Cellfish Media, the mobile arm of Lagardere Interactive (part of French media and tech conglom Lagardere), has received a big $50 million in funding from Telecom Media Fund, an investment fund financed by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Trio Capital, managed by Trio Capital; and Groupe Humagade Inc., an affiliate to Desjardins Venture. The new investors will “own approximately 30% of the shares of Cellfish Media, together with Lagardère”.
Cellfish, which runs branded sites such as Blingtones and Barrio Mobile, is headquartered in New York City and generated $116 million in revenue in 2005 from more than 200 million transactions. It employs 250 people.
Rafat adds: Expect them to do some midsize mobile content acquisitions in the coming months, if they haven’t lined up some already. Lagardere CEO has already said the group was considering making acquisitions in the magazine and internet sectors in the US.