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European Online DVD Rental Firms Lovefilm, Video Island to Merge

Authored by dmw on April 6, 2006 - 3:43pm.
London - European online DVD rental services Lovefilm and Video Island (ScreenSelect.co.uk) announced on Thursday their intention to merge, giving the combined company a based of 400,000 subscribers and an estimated 17% of the total U.K. DVD rental market. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The new company will be called Lovefilm, and will offer more than 70,000 film titles, and 1.2 million DVD and video game titles, in addition to a video-on-demand service. Following the merger, European digital film distributor Arts Alliance Media will remain the largest shareholder of Lovefilm. In addition to the U.K., the company offers rental services in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The companies expect their merger will enable them to "exploit synergies on marketing, technology, distribution and operations to grow profits faster and accelerate expansion across Continental Europe," and be "more competitive against US rivals such as Amazon, Blockbuster and potentially Netflix." Current partners, some of whom offer white-label services powered by Lovefilm, include AOL, CD Wow, Dixons, Guardian Newspapers, ITV, MSN and Tesco.
tags: Deals | Internet | Video | Marketing | Europe | Metrics | Investing | Mergers | Lovefilm | Video Island |

U.K. Online DVD Rental Service Video Island Acquires Brafilm

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 14, 2005 - 3:42am.
Stockholm -- Video Island, a U.K.-based online DVD rental firm, announced that it has acquired Brafilm, the largest online DVD service in the Nordic region, for an undisclosed sum. Video Island said the acquisition would increase its total subscriber base to more than 150,000, making it the online-DVD market leader in Norway, Sweden and the U.K. "Brafilm is a well-established and respected player in Scandinavia and has some valuable partnerships, including MSN, TV4 in Sweden, TV2 in Norway and Coop," said Video Island CEO Simon Calver. "The acquisition provides a solid base for us to expand across Europe." Video Island, which earlier this year secured $10.9 million in venture capital financing from EVP, has made two other acquisitions within the last year or so, snapping up ScreenSelect.co.uk in August 2004 and DVDs365 just three months ago.
tags: Internet | Video Island | Acquisition | Acquires | U.K. Online DVD Rental | Brafilm |

U.K.-Based Online DVD Rental Firm Video Island Raises $9 Million

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 13, 2005 - 9:48am.
London -- Video Island, a U.K.-based online DVD rental firm, announced that it has raised more than $9 million in new debt funding. European Venture Partners (EVP) led the round, with existing investors Benchmark Capital, Cazenove Private Equity and Index Ventures also participating. The new funding brings the company's total raised to date to more than $27 million. Video Island said it would use the funding to support its growth and market reach and expand its DVD library, already the largest in Europe with more than 32,000 titles. "Video Island has established itself as the dominant player in this market and has forged ahead of its rivals both in terms of market share and innovative approach," said EVP Partner Ross Ahlgren. "We are excited to team up with some of Europe's premier VCs to support the continuation of Video Island's impressive development."
tags: Internet | VC | DVD | Video Island | U.K |

U.K. Online DVD Rental Service Video Island Raises $11 Million

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 10, 2004 - 10:32am.
London -- Video Island, a U.K.-based online DVD rental service, announced on Thursday that it has raised $11 million in its second round of venture capital financing. Cazenove Private Equity led the investment round; Benchmark Capital and Index Ventures also participated. Founded in 2002, Video Island offers a catalog of 15,000 titles under three flat-rate monthly subscription packages that allow a differing number of DVDs to be checked out at a time. Like Netflix, Video Island delivers movies to subscribers via the postal service and does not charge late fees, although Netflix's library is somewhat larger with 20,000 available titles.
tags: VC | Video Island | U.K. Online DVD Rental |

U.K. Online DVD Rental Firm Video Island Raises $3.4 Million

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 15, 2003 - 6:55am.
London -- Video Island, a U.K.-based online DVD rental service, announced on Monday that it has raised $3.4 million in its second round of venture capital financing. Benchmark Capital and Index Ventures co-led the investment round; other participants included Redbus' Simon Franks and Retail Variations chairman Robert Klein. Video Island's service, which closely mirrors that of U.S.-based Netflix, allows members who pay around $20 per month to rent DVDs from a library of 12,000 titles, which are sent from and returned to the company through the mail. Video Island will use the new funds for sales and marketing, business development and further investment in logistics and its DVD library. http://cws.huginonline.com/I/120128/PR/200309/917278_5_2.html  http://www.videoisland.com
tags: Internet | VC | DVD | Video Island | U.K |