"Corum helped change my life. They diligently worked on our behalf thoughout all phases of the sales process. They came up with creative and effective approaches during our final negotiations with the buyer which made the whole transaction possible. We could never have found (much less closed) the deal without their help and guidance."

John Ivory
Tower Concepts Inc.

Q3 2008 Digital Content Transactions

Anystream merges with Voxant

Anystream, a developer of digital media production software, and Voxant Media, a new media network, have merged. The companies say combining Anystream's platform and Voxant's network, which includes more than 30,000 worldwide publishing partners, will be a driver in adoption of online video advertising. According to Anystream, there are three things that the broadband world requires for the economics of online video to explode. First, there must be licensed content to satisfy the needs of video-hungry publishers. Second, there must be a large syndicated affiliate site network to create meaningful monetization. Third, there must be a system for marketers to insert their message into indexed and categorized content. Only the combination of Anystream and Voxant delivers them all.

Announcement Date: September 23, 2008
Deal Value: Undisclosed

OpenTV to acquire Ruzz TV

OpenTV, a San Francisco-based developer of interactive TV software and services, has acquired Ruzz TV, an Australian maker of software for television broadcasters. Ruzz TV was founded in 1999, has 10 employees and is a developer of technology designed to help broadcasters more efficiently manage their workflow and content processes. The software will complement OpenTV's offerings, which have been integrated into more than 111 million devices to enable enhanced program guides, personal video recording, and interactive advertising.

Announcement Date: September 23, 2008
Deal Value: Undisclosed

Whoop acquires XOsphere

Whoop, Inc. is acquiring mobile technology company, XOsphere, LLC, and XOsphere's sister company in Latin America. The demand for rich, engaging mobile content is exploding around the world, so it made sense to combine XOsphere's technology and expertise with the Whoop Engine, a Software as a Service platform for creating, publishing and sharing of mobile content. As a hosted application, Whoop serves as a web destination where subscribers can create rich media applications, mobile web sites and text communications. On mobile devices, the Whoop Agent (thin client) is a mobile translator, interpreting content and rendering it with optimization for the device on which it's running. Ideal for mobile marketing, mobile entertainment, mobile communications, mobile commerce and mobile social networking, Whoop can reach billions of mobile phones on virtually any network.

Announcement Date: September 23, 2008
Deal Value: Undisclosed

Zoom Media acquires ClubCom

Zoom Media and Marketing acquired ClubCom, a provider of customized digital media networks for the fitness and bowling industries. The acquisition accelerates Zoom's strategy to build out digital out-of-home networks in lifestyle venues. With ClubCom, Zoom's digital network grows to more than 16,000 screens across 2,250 venues, making it the third largest out-of-home digital media company in North America, behind cinema ad reps National Cinemedia and Screenvision. The combination of ClubCom and Zoom creates an out-of-home digital platform, and by far the leading digital media network in the fitness, bowling, family entertainment and nightlife industries.

Announcement Date: September 16, 2008
Deal Value: Undisclosed

Best Buy to acquire Napster

Consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Inc. is acquiring online music-sharing site Napster Inc. for about $126.8 million in cash in a move to boost its digital media capabilities. The proposed acquisition includes Napster’s approximately 700,000 digital entertainment subscribers, its web-based customer service platform, and innovative mobile capabilities. Best Buy believes that Napster has one of the most comprehensive and easy-to-use music offerings in the industry, including streaming music, music subscriptions, the ability to purchase individual tracks and albums, and mobile offers. This transaction offers Best Buy a recognized platform for enhancing its capabilities in the digital media space and building new, recurring relationships with customers.

Announcement Date: September 15, 2008
Deal Value: $126.8 Million (Cash)
Seller Revenue: $127.5 Million (Fiscal 2008)

Adobe acquires YaWah

Adobe Systems Incorporated has acquired YaWah ApS, a dynamic imaging software provider based in Aarhus, Denmark. The acquisition will accelerate the European and global expansion of Adobe Scene7, a hosted rich media platform designed for eCommerce and multi-channel marketing companies. Today Adobe Scene7 solutions are used by companies worldwide to drive online business through the management, distribution and delivery of dynamic content across channels. According to Adobe, YaWah’s market knowledge and technology, integrated with Scene7, will ensure that European companies have immediate access to hosted media solutions that are transforming the online experience for some of the web's most visited sites.

Announcement Date: September 15, 2008
Deal Value: Undisclosed

Global Media Exchange acquires inDplay

Global Media Exchange, a division of Ascent Media, has acquired inDplay, an online content licensing marketplace, which will accelerate GMX’s speed to market. inDplay’s intellectual property and company will transition to GMX effective immediately. The acquisition of inDplay will give GMX valuable IP product information for software modules including digital rights and deal management. GMX will also obtain specific business and market knowledge on the emerging digital content marketplace to integrate into its existing resources and development.

Announcement Date: September 9, 2008
Deal Value: Undisclosed

Telestream acquires Vara Software

Telestream, the provider of Flip4mac, Episode and FlipFactory content repurposing and workflow automation products, has acquired European-based Vara Software Ltd. Vara Software provides real-time production tools, including webcasting, screencasting and rich media presentation products for entertainment, corporate communications, education and training. Webcasting allows companies to reach large, dispersed audiences by distributing content over the Internet, either live or on demand. The acquisition expands Telestream’s reach beyond encoding-based media workflow solutions for leading broadcast, media and entertainment companies to include powerful tools for real-time creation and distribution of video content over the web for a broad range of businesses.

Announcement Date: August 26, 2008
Deal Value: Undisclosed

Broadcom acquires AMD's Digital TV Business

Broadcom is acquiring the digital TV business of Sunnyvale-based chipmaker AMD. Broadcom said the deal will expand its customer base, and allow it to offer a product line that covers all segments of the digital TV market. The company said that it will seek to retain over 530 AMD employees across six of the company's design centers. AMD said that the sale is part of a plan to make the company "leaner and more focused" while steering it toward a business model of sustainable profitability. The sale of the DTV business is a key step in AMD's transformation, helping to strengthen its balance sheet, lower its breakeven point, and hone its focus.

Announcement Date: August 25, 2008
Deal Value: $192.8 Million (Cash)

PlayBOX acquires New Visions Mobile

PlayBOX Inc., a global media entertainment distribution company, will acquire New Visions Mobile, a mobile music company that creates social networks for artists and music brands across social networks. PlayBOX is actively growing its mobile distribution channel and expects the deal to make them the leader in distribution of mobile media entertainment.

Announcement Date: July 24, 2008
Deal Value: Undisclosed

Future US acquires BallHype

Future US, a special-interest media company based in San Francisco, has acquired BallHype, a developer of technology that aggregates and clusters news and video content around a defined theme. BallHype owns ballhype.com and showhype.com, which together draw nearly 2 million visitors a month. The sites feature mainstream American sports and entertainment gossip content.

Announcement Date: July 15, 2008
Deal Value: Undisclosed

Ubisoft to acquire Hybride Technologies

Ubisoft (France) announced the acquisition of Hybride Technologies, a Montreal, Canada-based studio renowned for its expertise in the creation of visual effects for cinema, television and advertising. Ubisoft is a leading producer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment products worldwide and has grown considerably through a strong and diversified line-up of products and partnerships. Ubisoft will work closely with Hybride to share technology and to develop tools in order to optimize the creation of both video games and visual effects and to offer gamers visual experiences that rival those of the cinema.

Announcement Date: July 8, 2008
Deal Value: Undisclosed

Atrinsic acquires Ringtone.com

New Motion, Inc., doing business as Atrinsic, an Internet media and mobile entertainment company, 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 sign-ups per day. Based on existing subscribers and historical retention rates, Ringtone.com is expected to generate a higher return on the company’s marketing investments than if it had organically acquired these customers during fiscal year 2008. Subsequently, the company also expects to materially reduce its annual customer acquisition budget and reconfirms its 2008 pro forma guidance of $145 million to $160 million in revenue with adjusted EBITDA of $15 million to $20 million. Management expects to expand the use of the assets purchased from Ringtone.com from solely a subscription-based model into a more flexible and robust business model with multiple revenue streams, including an ad-supported model. Ringtone.com was a wholly-owned subsidiary of W3i Holdings, LLC, a provider of integrated desktop marketing and mobile marketing solutions.

Announcement Date: July 2, 2008
Deal Value: Atrinsic will pay W3i $6.25 million in cash, offset by $1.5 million in working capital for a net cash outlay of $4.75 million. In addition, W3i will receive a $1.75 million convertible note, with a 10% coupon and a term of one year.