rapidly growing and evolving digital retail market in India. 

Following the acquisition, ANS Commerce will continue to function as a stand-alone company, led by its current management team.

As of 2017, ANS Commerce has established a full stack of offerings for brands across the value chain, including brand store technology and performance marketing tech and services, marketplace connectors, and storage and facilities maintenance capabilities. Working with companies, mid-market, and D2C brands, supports their move to digital commerce for more than 100 clients.

On their Kartify platform, the company’s product solutions assist brands and enterprises in creating digital brandstores/storefronts, improving return on ad spends, and managing end-to-end logistics and warehousing processes. The D2C segment, which is quickly developing in the Indian market as businesses strive to interact with consumers who demand direct connection, is a significant emphasis for the organization.

Ravi Iyer, SVP and head – corporate development at Flipkart, said that at Flipkart, they are committed to developing and nurturing the internet consumer ecosystem, including developing and encouraging technological innovation that helps drive the Indian digital economy. 

“Our efforts focus on ensuring that businesses, including MSMEs and smaller brands, can leverage the opportunities that e-commerce offers, to provide greater value and deeper experiences for Indian customers who are rapidly adopting digital commerce,” Iyer said.

Iyer added, “Our association with ANS Commerce started last year when they were part of Flipkart’s tech startup accelerator program, Flipkart Leap, and we are pleased to welcome the team to the Flipkart Group.”

Meanwhile, Vibhor, Amit, Nakul and Sushant, co-founders of ANS Commerce, shared, “ANS Commerce was created to enable businesses to leverage the massive opportunity of e-commerce in India. Over the past few years, we’ve seen a dramatic change in consumer behaviour, and as a result, brands have also pivoted in their approach on how to engage with consumers.”

The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2022, subject to customary closing conditions. 

Hong Kong — The game software and venture capital company, Animoca Brands has acquired Darewise Entertainment, a game developer founded by veterans of the AAA games industry that is currently developing a high-quality blockchain MMO game ‘Life Beyond’. Through the buyout, Animoca Brands will be assisting Darewise Entertainment to fast-track development and publishing in the Web3 space.

Darewise Entertainment is a European game studio made up of accomplished game developers with deep experience in various highly successful AAA games, namely Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Tom Clancy’s The Division, and Fable series, amongst others. The co-founders of Darewise, ex-Ubisoft game director Benjamin Charbit and ex-Ubisoft and ex-Crytek tech lead Samuel Kahn, will continue to operate the company after the acquisition.

The collaboration will facilitate planned growth, accelerate game development, and combine expert AAA video game development with blockchain integration, NFTs, and play-and-earn capabilities.

Darewise Entertainment’s first game, Life Beyond, is currently in development. It is a fast-paced and ever-evolving modern persistent massively multiplayer online game Powered by Web3 and blockchain technologies, ‘Life Beyond’ seeks to pioneer the emerging genre of the play-and-earn MMO. Its guiding principles are the true ownership of digital assets, a player-driven social in-game economy, and decentralised governance.

Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, commented, “Bringing on board Darewise Entertainment is incredibly exciting. Its game Life Beyond is an MMORPG of great beauty and scale that will be a strong addition to the open metaverse. Benjamin and Samuel have built a world-class team that is creating a play-and-earn game universe that is intricate, sophisticated, and deeply engaging.”

Meanwhile, Charbit said that they are incredibly proud to join Animoca Brands and add their AAA games experience to the company that has been so instrumental in the development of Web3 gaming.

“Over time it became obvious that we’re a Web3 company at our core and that blockchain offers the means to achieve our vision. It took visionary entrepreneurs like Yat to leap ahead and build such an impressive ecosystem, paving the way for everyone else. As we watched Animoca Brands set out the blueprint of the open metaverse with projects like The Sandbox, REVV, and Phantom Galaxies, we knew that we would benefit enormously from its Web3 expertise and network. We are thrilled to be a part of this endeavour,” Charbit said.

Hong Kong — Game software and venture capital company Animoca Brands have announced its buyout of 100 per cent of the issued capital of Eden Games S.A.S. from Engine Gaming & Media. Eden Games is a highly respected and successful racing game studio with prized IPs such as Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed, F1 Mobile Racing, and the Gear.Club franchise, among others.

Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, commented, “With its quarter of a century of expertise in building high-quality motorsport video games, Eden Games will enhance and accelerate the development of the REVV Motorsport ecosystem and add powerful value to the REVV community and the racing metaverse.”

David Nadal, co-founder and head of studio of Eden Games, said, “We are excited to start the next chapter of Eden Games by joining Animoca Brands. We look forward to producing new experiences that challenge the status quo within the motorsport genre and venture into new frontiers such as Web3 alongside a leader in the space.”

Eden Games was founded in 1998 and is based in Lyon, France. The company has strong experience in developing award-winning racing games across the mobile, console and PC platforms and over 13 million game boxes sold and over 60 million app downloads worldwide.

The game development studio also has long term partnerships with more than 30 established brands in the automotive industry, including BMW, Bugatti, Porsche, Lotus, Pagani, and many others.

Animoca Brands will leverage the expertise and capabilities of Eden Games to work on existing and new titles in the REVV Motorsport ecosystem and to bring to market a series of new blockchain-based racing games.

The new games will provide additional utility to the NFT Race Passes and the other assets obtained by swapping assets from Animoca Brands’ F1 Delta Time, which ceased operations in March 2022.

Sydney, Australia – Global communications intelligence company Cision has completed the acquisition of real-time media monitoring company Streem.

The acquisition was first announced last December 2021. Through this deal, Streem customers will benefit from the global reach of Cision, while continuing to receive the same local support and expertise they have relied on since the company’s launch in 2017. The customers will also continue to access the company’s existing media monitoring and insights platform, supported by its local product and engineering teams.

Cision said that the Streem brand, platform, and local service will continue in the Australia and New Zealand market. It will also continue to operate as an independent brand, with operations and people, including Streem’s CEO Elgar Welch and CTO Antoine Sabourin to remain in place. 

Stephen Boyes, Cision’s CRO, noted that Streem has established itself as the customer-preferred media intelligence platform in the ANZ market. 

“We are excited that they are now part of the Cision family and that our ANZ customers can benefit from a full suite of monitoring, distribution, insights, and social media solutions,” said Boyes.

Meanwhile, Welch said, “The closing of this deal gives us the opportunity to create the ANZ region’s leading media intelligence offering. Streem is best positioned to deliver on every customer’s need through a single platform and local team.”

Cision is a portfolio company of Platinum Equity, which acquired the business in 2020. The Streem transaction marks the second add-on acquisition Cision has completed in 2022.

In a joint statement, Platinum Equity’s partner Jacob Kotzubei, and managing director Matthew Louie, said, “We are delivering on our promise to invest in Cision’s growth, expand its product offering and extend its geographic reach. We will continue working with the team to pursue more opportunities to drive growth organically and through acquisitions.”

London, United Kingdom – Media investment analysis company Ebiquity has announced that it has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire MediaPath Network and a definitive agreement to acquire Media Management Inc (MMi).

MediaPath is a leading global media consulting company specialising in agency selection processes, media performance measurement, and media benchmarking; while Media Management is a US-focused media audit services firm providing clients with transparency and accountability across all media channels for national and local media, and agency performance validation.

Speaking about the acquisitions, Nick Waters, global CEO at Ebiquity, said, “These moves mark a major milestone for Ebiquity. MediaPath and MMi are both highly respected companies operating in our space. Susanne and Thomas share our values and our vision for what the media industry can be and how we can serve it. Both businesses bring great teams, fantastic clients, and high-quality technology enablement.”

Meanwhile, Susanne Elias, founder of MediaPath, commented, “Using technology for innovation and delivery of our services to our clients has been a key driver for us and that now combined with Ebiquity’s global reach, broad service offerings as well as highly skilled team of media specialists creates stellar opportunities for our combined businesses, clients and teams all over the world.”

Lastly, Thomas Bridge, founder at MMi, stated, “MMi is excited to join the Ebiquity family, expanding our coverage domestically and internationally for our clients. This step further reinforces MMi’s commitment to our team and our clients in continuing our work in driving third-party media accountability.”

Both deals were signed on 29 March 2022. MMi is expected to complete on or around 4 April 2022, while MediaPath is expected to complete on or around 22 April 2022.

China – Global communications group, Havas, has acquired Front Networks, an independent creative agency focusing on social and digital marketing in China, which will be integrated into the Havas Creative network. 

Front Networks, which currently has two offices in Beijing and Shanghai, provides a full range of digital marketing services, with a team of more than 200 people. It has always been at the forefront of digital evolution in China and is trusted by more than 200 international clients across sectors such as automotive, finance, sports, software, artificial intelligence, amongst others, including BMW, Rolls-Royce, Vivo, and Microsoft, as well as Bank of China, and Nestlé, amongst many others.

This move will bring additional creative and digital firepower to Havas in China. Havas will be leveraging Front Network’s expertise in timely and effective digital storytelling, creating engaging digital content and channel mapping, as well as its enterprise philosophy of Connectivity + Creativity + Collectivity.

Yannick Bolloré, Havas Group’s chairman and CEO, commented that China has always been of strategic importance to them and he is thrilled to see that they are keeping up the same drive and momentum in this market. 

“By partnering with the best there is to offer in China, Havas Group will surely create more meaningful moments and value for all our clients, consumers, brands and communities. We are delighted to welcome Felix and the teams to the Havas Family,” said Bolloré.

Meanwhile, Karl Wu, Havas Group’s chairman and CEO for Greater China, shared that Front Networks has proven its business strength, agility, and adaptability during China’s digital emergence and evolution. 

“Amidst the arrival of the metaverse, bringing Front Networks on board is an important strategic step to further enrich our digital solutions for our clients in China. Under our one Havas Village roof, we will together continue our mission to create meaningful differences for brands, businesses and people,” said Wu.

Felix Teng, Front Networks’ founder and CEO, said that they pride themselves in having been recognised by Havas, the industry leader in integration and entrepreneurship.

“With the Group’s resources and empowering tools, we will be able to broaden our horizon, extend our solutions and add scale to the depth of our services. Their philosophy is very exciting and we are looking forward to doing more meaningful things together,” added Teng.

Singapore – Digital marketing communications agency dentsu in Singapore has fully acquired digital marketing agency, Happy Marketer, which will now be rebranded as Merkle Singapore. 

This acquisition is part of dentsu’s continued realignment of its customer experience management (CXM) capabilities under Merkle, and will see an acceleration of its data-driven transformation offerings into fast-growth strategic industries across APAC.

Merkle Singapore, which was acquired by dentsu in 2019, is an over 80-strong team today, serving clients across industries and markets. Its key clients are ING Bank, Standard Chartered, and NTUC Income, as well as Grab, and SPH. It also holds strong alliances with partners such as Google, Salesforce, Adobe, Tealium, and Insider.

The next phase post-brand will see Merkle Singapore expand into strategic sectors of financial services, fintech, telecommunications, and travel, as well as e-commerce. It will be delivering a complete suite of solutions for transformative customer experiences at scale, and will continue in complementing dentsu Singapore’s creative and media capabilities in bringing more integrated solutions to the market. 

Prakash Kamdar, Dentsu Singapore’s CEO, shared that the integration of Happy Marketer and its rebrand as Merkle Singapore cannot come at a better time as marketers seek for more relevant, compelling and joined-up experiences to win consumer attention and love in the face of an increasingly connected world. 

“Merkle Singapore has transformed our data-driven CXM offerings since its acquisition in 2019 and will undoubtedly continue to reimagine and reshape the future of digital marketing for our clients in Singapore and the region. The team has been a natural fit to dentsu’s culture and integrated approach,” said Kamdar.

Meanwhile, Sanchit Mendiratta, Merkle Singapore’s managing director, said that the acquisition journey with dentsu has been incredible, having grown from strength to strength in the past three years, and this has been made possible because of the unbridled access they have had to the richness and diversity of dentsu’s and Merkle’s heritage in expert knowledge, innovation, and creativity. 

“Our clients continue to appreciate the full suite of offerings that we are able to deliver due to the synergies from our global dentsu network, while our people have been able to grow through more opportunities for cross-collaborations and learning. We are optimistic for where Merkle Singapore will go from here and look forward to bringing our footprint further across the APAC region in the coming years,” said Mendiratta.

Prantik Mazumdar, dentsu Singapore’s managing director of CXM Group, stated that the integration of their acquired brands under Merkle in Singapore has been part of the planned road map to build a more cohesive CXM proposition to the market. 

“We are now geared to extend better support to markets beyond Singapore shores, especially across South East Asia, where we see immense potential for growth,” added Mazumdar.

Most recently, Merkle has also completed the realignment of its portfolio of B2B agencies into Merkle B2B.

Singapore – The Miroma Group, a global independent marketing services group, has completed the acquisition of Maker Lab, a marketing agency in APAC that builds and embeds dedicated digital teams for brands.

Maker Lab’s cross-functional team of 150 in APAC markets, which include India, Malaysia, and Thailand, supports projects for clients including Google, Netflix, and Taco Bell with strategy, ideation, and execution.

This acquisition will strengthen The Miroma Group presence in APAC, and is another crucial step in its plan to broaden the profile of its core offering to clients. It will also provide a springboard for Maker Lab to launch globally.

Marc Boyan, The Miroma Group’s founder and CEO, shared that their acquisition strategy is focused on satisfying the complex and changing needs of marketers, which increasingly includes a hybrid model of in-house capabilities and agency support.

“Maker Lab’s unique ability to build, nurture and embed fit-for-purpose agency teams into clients supports our goal to always deliver value and growth for clients, and adds an exciting new dimension to our existing stable of exceptional companies and services,” said Boyan.

Meanwhile, Matt Shoult, Maker Lab’s founder and CEO, believes that joining The Miroma Group will provide them with the infrastructure and client base to build on their success in APAC and accelerate their growth in the US and Europe.

“Having operated with a talent-centric approach from the get-go has given us a head start in this climate and we expect to become a global team of 300 by year end,” said Shoult.

Earlier this month, The Miroma Group has announched that it had completed the acquisition of Miroma SET, the sports, entertainment, and technology marketing company, which saw an impressive group of shareholders join the company, including Scott Belsky, Adobe’s CPO and Behance’s founder, Tom Hulme, Google Venture’s head of Europe, and Justin Stefano, Refinery 29’s founder, amongst many others.