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, Univision acquired Spanish-language streaming service VIX, QuickBooks bought OneSaas, and DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences merged with IFF International Flavors & Fragrances.
Univision buys VIX in a bid to jumpstart PrendeTV
Univision acquired Spanish language streaming service VIX just weeks after announcing its own streaming service, Prende TV, which is set to launch sometime this quarter.
VIX is a leading ad-supported streaming service that offers video-on-demand content to viewers throughout the U.S. and Latin America, and includes a library of 20,000 hours of free Spanish films and TV shows, all of which will be used to boost the launch of PrendeTV.
The acquisition of VIX also gives Univision a management team and talent, including VIX CEO Rafael Urbina who has an established distribution network of more than 30 mobile app platforms such as Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, and Android TV. The deal will enable Univision to expand its dominance in Spanish-language broadcast cable into the video streaming market.
Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
QuickBooks parent company Intuit acquires OneSaas
Business and financial software company Intuit announced it acquired the cloud-based business operations platform OneSaas to accelerate the integration of third party e-commerce solutions with the QuickBooks platform.
The company’s blog post claims that OneSaas’ technology will allow for deeper data integration into its new QuickBooks Commerce product, which helps small businesses manage sales across multiple platforms.
OneSaas was founded in Australia in 2010 and has been an Intuit partner and part of the QuickBooks App Store since 2014. The deal shows a focus towards expanding QuickBooks’s insights for the online sales platforms, and the company claims the OneSaas platform will make it easier for small business owners to manage and grow business through new channels.
IFF merges with DuPont, further expanding IFF’s offerings
International Flavors & Fragrances, Inc. announced the completion of its $26.2 billion merger with DuPont Nutrition & Biosciences. DuPont’s nutrition division brings in $6.8 billion in sales per year, which will more than double IFF’s annual sales.
The deal also adds large-volume food ingredients such as proteins and probiotics to IFF’s portfolio, which has largely focused on specialized flavors and fragrances. Experts have noted that the two firms have almost no overlap in products, but significant overlap in customers.
The merger with DuPont N&B follows IFF’s acquisition of Futarom for $7.1 billion, which expanded IFF’s business byond flavors and fragrances.
In Other News
Other notable events this week include:
- Italian multinational food company Barilla acquired dry pasta brand Catelli from Ebro Foods for approximately $128.6 million.
- Box announced its intent to acquire electronic signature company SignRequest in a $55 million deal to enter the e-signature market with its new Box Sign service.
- Uber announced on Tuesday that it reached an agreement to acquire Drizly for $1.1 billion in stock and cash, adding alcohol delivery to the ride-hailing and take-out delivery service.
- Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company announced that it is paying $3.5 billion to acquire Great American Life Insurance Company, a subsidiary of American Financial Group, Inc.
- Real-estate data provider CoreLogic Inc. announced that it has agreed to a merger agreement under which Stone Point Capital and Insight Partners will acquire all outstanding shares of CoreLogic for $6 billion.
- According to the Wall Street Journal, office-sharing start-up WeWork might be having another go at becoming a public company. This time, it is in talks to combine with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
- Wall Street Journal reported that Kraft Heinz Co. is in talks to sell its Planters snack business to Hormel Foods Corp., which owns the Skippy peanut butter and Justin’s nut butters brands.
- Consumer DNA testing company 23andMe Inc. announced that it is going public via a merger with billionaire Richard Branson’s special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC) VG Acquisition Corp.
