On top of a free money management platform, and articles, courses and other finance-related resources, the company, earlier this year launched fee-based packages that pair users with Certified Financial Planners across the country.

On Tuesday, LearnVest is not only rolling out a series of significant updates, including its first mobile app, it is announcing that it has become an SEC-Registered Investment Advisor (RIA).

“Financial planning shouldn’t be a luxury,” CEO and founder Alexa von Tobel told me. “The less money you have, the more important it is for you to know about how to manage it. Financial planning is a consumer product… Making a financial plan should be like getting a gym membership.”

As part of its new status as an RIA, von Tobel said LearnVest had to undergo a months-long approval process and hire a compliance officer to lead a new six-person compliance team.  But to bring financial planning – typically a service reserved for the wealthiest consumers – to a general audience, she said it was important that the company formalize its fiduciary commitment to users.

The company, which has raised a total of $24.5 million, declined to share its most recent membership numbers but said that as of six months ago it had 300,000 users (a third of whom log into the site every other day). It currently gets about 800,000 unique visitors each month and has quadrupled the number of users on its money management center.

While the site initially targeted women, since launching its paid products, LearnVest has expanded its reach to a wider audience. Individual male users now account for a quarter of the site visitors, but that number doesn’t include couples who use it to jointly manage household finances. Von Tobel also said that users range from twenty-somethings to seventy-somethings. Some are  hundreds of dollars in debt, some have millions of dollars in assets.

In addition to its new SEC-registered status, LearnVest is announcing:

• its first mobile app (which should go live next month) which lets users easily track spending, manage transactions and quickly view their overall financial position
• an upgraded free money center, which includes improved functionality for tracking trends, monitoring progress towards goals and organizing transactions
• the ability for LearnVest CFPs to co-view and collaboratively add information to user accounts during phone sessions with users
• an updated suite of three packages of financial planning services  that range from a basic $89 “budget starter” plan a $599 “portfolio builder” plan (with the new plans, the company has raised its fees from $69 for the basic plan and $349 for the top tier plan, but said the CFPs now advise across a greater range of topics)

Despite LearnVest’s platform improvements, friendly user interface and network of affordable financial planners, joining the site requires a potentially daunting upfront commitment of time and energy from those unaccustomed to using Web 2.0 money management tools. And, consumers already using Mint may feel that their financial planning needs are met.

But von Tobel, who dropped out of Harvard Business School to launch LearnVest,is making significant headway in bringing technology and consumability to an industry that has long focused on the wealthiest and already financially savvy consumers. The company builds all of its products on its own financial planning method that balances essentials, lifestyle costs and savings for the future, and its 50 nationwide CFPs are equipped to advise consumers on everything from student debt to buying a home to estate planning.

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LinkedIn stock as of July 7, 2012

For nearly a decade and a half, internet companies have been accorded nosebleed valuations by the stock markets. Despite shaky business fundamentals, internet companies have often gotten a premium in the markets.

Magister Advisors, an M&A advisory firm in a press release emailed earlier today noted that all these new companies are getting what it calls “faith multiples.”

Loose translation: public markets are valuing some of the new internet companies too generously, especially when compared to more established companies.

For example, next generation players such as LinkedIn and Facebook have price/earnings (PE) ratios many times higher than industry stalwarts Apple and Microsoft. LinkedIn has a PE ratio of 711 and Facebook has a PE ratio of more than 70. Apple has a PE ratio of 14.5 and Microsoft has a PE ratio of 11.

To put the overrating in context, if Apple, a business with enormous brand value and a world-class track record of execution, received the same valuation as a business like Facebook or LinkedIn, it would be valued at many trillions of dollars.

Victor Basta, managing director of Magister Advisors was pretty harsh in his assessment of the situation. This is how he summed it up:

“Unproven future value is worth more than achievement. LinkedIn and Facebook are incredibly important next-generation internet businesses, but it is absurd to believe they are worth several times, or even several hundred times more than companies that already dominate their sectors.

Soon companies like Facebook will reach their own level of ‘saturation’ and this should already be priced in. We may be connected to every cousin or sales executive on the planet, but short of hiring someone or showing them a picture of our mother’s 80th birthday, we quickly run out of enough commercial meat to justify these premiums.

The technology industry has always over-valued the next big thing, and some of this ‘irrational exuberance’ is perhaps understandable. But where is the value for decades of performance? It is only in the technology industry that a bird in the bush is worth far more than a bird in the hand.”

Groupon stock, July 9th, 2012

All good points. However, we should also not forget that at some point in their life, even Apple, Microsoft and Google were valued at jaw-dropping valuations, especially in the early years of their life. Since then they have grown into more mature and stable companies.

Facebook, could perhaps be the same kind of company. And in case of others who don’t quite match up to the hype, well the stock markets do have a darwin way of dealing with them. Groupon is a perfect example.

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No deal terms were announced. It’s understood Data Explorers owner Bowmark Capital had been looking to sell the firm for the last year.

The company claims to track more than 85 percent of global securities transactions.

Markit wants to inject Data Explorers’ services in to its own, including adding new services for exchange securities, dividend forecasting and quantitative research.

London-based Data Explorers says it quadrupled revenue and tripled profitability over the last four years with global expansion.

Market also acquired Wall Street On Demand, which provides visualisations for financial data, in 2010.

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In the 2011 Bertelsmann annual report released this week, Random House said it has nearly 40,000 titles available as e-books worldwide, and while revenues were down for the year, “operating EBIT was higher year on year, especially in the United States. This rise was helped by continued cost-cutting measures and lower return rates in North America and the United Kingdom due to increased e-book sales.”

Similarly, Pearson’s 2011 annual report shows that Penguin’s sales are roughly flat, while adjusted operating profit rose by 5 percent, again due in part to e-book sales. “Penguin saw e-book revenues in 2011 double on the previous year,” the report says. “In 2011 they accounted for 12% of Penguin revenues worldwide and more than 20% in the US. Since 2008, digital downloads of apps and ebooks across Penguin have totalled approximately 50 million.”

And CBS’s most recent earnings report shows Simon & Schuster (NYSE: CBS) revenues down by 1 percent for full-year 2011, while “publishing adjusted OIBDA for 2011 rose 28% to $92 million from $72 million for the prior year, reflecting lower direct operating costs” due in part to “the decline in expenses resulting from an increase in more profitable digital sales as a percentage of total revenues.”

In other words, e-books are generally more profitable than print books for publishers. In 2012, I hope to see that reflected in higher e-book royalties for authors.

Our updated Publishers’ Digital Revenue chart is below.

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The $3 (£1.9) million round comes led by Antrack Capital and previous backer Anthemis Group but includes former Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer, former Activebuddy CEO Stephen Klein, Restoration Partners’ Ken Olisa and angel investor Sherry Coutu.

Founder Azeem Azhar says he is taking the money to build a “commercial model”, an audience for its PeerPerks method of connecting brands to Twitter users and generally to build up its ranking algorithm.

Like Klout, PeerIndex assigns a score to Twitter users based on how and who they influence, and understands users in order to segment the product. It has struck media partnerships over the last year to showcase how it can elucidate “top tweeters” in various verticals.

Azhar was formerly Reuters’ innovation head and has himself been an investor.

The theory goes, some companies out there want to know who the top tweeters are in their field in order to reach influencers with their messaging.

PeerIndex‘s PeerPerks adjunct gives free trials from participating brands to Twitter users who choose to connect with the company.

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Deal terms were not announced (release).

Fotolia lets photographers sell royalty-free photos to re-users and currently counts almost 16.5 million images.

France-based Wilogo says it has sold 2,006 designs and paid designers £943,985 since founding in 2006. Customers pay £295 to post design specifications for logos, print work, stationery or other items.

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Deal terms were not announced (release).

Fotolia lets photographers sell royalty-free photos to re-users and currently counts almost 16.5 million images.

France-based Wilogo says it has sold 2,006 designs and paid designers £943,985 since founding in 2006. Customers pay £295 to post design specifications for logos, print work, stationery or other items.

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Both companies’ boards have approved the deal. But the interesting part is: why does News Corp. (NSDQ: NWS) which co-owns NDS together with Permira, want rid of the software which powers its BSkyB (NYSE: BSY) and DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) PVR boxes, as well as Canal Plus’?

$5 billion in cash may be one reason, something which could provide a welcome dividend to worried News Corp shareholders.

But a big shift is also about to happen in TV distribution and reception, and it means less of a role for old-line set-top boxes and the satellite and cable infrastructure above and behind them.

BSkyB will this summer unbundle its own-brand pay-TV channels from satellite, offering them to direct subscribers via connected TVs, game consoles, tablets and other devices, all through landline internet. It has also acquired an out-of-home WiFi network so subscribers can watch mobile TV in cafes. And it recently invested in Zeebox, a social TV app startup that can change TV channels from iOS.

Much of this would radically change the importance of the conventional box under the TV, even if the market is nevertheless currently replete with dedicated internet TV boxes vying for market share, before the majority of TVs sold have such features integrated.

In emerging markets, where Cisco wants to take NDS, broadband networks are less established. And the change won’t happen overnight in the west either. Cisco says many NDS clients have five-year contracts. Cisco’s announcement does not say whether DirecTV and BSkyB have committed to renew with NDS.

In 2008, a California judge dismissed a claim from rival Echostar (NSDQ: SATS) that NDS hired computer hackers to crack its TV access card’s encryption. Last September, the claims resurfaced in a case filed by disgruntled News Corp shareholders, who claimed the company had sat on information about the EchoStar case.

NDS’ main assets are its VideoGuard DRM software and MediaHighway, middleware used to deliver EPG and PVR on set-top boxes. The company also has its own over-the-top TV product called Infinite TV.

Cisco wants to ally NDS with its Videoscape multi-screen viewing platform, though the company will remain independent. CEO John Chambers (via release): “Our strategy has always been driven by customer need and on capturing market transitions. Our acquisition of NDS fits squarely into this strategy, enabling content and service providers to deliver new video solutions that leverage the cloud and drive new monetisation opportunities and service differentiation.”

Cisco has previously snapped up the Tandberg TV distribution provider.

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Youku has proposed buying all Tudou’s stock in a deal valuing it at more than $1 billion. The transaction, if approved by shareholders, would create a combined company, “Youku Tudou Inc”, but Tudou will retain its brand.

The motivation is saving on the escalating cost of securing broadband infrastructure to deliver video to audiences.

“This transaction would also lead to improvement in the industry structure and the underlying economics of the online video sector in China,” Youku CEO Victor Koo says (via announcement).

“We expect to see significant synergies across a number of areas including leveraging licensed content over a larger user base and realizing efficiencies in bandwidth management and other common expenses.”

Chinese online video revenue grew 48 percent through Q4 alone, to 1.48 billion RMB ($234 million), and was up 139 percent over the year, according to Enfodesk, Analysys International. As broadband adoption grows there, the online video opportunity becomes greater.

This isn’t just a significant deal in China. Both Tudou and Youku went public in New York in 2010 and 2011, raising a combined $375 million.

Youku has 25.3 percent of the segment’s revenue, Tudou 14.5 percent. They operate much like YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG), majoring on user-uploaded videos but doing an increasing number of deals with domestic TV show makers and global movie companies to host ad-supported and premium videos. Competitors have been building and buying to stay in touch.

The big Sina (NSDQ: SINA) portal had targeted video as its main investment area. It had bought up stakes in Tudou. Now it will end up without influence in Tudou and struggling to build its own capability.

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Salmon reported late Sunday that CNN is buying Mashable, the consumer social media news site that has been branching out into other verticals, for more than $200 million with an announcement due Tuesday. Turner has been shopping for good digital fits with CNN, which acquired personalized aggregater Zite last August, and has had talks with Mashable, among others.

But a source familiar with the situation describes the report of a deal as a rumor and tells paidContent no announcement is scheduled.

Mashable, founded by Pete Cashmore in 2005 as a 19-year-old blogger, and CNN, already one of its partners, could be a good fit in a number of ways. In addition to more than 15 million monthly visitors, Mashable has more than four million social media followers across Twitter, Facebook, Google+ et al and a high profile with consumers. It’s held conferences at Disney (NYSE: DIS) World and on a cruise ship, while its SXSW party draws more attendance than several tech brands combined.

The report and particularly the valuation captured instant interest and some skepticism. While I wouldn’t be surprised to see CNN wind up with Mashable, I don’t see Turner paying $200 million — or even coming close — for it.

Update: A couple of notes in the light of day: Mashable could get close to $200 million if the valuation is at the highest range times earnings. Would it come as a flat payout? An earnout based on post-deal performance might make the most sense for Turner. Also this morning, Brian Stelter reports that talks are ongoing, which tracks with what I’ve been hearing. Will a deal actually come of it? As I know all too well there are moments when deals can look very close — and when they might not be as close as they seem. Felix may turn out to be right on everything but the scheduled announcement. The numbers may vary. Or it may not happen at all.

Just to lay it all out there, TechCrunch offers a second or third hand report that (I’m not sure) Pete Cashmore is telling Mashable senior staffers the acquisition rumor isn’t true. Which, of course, doesn’t mean an acquisition isn’t happening.

Wouldn’t be surprised if CNN did buy Mashable. But for $200 million? Wow. I want that valuation! So say we all bit.ly/zhEKov

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) March 12, 2012

Jeez, who is surprised? They’ve practically been in bed for last 2-3 years. Price is fantastical. CNN buying Mashable? reut.rs/zNnmWx

— Rafat Ali (@rafat) March 12, 2012

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