APN has entered into an agreement to acquire a controlling stake in CC Media, a leading, profitable high-growth online catalogue digital distribution business in Australia.

This provides APN with a national position in the online advertising market and important digital capabilities to use across APN’s broader digital portfolio, most notably sophisticated third party traffic management via the CC Media iNC Network.

As part of the transaction APN will develop a close working relationship with CC Media digital entrepreneurs Rob Wong (CEO and founder) and Matt Berriman (Executive General Manager).

The second transaction is APN’s acquisition of New Zealand’s largest and most popular sports tipping platform Jimungo, from Affinity ID. Jimungo has around 300,000 registered users and runs tipping competitions across all major sports, including Rugby, League, Netball and Soccer.

It’s a strong fit for nzherald.co.nz’s sports content and lends itself to high audience engagement through interaction and participation in sports events.

CEO of APN News & Media, Mr Brett Chenoweth said the transactions represent an important step for APN in strengthening its existing digital portfolio.

According to Chenoweth, the transactions should be viewed as a clear pointer to APN’s strategy in terms of connecting its existing media assets with high growth digital businesses.
Founder and CEO of CC Media Mr Rob Wong said APN has a clear commitment to building out their digital position and a track record of successfully working with digital entrepreneurs.

APN’s significant media position in Australia and New Zealand creates exciting opportunities for CC Media to work with APN’s advertisers and accelerate CC’s growth in Australia’s growing online media industry, said Wong.

APN expects these investments to grow into an increasingly important contribution to APN’s earnings over the next 2 to 3 years.

APN News & Media has a diverse portfolio of vibrant media assets. APN owns the largest outdoor advertising business in Australia and New Zealand and has strong growing operations in Hong Kong and Indonesia.

In New Zealand, the company has three of the top five national radio networks with NewsTalk ZB, Classic Hits and Coast as well as five additional major networks.

In Australia, its major metro radio networks are Mix and Classic Hits connecting audiences in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide.

Mr Hartigan said that the acquisition of Kidspot was a transformational deal for News Limited. The deal makes the company the leading player in the highly valuable online parenting market and, by combining Kidspot with the most dominant food vertical, Taste.com.au, and the most aspirational fashion vertical, Vogue.com.au, the company now has an unrivalled presence in the online market for Australian women, said Hartigan.

Kidspot, a portfolio of online and offline destinations purposely built to answer the needs of women and mums, was launched in 2005 by chief executive Katie May.

Since April 2006 Kidspot has been the established leader in the parenting category and has an enviable relationship with Australian mums and mums to be. It now counts over 1.3 million unique monthly visitors – double the traffic of its nearest rival.

The Kidspot portfolio includes the following;

Kidspot.com.au – Australia’s leading parenting website, which includes sections dedicated to pregnancy, parenting, time saving tools, kid-friendly recipes and family health as well as a thriving online community where mums can share experiences, create and share blogs, and provide support and advice to each other.

Birth.com.au – a vast resource of information, from qualified experts, on everything to do with pregnancy, from conception to newborn. Birth.com.au is consulted by approximately 78 per cent of expectant mums in Australia.

Kidspot.co.nz – the New Zealand sister website, which is the country’s leading parenting website.

The Spot – Australia’s leading directory for parents which showcases over 4,000 listings from over 1600 advertisers.

SheSpot – a female-centric advertising portfolio which, in addition to company owned sites Kidspot and Birth, also represents Best Recipes, Easy Weddings, Weight Watchers and Mamamia, collectively reaching 2.5 million Australian women each month.

Research Studies – Kidspot has conducted three of the largest national research studies of women and mothers of the past two decades, providing invaluable insights for marketers and agencies.

Mums Say – a sampling and engagement program driving branded conversations online, via access to over 15,000 women.

Baby and Kids Market – a group of offline parent-to-parent community markets held across Australian cities. Managed by Kidspot, they make up the largest market of its kind.

TNT CEO Kevin Ellis said it was the right time to realize the Company’s next ambition – to reunite the brands that were separated some years ago and progress towards establishing a firm global footprint. It is good news for TNT’s travel-thirsty audience, noted Ellis.

Most importantly, for this internet-savvy independent travelling and backpacking community, the move will ensure the web platform that has seen massive growth in the northern hemisphere now gain a footprint in the Pacific region, Ellis said.

TNT Australia and New Zealand managing director Ian Wakeling said he is looking forward to seeing the magazine taking off Down Under.

Wakeling reiterated his delight to see the TNT brand reunited on a global scale. According to Wakeling, Kevin and his team have done great things in the northern hemisphere and the investment gives an opportunity for the team to undertake the same with TNT.

TNT Publishing has also snapped up Independent Travel Exchange (ITE), the Adventure & Backpacker Industry Conference (ABiC), the Golden Backpack Awards and the B2B newsletter and website Backpacker Trade News from Focal Attractions.

TNT was looking for a company that could turn Backpacker Trade News and the events portfolio into international brands.

Focal Attractions publishing director Martin Lane, said TNT Publishing was the obvious choice with its unique reach into the UK, Ireland, Europe, South Africa and now Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

In 1983, TNT Magazine pioneered free distribution in the UK. Over the last 25 years the brand has expanded into a multi- platform media company attracting a young, active audience with a zest for life and money to spend on living it to the full.

TNT Magazine offers an essential guide to travel, jobs, lifestyle, entertainment, news and sport from home and is distributed free every Monday across London, Edinburgh and other UK cities.

TNTMagazine.com is an interactive site offering users varied information in the UK, as well as providing a platform for user generated content, expert travel advice (the site has over 165 travel guides) an accommodation site. It also has a dedicated jobs board for UK and offshore jobs.

SkyCity, the Australasian tourism and leisure giant had launched an expansion wager with the Queenstown and Christchurch casino acquisitions. However, SkyCity’s offer had met strong opposition from the casino’s other major shareholder Skyline Enterprises in 2010. There is a likelihood the bid will not be increased, thanks to months of casino closure following the recent Christchurch earthquake.

According to the NZ Herald, the Christchurch casino has been closed since February 22. Just last month, the Casino asked its over 500 employees to take redundancy, use annual leave or take leave without pay till further notice.

Scott Campbell, SkyCity corporate communications manager, said approval was sought for the offer to Skyline last year. However, the offer was subsequently rejected. According to Campbell, there is no new offer.

SkyCity’s plans for the Casino acquisitions require state approval as the assets in play are worth more than $100 million. But in 2010, SkyCity had put out its offer for the Casinos fully aware of the uncertainty of the proposal, especially with Skyline’s objections to the move. SkyCity had offered Skyline a proposal to buy out the remaining half of the Christchurch Casino.

In an announcement to the New Zealand Stock Exchange last year November, SkyCity confirmed it had advised Skyline Enterprises of a cash offer that it is willing to make for its interest in Christchurch Casino. In reply, Skyline’s board opposed the approach, which included buying out the 40 per cent of Queenstown it does not already control.

But according to the Overseas Investment Office, the investment simplifies the ownership structures of the Christchurch and Queenstown casinos. Being part of the SkyCity group of companies will enable the full management expertise of SkyCity Entertainment Group as a casino operator to be made available to Christchurch Casinos and Queenstown Casinos, stated the OIO  decision.

The value of the assets of Christchurch Casinos and Queenstown Casinos and their 25 per cent or more subsidiaries is greater than $100 million, OIO said. SkyCity has a market capitalization of $2 billion.

However, the Adelaide plans are subject to approval. SkyCity has a market capitalization of $1.9 billion and its bid for the proposed Auckland international convention and exhibition centre is up in the air as executives await government announcements on the tender, which might be revived in next month’s Budget, said the Herald. SkyCity’s Federal St expansion in Auckland remains uncertain, after getting a rocky ride from city officials, added the report.

According to the Herald, SkyCity’s big convention centre bid on Hobson St is the odds-on favorite, and could beat four other competitors at Greenlane, the waterfront, the Edge and Quay Park, largely because SkyCity’s project is in the CBD. SkyCity is deemed to have the power, money and capacity to build and it controls the land, said the Herald.

However, the New Zealand listed business was asked to redesign its bid, an indication that it was perhaps more favored than others which have not announced any calls for fine-tuning proposals. SkyCity released the details of the planned Adelaide upgrade. The investment carries the firm’s largest capital expenditure program in the growing South Australian state capital which it has assessed as one of its biggest growth opportunities.

According to SkyCity chief executive and chairman, the Adelaide expansion will be undertaken towards the Torrens River, from its current location. The expanded facility will feature new and expanded gaming facilities including private gaming areas, dedicated parking and new bars, restaurants and entertainment areas, said the Herald.

The riverbank is one of Adelaide’s most important precincts, home to the South Australian Parliament, the Festival Centre, the casino and the Adelaide Convention Centre. At the end of February, the South Australian Government appointed a design team to undertake the master planning for the Riverbank Precinct on the northern side of the river. In connecting to the Riverbank Precinct, officials hope the city’s northern edge will become a revitalized public zone, indicated the report.

Adelaide is a big money-spinner for SkyCity, declared in the interim report to December 31, 2010, as a major contributor to the wider group.

The acquisition is consistent with APN’s approach to investing in high growth media opportunities, he said. The portfolio comprises over 100 billboard panels across the country, with significant coverage in the key metro markets of Auckland and Wellington. This includes a number of CBD sites that are well positioned to reach audiences during the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in September and October 2011.

Phil Clemas, General Manager, APN Outdoor NZ, said the newly acquired sites will complement the firm’s existing product offering and enable it provide more comprehensive metropolitan and regional coverage solutions.

APN News & Media is one of the region’s most broadly-based and successful media companies. APN publishes New Zealand’s leading metropolitan newspaper, The New Zealand Herald, and is the largest operator of radio broadcasting and outdoor advertising in Australasia, as well as one of Australia’s leading regional publishers.

In addition to publishing New Zealand’s leading metropolitan newspaper, The New Zealand Herald, APN is the largest operator of regional newspapers. APN produces a range of Australia’s top regional publications in some of the country’s fastest growing markets.

With a publishing footprint that extends from the Coffs Coast in northern New South Wales all the way to Cairns in Far North Queensland, APN Australian Publishing offers the greatest reach and frequency of any publisher in the region. Its fast-growing portfolio includes 14 daily newspapers, more than 75 community publications and it is the largest regional magazine publisher in Queensland.

The print publications are complemented by a growing online presence. Together, APN’s print and online assets provide unequalled coverage of its target markets, for readers, web users and advertisers.

In Australia, the firm is also the market leader in each of the four main Outdoor categories: Large Format Billboard, Transit, Street Furniture and Posters.

APN Outdoor’s Roadside portfolio of 2,200 large format billboard and poster sites span major arterials, motorways and local communities, and provide the ultimate consumer impact. While its portfolio of 32,000 Transit advertising panels engage consumers with brands and advertising messages in metropolitan markets.

According to the general manager, Oktober, Bruce Everett, the Animation studios begins operations with about 30 staff but targets about 100 employees by 2010 September. However, the company plans to increase the number of employees to about 300 in a period of four years and subsequently, it is hoped that it will make the company, Oktober Animation, the biggest purpose-built CG studios in the country, to be defeated in size by Weta Digital operation only.

According to Mr. Everett, the recruitment of the planned staff numbers would not pose any challenges to the company, saying that, given the many NZQA, that it, the number of institutions with certifications that offer courses and studies in animation, there exists a surplus of individuals with expertise in the CG field.

As such, Oktober Animation said it would work with institutions offering CG animation courses for about 120 to 140 contract jobs for their graduates. Everett said however reiterated that the animation company would not compete one-on-one for Weta with staff, given the fact that their projects are complementary and will draw from varying talent pools. Even so, the official ribbon-cutting event for the event is expected in a few months time, according to Everett.

Oktobor is New Zealand’s leading visual effects, animation, and motion design studio. They are globally renowned company combine a brilliant creative team and top of the line in-house facilities to produce original, cutting-edge content for TV commercials, feature films, and digital media. Their mission is always to create the most beautiful solutions for the challenges at hand, to deliver the best possible product to their clients, and to push the forums of design and visual effects into new territory. Formed in California in 1997 as a CG studio, Backyard has provided narrative content and services for clients including 20th Century Fox, EMI, Classic Media, and CCI and interactive content for some of the largest publishers in the world such as Electronic Arts and Activision.

Pundits had expected News Corp to launch a similar bid for the New Zealand business. Before the announcement of the New Zealand acquisition, Sky TV’s share price had maintained trading at $4.55 but went up abruptly after the details of the bid surfaced, trading at $5. However, it has since declined again. Pundits further reiterated that News Corp’s investment bid in the UK presents a serious move that New Zealand investors need to consider, as similar moves might be in the offing in the country, regardless of the fact that, at this point, it is just speculation.

Sky TV performed impressively during the global economic meltdown. The company has had major investments recently, with the development of MySky and hi-definition and the additional $145 spending minus considerably increasing its debt levels. Currently, News Corp owns 43% of Sky TV, subsequently, full control might enable it undertake content buying deals, for which New Zealand might be a potential market. SkyTV shares were up 9c at $4.73 after the announcement.