| Wenham,
MA, November 12, 2007 – Fusion
Media Group (FMG), an Out-of-Home media company, today
announced its formation around the closing of a first
majority acquisition funded by a $7.5 million Series A
funding commitment from Waltham, Massachusetts-based Key
Venture Partners (KVP). At the closing, FMG established
its first operating affiliate by acquiring the assets
of Genesis Media Advertising of Tyler, Texas.
FMG
is implementing a new and innovative approach to the
Outdoor Advertising—or more broadly defined Out-of-Home
media—segment. The Company’s strategy is
to buy majority interests in independent operators,
providing partial liquidity to the Principals or other
shareholders, while keeping their local managers in
place to continue running and adding value to the business.
This offers the benefits of partial equity value realization,
a low leverage situation, and an opportunity to capture
remaining upside equity value in the future to many
of the over 500 independent operators in the US today.
In select instances, FMG also considers the purchase
of an entire Outdoor Advertising business from operators
who prefer not to seek a continuing role.
“We’re
pleased to be backing Ed Lastes and Lars Swanson as
the management team forming this new company,”
said John Ward, Managing Director at Key Venture Partners
“Their professional experiences to date, and deep
domain expertise in the Out-of-Home media space, identify
them as an ideal team to innovate in the segment right
now. They’ve spent a year creating this opportunity,
part of it working together with us, and we concur with
their view that industry fundamentals strongly support
FMG’s innovative approach. The Company’s
robust and active pipeline of interested operators makes
this pretty clear.”
The
fundamentals in the Out-of-Home media segment have rarely
been so strong. Unlike other traditional media spaces
such as radio, TV, and publishing, this segment is directly
benefited by the advent of technology as well as the
steady share shift of advertising dollars toward more
“unavoidable” forms of media: Out-of-Home
advertising and the Internet. With a business model
already characterized by high free cash flow, several
additional factors are immediately and favorably impacting
the opportunity for these companies to grow: an expanding
universe of revenue driven by technology enhancements
to outdoor displays, including multi-face digital and
tri-vision billboards; exponentially-increased drive
times over recent years; increasingly favorable demographics
driven by the growth in dual income households; and
new advances in the measurement of exposure to outdoor
advertising.
“We
looked to KVP as a prospective investor based on our
prior experience with John Ward and his clear understanding
of the benefits that can be realized through applying
unique business models to otherwise traditional businesses,”
said Ed Lastes, Fusion Media Group’s CEO. “John
and KVP not only understood, but shared our belief,
that this is an innovative and exciting way to build
a meaningful company in the Out-of-Home media market.
We are excited to have John and KVP join our team both
as an investor and valued business partner.”
About
Fusion Media Group
Fusion Media Group (FMG) was formed to provide a new
alternative to Principals of select outdoor advertising
companies. Based on our experience gained from over
60 successful acquisitions in the billboard business
and over 30 years combined experience financing and
operating media companies, we know that the local entrepreneurs
responsible for building successful independent outdoor
operators can run those assets more efficiently than
anyone else. FMG affiliates with local, entrepreneurial
management teams to ensure the long-term success of
independent operators, while providing liquidity to
the Principals or other shareholders. Through our holding
company structure, FMG brings the benefits and equity
valuations of a much larger operation to independent
operators, while sustaining the entrepreneurial culture
which has created their success. The Wenham, Massachusetts-based
company was founded in 2006. For more information, visit
www.fusionmediagroup.com.
About
Key Venture Partners
Key Venture Partners (KVP) invests growth equity and
expansion capital in revenue generating companies with
capital efficient business models. Our investment focus
includes software, communications, information services
and IT-enabled services sectors. KVP understands the
unique challenges inherent to accelerating growth and
expansion for companies in these sectors. Our investment
criteria screen for companies that have products and
services addressing proven markets and are already generating
revenue, a stable business model, a rational competitor
structure, a logical path to profitability or are already
profitable, and a quantifiable value proposition to
customers. KVP is based in Waltham, MA and currently
has $175 million under management. For more information,
visit www.keyvp.com. |
