Takeover mania isn’t confined to one side of the Atlantic; Liberty, the media group that includes QVC and holds a majority stake in IAC/Interactive Corp, is buying Provide Commerce whose mission is “To become the leading e-commerce marketplace for the delivery of perishable products direct from the supplier to the consumer,” whatever that means.
Provide Commerce has a number of branded Websites geared to rapidly ship perishable goods ordered on the Web, with brands including Cherry Moon Farms.
Liberty is paying Provide Commerce shareholders a 12% premium on Fridays’ closing price valuing the company at $477m, that’s $33.75 for each and every share.
The Liberty purchase, is subject to approvals from US regulatory bodies as well as Provide Commerce shareholders, if all obstacles are cleared then the acquisition should complete in the second quarter of 2006.
John Malone the multi-Billionaire Chairman of Liberty was clear on the acquisition goals, “We believe in the power of video to drive television and web-based retailing businesses and Provide is a compelling addition to our strategy.”
Bill Strauss Provide Commerce’s CEO was equally direct,
“We look forward to working with the other Liberty Internet and video companies to accelerate profitable growth.”
Malone is a titan in the media world who rivals Murdoch Senior in terms of reach and ambitions (in fact Liberty holds a substantial share of Murdoch’s News Corp).
Dr Malone has rarely been wrong footed by developments in the media landscape and we expect he’ll soon be reaping benefits from this deal including the leveraging of IAC/Interactive Corp’s strength in retailing and service sectors alongside potential tie-ins to QVC’s somewhat gullible customers.
Liberty
Provide Commerce
Both Vodafone and France Telecom are now considering a rival bid for Virgin Mobile, following a “unanimous” decision by the Virgin board to reject the starting offer from NTL. Financial sources say both companies have asked to look at the Virgin Mobile books.
From Australia, Forbes quotes Branson as saying that the new company will be formed and will be called Virgin TV – all it will take, he added, is a small increase in the offer. He said the current offer under-valued the company in the eyes of his fellow directors, but that “the difference between what they’ve asked for and what NTL has offered is not considerable in financial terms.”
California based telecoms company, SureWest Communications, is set to become the first company in the USA to offer HDTV commercially over its Internet Protocol (IP)-based fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) network.
“Through our HDTV channel lineup and launch of HDTV over IP, we are showcasing our dedication to providing customers with the highest-quality programming, sharpest picture available and a variety of emerging video products,” he added.
On HDNet, SureWest viewers can, err, thrill to original series like “HDNet World Report,” “Face 2 Face with Roy Firestone” and “HDNet Concert Series,” and if that lot doesn’t set you packing your bags for Sacramento, there’ll also be showing Warner’s “Smallville” series and a load of live sports productions include Major League Soccer games.
NBC Universal and Apple have struck a deal to make NBC-owned television shows, such as “The Office” and “Law & Order,” available on the iTunes music store.
The shows will be available from next week, downloadable from the iTunes Music Store the day after they air for $1.99 (£1.15, €1.70) per episode
Say hello to the LG SB130-KB1300 handset, a clever-clogs, do-it-all device that can do play and pause live TV as well as deal with every multimedia-type task you can lob at it.
This memory can apparently fit up to an hour’s worth of broadcasting before it starts writing over the oldest bits with new content.
The aerial’s a bit of a beefy affair too, but we doubt if the geeky market the phone’s aimed at are going to mind.
Creative are set to take on Apple’s video-enabled fifth-generation iPod with their new Zen Vision:M player, due to be announced tomorrow.
Creative claim that the rechargeable battery can keep punters entertained for four hours in video-playback mode – twice as long as the iPod’s two hours.
It’s a shame seeing a company as, err, creative as Creative coming up with a design so obviously ‘inspired’ by the iPod, but perhaps it’s a sign that they’re signing up to a philosophy of, “if you can’t beat them, join them.”
The Digital-Lifestyles office is in a state of total confusion over major UK broadcaster, 
The school leavers departing since the wide use of the Internet, will not have to resort to third-party services – the majority of them will have an online presence, allowing direct contact, if desired.
Another benefit will be letting ITV have access to the 12m members of FR, allowing them to expose the online FR audience to promotion of ITV’s programming, if they’re UK based. Later this can be expanded to on-demand sales.
Friends Reunited and ITV have decided to make it legal; after a short romance, a deal’s been agreed. Rumours they’d been seeing other suitors that included BT, News Corp and that bastion of middle England the Daily Mail & General Trust, did little to cool the ardour of an excited ITV.
“When ITV approached us we immediately clicked; they share our values, they’re a national institution that is trusted and well loved, and by joining with them, Friends Reunited will become the UK ‘s 8th most visited site giving us access to a vast audience so we can connect even more of you even more of the time.”
“A powerful consolidated online advertising sales proposition. 53% of Friends Reunited users are in the ABC1 demographic and 40% are in the 16-34 age range – both key audiences for advertisers. It will contribute additional advertising synergies as ITV Internet sales will have increased scale, becoming a one-stop-shop for media agencies in the online space.”
Japan Sharp and NTT DoCoMo will be launching the SH902i FOMA, their funky new 3G clamshell phone in Japan this week.
As ever, there’s a veritable feast o’multimedia bolted on board, with the all-swivellin’, all-flippin’, shiny handset coming with an impressive 3.16 megapixel autofocus camera, an MP3 Player and the highly rated NetFront Web browser.
The phone goes on sale in Japan on December 9th with no date set for us technology-starved folks in Britland.
The long, long, long awaited Mamiya ZD medium format digital SLR is now available on pre-order in Japan, with UK delivery promised in January.
Inside the pixel-guzzling beast lies Mamiya’s exclusive 14bit A/D (analogue to digital) converter, enabling photographers to rattle off 12bit images at a nippy 1.5fps (up to 11 images).
On the back of the camera, a 1.8in LCD offers image previews with a LCD window below displaying ISO and exposure information.
The price is going to hover around an eye-watering €9200 – enormous wonga for some, but it’s the kind of figure that may finally tempt die-hard professional film photographers into the digital fold.