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28 MARCH 2013
REGIONSBUSINESS.COM
DEALBOOK
MEDIA
Journal Register Sale Approved A judge last week approved Journal Register Company’s sale of assets to 21st CMH Acquisition Corp. for $114 million in secured debt and $6 million in cash, the Associated Press reported. Union employees objected to the sale, but a federal bankruptcy court judge said a collective bargaining agreement will expire before the sale, according to the Associated Press. Journal Register owns 18 newspapers, including the Delaware County Times, The Daily Local News, The Mercury, The Times Herald and The Trentonian.
PNC Bank Building Sold For $74.7M Liberty Property Trust recently announced it sold the property at 8800 Tinicum Boulevard in Philadelphia to an affiliate of Cole Real Estate Investments, for approximately $74.7 million. The 441,000-squarefoot facility is occupied by PNC Bank, for whom Liberty developed the property in two phases, delivering in 1997 and 2000.
CBREMARKETPLACE.COM
2000 Market Sold to Rosemont Realty
Supervalu Closes Sale of ACME
RETAIL
Philly Pretzel Acquires Taste of Philly Stores Philly Pretzel Factory has acquired three Taste of Philly stores in Philadelphia, according to a report on Philly.com. Philly Pretzel Factory, which has stores from New York to North Carolina, plans to open 16 additional stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and in the Denver area, according to the Philly.com report.
Babbel Acquires PlaySay App Babbel.com recently announced it will complete the acquisition of Philadelphia-based PlaySay, a social language learning app for the iPhone that incorporates real conversations and pronunciation feedback with native speakers. PlaySay CEO Ryan Meinzer will join the Babbel Team as a strategic advisor.
RETAIL
Supervalu announced last week that it had completed the sale of five grocery chains, including East Whiteland Township, Pa.-based ACME. ACME had been joined by Albertson’s, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s and Star Market in a sale to an investor group led by Cerberus Capital Management announced in January. ACME, the second-largest food retailer in the Philadelphia region, has 112 stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware.
TECHNOLOGY
2000MARKETST.COM
CBRE Global Investors traded three Class A properties, including 2000 Market Street, to Rosemont Realty. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The 29-story, 665,649-squarefoot office building in downtown Philadelphia was joined by two eight-story structures in Herndon, VA. “We have successfully completed our business plans for these properties in line with the value-added strategy for our CBRE Strategic Partners U.S. series of funds,” said Vance Maddocks, president of CBRE Strategic Partners U.S., according to CoStar.com.
Roundhouse, Health Center, Morgue Headed For Sale If Mayor Michael Nutter’s plan to house the Philadelphia Police Department, the city morgue and Health Center offices (currently at 500 South Broad Street) at 4601 Market Street, then the three old offices will likely be headed to the real estate market. The Roundhouse, which currently houses the Philadelphia Police Department, is located at 8th and Race Streets. The City Morgue is located in University City. District Health Center No. 1 is located at Broad and Lombard Streets. The Roundhouse
JOHN DONGES
15M
Babbel.com users across the world
8M
Downloads of Babbel.com apps so far
200%
Babbel.com’s annual growth “Education is going mobile,” said Markus Witte, CEO of babbel.com. “This acquisition represents a continuation of our strategy to offer a complete range of mobile solutions to language learning and the possibility to leverage market share in the US.” Babbel.com will recruit Temple University alumnus Ryan Meinzer as advisor for babbel’s US operations. “With an affordable price point and focus on mobile, babbel.com is poised to usurp giants like Rosetta Stone who have neglected the majority of the users in the USA market that spend less than $100 per year on self-study language learning products. The winner of the race in language learning software will be the one that does mobile the best.”