Following acquisition of Adometry by Google and of Convertro by AOL
On May 28, 2014, Rakuten Marketing announced the acquisition of the Brighton (UK) based marketing attribution specialist DC Storm.
Although terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, Google on May 6, 2014 acquired Adometry for about US$ 150 million, and AOL on the same day acquired Convertro for US$ 101 million. Therefore we assume that Rakuten Marketing probably also paid on the order of US$ 100 million for DC Storm.
Marketing attribution: measuring return (ROI) on marketing investment
Marketing attribution has its origin in the work of Austrian psychologist Fritz Heider‘s work on Attribution Theory, and his seminal work “The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations” of 1958.
Attribution is the process by which people explain the causes for actions, and models for these processes (source: Wikipedia).
Marketing attribution develops understanding of which combination of events leads individuals to take particular actions, e.g. to conclude a purchase for example (source: Wikipedia Attribution (marketing))
Marketing attribution specialist companies have recently been very popular acquisition targets:
Convertro (about 60 employees) acquired by AOL for US$ 101 million, announced on May 6, 2014
Adometry (about 130 employees) acquired by Google for an estimated US$ 150 million, announced on May 6, 2014
DC Storm acquired by Rakuten Marketing, announced on May 28, 2014
DC Storm is headquartered at Brighton, UK, with offices in US and in Germany. DC Storm was founded in 2004 by current CEO, Seth Richardson, who designed and coded the initial versions of DC Storm’s digital marketing analysis platform.
DC Storm offers digital marketing companies attribution tools, analysis and consulting services, and tag management.
Horizon 2020 Japan conference encourages Japan participation in this R&D and innovation program of the EU
Horizon 2020 Japan: Ambassador Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, welcome
Ambassador Hans Dietmar Schweisgut
Horizon 2020 Japan – Yoichiro Matsumoto: Japan’s research needs to go global
(Professor Yoichiro Matsumoto, Executive Vice President, The University of Tokyo)
Professor Yoichiro Matumoto, Executive Vice President, The University of Tokyo
Recent situation in Japanese Universities
Japan has shown a lower growth in the publication of papers compared to other countries
Quantity: growth rate of number of papers for the period 2009-2011 compared to 1999-2001:
China: +360% growth
USA: +28% growth
Germany: +28% growth
UK: +21% growth
France: +28% growth
Japan: +3% growth
World: +48% growth
Quality: top 10% of papers during the period 2009-2011 compared to 1999-2001:
China: +521% growth
USA: +26% growth
Germany: +68% growth
UK: +57% growth
France: +61% growth
Japan: +16% growth
World: +51% growth
Quality: top 1% of papers during the period 2009-2011 compared to 1999-2001:
China: +692% growth
USA: +28% growth
Germany: +99% growth
UK: +79% growth
France: +99% growth
Japan: +39% growth
World: +51% growth
Budget:
Japanese Universities have suffered a long term budget cut for ordinary operations lasting more than 10 years
the ratio of competitive funds have increased rapidly
we must change ourselves towards strategic thinking and planning for research, its funding and sustainability
The Science and Technology budget in Japan has been increasing rapidly until 2002, but is stagnating since 2002.
Why is international cooperation in research important
scientific output has grown rapidly and collaboration between institutions in different countries has intensified.
International collaboration papers are likely to get more citation impact.
The challenges facing Japanese research institutions – strategic competition and collaboration
we need strategic competition and collaboration among Japanese research institutions for the management to increase their reputation and visibility globally
each institution must be more competitive in human and institutional resources, research funds, facilities, student quality, educational performance, global openness, clear vision, efficiency of management…
unders those severe and open competition, we can make win-win relations among institutions
we need a long-term and bird-view thinking to enhance the sustainability of research and eduction activities in the institution
we need global collaboration
create sustainable environment for research institutions: secure enough domestic funds for research, get international R&D funds like Horizon2020, enhance the mobility of research
boost international exchanges between European institutions and Japanese institutions
create network of networks between institutions to discuss our common problems and enhance our activity of research and education
The Royal Society 2011: “collaboration enhances the quality of research, improves its efficiency and effectiveness, and is increasingly necessary as the scale of budgets and research challenges grow”
Horizon 2020 Japan – Anders Karlsson: EU-Japan Science collaboration – a “bird’s eye view” on publication patterns & opportunities for collaboration
(Professor Anders Karlsson, Vice President for Global Academic Relations, Elsevier, Tokyo)
Professor Anders Karlsson,, Vice President for Global Academic Relations, Elsevier, Tokyo
Compound annual growth rate of scientific publications 2009-2013:
EU28: +4.9% growth
USA: +4.5% growth
China: +10.5% growth
Korea: +9.5% growth
Japan: +1.1% growth
world: +4.4% growth
What about the top 10% most cited publications?
China overtook Japan for all articles: in 2003/2004
China overtook Japan for top 10% articles: in 2006
China overtook Japan for top 10% articles in Engineering: in 2003
China overtook Japan for top 10% articles in Medicine: in 2010
Horizon 2020 Japan – Maria Cristina Russo: Horizon2020 – the chance to go global
(Maria Cristina Russo, Director for International Cooperation, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission)
Maria Cristina Russo, Director for International Cooperation, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, European Commission
Why go global? Why collaborate internationally?
all science has become global
value chains are internationalized: making alliances, sharing costs, accessing markets, agreeing standards
need to address global society challenges together
importance for the best EU researchers to cooperate with the best Japanese researchers
opportunities for Japanese researchers to participate, and to access big projects with important partners from EU and the world by only paying your researchers
importance of building networks: deep relationships with EU and world actors through R&D collaboration
Why chose the EU to “go global”?
500 million people, 28 countries, a single market = free movement of people + goods + services + capital
7% of the world’s population
24% of world research expenditure
32% of high impact publications
32% of patent applications
Some excellent successes:
109 “bottom up” participations by 50 different Japan based organizations in 79 FP7 projects
5 “top down” jointly designed “coordinated calls” resulting in an additional 17 projects (ICT, aeronautics, energy, critical raw materials)
successful “support actions”, e.g. CONCERT-JAPAN
Top down coordinated calls:
top down: joint identification of key priority areas by EU and Japanese authorities
parallel call procedure, parallel evaluation, separate funding – but joint work and joint results
worked particularly well in Japan: 5 calls 2011-2013, 17 projects jointly financed, 2 more calls launched or in the pipeline
Unfulfilled potential – participation in EU projects – EU-Japan projects lower than Egypt or Marocco….
Russia: 495
USA: 476
China: 321
India: 253
South America: 222
Brazil: 206
Ukraina: 185
Canada: 181
Australia: 177
Mexico: 110
Marocco: 110
Japan: 109
Egypt: 108
Argentina: 99
Korea: 65
Some key questions:
why is overall Japanese participation in EU research programs so modest compared with key international partners?
what can be done to improve participation of Japanese research entities (public and private) in the future?
what are the bottlenecks and obstacles?
what are the best approaches? top down? or bottom up?
Horizon2002: a paradigm shift
Globally the biggest research and innovation funding program: over EURO 80 billion budget over 7 years
The only part of the EU budget to increase (+30% over the previous program)
the most open program in the world, international cooperation at its core
challenge based approach, multi sector activities to address global society challenges
stressing innovation: from lab to market
faster, simpler, less red tape
Three ways to participate:
General opening: any international partner may participate
Targeted opening: in specific topics in calls for proposals including of international partners may be: (a) encouraged, (b) required
Coordinated calls: used for specific actions, paired calls, linked evaluations, two separate contracts
How to get involved?
find a relevant call
find partners
submit a proposal
get involved!
Maria Cristina Russo, Director, International Cooperation, Directorate-General for Research & Innovation, European Commission
Horizon 2020 Japan – Kazushi Watanabe: Experience of international collaboration. FP7 project: Surface heat exchangers for aero-engines
(Kazushi Watanabe, General Manager, Business Development, Sumitomo Precision Products, Aerospace & Defense)
EU-Japan collaboration project: Advanced Structural Surface Cooler (ASSC), a component for turbines.
EU funded the research at INEGI (Instituto de Engenharia Mecanica Gestao), Rolls-Royce, GKN Aerospace Sweden AB, SICOMP (Swerea Sicomp AB)
METI funded research at Sumitomo Precision Products (SPP), and SPP subcontracted part of the research to the University of Tokyo
In addition there is a Research agreement between Rolls-Royce and SPP
One attraction of this research project for SPP is that there are not many turbine manufacturers in Japan, and this research project opened new markets for SPP products.
Kazushi Watanabe, General Manager, Business Development, Sumitomo Precision Products, Aerospace & Defense
Naoto Kobayashi: FP7 project and internationalization of research at Waseda University
(Naoto Kobayashi, Center for Research Strategy, Waseda University)
FP7 projects at Waseda University:
Capsil Project (April 1, 2008 – March 31, 2010)
International support of a common awareness and knowledge platform for studying and enabling living
Professor Shuji Hashimoto (Faculty of Science and Engineering), 理工学術院 橋本周司教授
Total budget: EURO 587,150
RoboSoM Project (December 1, 2009 – May 31, 2013)
A Robotic Sense of Movement
Professor Atsuo Takanishi (Faculty of Science and Engineering), 理工学術院 高西淳夫教授
Total budget: EURO 1,659,000
GR:EEN Project (March 1, 2011 – February 28, 2015)
Global Re-ordering: Evolution through European Networks
Professor Shujiro Urata (Faculty of International Research and Education), 国際学術院 浦田秀次郎教授
Total budget: EURO 7,944,718
Professor Naoto Kobayashi, Center for Research Strategy, Waseda University
Yoichi Iida, Japan-EU cooperation in civil aeronautics industry
(Yoichi Iida, Director, Aerospace and Defense Industry Division, Manufacturing Industries Bureau, METI)
Yoichi Iida, Director, Aerospace and Defense Industry Division, Manufacturing Industries Bureau, METI
Agreement between the Government of Japan and the European Community on Cooperation in Science and Technology.
2012-2013:
1st Working Group
SUNJET, concluded in October 2012
Call 5 Projects: SHEFAE, JEDI ACE and HIKARI to concluded early 2016
March 2014: 2nd working group: discussion on next cooperation projects
from 2015:
Working Group
NEXT Projects (Horizon2020)
Future Projects (support action)
Lessons learnt from FP7:
Complicated framework of agreements: IP treatment between Japanese companies and European Commission, dispute settlement process
different timing of budgets
For Horizon2020 the structure of cooperation projects will be:
Grant agreement between the Japanese Government and Japanese participants
Grant agreement between the European Commission and European participants
Coordination agreement between Japanese participants and European participants
Horizon 2020 Japan – Satoru Ohtake: closing remarks
(Satoru Ohtake, Senior Executive Director, Science and Technology Agency)
Satoru Ohtake, Senior Executive Director, Science and Technology Agency
Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (“FPSO”) systems
Engineering business related to electrical equipment (transformer substation, power distribution, drive systems, and lighting equipment, etc.) needed to operate machinery, and measurement equipment (sensors, etc.) and to control plant systems
On March 4, 2014 Dentsu announced further European investments in its quest to strengthen its global footprint: Dentsu acquires French mobile marketing agency Lesmobilizers SAS.
Lesmobilizers SAS – Mobile Applications Creators
Lesmobilizers SAS are a dedicated agency in design and development of mobile applications. The company was founded in March 2010 in Paris, France, and employees about 10 people.
In the year ending December 2012, gross profits were about EURO 0.8 million.
Dentsu and Dentsu-Aegis
Dentsu dominates Japan’s advertising space, and is a very very strong force in Japan’s media industry sector, through control and management of major advertising channels with an overwhelming market share in Japan, and has been working hard to leverage its creative power and strength in Japan into a larger global footprint.
Tokyo AIM: LSE sells its share in the Tokyo AIM joint venture to Tokyo Stock Exchange and leaves Japan
Initially, London Stock Exchange and Tokyo Stock Exchange created Tokyo AIM as a joint-venture company in order to create a jointly owned and jointly managed Tokyo AIM, modeled according to the very successful London AIM model.
Nikkei: “Tokyo Stock Exchange has learnt enough from the London Stock Exchange to set up a similar market on its own”
However, on March 26, 2012 NIKKEI reported that “Tokyo Stock Exchange has learnt enough from the London Stock Exchange to set up a similar market on its own. TSE plans to improve the rules of its own new market, so that TSE can create a more welcoming market” (our translation of the original Japanese NIKKEI article to English).
London Stock Exchange withdrew from the venture, and Tokyo Stock Exchange took over 100% of Tokyo AIM. Essentially, London Stock Exchange AIM’s venture into Japan failed, while the stock market created by the venture continues without London Stock Exchange’s involvement. As explained in our blog here, these events are very very similar to what happened with NASDAQ about 10 years earlier!
Tokyo AIM is renamed TOKYO PRO Market and TOKYO PRO BOND Market
In 2012, the name was changed from Tokyo AIM, to TOKYO PRO Market and TOKYO PRO BOND Market. Details can be found here:
On February 28, 2014 Dentsu announced further European investments in its quest to strengthen its global footprint: Dentsu acquires German performance and search agency explido and integrates explido into Dentsu’s iProspect business and brand.
explido GmbH & Co KG – Agentur für digitales Marketing und Vertrieb
explido GmbH & Co KG offers digital marketing services, was founded in October 2002 in Augsburg, Germany, and employs about 135 people.
explido achieved about EURO 11.7 million gross profits annually.
Dentsu and Dentsu-Aegis
Dentsu dominates Japan’s advertising space, and is a very very strong force in Japan’s media industry sector, through control and management of major advertising channels with an overwhelming market share in Japan, and has been working hard to leverage its creative power and strength in Japan into a larger global footprint.
LIXIL (“Link to Good Living”) pursues strategy to become global leader in building materials and housing equipment industry
LIXIL acquires 87.5% of German GROHE Group (“Pure Freude an Wasser”), valuing GROHE at € 3.06 billion
Lixil Corporation follows the strategy to become the global leader in building materials and housing equipment, and on January 21, 2014, together with the Development Bank of Japan, acquired 87.5% of the German GROHE Group. The shares were acquired from Glacier Luxembourg One Sarl, which is indirectly owned by TPG Capital (formerly Texas Pacific Group) and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners (“DLJ MBP”), an affiliate of Credit Suisse and traces its roots to Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.
The acquisition deal structure is quite complex. Voting rights are split 50%/50% between Lixil and Development Bank of Japan (DBJ), Lixil uses YEN 160 billion of non-recourse loans. Lixil has a call option on DBJ share ownership, allowing Lixil to acquire all of Grohe.
Lixil’s advisors:
Financial advisors: SMBC Nikko Securities, BNP Paribas, Development Bank of Japan (DBJ), Moelis
Lixil Corporation (“Link to Good Living”), TSE-Code 5938, manufactures building materials and housing equipment and operates home and home building centers. To become global leaders in these fields, LIXIL has recently acquired:
American Standard, in August 2013 for US$ 542 million
American Standard Asia Pacific, in August 2009
Permasteelisa Group, in 2011
Shanghai Meite Curtain Wall System in 2011
LG-TOSTEM, strategic alliance formed in 2010
Haier-LIXIL, strategic alliance formed in 2011
LIXIL was formed on April 1, 2011 by the merger of:
Tostem Corporation
Inax Corporation
Shin Nikkei Company, Ltd.
Toyo Exterior Co., Ltd.
Sun Wave Corporation
and has been growing aggressively through acquisitions with the target to achieve 50% sales internationally outside Japan.
On January 20, 2014 Dentsu announced further European investments in its quest to strengthen its global footprint: Dentsu acquires Poland’s social media agency Socializer
Socializer SA
Socializer SA was founded in Warsaw, Poland, in March 2011, earned gross profits of UKL 1.7 million in the financial year ended December 2012, and employs about 130 people.
Socializer provider advertising and communications services using Social Media (SNS).
Dentsu and Dentsu-Aegis
Dentsu dominates Japan’s advertising space, and is a very very strong force in Japan’s media industry sector, through control and management of major advertising channels with an overwhelming market share in Japan, and has been working hard to leverage its creative power and strength in Japan into a larger global footprint.
NuGeneration acquires 50% stake in NuGeneration from Spain’s Iberdola
In December 2013, Toshiba purchased 50% of NuGeneration Ltd from Iberdrola (of Spain) for UKL 85 million (US$ 146 million), making NuGeneration a 50%/50% joint venture between Toshiba and GDF Suez.
NuGeneration Ltd (NuGen)
NuGeneration Ltd. (NuGen) owns an option to purchase the 190 hectare Moorside site, located to the north of Sellafield, from the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Agency.
NuGeneration plans to build a 3.4 GigaWatt nuclear power station using three AP1000 reactors built by Westinghouse. Westinghouse is owned by Toshiba (87%), by Kazakhstan based Uranium and nuclear fuel producer KazAtomProm (10%) and the Japanese engineering company IHI (3%).
When finished, NuGeneration’s Moorside nuclear power plant is expected to deliver about 7% of UK’s electricity.
Two factors drive Toshiba to acquire a 50% share of NuGeneration (NuGen):
Toshiba’s commitment to nuclear power – and dependence on nuclear power construction following the acquisition of the majority of Westinghouse
Japanese investments in UK nuclear power generation
Toshiba’s investment in NuGeneration is the second large Japanese investment in UK nuclear power generation, following Hitachi’s acquisition of Horizon Nuclear Power from Germany’s RWE and EON Ag.
While Germany has decided to exit nuclear power with the “Energiewende”, the future of nuclear power in Japan is unclear – unlike in Germany, at the moment all Japanese nuclear power stations are switched off.
Interestingly Japanese and German companies react in opposite ways regarding the future of nuclear energy: German companies RWE and EON AG exit nuclear energy, while Toshiba and Hitachi grasp the opportunities and acquire nuclear power planning companies NuGen and Horizon Nuclear Power.
Japanese insurance SOMPO part of NKSJ Holdings acquires UK reinsurer Canopius Group from Bregal Capital
In order to globalize, Japanese insurance company Sompo Japan (株式会社損害保険ジャパン), part of the insurance group NKSJ Holdings (NKSJホールディングス株式会社, TSE / JPX: No. 8630) announced yesterday the acquisition of 100% of the UK re-insurer Canopius Group Limited, operating on Lloyd’s for UKL 594 million (US$ 972 million), from the current owners. Current majority owner of Canopius is Bregal Capital.
Canopius will keep the brand, company name, and management team.
Canopius: one of the top ten insurers on the Lloyd’s market
Canopius, is an insurance group, one of the top ten insurers in the Lloyd’s market, was founded in December 2003, almost exactly ten years ago, via a Management Buy-Out (MBO) with UKL 25 million capital, which grew about twenty-fold to about UKL 500 million today, and today has about 560 employees.
Canopius is named after Nathaniel Canopius, native of Crete, who studied at Balliol College, Oxford, apparently introduced coffee drinking to Oxford around 1637 (according to the Canopius website), and later became Archbishop of Smyrna (Source: “Anglicans and Orthodox, Unity and Subversion, 1559-1725”, by Judith Pinnington, 2003, ISBN 0-85244-577-6, page 15).
Sources: press announcements by the companies, websites.
Combining the amounts of trade for merchandise and commercial services, EU exports to Japan and Japanese exports to EU have reached equal levels, so that the trade between EU and Japan is now balanced around EURO 80 billion in each direction, i.e. a combined trade of EURO 160 billion.
Japan is traditionally stronger in the expert of manufactured goods, while EU is stronger in the export of commercial services. Combining both merchandise and services, the trade between EU and Japan is now balanced.
Investment flow between EU and Japan shows strong impact from the Lehmann shock economic downturn. Investment flow from EU to Japan remains at relatively low levels around EURO 1 billion annually, while investments by Japanese companies in the EU are on the order of EURO 10 billion per year currently.
EU investments in Japan have been relatively constant around EURO 80 billion. There has been a marked reduction in EU investment in Japan in 2006 due to the withdrawal of Vodafone from Japan with the sale of Vodafone KK to Softbank for approx. EURO 12 billion (find details of the Vodafone-SoftBank M&A transaction here). This reduction of EU investment stock in Japan is clearly visible in the graphics below in 2006 and 2007.
Japanese investments in EU are steadily increasing, as Japanese companies are seeking to grow business outside Japan’s saturated market, and as Japanese companies acquire European companies for market access, technology and global business footprint. In 2012 the total investment stock of Japanese companies in the EU-27 has reached around EURO 150 billion.
Supercell investment leverages paradigm shift, time shift and market disconnects
Smartphones and the “freemium” business models are bringing a dual paradigm shift to games and create a new truly global market. To take advantage of this global paradigm shift, its necessary to overcome the cultural disconnects between markets. SoftBank and GungHo‘s investment in the Finnish smartphone/tablet game maker Supercell, announced on Oct. 15, will help to overcome the disconnect between Japan’s and other game markets for both Supercell and GungHo.
One of SoftBank‘s aspects is it’s “time-shift” investment model, another is SoftBank‘s 30/300 year vision – both are important factors to understand the Supercell investment.
Comparing Supercell’s US$ 3 billion valuation with Japanese game companies (note that the market cap for the full SONY Group is shown here)
This Figure contrasts the market caps of new mobile and smartphone centric game companies (GungHo, Supercell, DeNA and GREE) with traditional console, video game and arcade game companies.
SoftBank announced that because of the majority investment, Supercell will become a subsidiary of SoftBank, and GungHo will account for Supercell’s profit/loss under the equity method.
Comparing Supercell with Japanese game companies and SoftBank
GungHo and Supercell both are top-ranking mobile game companies: GungHo inside Japan with “Puzzle and Dragons”, and Supercell outside Japan with “Hay Day” and “Clash of Clans”. Expect both to leverage each other’s resources.
Both GungHo and Supercell show explosive growth:
GungHo’s operating profits increased 4050% (x 40) for Jan-June 2013 compared to the same period one year earlier.
Supercell’s revenues (mainly in-game purchases) jumped 500x from EURO 151,000 in 2011 to EURO 78 million in 2012.
Culture can be an issue between Japan and other countries, however, SoftBank has invested in more than 1000 comparable companies, and many of SoftBank’s investments have been outstandingly successful including Alibaba and Yahoo.
However, investment and management support by SoftBank does not automatically guarantee success in Japan – despite SoftBank’s investment and support, Zynga closed operations in Japan earlier this year. Success in Japan will remain Supercell’s responsibility, despite SoftBank’s and GungHo’s help and investment – as Zynga can tell.
Astex Pharmaceuticals is an oncology drug discovery company based on the Pyramid drug discovery platform in Cambridge (UK)
Otsuka buys Astex in a tender offer for US$ 886 million
Otsuka buys Astex Pharmaceuticals (formally Astex Therapeutics, UK). Astex Therapeutics is a oncology drug discovery company based in Cambridge, England, and at the time of acquisition was listed on NASDAQ (ASTX).
The acquisition was done through a tender offer at an offer price of US$ 8.50 per share, a 48% premium on the stock price, starting on 13 September 2013, and completed on 10 October 2013, followed by a merger on 11 October 2013.
On 7 April 2011, Astex was acquired by SuperGen (NASDAQ:SUPG). The surviving company was Astex (NASDAQ:ASTX). This acquisition closed on July 2011.
Astex business model based on up-front technology access fees, success fees for milestones and product royalties to fund internal R&D
Astex Therapeutics has developed a business model where revenues offset cash burn. Fee income provides funding for Astex R&D: Astex does not work on a fee-for-service basis, but achieves substantial upfront cash technology access fees, and agrees on success fees based on achieved development milestones, and royalties on product sales.
Examples of major agreements under this business model:
6 December 2005: Novartis, upfront access fee and + deferred equity payments of US$ 25 million, potential of up to US$ 520 in fees. World-wide license for cell-cycle inhibitor AT9311, option to license cell cycle inhibitor AT7519
2008: Janssen, US$ 37 million upfront access fee and equity and initial research funding
Dentsu further expands the global footprint in Spain
On September 20, 2013 Dentsu announced further European investments this year in its quest to strengthen its global footprint:
acquisition of 51% of Ymedia SL via Aegis Media Iberia, full 100% acquisition expected by 2019
acquisition of 31.8% of Wink TTD SL via Aegis Media Iberia, full 100% acquisition expected by 2019
Ymedia SL
Ymedia SL is a full-service media agency, founded in December 2006 and based in Madrid, Spain, employing about 50 people.
Gross profits in the year ending Dec 2012 were about UKL 8.8 million.
Wink TTD SL – “Transforming through Digital”
Wink TTD SL: a communication agency for digital transformation.
Gabriel Saenz de Buruaga (former worldwide CEO for Havas Digital) and Alejandro Esteves (former Managing Director of Aegis Media, Spain) founded Wink TTD SL in November 2011 in Madrid, Spain, employing about 40 people.
Gross profits in the year ending Dec 2012 were about UKL 5.1 million.
Wink TTD SL has the following six founding principles:
Fast fish eat slow fish
Sector exclusivity
Best talent in the market
Senior talent dedication to clients
We charge for what we do
Dentsu and Dentsu-Aegis
Dentsu dominates Japan’s advertising space, and is a very very strong force in Japan’s media industry sector, through control and management of major advertising channels with an overwhelming market share in Japan, and has been working hard to leverage its creative power and strength in Japan into a larger global footprint.
On August 27, 2013 NTT Docomo announced the planned acquisition of the Austrian company fine trade gmbh, which offers payment solutions to e-commerce and m-commerce companies.
The acquisition price has been reported to be “several tens of millions of EUROs”. Docomo acquired
fine trade gmbh offers online merchants over 180 different payment options, billing and collection services, including deferred payments against invoice.
fine trade manages credit risks and evaluates shopping data.
Loviit
Loviit is a payment solution provider, taking care of all payment processing and credit management for online retailers. Loviit enables e-commerce and m-commerce providers to offer a full range of payment options.
NTT Docomo’s growing finance and payment platform business in Europe
Docomo is continuing to build a platform for finance and payments in Europe and elsewhere.
NTT Docomo offers this payment and finance platform as a B2B service to mobile operators, content and service providers and e-commerce and m-commerce markets.
Arkadin International SAS valued at approx. US$ 463 million
Collaboration-as-a-Service (CaaS)
On August 5, 2013, NTT Communications (NTT Com) announced that it will acquire 91.2% of the shares of the French conference and collaboration specialist Arkadin International SAS from current investors AXA Private Equity (now: Ardian Investment) and other investors.
The valuation is estimated at approximately US$ 463 million.
After the sale of 91.2% to NTT Communications, ownership will be as follows:
91.2% NTT Communications
8.8% management
Arkadin International SAS [enjoy sharing] – Collaboration-as-a-Service (CaaS)
Arkadin International SAS is one of the world’s largest providers of audio, web, video conferencing and unified communications services.
The company was founded in 2001 by Olivier de Puymorin, and today serves about 37,000 customers in 32 countries.
Dentsu further expands the global footprint in Europe
Social, content and digital marketing empowerment based in Italy
On July 30, 2013 Dentsu announced another European investment this year in its quest to strengthen its global footprint: the acquisition of a 70% majority share in the Italian Simple Agency via Aegis Media Italia, a of subsidiary Dentsu Aegis Network Ltd.
Dentsu dominates Japan’s advertising space, and is a very very strong force in Japan’s media industry sector, through control and management of major advertising channels with an overwhelming market share in Japan, and has been working hard to leverage its creative power and strength in Japan into a larger global footprint.
How much broadband (ADSL, xDSL and FTTH) is installed in Japan? Find the answer and detailed statistics and market shares in our report on Japan’s telecom industry.
Similarly, Japan was far in advance of other countries in laying the foundations for the mobile internet, with the introduction of the DoPa (DoCoMo Packet) packet switched network on March 28, 1997, several years before packet switched networks were introduced in EU and elsewhere. However, Japan’s electronics and telecoms industries largely failed to capture global value from this pioneering work. Essentially only Softbank with the SPRINT acquisition now has hope to capture such global value.
A very interesting point is that in EU there are many discussions and uncertainties how broadband fiber investments can be profitable. Japan has solved this problem: FTTH business in Japan is profitable. We see arbitraging opportunities in capturing value from Japan’s know-how, similar to Softbank’s “time shift” investments, arbitraging the time shift of internet roll-out in US vs Japan vs China, as explained in our Softbank-report.
about 30% more FTTH subscriptions in Japan than in all of EU + Switzerland + Norway + Iceland
Japan has 30% more FTTH fiber broadband subscriptions than EU + Switzerland + Norway + Iceland…
Several years ago the EU engaged our company Eurotechnology Japan KK to benchmark EU vs Japan in fixed and wireless broadband. Our summary was that broadband connections are the lifeblood of our information society, and that Japan was far ahead of EU in providing and using both fixed and wireless broadband, and broad band fiber connections were much faster and cheaper in Japan than in EU. Although both have progressed since our benchmarking work for the EU, Japan is still very far ahead of EU in terms of fast fiber broadband penetration.
However, provision of broadband fiber connections is only one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is capturing value and creating wealth for the society. The really important point is, whether Japan’s electronics, telecoms, content and service industries can capture global value from the advanced deployment of broadband infrastructure. As we discussed in detail in the “Post-Galapagos working group”, Japan is being held back by the “Galapagos effect” – and the trick will be to make the necessary changes to break out from this trap.
Read detailed analysis in our Japan-Telecommunications-Industry Report
On May 23, 2013 Dentsu announced another European acquisition within the single month of May 2013 in its quest to strengthen its global footprint: the acquisition of the leading Dutch social media agency Social Embassy BV via its European subsidiary Dentsu Aegis Network Ltd.
Social Embassy BV
Social Embassy BV is The Netherlands’ largest social media agency, based in Amsterdam. The company was founded in 2008 by Steven Jongeneel and co-founder Niels van der Velden, and focuses on strategy & insights, content & community management, creative, brand engagement and advertising.
The company employed about 30 people when Dentsu acquired it.
Dentsu and Dentsu-Aegis
Dentsu dominates Japan’s advertising space, and is a very very strong force in Japan’s media industry sector, through control and management of major advertising channels with an overwhelming market share in Japan, and has been working hard to leverage its creative power and strength in Japan into a larger global footprint.
On May 14, 2013 Dentsu announced the acquisition of the Romanian digital advertising agency Kinecto via its subsidiary Dentsu-Aegis, based in London. Following the acquisition, the company was renamed Kinecto Isobar.
Kinecto
Kinecto International SRL is one of the most important digital advertising agencies in Romania, and was founded in 2002 by Dr Radu Ionesco and has about 10 employees.
The company focuses on online and social media campaigns, CRM programs, creative and production services for websites and micro websites, email marketing and search engine marketing
Before acquisition by Dentsu-Aegis, the company was part of the Tempo Creative Group.
Dentsu and Dentsu-Aegis
Dentsu dominates Japan’s advertising space, and is a very very strong force in Japan’s media industry sector, through control and management of major advertising channels with an overwhelming market share in Japan, and has been working hard to leverage its creative power and strength in Japan into a larger global footprint.
Panasonic continues to restructure away from commodities
Panasonic Automotive acquires AUPEO! to stream music into internet connected cars
Japan’s electronics giants are under immense pressure to refocus away from commodities. Panasonic Automotive now acquires the German company AUPEO!, specialized on streaming music into internet connected cars.
Aupeo was founded in Berlin’s startup scene in 2008 by Armin Schmidt and CEO Holger Weiss, and focuses on streaming music into internet connected cars.
AUPEO! works both B2B with car manufacturers and aftermarket car audio producers and also B2C offering services to consumers.
Heraeus divests Heraeus Kulzer GmbH because the use of precious materials for dental restoration is declining
Mitsui Chemicals [4183] acquires Heraeus Kulzer GmbH to combine with Sun Medical Co Ltd to form a global dental materials business
At the Board Meeting of April 4, 2013 Mitsui Chemicals Inc decided to acquire the dental business of Heraeus Holding GmbH (Heraeus Dental).
Mitsui Chemicals and Heraeus Holding GmbH agreed to a valuation of € 450 million (YEN 54.3 billion) including debt, and to be adjusted to changes in working capital and cash on the closing date.
Mitsui Chemicals’ subsidiary Sun Medical Co Ltd has been producing dental materials for 30 years, and plans to combine Heraeus Dental with Sun Medical Co Ltd to form a combined global dental materials business.
Heraeus decided to divest Heraeus Dental, mentioning that the dental industry is changing and the use of precious materials for dental restoration is declining.
Heraeus Holding GmbH (Seller)
Heraeus is a family owned privately held company, with core focus on precious metals.
Heraeus was founded in 1851 by the pharmacist and chemist Wilhelm Carl Heraeus, who had inherited his father’s pharmacy “Einhorn Apotheke” in Hanau, near Frankfurt. Wilhelm Carl Heraeus invented a method to melt platinum using a oxyhydrogen blowpipe. In 1857, Wilhelm Carl Heraeus produced about 30 kilograms of pure platinum, and about 1 ton in 1896.
Heraeus Holding GmbH achieves € 3.4 billion in product revenues + € 12.2 billion in precious metal trading revenues, a total of € 15.589 billion revenues annually in 2014 with about 12,600 employees.
Heraeus Kulzer, Heraeus Dental and Heraeus Medical
Heraeus since the 1930 supplies dental materials based on the gold, silver and palladium alloy Alba, and a variety of gold and ceramic bonding alloys. In 2009, Heraeus Kulzer was split into Heraeus Dental and Heraeus Medical.
I was invited to give a keynote talk to about 50 European participants in the EU-Japan Gateway program, which assists small and medium sized European companies to enter the Japanese market.
Japan energy market: “How can a European company succeed in Japan’s energy landscape?”
followed by some advice on how a European company can succeed in Japan, covering the following points:
you often need a taylor made solution for Japan
you need to understand the market, market landscape, need to do your market research
you need to understand the value of your product/service in Japan’s market
you need working capital to build business in Japan, somebody needs to invest this working capital: you, your investors, or in some cases Japanese partners, each option has advantages and disadvantages
some common mistakes – why business development in Japan can fail
Hitachi Consulting announced on January 2, 2013 the acquisition of the UK based operations management consulting firm Celerant Consulting.
Caledonia Investments announced the sale of its 47.3% ownership in Celerant Consulting for around 47.7 million pounds (US$ 68 million). Therefore we estimate that the full acquisition price of 100% of Celerant Consulting is around 92 million British Pounds (US$ 145 million).
Celerant Consulting
Celerant Consulting was founded in 1987 as Cambridge Management Consulting Limited by Ian P. Clarkson, and changed the name to Celerant Consulting Limited in May 2001. Headquarters are in Richmond (UK) and since December 31, 2012, Celerant Consulting Limited is a subsidiary of Hitachi Consulting Corporation.
Hitachi Consulting is part of the Hitachi Information & Telecommunications System Company (ITSC).
Hitachi is Japan’s largest electronics and electrical industry group. After about 17 years of stagnation, very low growth and very small profits, Hitachi was shell-shocked by approx. US$ 8 billion losses in FY2009 to embark on “Hitachi’s Smart Transformation”. Acquisition of Celerant Consulting is in line with Hitachi’s Smart Transformation, which includes a shift to profitable services and globalization.
Hitachi Europe expands European Traffic Managment Railways (TMS) sector
Hitachi Europe, on December 20, 2012 announced the acquisition of The Railway Engineering Company (TRE) from James Fisher and Sons plc for UKL 25.5 million.
The Railway Engineering Company (TRE) products include:
Rakuten is aggressively globalizing in the face of intense competition by Amazon.com, and more recently Alibaba. As part of global growth, Rakuten is acquiring a string of e-commerce, e-book, online media, and software and service companies in Europe. Now Rakuten has started to build fulfillment logistics infrastructure in Europe to strengthen the backend of e-commerce.
On November 6, 2012, Rakuten announced the acquisition of logistics specialist Alpha Direct Services (ADS), based in Beauvais (France), from the previous owners:
Alpha Direct Services (ADS) was founded in 2002 by Adrian Diaconu based on the acquisition of the French book club enterprise “Grand Livre du Mois”, with annual sales of € 3.5 million (US$ 4 million).
ADS offers a global value chain:
front-end websites
order management
receipt of products
storage, warehousing
order picking
fulfillment delivery, shipping (BtoB and BtoC)
reverse logistics
customer relationship management (CRM)
Adrian Deacon developed Alpha Direct Services (ADS) into a mail order, e-commerce and multi-channel logistics company.
Alpha Direct Services (ADS):
490 employees
storage surfaces: total 130,000 square meters
inventory: 2 million products
24 million packages shipped/year
180 active clients
Alpha Direct Services (ADS) growth:
2007: acquired Evreux logistical unit
2013: acquired Moissy-Cramayel logistical unit
2014: 13,000 square meter extension of Beauvais logistical unit
On October 29, 2012 Hitachi Ltd (株式会社日立製作所) announced the agreement to acquire Horizon Nuclear Power for £696 million (approx. US$ 1 billion), and the purchase was completed on November 26, 2012.
One of the bidders was a joint venture between China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group and China National Nuclear Corporation, however dropped out of the competition.
Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) will reportedly be undertaken by a joint venture of Hitachi Ltd (株式会社日立製作所), Babcock, Rolls-Royce, and SNC-Lavalin Group.
UK is planning to invest £110 billion to replace existing nuclear power stations with modern designs.
Horizon Nuclear Power was founded in 2009 as a joint venture between E.ON and RWE npower with the plan to build a nuclear power station with 6 GigaWatt capacity on a site close to the Oldbury and Wylfa nuclear power stations.
Wylfa nuclear power station is located near Wylfa Newydd (Isle of Anglesey) and can be found here on Google-Maps.
Oldbury nuclear power station is located about 23 miles from Bristol (UK), Oldbury (South Gloucestershire, on the banks of the Severn Estuary), and can be found here on Google-Maps.
Kobo acquires French digital publishing tool company Aquafadas
Rakuten acquired e-reader manufacturer Kobo
Rakuten acquired 100% of e-reader manufacturer Kobo for US$ 315 million in cash in January 2012.
Kobo announced the acquisition of French digital publishing company Aquafadas on October 10, 2012.
Aquafadas
http://www.aquafadas.com was founded in Montpeller in 2004 by Matthieu Kopp (CTO) and Claudia Zimmer (CEO). Today headquarters are located in the Montpellier International Business Incubator’s (MIBI).
“Aquafadas” is the combination of “Aqua”, the name for Apple OSX’ graphical user interface and “fada”, which is the goddess of inspiration (Muse) in Occitan (the original language used in the Provence).
Tools include:
InDesign Authoring: publishing customer mobile apps for iOS and Android using Adobe InDesign
Cloud Authoring: conversion of print to interactive mobile apps, e-books and web applications
CreativeFlow: creating of digital magazine apps
ConversionFlow: importing print documents to smartphones, tablets and web
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