The Guardian Map is developed by crowdsourcing, same as the TechCrunch Map. In the case of Guardian's Map, technology companies in the UK which are less than five years old, under 100 people and less than £10m turnover are shown.

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Story from TheBusinessDesk.com written by Mark Fahy, the Assistant Editor

Nelson-based Daisy has made an offer of 51.5p per share for SpiriTel , which is a telecoms reseller serving a customer base comprising largely of SMEs. It will also assume responsibility for SpiriTel 's outstanding debt of £6.1m if the offer is approved.

Law firm Addleshaw Goddard advised Daisy on the deal. Spiritel has been advised by telecoms specialist Knight Corporate Finance and finnCap. Deloitte carried out due diligence.

The Hut Group Acquires Lookfantastic Group, the Market Leader in Online Health & Beauty

November 9, 2010

The Hut Group today announces the £19.4m acquisition of the Lookfantastic Group, the UK’s largest online Health & Beauty retailer, as part of its ongoing strategy to become one of Europe’s largest online players.

The deal will see lookfantastic shareholders receive £19.4m in a combination of cash & equity for a business that has been built up by the Crown family, along with business partners Keith Conniford & Martin Hurst, over the past 30 years. As part of the deal, Daniel Crown, CEO of Lookfantastic Group, will be joining the Board of The Hut Group to continue to grow the business and to assist with The Hut Group’s continued expansion into luxury goods.

The significant majority of revenues across the Lookfantastic Group are generated from its online operations, which include lookfantastic.com , lookmantastic.com & beautysleuth.co.uk. In addition, the business also plays a key role in the Health & Beauty industry by providing a training centre for hairdressers across the UK, as well as operating a number of salons in the South East.

The acquisition further extends The Hut Group’s reach into the luxury goods market and follows its recent acquisition of the UK’s largest online Gifting website, IWantOneofThose.com. Accounts to 31 March 2010 for the Lookfantastic Group report that the business generated sales of £20m, EBITDA of £2.8m and Profit Before Tax of £2.4m.

Commenting on the deal, Matthew Moulding, Founder & CEO of The Hut Group stated: “We are delighted to have entered into a partnership with the lookfantastic team. After reviewing the Health & Beauty industry earlier this year, we identified lookfantastic as the market leader. After meeting both management & shareholders, it soon became very clear that lookfantastic is a great business with a strong culture fit with The Hut Group. The strength of the existing team is a key win for The Hut Group, as we look to build experience and capability in new categories and become a key player in the luxury goods market.”

Daniel Crown, CEO of Lookfantastic Group commented: “Prior to holding discussions with The Hut Group, we had been considering investment in our company to accelerate our growth and consolidate our position as the UK’s leading hair & beauty website. When we spoke to The Hut, we immediately recognised they were the right partner for the next stage of lookfantastic’s growth. The Hut has an industry leading IT platform, in excess of 40 multi-category websites and a combined database of 6 million customers across Europe, making the Group one of the largest online players in Europe. Together we aim to create a luxury consumer division and are absolutely dedicated to ensuring that we promote and protect our brand partners, whilst continually enhancing the customer experience.”
Successful £18.5m Fundraise

The Hut Group also announces today, that the lookfantastic acquisition has been funded via a substantially over-subscribed £18.5m institutional fundraising from existing shareholders including Balderton Capital, Artemis, William Currie Group & ex-Matalan CEO Angus Monro.

Steve Whitehead, Mergers & Acquisitions Director, commented: “Our institutional shareholders have been hugely supportive of our growth plans since investing £14m in April this year. Following this further fundraising of £18.5m, The Hut Group is extremely well capitalised with substantial net cash reserves along with available banking facilities. This acquisition follows our acquisition of IWantOneofThose.com in August and is another step in our strategy to operate “Best in Class” websites across a broad range of fast moving consumer sectors.”

The Hut Group were advised by PricewaterhouseCoopers (led by Patrick Meades), HBJ Gateley Wareing (led by Paul Jefferson), Altium (led by Simon Lord and Chloe Ponsonby) and Savills (led by Stephen Vagg). Grant Thornton (led by Rupert Rawcliffe) and Rawlinson Butler (led by Tim Sadka) advised Lookfantastic Group.

Notes to the editor:
About The Hut Group

Founded in 2004 and based in Northwich Cheshire, The Hut Group is an online retailing platform focused on fast moving consumer goods including Entertainment (Games, DVDs, CDs, Books), Electricals, Gadgets, Health & Beauty, Footwear, Gifting, Accessories, Toys, Underwear & Sports.

The Hut Group retails online through its own sites including TheHut.com, Zavvi.com, lookfantastic.com, Iwantoneofthose.com, Gifted.com, MyBag.co.uk, Washbag.com, lookmantastic.com In addition it delivers online retail solutions for blue-chip retail partners such as ASDA, Woolworths, Argos, Tesco, WHSmith & N Brown Group.

In September 2009, The Hut Group was ranked no.1 in the ‘Sunday Times Tech Track 100 of the UK’s fastest growing companies’ and ranked the 3rd fastest growing digital company in Europe at the ‘GP Bullhound Media Momentum Awards’ in May 2010.

For further information, please visit www.thehutgroup.com

Please find below a list of websites owned by The Hut Group. For more information please visit their websites.

www.allsole.com
www.beautysleuth.co.uk
www.gifted.com
www.iwantoneofthose.com
www.lookfantastic.com
www.lookmantastic.com
www.mybag.co.uk
www.thehut.com
www.washbag.com
www.zavvi.com
About lookfantastic.com

lookfantastic was born out of the Crown’s Salon Group, a Sussex-based business which started in 1978, which was well respected in the professional hair industry for both its traditional salon heritage and specialist training and education centres for hairdressers.

The primary aim of moving online in 1997 was to make high end hair and beauty brands more accessible, with favorite hair and beauty brands plus professional product information available at the click of a mouse.

Over the past 13 years, lookfantastic.com has grown to become the most visited website of its kind, winning numerous industry awards including: Best Online Hair Retailer for 3 consecutive years, and Best Online Beauty Retailer. Over the years, the company has formed strong relationships with every professional hair brand in the industry, whilst beauty continues to grow at a rapid rate. In the summer of 2008, lookfantastic increased the offering to include male grooming with the successful launch of lookmantastic.com which is growing in popularity daily!

The Internet is a fundamental part of everyday life in the UK - 73% of households have broadband. Our research has revealed that the UK Internet economy is worth £100 billion a year, is growing at 10% a year and directly employs 250,000 people. To have your say in future policy to continue this growth, explore the site, post a question and add to the debate.

Among the companies identified is Moshi Monsters. Visit Connected Kingdom to participate in further dialogue. Case study from the North West is at the bottom of this page.

UK Tights, a family-owned and family-run hosiery business, based in Macclesfield in Cheshire, attracts about 65,000 average monthly unique visitors and sells about 23,000 varieties of tights in the United Kingdom and beyond.

BizSpark Graduation Offer

The BizSpark Graduation Offer allows Startups who graduate from BizSpark to:

1. Keep, at no charge, all the software they currently use*, and
2. Have the option to purchase a subscription or maintenance to keep their software updated

Highlights:

After three years in the program, we will waive the $100 exit fee and offer the following:

1. Startups can renew their MSDN subscriptions at any level, starting at $935 for two years, per developer (MSDN renewals include Windows Azure benefits – compute hours, SQL storage, etc.)
2. Startups can purchase the first two years of Microsoft Software Assurance (upgrades, support and training) for production server licenses at a 50% discount

Details:

Startups may keep and continue to use, for development and testing purposes, all the software they received as part of their BizSpark MSDN Subscription. In other words, they have perpetual development and test rights to that software. If they want to keep that software updated, get ongoing MSDN support and/or access Windows Azure Platform benefits, they can choose to renew their MSDN Subscription at any level: Professional, Premium or Ultimate. Depending on what subscription level they choose, renewal prices range from $935 to $5108 per developer for two years.

Similarly, startups will also have perpetual rights to all of their Windows and SQL Server production licenses*. If they want to keep that software updated, they can purchase a two-year subscription to Microsoft Software Assurance at a 50% discount for the first two years. The total savings will vary depending on production server usage. Startups will be asked to report all production server usage in the third year of the program. If they choose to take advantage of Microsoft Software Assurance, they will be connected to a local reseller.

Eligibility:

All BizSpark startups who have been members of the program for three years are eligible for the BizSpark Graduation Offer.

Timing:

The BizSpark Graduation Offer will be available starting November 2011 as the first BizSpark startups end their three years in the program. Startups will have 90 days from their graduation date to take advantage of the BizSpark Graduation Offer.

Notification:

All BizSpark Startups will be notified of the BizSpark Graduation Offer via email as they approach their graduation date. Startups may be asked for additional information to complete the Offer. Startups are encouraged to update all company and contact information at their 2nd year renewal so the BizSpark team can contact them regarding the BizSpark Graduation Offer.

*The BizSpark Graduation Offer assumes a standard production configuration of 4 Windows Server Standard Edition and 2 SQL Server Standard Edition (Proc) which we believe will meet the needs of most startups. For startups who have different or greater needs, the BizSpark team will work with them to build a customized configuration at graduation.

Prime Minister David Cameron has set out the Government’s ambition for London’s East End to become a world-leading technology city to rival Silicon Valley.

Vodafone, Google, Facebook, Intel and McKinsey & Co are among the leading companies that have said they will commit to invest in the long-term future of the area.

In a speech to high tech business leaders and entrepreneurs in East London today, Mr Cameron also announced that the Olympic Park press and broadcast centres will live on beyond the 2012 Games as an ‘accelerator space’ offering flexible office space, facilities and expertise.

The plans are part of Government’s programme to create new jobs, diversify the economy and support sustainable economic growth.

The PM said:

“We’re not just going to back the big businesses of today, we’re going to back the big businesses of tomorrow. We are firmly on the side of the high-growth, highly innovative companies of the future. Don’t doubt our ambition.

“Right now, Silicon Valley is the leading place in the world for high-tech growth and innovation. But there’s no reason why it has to be so predominant. Our ambition is to bring together the creativity and energy of Shoreditch and the incredible possibilities of the Olympic Park to help make East London one of the world’s great technology centres. I want to show you how we can get there.

“For the past few weeks and months, we have had dozens of meetings with technology companies and venture capital investors from across the world. We said to them: “Here’s our vision for East London tech city – a hub that stretches from Shoreditch and Old Street to the Olympic Park. This is what local businesses are saying they need. What part can you play in making it happen?” I have to say: the response has been overwhelming.”

A raft of other measures were also announced to improve the climate for technology and entrepreneurialism in the UK. These include an Entrepreneur Visa to enable people with good business ideas and financial backing to set up their business in the UK, and an independent six-month review of the Intellectual Property framework. UK Trade & Investment will also establish a presence in East London.

A blueprint for technology was published today which aims to send a clear message to UK-based innovative and technology companies about the direction of Government policy in supporting and promoting innovative businesses.

ANS Group accelerates expansion with purchase of Alpha
Mon 1st Nov 10 - 6:31

ANS Group, the Manchester and London based Cisco, NetApp and VMware infrastructure specialist announces that it has today acquired the entire issued share capital of Alpha Business Computers Limited ("Alpha") for a consideration of approximately £4.85 million, funded from the Group's cash reserves.

Alpha is a leading independent data-management, storage, backup, virtualisation and data-recovery solutions provider with 28 years' experience in delivering ‘turnkey' solutions that empower businesses, allowing them to manage and secure their vital information. Alpha's management accounts for the ten months to 31st October 2010 indicate that it will show an operating profit of circa £500,000 for the year ending 31st December 2010, with turnover of approximately £15m.

Alpha currently has 40 employees based at offices in London and Manchester; these operations will be consolidated into ANS Group over the course of the next year. Simon Birney, Sales Director, and Howard Johnson, Technical Director, have agreed to join the ANS Group management team following completion.

The acquisition makes ANS Group the most capable independent mid-market IT solution providers in the UK, expanding both its Manchester headquarters and London city office. Combined revenues of the enlarged group are anticipated to exceed £35million, and the merging of the teams increases the employee head-count to over 100 with further recruitment planned. The acquisition of Alpha brings several new accreditations to the Group, including NetApp Star Partner, making ANS Group one of only two UK based partners to hold the highest level of accreditation with both Cisco and NetApp, along with EMC Velocity partner status.

"This is a historic day for ANS Group and Alpha, and for the customers that we serve," said Paul Sweeney, Managing Director of ANS Group. "Independently, each company is a respected industry player, together we will be significantly stronger. Combined we will continue to serve our customers - whatever their size or sector - with one of the most comprehensive, competitive and innovative portfolios in the industry. Alpha's staff have proven that they match the quality culture of ANS with the recent award by NetApp as the best ‘Professional Services Partner 2010'. I am very much looking forward to working with them."

"Today marks the beginning of an exciting new era for the company," said Scott Fletcher, Chairman and Founder of ANS Group. "Customers will benefit from the breadth and depth of our solutions, our commitment to quality and our ability to provide truly first-class service delivery. The combined scale and strength that this acquisition brings will benefit all customers as they continue to transform their technology environments. This is an important step forward for ANS and our ability to solve business challenges through practical technology innovations that deliver valuable results, such as our next-generation Data Centre strategy, Infrastructure 3.0"

David Mair, Managing Director at Alpha "The combined capabilities of the two businesses are very compelling; dedication towards quality and customer satisfaction makes ANS a force to be reckoned with, providing customers with a partner that they can trust and that can truly drive down costs and increase operational efficiencies whilst offering a platform for employees to flourish."

Join this contest and be part of the future of app production. MiniBar is looking for developers who will create innovative apps mashing, mixing, streaming, enriching music, pictures and video content.

There is a total of £7,000 up for grabs, £5,000 for the overall winner and £2,000 for the runner-up and you get to tinker with content from the likes of Universal.

IC tomorrow is a Technology Strategy Board initiative launched by Ed Vaizey (Minister of Culture, Communications and Creative Industries) on October 12th which provides a testbed environment for content owners and application developers to collaborate and trial new content-rich apps and services with real users.

Through this contest ALL entrants will get the exciting opportunity to become part of IC tomorrow and get the chance to showcase their inventiveness to major content providers and build valuable relationships for the future.

What we want you to do for this contest is to create apps using the IC tomorrow platform with either content available throughIC tomorrow itself from content partners such as Universal, or from other sources of your choosing, such as flickr, youtube, other content archives.

The goal is to develop applications that make use of the content in innovative, experimental or, simply put, fun ways, and useIC tomorrow as the testing ground to evaluate their potential.

And the great news is, is that this is only the beginning for IC tomorrow! It will get the dialogue going between media owners, developers and users.

Don’t pass up this opportunity to get your talent recognised!

To REGISTER your Expression of Interest please join our ‘Minibar IC tomorrow App Building Contest’ _connect group by 4th November 2010.

The timeline for the contest is as follows:

+ 12th October – Launch of IC tomorrow contest platform at Innovate10 and opening of online Registration of Interest via the TSB connect group.
+ 4th November – Deadline for Registration of Interest via the TSB connect group. API and contest briefing event that will include a detailed introduction to the IC tomorrow platform.
+ 23rd November - Deadline for all entries will be logged on the IC tomorrow platform in advance of the final judging.
+ 25th November – App show&tell and final judging.** The overall winner will be awarded £5,000 and the runner-up £2,000.

**The panel of judges includes Craig Smith (O’ Reilly) and Chris Jackson (MetaBroadcast) and Martyn Davies (Universal).

If you would like to find out more about IC tomorrow please read this press release. Also read our recent interview with Chris Jackson, CEO of Metabroadcast and once Head of Strategy at the BBC, who has been working with IC tomorrow since its inception. He tells us about his own experiences being the first to develop an app through the platform, the benefits of taking part in the contest and his hopes for the future of the programme
*The panel of judges includes Craig Smith (O’ Reilly) and Chris Jackson (MetaBroadcast) and Martyn Davies (Universal).

More information...

Metadata Production Tools Competition

The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) is investing up to £5m in collaborative R&D projects looking to create tools that make the production of content, such as film, music and computer games, more cost-effective, less risky and yield greater value through new advanced uses of metadata.

The TSB would like to see projects that increase Return On Investment and the value of media assets by building new metadata tools or making workflows already in place yield richer, more persistent and therefore more valuable metadata.

Projects will deliver a prototype, demonstrator or similar built around content-based service or application, which has the potential to enter the market within two years of project completion.

The Technology Strategy Board is funding two rounds of fast-track competition for projects with a total value of less than £100K each targeting small and medium-sized enterprises. There will also be one mainstream collaborative R&D competition for projects with a total value more than £100K

Key Dates

Competition Opens - 14 March 2011
Optional Briefing - 24 March 2011
Round 1 Application deadline - 21 April 2011

To help digital firms successfully enter this competition, the Creative Industries KTN is organising an event designed to help companies put together successful applications.

This free Partnering for Innovation event entails:

+ Key Information about the application process
+ Detailed information on deadlines & eligibility
+ Ideas Marketplace - Networking and collaboration opportunities
+ One to One Sessions with the Technology Strategy Board

You can also access the information booklet about the Metadata Production Tools funding call by opening the document library tab on the menu bar.

More infor...

LONDON – 19 October 2010 – Leading Geographical Information System (GIS) provider, ESRI UK, and identity management specialist, GB Group, have developed a solution which brings together both parties’ software applications to link UK postcodes and addresses with live geographical data in order to help organisations make faster, location-based decisions LocatorHub GBAccelerator is a powerful reference data solution that provides organisations with a flexible, live feed of the most current address information integrated through ESRI’s mapping solutions.

LocatorHub GBAccelerator links postcodes and addresses with UK geographical data to significantly increase the accuracy of referenced information - ensuring that details are verified and supplied in a consistent format from day one. This provides organisations with accurate and timely information resulting in quicker and better results to their data queries. The technology also combines a geo-coding solution to map clients’ existing data.

The solution can be tailored to suit a client’s exact needs if required. A number of flexible aggregated data options are available for ESRI UK’s customers from the launch of the service – dependant on their sector and business needs – with a comprehensive roadmap of additional data options to follow and customer specific data builds which are available on request. Used interactively, simply entering a partial address or postcode will return a fully geocoded address allowing the client to zoom or pan the GIS map to the desired location.

“We work with a large number of clients who need to be able to utilise and analyse a broad range of data in a GIS and who cannot afford to have inaccurate information,” says Lincoln Hewett, Alliance Director at GB Group. “Our collaboration with ESRI UK allows us to offer a cost effective solution to the marketplace that allows organisations to successfully utilise customer, supplier, event, incident and any other location based data in GIS.”

The ESRI and GB Group solution has a number of key benefits including, helping the emergency services react to crime and incidents more quickly, enabling utility companies to trace gas leaks and the individuals affected and helping local authorities to improve the efficiency of the services they offer, including Street Works and Asset Management.

Richard Waite, Managing Director at ESRI UK commented, “It is essential for organisations to be able to efficiently reference location information accurately. Correct identification of location-based information - linking people to properties, places and assets - is crucial to the success of many public and private sector organisations. GB Group’s technology complements ESRI UK’s solution, allowing us to provide our clients with a strong, cost effective solution that meets market needs.”

About GB Group plc

GB Group is the UK’s leading Identity Management business. It helps organisations recognise and verify all elements of an individual’s identity at every interaction. Through the application of our proprietary technology, we enable organisations to connect, communicate and transact with people safely, responsibly and profitably. In doing so, we help businesses like O2, Laura Ashley, HMRC, BBC TV Licensing, Ordnance Survey, HBoS, LloydsTSB, Virgin Games, PartyGaming, Betfair and Ladbrokes understand their customers better to create more meaningful customer interactions – and reduce costs across the business.

GB Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange (GBG). For more information, please visit GB Group’s website: www.gb.co.uk. GB Group - because identity matters™

About ESRI UK

ESRI (UK) is the leading provider of geographic information system (GIS) technology, helping businesses become more profitable and public service more efficient through a better understanding and analysis of location-based information. ESRI (UK) employs over 300 people across six offices and offers GIS technology and an extensive range of consultancy and training services. It is the only company in the UK able to provide a complete and entirely integrated GIS technical solution.

ESRI (UK) has been providing GIS solutions for over 20 years to a wide range of markets including Central & Local Government, Commercial, Defence & National Security, Education, Public Safety, Utilities & Telecommunications, as well as catering for system integrators and application developers through the ESRI Developer Network.

Customers include Birmingham City Council, DEFRA, the Environment Agency, Manchester Airport, Metropolitan Police Service, Ministry of Defence, Ordnance Survey, RSA Group, ScottishPower and WSP Group.

ESRI (UK) is part of the ESRI global business network with more than 300,000 customers in 150 countries worldwide. ESRI technology runs on more than one million desktops and thousands of web and enterprise servers, providing the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis.

ESRI (UK) helps organisations to think and plan geographically in order to make better decisions, keep communities safe and create a more sustainable world.

For more information, visit www.esriuk.com