reach4entertainment to acquire 50% stake in Buzz 16 Productions

r4ereach4entertainment enterprises plc, an entertainment marketing communications group, is to acquire 50% of the issued share capital of Buzz 16 Productions Limited. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Buzz 16, which was founded in 2016, creates both short and long form sports orientated content and is co-owned by shareholders including former Manchester United player and broadcaster, Gary Neville, along with former Sky Sports Premier League producer, Scott Melvin.

Gary Neville

Gary Neville sells 50% of Buzz 16

Buzz 16 has been responsible for a number of sports-related productions in recent years, including “Class of 92: Full Time”, which became Sky Sports most downloaded series in 2018, and “SoccerBox”.

Gary, Scott and the Buzz 16 team will continue to develop cross-platform original content but will further expand Buzz 16’s offering by partnering with r4e and its management team to diversify into new marketing-focused verticals. CEO of r4e Marc Boyan will join Gary & Scott as Directors of the Buzz 16 and will take an active role in building out combined capabilities.

Commenting on the acquisition, Marc Boyan, CEO of R4E, said, “We are delighted to be working with Gary, Scott and the team as Buzz 16 embarks on its next phase of growth. Our investment in Buzz 16 was the culmination of a competitive process and is testament to the fact that our vision for the Group has broad appeal. This exciting partnership brings with it a number of important synergies. While it will provide r4e with exposure to the sports media sector, we see a great opportunity to help Buzz 16 develop a marketing services offering and provide leading brands with powerful strategies to meaningfully engage with their audiences across sponsorship, talent partnerships, experiential and sports marketing. We believe Buzz 16 will be a valuable addition to the r4e family.”

Gary Neville, who is co-owner of Buzz 16, added, “We are proud to produce engaging content of the highest quality, so welcoming r4e’s marketing communications expertise and network is the next natural stage to strengthen our proposition and ultimately broaden our offering to a wider audience. We started Buzz 16 to give people the chance to engage with sports and live entertainment in a different way so this partnership means we can do more of that. Having spent a lot of time with Marc, I am excited by his plans for the Group as well as his forward thinking approach to providing a differentiated and value enhancing service to clients.”

UK, London

The Social Chain Group acquires The Football Republic from FremantleMedia

Social Chain GroupSocial media marketing agency and media publishing house The Social Chain Group has acquired a network of sport social media channels, The Football Republic, from FremantleMedia. The deal will see TFR’s brands such as The Full Time Devils become a part of Media Chain – The Social Chain Group’s social media publishing house. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The acquisition will increase Media Chain’s sport network reach by more than 2.5 million, taking the company’s global sport network to over 17 million followers, adding to its SPORF network. Launched in 2015 by Shotglass Media, the digital arm of FremantleMedia UK, TFR has built a large fan base with three million followers across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

Kat Hebden, managing director at Shotglass Media, said, “We launched The Football Republic because we saw a gap in the market for football entertainment content that served a young, digitally savvy audience. We believe Media Chain will provide a great home for these communities to continue to flourish.”

UK, Manchester & London

Catena Media acquires Squawka.com and related assets from Squawka Ltd for £1M

Catena MediaThe online performance marketing company Catena Media has acquired Squawka.com and related assets from Squawka Ltd. Squawka is a high-volume traffic global football news site with a Daily Fantasy Sports section in beta version. The main site currently attracts around 4 million users per month, and has around 800,000 followers on Twitter.

The purchase price amounts to a one-time upfront cash payment of GBP 1 million (approximately EUR 1.1 million). The acquisition is expected to generate annual sales of approximately EUR 2 million with an estimated 60% margin.

Henrik Persson Ekdahl, Acting CEO of Catena Media, said, “We see potential for Squawka as a high-volume traffic site with a global audience, to which we look forward to implementing an affiliation business model. The company has invested in automatic data feeds for their user-friendly graphical interfaces, which is something we aim to integrate into other Catena Media products.”

Malta, Ta’ Xbiex & UK, London

Perform acquires Dutch football site Voetbalzone.nl

performDigital sports rights business, Perform Group plc,  has acquired Voetbalzone.nl.

Voetbalzone is an independent sports site in the Netherlands. The acquisition will be for an initial voetbalzoneconsideration of €2.0m with an additional contingent consideration of up to €10.5m payable based on the EBITDA of Voetbalzone for the years to 31 December 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Voetbalzone covers all the news from the world of football and is the number one independent sports site in the Netherlands attracting an average of 2m unique users per month, and ranked as the 6th largest sport site on comScore.

Oliver Slipper, joint CEO of Perform commented: “We are delighted to have announced the acquisition of Voetbalzone. The Dutch market is extremely exciting and one of the leading media markets in Europe and this acquisition really positions us a strong player here. We have set out a growth strategy focused on augmenting Perform’s strong organic growth with selective acquisitions including ‘local champions’ and today’s announcement is an excellent example of us executing this strategy.”

Perform Group also announced full year results today with revenue growth of 47% and adjusted EBITDA growth of 103% – full details.

Perform Group recent acquisitions:

  • Acquisition of RunningBall, a leading real-time data provider in May for total cash and equity consideration of €120 million.  Post acquisition integration complete and new product development progressing well.
  • Acquisition of 51% of Mackolik in June, Turkey’s leading digital sports business for £14.5 million (with a further £1.0 million payable in 2013 due to the above expected performance of the business in 2012).  Remaining 49% to be acquired in 2016.

UK, Feltham & The Netherlands

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