Fandom Acquires Leading Entertainment & Gaming Brands Including GameSpot, TV Guide and Metacritic
FANDOM ACQUIRES LEADING ENTERTAINMENT & GAMING BRANDS INCLUDING GAMESPOT, TV GUIDE AND METACRITIC
Deal Increases Fan Reach & Engagement While Driving Affiliate Commerce And Extending 360 Opportunities for Advertisers
Fandom Will Now Rank as the #14 Ad Supported Site in the U.S.
San Francisco, CA and Charlotte, NC - October 3, 2022 - Fandom, the world's largest fan platform, today announced it has acquired a portfolio of entertainment and gaming brands from Red Ventures - GameSpot, Metacritic, TV Guide, GameFAQs, Giant Bomb, Cord Cutters News and Comic Vine. By combining Fandom's 300M MAU's, 250K Wiki communities and 40M pages of content with these widely recognized gaming, movie and TV brands reaching 46M MAU's, Fandom extends its strategic mission to be the fan's first choice for community and experience. Financials of the deal were not disclosed.
This deal will continue to expand Fandom's global fan platform to super serve entertainment and gaming fans as well as partners. The new combined platform will drive engagement across every step of the consumer journey - reference, community, trends, ratings, reviews, news and commerce. With the addition of these gaming, movie and TV platforms, Fandom will extend its 360 programs for its advertising partners - including game publishers, studios and streaming services - and enhance the data and insights within FanDNA, Fandom's proprietary data platform. Additionally, the deal will fuel Fandom's affiliate and commerce efforts including accelerating revenue on Fanatical, its gaming commerce business.
"We're thrilled to add these powerful, authoritative brands into the Fandom platform, which will expand our business capabilities and provide immersive content for our partners, advertisers and fans. The trusted insights, ratings and content they provide will make us a one-stop shop for fans across their entertainment and gaming journey," said Perkins Miller, CEO of Fandom. "In addition to creating exceptional fan experiences, these platforms will add to our FanDNA data offering, giving us sentiment and intent signals that will help improve the consumer experience as well as make our commerce and advertising businesses more impactful."
"Today's announcement marks the beginning of a new chapter for Red Ventures and Fandom, and we couldn't be more excited for what's ahead," said Christina Miller, Chief Strategy Officer, Red Ventures. "With Fandom at the helm, we are confident these brands and their teams will be well-equipped to continue empowering and connecting gaming and entertainment audiences around the globe, while Red Ventures continues to focus on unlocking the next phase of growth and evolution of its strong stable of decision-making brands."
This deal marks another step up in Fandom's growth trajectory, continuing its expansion across the fan ecosystem. In 2018, Fandom acquired ScreenJunkies to bolster its entertainment and news coverage. The company acquired Curse Media in 2019 which brought together the world's top gaming wikis with integrated digital gaming tools. In 2021, Fandom acquired Fanatical, a leading ecommerce video game retailer, which diversified its revenue into commerce and strengthened the company's footprint in gaming. And with this acquisition, Fandom will extend its lead as the #1 fan platform in the world, operating at the intersection of culture and commerce.
LionTree served as exclusive financial advisor to Red Ventures on the transaction.
ABOUT FANDOM
Fandom is the world's largest fan platform where fans immerse themselves in imagined worlds across entertainment and gaming. Reaching more than 350 million unique visitors per month and hosting more than 250,000 wikis, Fandom is the #1 source for in-depth information on pop culture, gaming, TV and film, where fans learn about and celebrate their favorite fandoms. Fandom's Gaming division manages the online video game retailer Fanatical. Fandom Productions, the content arm of Fandom, enhances the fan experience through curated editorial coverage and branded content from trusted and established publishing brands Gamespot, TV Guide and Metacritic, along with its Emmy-nominated Honest Trailers and the weekly video news program The Loop. For more information follow @getfandom or visit: www.fandom.com.
ABOUT RED VENTURES
Red Ventures (RV) is home to a diverse portfolio of industry-leading brands and businesses, strategic partnerships, and proprietary technology - including Bankrate, Lonely Planet, CNET, The Points Guy, BestColleges and more. Together, RV helps millions of people worldwide make life's most important decisions, accelerates digital adaptation, and innovates the online consumer experience by improving every step of the consumer journey - from first discovery of information, throughout the decision-making process, to transactions. Visit www.redventures.com or follow us on social media @RedVentures to learn more.
Press Contacts
Rachelle Savoia/ (470) 306-1609 or rsavoia@fandom.com
Brenna Harran/ (631) 902-9801 or bharran@fandom.com