31st Jul 2009 11:01
31 July 2009 United Business Media acquires The Fuel Team for $2.5m Acquisition extends existing partnership with PR Newswire
United Business Media Limited today announces it has acquired The Fuel Team (TFT) on behalf of PR Newswire (www.prnewswire.com) for a total cash consideration of $2.5m, with an earnout of up to an additional $4.5m over 3 years.
The Fuel Team (www.thefuelteam.com) builds and hosts specialist website modules (or, microsites) for communications professional working in businesses, healthcare and not-for-profit organisations. Using a proprietary content management platform, the Fuel Team's products give communications professionals full control over their online content and communication initiatives to engage their audiences online. The Fuel Team's principal products are MediaRoom (see www.mediaroom.com), IR Room (see www.investorroom.com), CauseRoom, CampaignRoom and PhysicianRoom. Customers such as Bank of America, AON, Delta Airlines, Dow Jones Enterprise, and Siemens use IR Room and MediaRoom to engage their audiences online.
The Fuel Team and PR Newswire have partnered successfully since 2004 to provide the MediaRoom and IR Room products to PR Newswire customers. The acquisition of The Fuel Team gives PR Newswire access to a wider set of high quality microsite products which can be marketed to PR Newswire's global customer base both on a standalone basis and as part of an integrated offering to professional communicators.
Founded in 2001, the Fuel Team employs 16 staff from its base in Denver, Colorado, with a satellite office in San Francisco. The company's three co- founders will join PR Newswire. The Fuel Team staff will assume responsibility for enhancing the core public relations and investor relations website products, extending the product base to appeal to new customer sets and engage new audiences, as well as identifying further ways to leverage the Fuel Team's technology platform to enhance other PR Newswire products.
In 2008 TFT generated revenues of around $3.5m. The acquisition is anticipated to deliver a return in line with, or in excess of, UBM's acquisition post-tax return threshold of 8%.
Ninan Chacko, Chief Executive Officer of PR Newswire said:
"We are delighted to have acquired The Fuel Team, which is a natural extension of our business and represents the next step in a very successful partnership. We are looking forward to working together even more closely to further enhance the Fuel Team technology, building new products that can help communications professionals to engage their key audiences online even more effectively."
* Ends - ContactsMedia Peter Bancroft Director of Communications E-mail [email protected] Direct telephone +44 20 7921 5961 Chris Barrie Citigate Dewe Rogerson E-mail [email protected] Direct telephone +44 20 7282 2943 Mobile +44 796 872 72 89 Analysts/Investors Email [email protected] Direct telephone +44 20 7921 5095 Andrew Crow +44 20 7921 5940 Notes to Editors1. United Business Media
UBM focuses on two principal activities: worldwide information distribution, targeting and monitoring; and, the development and monetisation of B2B communities and markets. UBM's businesses inform markets and serve professional commercial communities - from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewellery traders, from farmers to pharmacists - with integrated events, online, print and business information products. Our 6,400 staff in more than 30 countries are organised into specialist teams that serve these communities, bringing buyers and sellers together, helping them to do business and their markets to work effectively and efficiently.
For more information, go to www.ubm.com
2. About PR Newswire
PR Newswire is the global leader in innovative communications and marketing services, enabling organizations to connect and engage with their target audiences worldwide. Through its multi-channel distribution network, audience intelligence, targeting, and measurement services, PR Newswire helps corporations and organizations conduct rich, timely and dynamic dialogues with the media, consumers, policymakers, investors and the general public, in support of building brands, generating awareness, impacting public policy, driving sales, and raising capital.
Pioneering the commercial news distribution industry 55 years ago, PR Newswire connects customers with audiences in more than 170 countries and in over 40 languages through an unparalleled network of offices in 16 countries across North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, and via unique affiliations with the leading news agencies across the globe. PR Newswire is a subsidiary of United Business Media Limited, a leading global business media company that serves professional commercial communities around the world.
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