Flixster Acquires Rotten Tomatoes From IGN Entertainment
Flixster Inc., producer of the world's largest online movie community at www.Flixster.com, today announced that it has acquired Rotten Tomatoes from IGN Entertainment.
IGN, a division of News Corporation, will receive a minority equity stake in Flixster as part of the acquisition. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The combination of Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes reaches a huge global movie audience of an estimated 30 million monthly visitors worldwide across multiple platforms: on the Internet, through web-based social networks, and via mobile apps for the iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices.
Both Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes will continue to be available to movie fans as individual properties, the companies said.
"To use movie terminology, we think this is a blockbuster double-bill," said JoeG reenstein, co-founder and CEO of Flixster. "It's a huge step forward in our goal of connecting users to their own personalized world of movies on any platform they choose. We can't think of a better pairing for movie fans and our technology partners."
Flixster's president and COO Steve Polsky added, "Rotten Tomatoes has built a fantastically well-known brand that moviegoers trust when making their decisions. Combined with Flixster's social networking and word-of-mouth, we're creating the leading movie destination on the Internet."
"Joining Rotten Tomatoes with Flixster creates a company that can dominate the online movie category," said Roy Bahat, president of IGN Entertainment, who will join Flixster's board of directors as an observer. "This also enables IGN to focus on serving the male 18-to-34 audience -- especially videogamers -- and the advertisers looking to reach them."
Flixster already operates the embedded movie applications on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, iGoogle, and for the iPhone, Android devices, Blackberry and Palm Pre. Together, Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes will offer a database of more than 250,000 movies; 2.3 billion user reviews; 500,000 critic reviews; more than 20,000 trailers and videos; the well-known Tomatometer and Flixster Scores; unique movie news and editorial content; category-leading social-networking features; localized movie showtime information; theater maps; and online ticketing.
Prior to the acquisition, Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes partnered in several areas, including a recent deal that syndicates critic reviews from Rotten Tomatoes to Flixster's online movie community, both on the Web and via Flixster's mobile apps.
Since its inception in early 2006, Flixster has rapidly become the Web's largest community for movie fans, with more than 20 million monthly users.
As the web's leading aggregator of reviews from top movie critics, Rotten Tomatoes offers comprehensive guide to movies, and its Tomatometer rating -- based on the published opinions of hundreds of film critics -- is a trusted measurement of movie quality for millions of moviegoers.
The combination of Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes reaches a huge global movie audience of an estimated 30 million monthly visitors worldwide across multiple platforms: on the Internet, through web-based social networks, and via mobile apps for the iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices.
Both Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes will continue to be available to movie fans as individual properties, the companies said.
"To use movie terminology, we think this is a blockbuster double-bill," said JoeG reenstein, co-founder and CEO of Flixster. "It's a huge step forward in our goal of connecting users to their own personalized world of movies on any platform they choose. We can't think of a better pairing for movie fans and our technology partners."
Flixster's president and COO Steve Polsky added, "Rotten Tomatoes has built a fantastically well-known brand that moviegoers trust when making their decisions. Combined with Flixster's social networking and word-of-mouth, we're creating the leading movie destination on the Internet."
"Joining Rotten Tomatoes with Flixster creates a company that can dominate the online movie category," said Roy Bahat, president of IGN Entertainment, who will join Flixster's board of directors as an observer. "This also enables IGN to focus on serving the male 18-to-34 audience -- especially videogamers -- and the advertisers looking to reach them."
Flixster already operates the embedded movie applications on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, iGoogle, and for the iPhone, Android devices, Blackberry and Palm Pre. Together, Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes will offer a database of more than 250,000 movies; 2.3 billion user reviews; 500,000 critic reviews; more than 20,000 trailers and videos; the well-known Tomatometer and Flixster Scores; unique movie news and editorial content; category-leading social-networking features; localized movie showtime information; theater maps; and online ticketing.
Prior to the acquisition, Flixster and Rotten Tomatoes partnered in several areas, including a recent deal that syndicates critic reviews from Rotten Tomatoes to Flixster's online movie community, both on the Web and via Flixster's mobile apps.
Since its inception in early 2006, Flixster has rapidly become the Web's largest community for movie fans, with more than 20 million monthly users.
As the web's leading aggregator of reviews from top movie critics, Rotten Tomatoes offers comprehensive guide to movies, and its Tomatometer rating -- based on the published opinions of hundreds of film critics -- is a trusted measurement of movie quality for millions of moviegoers.
