BUSINESS: Stardoll & Pizco Merge

Key Points

Deal includes cash and stock
Pizco CEO leaves and Pizco to be mainly run by Stardoll
The Aim is to create a larger network with multiple brands and try to follow the strategy of Viacom
New brand Paperdoll Heaven will be launched
They claim they will now reach over 20 million unique per month
U.S. Venture Partners and Mangrove Capital Partners get exit from the deal They invested 11 million into PIZCO

It looks a bit more like a take over, and Stardoll will be taking advantage of the technology PIZCO have built, but reports have noted that PIZCO's numbers have been falling away in the UK and Stardolls number have fell away in the U.S so there is going to be a need for change and The Buzz around the deal may create new interest, also why not keep your existing Stardoll customers if they want to be part of another social network it will be easier for them to join and share especially if they allow one password similar to Yahoo or Google ID.

Read more here (media post)

AND more here (Guardian)

BUSINESS: Meez & Pulse Merge

I told you lots of partnerships, mergers and acquisitions this year, hear is one of the first.

Meez announced yesterday that it has merged with Pulse Entertainment, an avatar-based messaging service for phones and the Web, and that it had raised a new round of financing led by Anthem Venture Partners. Meez will integrate Pulse's messaging with its own avatars, social network, and virtual world. Meez, has around 500k UUPM in the US but virtual worlds says that they boasts 8 million users but I guess that's registered. This mean pulse customers get Meez products and Meez gets out into the mobile world.

Now that is a smart move, this follows the other prediction I made about 1 login across multiple platforms allowing users to take their experience with them.

The merger will also see a shake up in the management team. Read about it on the Meez website.

One thing I would say is that Meez seems to be positing itself in competition with the popular IMVU which has around 2.5 million UUPM in the US, and the look and feel is leaning towards one that IMVU made popular, Both sites look really great and Meez has some unique features like the content deal they did for on demand TV, while IMVU offer a unique music features.