IGN going up for auction

IGN going up for auction

Tue 16 Oct 2012 8:52pm GMT / 4:52pm EDT / 1:52pm PDT
BusinessMedia

Unable to find a buyer, News Corp. expecting to sell gaming and entertainment sites for around $100 million

IGN Entertainment

IGN is going up for auction, according to a Wall Street Journal report. After a year of fruitless talks with potential bidders, parent company News Corp. is working with investment bank Allen & Co. to auction off the group of entertainment and video game websites.

News Corp purchased IGN in 2005 for $650 million. Last year, the company also acquired online gaming network UGO and folded its properties (including 1Up.com) into its one-time rival. IGN has also sold a handful of businesses in recent years, including Rotten Tomatoes, Direct2Drive, and GameSpy Technologies. The Wall Street Journal (another News Corp. publication) reports that IGN is expected to sell for about $100 million now.

The paper reports that a number of companies have expressed "at least some interest" in picking up IGN, including Break Media and SAY Media. Recent turnover in IGN management, including president Roy Bahat and News Corp. chief digital officer Jon Miller, was said to have hampered the sales process.

A News Corp. representative told GamesIndustry International the company is "not commenting on the sale rumors."

14 Comments

Rupert Loman
Founder & CEO

Gamer Network

That's not a lot of money, considering. Wonder what their turnover & profit is these days...

Posted:7 months ago

#1

kevin williams

KWP Limited

After the failure to roll-out the 1UP/IGN merged entertainment portal - I wonder if News International will divest itself of all these acquisitions and start a fresh? Will they even get this $100m for the mess they have created?

Edited 1 times. Last edit by kevin williams on 17th October 2012 2:53am

Posted:7 months ago

#2

Greg Wilcox
Creator, Destroy All Fanboys!

I predicted back in 2005 that NewsCrap wasn't interested in gaming or a games-related site at all other than as an investment to sell off at a loss or profit when the time came. But I WAS about three years off on guessing when they'd unload their purchase. I wonder who's thinking of buying them now?

I have a dollar to spare, so maybe I'll put in a bid...

Posted:7 months ago

#3

Dan Howdle
Editor - X360 Magazine

Imagine Publishing

I'll take three.

Posted:7 months ago

#4

Kingman Cheng
Illustrator and Animator

Wow...is anyone going to buy them for $100m?

Posted:7 months ago

#5

Jim Webb
Executive Editor/Community Director

E-mpire Ltd. Co.

My understanding is that the IGN business has not once seen a profitable quarter in its entire existence. I know for certain that was the case when News Corp purchased them in 2005 and I can't imagine that has changed since.

Posted:7 months ago

#6

James Wells
Gaming Contributor - digboston.com

I wonder if Jon Miller is of any relation to IGN Editor Greg Miller?
*cue conspiracy theory music*
Sad news, at any rate; they were my go-to site for gaming news for the better part of the last 15 years. Can only wonder how things there will go afterwards (probably not very well).

Posted:7 months ago

#7

Liam Farrell

Did the former IGN boss say they needed to go more mainstream? Maybe he couldn't or wasn't allowed to

Posted:7 months ago

#8

Paul Johnson
Managing Director / Lead code monkey

Rubicon Development

>> Wow...is anyone going to buy them for $100m?

Well, skype went for 8 billion, so us mere mortals are clearly missing something somewhere. That's an expected earning of $1.14 per human being. Makes this proposal seem like an uber bargain. :)

Edited 1 times. Last edit by Paul Johnson on 17th October 2012 9:26pm

Posted:7 months ago

#9

Aleksi Ranta
Product Manager Microsoft Entertainment & Devices

Also Finland LTD

Considering the amount of ads and garbage they have on their site its suprising, not suprising, suprising.

Posted:7 months ago

#10

Jim Webb
Executive Editor/Community Director

E-mpire Ltd. Co.

Paul, that would put this proposal at $1.562 million per employee.

Ouch.

Posted:7 months ago

#11

kevin williams

KWP Limited

The number of complaints about advertising ans reviewing of supported releases by IGN - you can not get more mainstream than that. Looking at the failure to generate a profit would also have a number of other consumer game media sites under the microscope.

I would be happy to see a number of the big-ego game sites hit the skids, and we start to evaluate the quality of writing and coverage, rather than the access to the key PR companies executives (and coffers)!

Posted:7 months ago

#12

Paul Johnson
Managing Director / Lead code monkey

Rubicon Development

>> Paul, that would put this proposal at $1.562 million per employee.

As I'm sure you know Jim, it's a bugger getting the right people these days.... :)

Posted:7 months ago

#13

Jim Webb
Executive Editor/Community Director

E-mpire Ltd. Co.

And I don't think IGN has 64 of the right people worth $1.562 million each.

Posted:7 months ago

#14

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