In keeping with our mission to provide comprehensive advertising analysis, MediaRadar puts together a report of the most important mergers and acquisitions news each week. Stay in the loop, whether you sell advertising space or focus on business development.
This week, MediaLab.Ai made its second acquisition this month by purchasing Imgur. Netflix dug into video games with Night School Studio. And insurance company Aviva downsized by selling its French business to Aema Group.
MediaLab.Ai purchased image-sharing solution Imgur
Imgur, a popular image-sharing site, has been acquired by the holding company of consumer internet brands, MediaLab.
Imgur, an image sharing service that allows users to post image files, GIF animations and comments brings approximately 300 million users to the company which already owns internet service and messaging apps including Kik and Whisper, as well as the viral video aggregator WorldStarHipHop.
MediaLab also acquired a song lyrics annotator Genius earlier this month for $80 million.
According to some, “it remains to be seen which direction the platform will take after becoming part of MediaLab’s family, and whether or not it will be able to keep up its pace in terms of growth and user satisfaction.”
Netflix Scoops up Night School Studio
Netflix announced it acquired Night School Studio, LLC, the developer of Oxenfree.
In the announcements, Mike Verdu, the newly appointed VP of game development at Netflix commented that Neftlix’s games offering will be included as part of the service’s already existing membership and confirmed that it will come without ad or in-app purchases.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The acquisition is part of Netflix’s plan to invest in video games as a growth opportunity to its existing streaming services. The company is currently working to build games in its mobile app, with five game titles available on Android phones in Poland, Spain and Italy.
Aema Group now owns Aviva France
The insurance company Aviva has finalized a deal to sell its French business to Macif’s Aema Group for 3.2 billion euros ($3.89 billion).
The move is part of Aviva’s plan to focus on its core operations in Britain, Ireland, and Canada. The company also has plans to sell its continental European and Asian branches to support debt reduction and invest in long-term growth.
Aema Group formed this year in a merger of Aesio Mutuelle and Macif. It currently has a workforce of 18,000 employees and insures 11 million.
Aviva France has been the 5th largest insurance company in France, and this acquisition brings Aema 3 million more customers and roughly 7.8 billion euros in revenue.
In Other News
Other developments are gaining steam:
- Shareholders of French conglomerate Vivendi S.A. voted in June to split from Universal Music Group (UMG), and the two officially separated last week.
- Salesforce.com, Inc. is acquiring Toronto SaaS startup LevelJump.io. LevelJump provides sales onboarding and enablement software that is completely built on Salesforce’s platform.
- Blackstone announced that it has struck a deal to sell The Cosmopolitan hotel and casino for $5.65 billion.
- NielsenIQ announced that it is acquiring omnichannel analytics company Data Impact and e-commerce data business Rakuten Intelligence.
- Stockholm, Sweden-based global leader in cloud communications, Sinch AB, has struck a deal to acquire Pathwire, the cloud-based email provider behind Mailgun, Mailjet and Email on Acid.
- According to The Wall Street Journal, food technology startup Perfect Day Inc. raised $350 million in its late-stage funding round, valuing the company at about $1.5 billion.
