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Tag: HarperCollins Publishers

  • News Corp snaps up social video ad platform Unruly for $176 million

    News Corp snaps up social video ad platform Unruly for $176 million

    MUMBAI: News Corp has agreed to acquire global ad platform Unruly Holdings for a sum of approximately $176 million.

     

    The expected purchase price for the acquisition consists of a cash payment at closing of approximately $90 million (or ?58 million), subject to certain adjustments, and up to $86 million (or ?56 million) in future consideration primarily related to payments contingent upon the achievement of certain performance objectives.

     

    “Unruly is a feisty and creative company with a start-up sensibility that fits perfectly with our own approach to developing businesses in the digital age. The acquisition will serve as a catalyst for our brands, helping to extend our expertise in the digital and mobile video area, whether through the fast-growing realtor.com in the US, Fox Sports in Australia, News America Marketing, HarperCollins Publishers, or our market-leading mastheads around the world. Unruly complements our traditional editorial and commercial expertise with contemporary insight into how people read, watch, buy and sell in the digital era,” said News Corp CEO Robert Thomson.

     

    “We have a track record of acquiring businesses with unique capabilities, allowing them the freedom to do what they do best, while providing a global platform to accelerate their growth and realize their potential,” he added.

     

    Led by Unruly’s three co-founders, it will operate as a separate business unit, reporting to News UK CEO Rebekah Brooks.

     

    Unruly will continue to work with its existing roster of global advertisers and publishers and collaborate with News Corp businesses around the world.

     

    “We have always been pioneers in our field, so combining the formidable reach and resonance of our titles with their cutting-edge technology and video expertise will help accelerate our growth in this digital age,” said Brooks. “We look forward to working with one of Europe’s most highly regarded tech teams to create new premium video inventory for our News UK mastheads and other businesses, and to provide advertisers with best-in-class brand solutions across all platforms.”

     

    Founded in 2006, Unruly is a video distribution platform and tracks video sharing and delivers verifiable video views via paid media across mobile, desktop and tablet devices. With its data set of two trillion video views and sophisticated targeting capabilities, the company uses historical sharing behavior to predict the potential for video ads to go viral across all digital touch points.

     

    Unruly’s suite of advertising products includes: ShareRank, In-Feed advertising, In-Page advertising and Skippable In-Stream Advertising.

     

    In the coming months, News Corp business units will begin to offer Unruly products to their advertising and agency partners. This will mean a significant increase in premium video and mobile inventory, a stronger content marketing offering and, ultimately, improved returns for News Corp’s advertisers. 

     

    Unruly’s platform has attracted top tier advertisers, including such brands as adidas, Dove, T-Mobile, Evian and Renault.

     

    “We are absolutely delighted to join the News Corp family, and connect our scaled distribution, social data, and content optimisation tools with the premium ad inventory of News Corp businesses, and their highly-engaged audiences. It’s a tremendous milestone and an exciting new chapter for the whole Unruly team,” said Unruly co-founder and co-CEO Scott Button.

     

    “We are incredibly grateful for the passion and dedication of the whole Unruly team that has today resulted in this phenomenal opportunity for the business. Unruly’s enthusiasm for transforming video advertising and our agile development culture will continue to drive our innovative approach towards digital marketing as we help advertisers reconnect with consumers and future-proof their video strategy,” added Unruly co-founder and co-CEO Sarah Wood.

     

    Unruly’s third co-founder is chief technology officer Matt Cooke.

     

    Unruly employs 200 people in 15 offices, and regional hubs in London, New York and Singapore. 

     

    The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed by the end of September.

  • Fox TV Studios becomes entertainment studio for HarperCollins

    Fox TV Studios becomes entertainment studio for HarperCollins

    MUMBAI: Fox Television Studios (FtvS) will serve as the entertainment studio for HarperCollins Publishers, developing original content based on its existing library, as well as new HarperCollins titles – initially in the mystery and romance categories.

    Content will be developed and distributed across multiple platforms worldwide, including television, DVD, and digital media including internet, mobile/wireless and emerging applications. The announcement was made by Fox Television Studios president Angela Shapiro-Mathes.

    The first deal resulting from the partnership is for TV series development based on the popular legal suspense novels by international best-selling author Lisa Scottoline, which center around a group of female partners in the fictional, Rosato law firm.

    Scottoline’s first novel in this nine-volume series of thrillers, Legal Tender, was published by HarperCollins in 1997. To date, she has written 13 novels. Scottoline presently has 10 million copies in print in the US and is published in 23 countries.

    Additionally, Fox Television Studios has optioned The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble. Her novel chronicles a year in the life of a group of women who form a book club, only to see their own personal stories, trials and tribulations mirrored in the literary works they discuss.

    “I’m thrilled to be working with HarperCollins in a venture that connects our two worlds in this way. This collaboration gives us unprecedented access to an untapped resource of talented writers – new voices for the TV and digital space. It also allows FtvS to pursue publishing opportunities for the original programming we develop and produce,” said Shapiro-Mathes.

    To facilitate projects and serve as liaison between FtvS and HarperCollins, Fox TV Studios has retained veteran television producer Karen Glass to work out of HarperCollins’ New York City offices. An experienced executive producer, show-runner and development executive, Glass has developed numerous award-winning shows for broadcast, cable and syndication.

    HarperCollins president and CEO Worldwide Jane Friedman said, “This is a unique partnership that offers endless possibilities. We will now have a professional eye to evaluate our incredible publishing lists – both new titles and our unparalleled backlist – to discover books that are worthy of dramatic portrayal. This is another example of HarperCollins’ continuing effort to create additional opportunities for our authors by introducing them to new audiences.”

    Fox Television Studios executive vice president, scripted programming David Madden added, “We are delighted to be working with such a wonderful stable of talented authors. And it’s especially thrilling to get a chance to be in business with Lisa Scottoline. The admirers of her work are worldwide and extremely devoted, and we look forward to developing her ‘Rosato law firm’ novels for screens everywhere, from living rooms to mobile phones and anyplace where thriller fans can watch Lisa’s characters come to life.”