Comcast-Owned Fandango Buys Movies.com From Disney
So Comcast (NSDQ: CMCSA) couldn’t buy Disney (NYSE: DIS) a few years ago, but it has now succeeded in buying a part of it, sort of: Fandango, the online movie tickets service that Comcast bought a year ago, has bought out movies info site Movies.com from Disney, for an undisclosed sum.
Movies.com, under its previous name MrShowbiz.com, was one of first online movie news and info sites. Then, after it morphed into Movies.com, Disney partnered with Fox to turn it into an online movies-on-demand site, but it didn’t go past planning stages. Movies.com earns revenue through online advertising, while Fandango’s revenue comes about half from advertising and half from charging a fee of about $1 per ticket that it sells, reports THR. Fandango’s ad team will sell both sites.
Disney said a dozen of its Disney Internet Group employees will be reassigned because of the Movies.com sale and no layoffs are expected. The disposal by Disney is in keeping with its renewed focus on Disney, ABC and ESPN brands, the company said.
Posted In: Entertainment, Movies, Money, M&A & Venture Capital, Mergers & Acquisitions, Companies, Comcast, Disney, fandango, movies.com
Newsletter
Comments (8)
Jun 23, 2008 5:15 PM
I am so excited that they both finally decided to merge. With incomplete coverage from both it was sometimes quite frustrating. I always hoped they would merge, today I offer my thanks and a quick post for Fandango on my blog… http://webpoet.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/when-fandango-does-not-mean-tomfoolery/
Hope you all like it, too.
Jul 5, 2008 11:50 PM
I hate Fandango. I was very comfortable for the format and lay out of movies.com. I loved Dave White’s review and its one page grade summary. I was comfortable with everything about movies.com. But when I see Fandango, everything is crazy. You cant find relavent information, and everything is all spread out. The whole freeking site is so damn busy you cant tell which page you are looking at. FAndango can rest assured that I will never be returning to their site for movie information again….
Jul 7, 2008 10:36 AM
I couldn’t agree more. I hate Fandango. Movies.com was by far the most user-friendly movie info site on the web. I loved the grading system used to rate movies. Fandango appears to be little more than a giant ticket brokering site. If you’re looking for a good movie review site, RottenTomatos.com is now the best one out there.
Jul 24, 2008 2:58 PM
hey fandango folks….where are the reviews? movies.com was so user-friendly in getting a quick review/grade about all movies out. i can’t find that anywhere on fandango…so what’s the point? so frustrating. what is so hard about adding that back on? i also agree that i loved dave white. where is he now? movies.com had such an easy format that i used it all the time. now i just can’t run away from fandango fast enough…
Jul 28, 2008 10:30 AM
I hate Fandango
Aug 1, 2008 8:51 PM
I agree complete with the above comments… fandango needs a cleaner interface, and if there are no Dave White reviews, there is no reason for me to spend any time at the website.
Aug 21, 2008 10:56 AM
I agree to. I used to love movies.com and I can’t find anything I want on Fandango. Where are the great review? How about the rumored movie section? Bring back the old site!
Dec 28, 2008 9:20 PM
Fandsngo is a jokr Comcsdt has been bought out by Hollywood to not show bad reviews. What is this, Russia?