eBay / Tradera

The international online auctions operator eBay announced on Monday (24 April) that it has agreed to acquire Swedish Internet auction operator Tradera AB.

Tradera operates Sweden's leading online auction website tradera.com.

The purchase consideration comprises a fixed purchase price of SEK365m and additional payments.

The sellers include Provider Venture Partners AB (48.9%).

(c) M2 Communications

News Corp / Simply Hired

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has made another foray into the world of internet businesses, this time with an investment in the world's largest job search engine.

Simply Hired says it has received a total $US13.5 million from New Corp's Fox Interactive Media and venture capital firm Foundation Capital.

Representatives from both groups will join Simply Hired's board of directors.

News Corp has been accelerating its push into digital media after spending more than $US1 billion on several internet sites last year including the $US850 million acquisition of Intermix Media, which owns the popular MySpace.com website.

Simply Hired, based in California's Silicon Valley, was founded in 2003 and is currently indexing more than four million jobs.

(c AAP News

NeuStar / UltraDNS

NeuStar, Inc., a leading provider of essential communications services to the global communications and Internet industry, announced today the completion of its acquisition of UltraDNS Corporation of Reston, Virginia. UltraDNS is now a wholly owned subsidiary of NeuStar.

The combined strengths and capabilities of NeuStar and UltraDNS will increase security, reliability and simplified administration for thousands of global enterprises, built on a solid foundation of innovation. Through its thousands of enterprise, service provider and TLD infrastructure customers, UltraDNS powers the resolution of over 15 million domains around the globe. On a worldwide combined basis, NeuStar and UltraDNS provide services to more than 20 top-level Internet domains (TLDs), such as .org, .info, .us, .biz, .in, and .mobi.

(c) PRNewswire-FirstCall

inRESONANCE / Schoolyard

inRESONANCE, a leading provider of technology solutions for schools and educational institutions, today announced plans to acquire Schoolyard, Inc., a leading developer of web-based solutions and tools for independent schools in the United States and worldwide.

inRESONANCE currently provides popular database solutions for admission, registrar and development as well as CMS websites. It is the only company serving the independent school market providing both web and database solutions, and has more than 250 clients worldwide.

The purchase of Schoolyard, Inc. would be the second acquisition that inRESONANCE has made in 2006. In March, the company announced it acquired the online admissions application service from one of its strategic partners, AdmissionsQuest, a leading on-line school directory, information provider, and promoter of independent boarding and day schools.

(c) PRNewswire

Internet Brands / Wikitravel & World66

Internet Brands, Inc, a leading operator of media and e-commerce sites for "large ticket" consumer purchases, today announced the acquisition of Wikitravel and World66, two leading community travel guides of up-to-date, traveler-focused content. The sites are growing exponentially, collectively attracting more than 2 million visits per month, more than triple a year ago.

Both websites utilize wiki-based collaborative editing technology, and are built on the principle that travelers often get their best information from other travelers. The Wikitravel website offers more than 12,700 travel guides in 10 languages, with contributors working together to continually enhance the site's content. World66 delivers nearly 80,000 articles on more than 19,000 destinations all over the world. The sites have extraordinary community participation, currently receiving as many as 10,000 editorial contributions per week -- meaning that on average a new addition to the travel guides arrives every 60 seconds, 24 hours per day. This rate of participation is also rapidly increasing.

Wikitravel founders Prodromou and Michele Ann Jenkins will continue to lead the Wikitravel site and community and will guide the integration of the World66 community. The founders of World66 will also stay closely involved with the project.

United Online / MyPoints.com

United Online Inc, an Internet provider, revealed on Monday (10 April) that it is to acquire UAL Corp's travel and consumer rewards programme, MyPoints Inc. UAL Corp is the parent company of United Airlines.

The purchase price has reportedly been agreed at approximately USD56m in cash.

According to Reuters, MyPoints Inc, which is also known as MyPoints.com, sells advertisers access to its database.

The company has 4.5m registered users and generated revenues of USD38.4m in 2005, The Associated Press reported.

(c) INTERNET BUSINESS NEWS

Verifone / Lipman

VeriFone Holdings, a U.S. maker of point-of-sale payment terminals, has agreed to buy its Israeli counterpart, Lipman Electronic Engineering, for approximately US$793 million, in order to gain access to more wireless and IP payment technologies, the companies announced Monday.

The companies sell software and devices for processing payments by card—for example, at supermarket checkouts. VeriFone’s range includes terminals that can connect securely to central banking systems over phone lines, wireless connections or IP networks.

VeriFone hopes the acquisition will allow it to expand its share of the market for secure wireless and IP payment systems. Replacing dial-up technology with always-on IP networks can reduce the time it takes to process payments by removing the need to establish a connection for each transaction, while wireless systems make it easier to use electronic payment services in emerging markets with poor fixed-line telecommunications infrastructures.

The deal will make VeriFone the largest provider of payment systems in North America, it said. It expects to close the deal by the end of October.

The cash and stock offer values Lipman at about $793 million, based on Friday’s closing stock prices, and will lead to dual listing for the combined company on the New York and Tel Aviv stock exchanges.

VeriFone, of San Jose, Calif., reported adjusted net income of $49.7 million on revenue of $485.4 million in its fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2005. Lipman, based in Rosh Haayin, Israel, reported net income of $20 million on revenue of $235.4 million for the year ended Dec. 31.

(c) CIO Magazine

Comverse / Netcentrex

Comverse Technology has signed an agreement for its Comverse subsidy to acquire privately held voice-over-IP (VoIP) software vendor Netcentrex for about US$164 million, Comverse announced Monday.

Comverse could pay up to an additional $16 million, depending on the financial performance of Netcentrex during fiscal 2006 and 2007, Comverse said.

For the year ended Dec. 31, 2005, Netcentrex, based in Paris, generated revenue of about $50 million. The acquisition, expected to close by July 1, shouldn’t affect Comverse’s pro forma net income for 2006, Comverse said in a news release.

Executives at Comverse, a provider of software and systems enabling network-based multimedia communication and billing services, said they were interested in Netcentrex’s network-based software that enables IP-based voice-video-data and fixed-mobile convergence. The acquisition should benefit companies looking to develop multimedia services over VoIP and IP multimedia subsystem domains, Comverse officials said in a news release.

Netcentrex has about 50 service providers as its customers, including AOL Germany, Fastweb, France Telecom and Telefonica Deutschland GmbH. Comverse’s Total Communication product line includes messaging, personalized data and content-based services, as well as real-time converged billing. More than 450 communication and content service providers in more than 120 countries use Comverse products, the company said.

The acquisition is subject to regulatory and Netcentrex shareholder approval.

(c) CIO Magazine