And who says Republicans don't like gaming? From www.reuters.com News Corp to buy Internet video game firm IGN -WSJ Thu Sep 8, 2005 5:02 AM ET NEW YORK, Sept 8 (Reuters) - News Corp. (NWS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) has agreed to pay $650 million to acquire IGN Entertainment Inc., an Internet video game company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Citing a person familiar with the situation, the newspaper said Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. beat out Viacom Inc. (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research) for IGN. A News Corp. spokesman declined to comment and IGN could not immediately be reached, the Journal said. IGN's Web sites include GameSpy.com, IGN.com and TeamXbox.com, which are used to seek tips and chat about video games. It also owns a couple of entertainment sites, including Rottentomatoes.com, which is popular with movie fans. The Journal said the acquisition is the latest of several undertaken by News Corp. to expand in the Internet in recent months. Murdoch said last month that "there is no greater priority for the company today than to meaningfully and profitably expand its Internet presence". In July, News Corp. agreed to pay $580 million for Intermix Media Inc., whose sites include MySpace.com, which is popular with teens. Last month it agreed to acquire Scout Media Inc., which publishes local sports magazines and more than 200 local team Web sites. IGN has filed for an initial public offering. According to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company has yet to turn a profit. In 2004, it lost $14.3 million on sales of $42.9 million, mostly derived from advertising, the Journal said.
What the fuck does IGN do that requires $67.2 million to operate? All they have is server space, bandwidth, and employees who I'm sure don't make millions. Wonder if my site is in danger. :/
I wouldn't underestimate the cost that is required to run things such as Fileplanet and Gamespy Arcade. But I agree, they don't seem to run the company that cost-effective. ;p
Heh, it's not like IGN is a good place for reviews or news anyway, though. Since they sometimes are biased, and sometimes look like the developers are paying them for points, I think being next to Fox News quite suits them. In terms of media analysis, though, this is another example of consolidation. Bad as it is, IGN was a media entity that was not precisely alligned to the interests of a mega-corporation. The mega-corporation, though, requires consolidation to cover a larger market share, and to allign contents in more channels. So, it's feeding time. Nothing new, but very interesting development indeed.
Ign owns gamespy, and im not to sure on this, but several if not alot of the games use the gamespy network including the nintendo ds online, which would mean, that reuters would be getting a fair share here, one of the most popular gaming networks?...... im pretty sure reading somewhere on ign that, they are infact own a physical building, with full time employees, though how big the buildng i dunno, maybe its just a cardboard box with 3 moles living in it
