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Shiny Ads raises $250K from Intertainment Media

Intertainment Media announced today that it has made an investment in self-service ad platform Shiny Ads.

The strategic investment in Toronto's Shiny Ads provides Intertainment with an opportunity to more efficiently direct premium advertisers to their portfolio of online properties including itiBiti, Ortsbo, and Ad Taffy.

The initial early stage investment of $250,000 will provide Intertainment with an ownership stake in Shiny Ads and also provides the opportunity for Intertainment to increase its investment by an equal amount within six months at today's valuation. Intertainment Media will also have a seat on the Shiny Ads board.

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Canadian Financing Forum announces presenting companies

The 15th Canadian Finacing Forum takes place in Vancouver this week on February 2nd and 3rd at the Fairmont Pacific Rim.

The Financing Forum facilitates relationship building between entrepreneurs and leading venture capital and corporate investors, paving the way for company financings that ultimately sustain economic growth through new business creation and development.

The presenting companies have been announced and the Information Technology Stream will include the following companies:

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Siemens Canada Saves Ontario's RuggedCom from Hostile Takeover, Acquires Company for $382 Million

Siemens Canada has reached a friendly takeover deal with RuggedCom, an Ontario-based maker of smart grid technology. Siemens will pay $33 in cash per common share, making the deal worth roughly $382 million.

Only weeks ago, RuggedCom resisted a hostile takeover bid by Belden. The American company tried to steal Rugged for less than $280 million, but according to the Financial Post, the Ontario company "adopted a poison pill plan to allow management time to search for other offers." 

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Brand Graph Meets Interest Graph: Calgary's Tynt acquired by 33Across

Calgary's Tynt Multimedia has been acquired by New York's 33Across in an all-stock transaction and it sounds like a perfect fit.

33Across uses proprietary technology to build a unique Brand Graph for each of its 350+ Fortune 1000 customers. 

Tynt sees 3 out of every 4 of the world’s unique Internet users to capture information on their interests and interactions online. This data represents Tynt's Interest Graph, and provides an accurate measure of consumer intent.

Tynt was co-founded by Derek Ball And Dayton Foster in Calgary of 2007. Over the past four years Tynt has raised $11.9 Million in venture capital from Panorama Capital, iNovia Capital, Greycroft Partners, Metamorphic Ventures, Disruptive Ventures, and W Media Ventures.

Angel Investor Martin Soltys Wants to Inject $50,000,000 into Canada's Media Industries

Martin Soltys is the CEO of Transmedia Entertainment Partner, an offshore investment fund that he wants to use to invest in Canadian film, gaming, music, television, and digital media projects.

At Game On: Finance, Soltys said he had been approached about a few interesting places he could put his money while at the conference but believes Canadians have a lot to give and he wants to invest back in his own country as he's tired of seeing no return on the money he spends. Soltys was certainly surprised how many companies were already in the Canadian gaming industry but enthusiastically said that maybe Canada could rise from 3rd worldwide to become no. 2 and eventually no. 1 in the worldwide scope of things. 

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Everyone's talking about Summify but can it tame the Twitter fire hose?

Since Techvibes starting covering Canadian technology and startup news five years ago there has never been an acquisition that has got as much attention as Vancouver's Summify. It seems every online news property has reported on Twitter's most recent acquisition and the post-mortem coverage continues.

Across the board, everyone seems to believe that the bright minds behind Summify will help Twitter solve the noise problem that has made it unusable for many. Your feed is a fire hose of chatter and critical links you would be interested in are all too often buried within seconds.

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Lean & Accelerators among panel topics at 15th Canadian Financing Forum

The 15th Canadian Finacing Forum is fast approaching and takes place in Vancouver on February 2nd and 3rd at the Fairmont Pacific Rim.

The Financing Forum facilitates relationship building between entrepreneurs and leading venture capital and corporate investors, paving the way for company financings that ultimately sustain economic growth through new business creation and development.

This year's panel sessions have been finalized and they look great. Check them out after the jump.

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Perspectives from Leaders in Canada's Thriving Social and Mobile Gaming Industry

The Canadian gaming sector has risen to become one of the strongest in the world and leaders like Albert Lai of Big Viking Games and Alex Sakiz of Gamerizon are examples of how multi-million dollar gaming dreams can become reality in Canada.

A lot of credit for the suddenly thriving Canadian gaming sector compared to a few years ago goes to the extremely generous tax credit programs that attract world-class talent to the country to help out the existing 432 or so companies in the space which Lai says is enough to pay 5000 employees.

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