IGN Up For Sale
IGN, the popular video game website, will be up for sale soon.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, multinational media group News Corp, which currently owns IGN and its various video game and entertainment websites, will put the network up for auction. Previous attempts to sell the network over the course of 2011 have failed and News Corp is working with investment bank Allen & Co to bring IGN Entertainment to auction. IGN is expected to sell in the auction for around $100 million with Break Media and SAY Media reportedly among potential buyers as well as various private equity funds.
News Corp has publicly stated its intention to sell IGN after it announced it was preparing to restructure its internal publishing and journalism assets in order to separate them from its media and entertainment businesses but the sales negotiations were affected by the departure of IGN chief executive Roy Bahat in August and the resignation of News Corp’s chief digital officer Jon Miller. Over the last year, News Corp has made efforts to boost the value of the network by acquiring IGN rival UGO Entertainment from Hearst Corp, which included 1up.com.
News Corp originally bought IGN in 2005 for $650 million (a deal that also included sites such as GameSpy.com and TeamXbox.com). This isn’t the first time News Corp has bought a website and then lost a large sum of money selling it later. Back in 2005, News Corp bought MySpace for $580 million and then sold it in 2011 for $35 million.
IGN is the biggest internet video game site alongside Gamespot. While it’s unlikely that IGN will be shut down or the current staff and features will be laid off or discontinued, what do you think this means for the future of the site? Do you visit the site often? Comment below and let us know.
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