Weekly News Digest #41

Fandom acquires 7 media sites from Red Ventures

Wiki hosting service Fandom, formerly known as Wikia, has announced the acquisition of 7 gaming media resources from the US-based media company Red Ventures: 

— Gaming media websites GameSpot, Metacritic, GameFAQs, and Giant Bomb;
— TV and Movie news, recommendation and reviews websites TV Guide and Cord Cutters News;
— Comic book wiki platform Comic Vine.

Fandom hasn’t disclosed the financial terms of the deal. However, according to Techcrunch, the total sum of the deal is around $55m.

Founded in 2004, Fandom is a wiki-hosting service with 300 million MAU, 40 million pages of content, and 250,000 wiki communities, dedicated to various gaming, cinema, music, and other entertainment topics. Now the platform adds 46 million of combined MAU via 7 new media resources, which makes Fandom the top 14th ad-supported site in terms of MAU in the US.

As for the gaming sector, the platform reports 115 million video game fans, 17 million pages of content (43% of the total number), and 100 000 gaming communities (40% of the total number). The acquisition of GameSpot, Metacritic, GafeFAQs, and Giant Bomb even further reinforces the role of gaming in Fandom’s offering. As for advertising partners, the company highlights the role of game studios, publishers, and streaming services in its business.

According to the company’s press release, the newly acquired gaming, movie, and TV platforms will allow Fandom to build 360 programs for its advertising partners: with its current offering Fandom can integrate advertising in all the major content formats: references, communities, trends, ratings, reviews, or news. Moreover, the deal might also accelerate the Revenue of the companies previously acquired by Fandom, including PC games marketplace Fanatical (acquired in Feb’21).

With this one, Fandom has made one of the largest deals among gaming media platform acquisitions. Part of the money for the deal was probably provided by the recent deal with Hasbro — Fandom sold D&D Beyond, a digital toolset and game companion for Dungeons & Dragons, to Hasbro for $146.3m back in Mar’22. D&D Beyond was acquired by Fandom back in Dec’18 as a part of Curse Media. We don’t know the consideration paid by Fandom for Curse Media, but considering the overall growth of the average deal value we have been witnessing during the last few years, we can assume that the deal turned out to be profitable for Fandom. Together with the sale of subscription-based D&D Beyond, the new acquisitions also underline Fandom’s focus on ads monetization.

We want to thank Hiro Capital and The Games Fund for supporting this digest.

MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS 

China-based game giant Tencent (0700.HK) has purchased a minority share in Poland-based game developer Gruby Entertainment. The exact amount of the investment is not disclosed. The funds will allow Gruby Entertainment to add more staff and continue the studio’s growth.

Japan-based entertainment holding Bandai Namco (7832.T) has increased its stake in German-based PC & Console game developer Limbic Entertainment via its subsidiary Bandai Namco Europe. The financial terms of the deal are not disclosed. The acquisition is following Bandai Namco strategy to increase its production capabilities in Europe. Limbic Entertainment is currently working on a sim title Park Beyond.

UK-based digital advertising agency Fourth Floor has acquired UK-based creative video studio Explosive Alan. The financial terms of the deal are not disclosed. Explosive Alan will continue to operate as an independent division, while the deal will let Fourth Floor increase its capabilities and expertise in animation and social media sales.

VENTURE FINANCING

Australia-based esports entertainment network GAMURS Group has raised $12m in Series A funding. The round was co-led by ​​Elysian Park Ventures, and Cerro Capital, with participation from Powerhouse Capital, Aura Ventures, and Artesian. The funds will be used for further acquisitions. Before this round, the company purchased a selection of gaming websites from Enthusiast Gaming, including Destructoid, The Escapist, and Upcomer. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but we can probably expect more M&A activity soon.

UK-based in-game ad platform Bidstack has raised $11.1m in funding. $5.5m has come from Irdeto, while other investors are not disclosed. The funds will go to further develop the platform.

Romania-based full-service game development agency Amber Studio has raised $19.4m (EUR 20m) in funding. Emona Capital led the round. The funds will go towards the team expansion and M&A activity to grow the business.

Canada-based Web3 game developer Horizon Blockchain has raised $40m in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Brevan Howard Digital, and Morgan Creek Digital, with participation from Take-Two Interactive, Polygon, Ubisoft, Xsolla, BITKRAFT Ventures, and others. The funds will be used to grow the product and scale the business operations. Our colleagues from Naavik have further reviewed this deal in the recent newsletter.

UK-based mobile game developer TruePlayers has secured a $250k investment from  Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Investment Fund as a part of a $525k funding round. The funds will go towards hiring more staff and the development of unannounced mobile games.